Major Arcana

Overview

The Major Arcana (from Latin arcanum, "secret" or "mystery") comprises twenty-two cards that form the trump sequence of the tarot deck. These cards are distinguished from the fifty-six Minor Arcana cards by their unique imagery, their numbering (0–XXI), and their traditional role as the most significant cards in a reading. In the original Italian card games, they were called trionfi (triumphs); the French called them atouts; the term "Major Arcana" was coined in the nineteenth century.

Terminology and Naming

Historical Names

The term "arcana" (plural of arcanum) implies hidden knowledge or mystery. Its adoption reflects the nineteenth-century shift from tarot-as-game to tarot-as-esoteric-system.

Source: Michael Dummett, The Game of Tarot (1980), Chapter 1 — documents the original gaming terminology.

The Twenty-Two Cards

Standard Sequence (Rider-Waite-Smith / Golden Dawn Order)

The VIII/XI Swap

The most notable structural difference between traditions:

• Marseille order: VIII = Justice, XI = Strength (La Force)
• Golden Dawn / RWS order: VIII = Strength, XI = Justice

Reason for the swap: The Golden Dawn assigned Hebrew letters and astrological correspondences to each card. Teth (ט) corresponds to Leo (the Lion → Strength), and Lamed (ל) corresponds to Libra (the Scales → Justice). Since Teth is the 9th letter (position 8 in 0-indexed) and Lamed is the 12th (position 11), the cards were renumbered to maintain the letter-sequence alignment.

The Marseille tradition does not use Hebrew letter correspondences and therefore retains the original numbering. Neither order is "correct" — they reflect different interpretive systems.

Source: Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn (1937), Volume III — documents the correspondence system.

Historical Development of the Trump Sequence

The Earliest Trump Orders (1440s–1500s)

The earliest tarot decks did not have a single standardized trump order. Three main regional orders existed:

1. Milanese order (Visconti-Sforza): Fool, Magician, Empress, Emperor, Pope, Love, Chariot, Justice, Hermit, Wheel, Strength, Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, Devil, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, World, Judgement, Angel (21 trumps + Fool)

2. Ferrarese order: Similar but with different internal ordering of the middle trumps

3. Bolognese order: Modified sequence with fewer trumps in some versions

The standardization into the "Marseille order" occurred in the late 15th to early 16th century as French card makers adopted and regularized the Italian designs.

Source: Franco Pratesi, "Italian Cards: New Discoveries" in The Playing-Card (1989) — documents regional variations.

The Marseille Standardization (1600s–1700s)

French card makers in Marseille, Lyon, and Paris produced the Tarot de Marseille (TdM) pattern that became the dominant European standard. Key features:

• Fixed numbering (I–XXI) with the Fool unnumbered
• Card XIII left unnamed (superstition about naming Death)
• Standardized iconography that persisted for two centuries
• Woodblock printing allowed mass production and wide distribution

The most influential TdM decks:

• Jean Noblet (1650) — earliest surviving complete TdM
• Jean Dodal (1701) — Lyon variant
• Nicolas Conver (1760) — the most widely reproduced; basis for the Camoin-Jodorowsky restoration

The Esoteric Renaming (1781–present)

Antoine Court de Gébelin (Le Monde Primitif, 1781) and Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla, 1783–1785) began reinterpreting the trumps as esoteric symbols. Subsequent authors renamed cards:

These renames reflect the Protestant/English discomfort with Catholic imagery and the desire to align cards with broader esoteric symbolism.

Symbolic Architecture

The Fool's Journey (Modern Narrative Framework)

The most popular modern interpretation reads the 22 Major Arcana as a sequential narrative of psychological or spiritual development:

Act I: The External World (Cards I–VII)
The Fool encounters authority figures and learns from the external world:

• I–V: Authority figures (parents, teachers, institutions)
• VI: Choice (leaving the safety of authority)
• VII: Taking control of one's own direction

Act II: The Inner World (Cards VIII–XIV)
The Fool turns inward, confronting the self:

• VIII: Mastering inner strength
• IX: Solitude and introspection
• X: Accepting cycles and change
• XI: Self-judgment and balance
• XII: Surrender and new perspective
• XIII: Transformation and letting go
• XIV: Integration and healing

Act III: The Cosmic World (Cards XV–XXI)
The Fool confronts universal forces:

• XV: Shadow, temptation, materialism
• XVI: Destruction of false structures
• XVII: Hope, inspiration, renewal
• XVIII: The unconscious, illusion, fear
• XIX: Clarity, vitality, joy
• XX: Awakening, reckoning, rebirth
• XXI: Completion, wholeness, integration

Important caveat: This narrative framework is a 20th-century invention. No historical source before Eden Gray's The Complete Guide to Tarot (1970) describes the trumps as a sequential journey. The original trumps were a random assortment of social, religious, and cosmological images arranged for gaming purposes.

Source: Helen Farley, A Cultural History of Tarot (2009), Chapter 7 — traces the Fool's Journey as modern myth.

