Major Arcana

What are the Major Arcana?

Tarot cards are called major and minor arcana or major and minor blades since 1863 by esotericists and occultists.

It is generally accepted that the cards which are at the origin of the tarot of Marseille, like the tarot of Marseille itself, were created for the purpose of a playful use.

We need to wait the late eighteenth century in order to hear about cartomancy using the tarot of Marseille, although some authors present clues that would go back to the divinatory use of the tarot on earlier dates.

The cards of the tarot known as “Tarot of Marseille” include 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana.

The arcana are numbered from I to XXI in Roman numerals in the manner of the Middle Ages. A single arcane is not numbered: The Fool (Le Mat in French), with the exception of the “Belgian” tarot of Rouen and Brussels where it bears the number XXII.

By selecting them, you will be able to read the detail and the meaning of each arcane.

Here they are below, presented in ascending order.

Good reading !