Major Arcana

The Major Arcana (Trumps Major, Major Trumps) of the Tarot deck consists of 22 cards. The name Major Arcana is used only in esoteric practice. Game players using Tarot decks for playing call them Trumps and usually only show a Roman or Arabic numeral on each card, plus some decoration that is identical on all of them. In esoteric sets, each Major Arcanum depicts a scene, mostly featuring a person or several people, with many symbolic elements. In many decks, each has a number (usually in Roman numerals) and a name, though not all decks have both, and some have only a picture. The earliest decks bore unnamed and unnumbered pictures on the Majors (probably because a great many of the people using them at the time were illiterate), and the order of cards is not standardised. Nevertheless, one of the most common set of names and numbers is as follows:

0 - The Fool	I - The Magician or Juggler	II - The High Priestess or Popess	III - The Empress
IV - The Emperor	V - The Hierophant or Pope	VI - The Lovers	VII - The Chariot
VIII - Strength	IX - The Hermit	X - Wheel of Fortune	XI - Justice
XII - The Hanged Man	XIII - Death	XIV - Temperance	XV - The Devil
XVI - The Tower	XVII - The Star	XVIII - The Moon	XIX - The Sun
XX - Judgement	XXI - The World

The images on the Major Arcana in esoteric decks are often very heavy with symbolism; in occult decks, there is far more to the illustration than a mere depiction of the card title. The Major Arcana are usually regarded by card readers as relating to matters of higher purpose or deep significance, as opposed to the Minor Arcana which relate to the everyday world and matters of immediate significance.

External links

• Iconography of Tarot cards / many examples
• Information on the Tarot, its history and use from ancient divination