As always, when learning a new thing, you will inevitably find that there is a specific vocabulary attached to it, and if you do not know the meaning of the words, you may get lost very quickly.
Here is a brief explanation of some of those terms
Arcana means “Secrets or Mysteries.” The terms Major and Minor refer to the degree of the secret and the amount of information and weight to give to the interpretation.
The Major Arcana cards are all picture cards that number from 0 to 21. They have names such as “High Priestess, Death, The Hermit, Strength,” and so on. When you see these in a reading, or have ONLY these in a reading, that is generally a sign to pay attention to.
The Minor Arcana cards are all the rest and fall into two separate categories. Court cards and number cards.
Court Cards consist of a King, Queen, Prince, Paige. Sometimes the Paige card is known as the Princess card, and sometimes there are different terms for both the Prince and the Paige cards. Generally, the King and Prince cards indicate a male (or male energy) and the Queen and Paige cards indicate female (or female energy). However, for a lot of readers now a days, the Prince and Paige cards are non-gendered and simply indicate a young person as the King/Queen cards indicate an older one.
The number cards are Ace-10, with (again, this is all up for interpretation) the Ace being the beginning of a specific journey, the 10 being the end or culmination, and the other numbers being challenges and/or rewards along the way.
A “Spread” is how a reader lays out the cards for a reading. The meaning of the cards can change slightly depending on where they fall in the spread. For example, if I have an 8 of wands in a “future” spot, it may indicate that there is an incoming message from the universe (or even a literally incoming message they need to watch for), but if it is in the “Past” spot…it may be one that changed their life, (And if it is reversed, it is either one to watch out for – a false hope thing in the future spot, or something they missed – in the past spot.)
Reader – this is someone, like me, Cinnaluna, who “reads” the cards for other people. To put it simply, I look at the pretty pictures and tell the story they tell me to.
Reverse or Inverted – This is what happens when a card is upside down in the reading. Some people do not use reverse cards. I can honor that. I do, simply because not all upside down cards are bad. For example, A nine of swords can indicate insomnia, but an upside down, or reversed nine of swords can indicate finally getting a good nights sleep.
Suits. There are four suits in the deck (Court and number cards). Most decks use Wands (Fire/Energy) Cups (Water/Love), Swords (Air/Intellect), Pentacles (Earth/Wealth). Now within the Major Arcana, the named cards have different suites they affiliate with, and I will go over that in detail in my Saturday “what does this card mean” series.
That’s about it for now, remember to comment or send me a message if you have a question and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Be good to each other,
CinnaLuna
Cinna Luna's Tarot Readings 