Tripartite Division (Alternative Framework)

Some readers divide the Major Arcana into three groups of seven:

The Fool (0) stands outside this structure as the unnumbered wanderer who moves through all three levels.

Numerological Patterns

• Cards I–X: Single digits (1–9) plus 10. These represent individual development.
• Cards XI–XXI: Double digits (11–21). These represent social/cosmic engagement.
• The sum of all numbers 0+1+2+...+21 = 231 = 2+3+1 = 6 (The Lovers: choice, relationship, integration)
• 22 cards = 2+2 = 4 (The Emperor: structure, foundation)

The Major Arcana in Reading

Traditional Interpretive Weight

In most reading traditions, Major Arcana cards carry more "weight" than Minor Arcana:

• Celtic Cross tradition: A spread dominated by Major Arcana suggests the situation is influenced by forces beyond the querent's immediate control — fate, karma, or deep psychological patterns.
• Marseille tradition: All cards are read equally; the visual narrative matters more than hierarchical weight.
• Thoth/Golden Dawn tradition: Major Arcana represent the "cosmic forces" acting on the situation, while Minor Arcana represent the "practical details."

Major Arcana as Significators

In some spreads, a Major Arcana card drawn as a significator (representing the querent) suggests:

• The querent is in a period of significant personal development
• The reading addresses a major life theme rather than a trivial matter
• The querent's situation has archetypal resonance

Reversals in Major Arcana

Reversed Major Arcana are often interpreted as:

• The card's energy is blocked, delayed, or internalized
• The querent is resisting the card's lesson
• The shadow aspect of the archetype is active

However, many Marseille readers and some modern practitioners do not use reversals at all. See Chapter 06 for detailed discussion.

The Fool: Special Status

The Fool occupies a unique structural position:

In Gaming

• The Fool was the "excuse" (scusa) — a card that could be played to avoid taking a trick
• It belonged to no suit and had no rank
• In some games, it could substitute for any missing card

In Divination

• Numbered 0 (RWS/Thoth) or unnumbered (Marseille)
• Placed at the beginning of the sequence (RWS) or outside it (Marseille)
• Represents: new beginnings, innocence, spontaneity, leap of faith, foolishness, freedom

In Kabbalah

• Corresponds to Aleph (א), the first Hebrew letter
• Represents the element Air (in Golden Dawn) or the spirit/quintessence (in some traditions)
• Maps to the path between Kether (Crown) and Chokmah (Wisdom) on the Tree of Life

The Fool's Paradox

The Fool is simultaneously:

• The lowest card (the fool, the outcast, the beggar)
• The highest card (the one who transcends all categories, the free spirit)
• Outside the system (unnumbered, unranked)
• The beginning of the system (card 0, the starting point)

This paradox is central to tarot's symbolic logic: the beginning and the end are the same; wisdom and foolishness are mirrors.

Card XIII: The Unnamed Card

In the Tarot de Marseille, card XIII is deliberately left without a name. The image shows a skeleton-like figure with a scythe, cutting down heads and flowers. Common explanations:

1. Superstition: Naming "Death" on a card was considered unlucky (similar to theater superstitions about saying "Macbeth")
2. Transformation emphasis: The card represents transformation rather than literal death; leaving it unnamed prevents fixation on the literal meaning
3. Historical accident: Some scholars suggest the name was simply omitted in early woodblock prints and the tradition persisted

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck names it "Death" explicitly, with imagery emphasizing transformation (a skeleton in armor on a white horse, a bishop, a king, a child, and a maiden — death comes to all).

The Thoth deck also names it "Death" but adds the subtitle "The Children of Change" and depicts a dancing skeleton with a scythe, emphasizing the generative aspect of destruction.

Comparative Imagery Across Traditions

These differences reflect each tradition's theological, artistic, and esoteric priorities.

Summary

The Major Arcana are:

• Twenty-two trump cards forming the structural backbone of the tarot deck
• Originally gaming trumps, later reinterpreted as esoteric/psychological archetypes
• Numbered 0–XXI (with the Fool as 0 or unnumbered)
• Subject to the VIII/XI swap between Marseille and Golden Dawn traditions
• Interpreted through multiple frameworks: sequential narrative, tripartite division, Kabbalistic mapping, numerological patterns
• Carrying greater interpretive weight in most (but not all) reading traditions

The Major Arcana provide the "big picture" of any reading — the archetypal forces, life themes, and deep patterns that contextualize the everyday situations represented by the Minor Arcana.

References

• Court de Gébelin, A. (1781). Le Monde Primitif, Vol. VIII. Paris.
• Crowley, A. (1943). The Book of Thoth. London: O.T.O.
• Dummett, M. (1980). The Game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City. London: Duckworth.
• Farley, H. (2009). A Cultural History of Tarot. London: I.B. Tauris.
• Gray, E. (1970). The Complete Guide to Tarot. New York: Crown.
• Jodorowsky, A. & Costa, M. (2004). The Way of Tarot. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.
• Regardie, I. (1937). The Golden Dawn. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn.
• Waite, A.E. (1910). The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider.