
The Major Arcana.
The Tarot is divided in two Arcanas, the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana.
Minor Arcana
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The Minor Arcana or trumps are a group of cards dividen in four suits, each of them consisting of 10 'pip' cards, the first of which is called 'Ace', and the rest by their number -starting from 2 to 10-, and four 'face' cards, depicting people or pokemon rather than numbers.
Major Arcana
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The Major Arcana or trumps are a suit of twenty-two cards in the tarot deck. They serve as a permanent trump suit in games played with the tarot deck, and are distinguished from the four standard suits collectively known as the Minor Arcana. The terms "Major" and "Minor Arcana" are used in the occult and divinatory applications of the deck.
Each Major Arcanum depicts a scene, mostly featuring a pokemon or several pokemon, with many symbolic elements. In many decks, each has a number 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 was not standardized. Nevertheless, one of the most common sets of names and numbers is as follows:
Number | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
None (0 or 22) | The Fool | A carefree Mime Jr. followed by a loyal Growlithe |
1 | The Magician | An Alakazam in front of an altar, usually pointing at different directions |
2 | The High Priestess | Gardevoir inbetween an Ivory and Ebony pillars |
3 | The Empress | A fearsome Vespiquen |
4 | The Emperor | A sitting Empoleon, sometimes accopanied by a Wareagle |
5 | The Hierophant | Xatu teaching other pokemon |
6 | The Lovers | A Togetic watching over two opposite sex pokemon |
7 | The Chariot | An Electric pokemon pulled by a Shiny and common Rapidash |
8 or 11 | Justice | A Farfetch'd holding an Onion and a Baltoy in front of a Shrine |
9 | The Hermit | A lonely Piloswine |
10 | Wheel of Fortune | A Luxray, Seviper and Lucario, sitting on a pokeball in the sky |
11 or 8 | Strength / Fortitude | A Bunneary caring over an Entei or other legendary pokemon |
12 | The Hanged Man | A pokemon hanging by it's foot over a Trapinch |
13 | Death | A duskull looming over small pokemon |
14 | Temperance | Houndoom holding an arrow and watching over two chained pokemon |
15 | The Devil | A tower striken by thunder, with pokemon falling from it |
16 | The Tower | Dragonair pouring water into a cup, watched by grass pokemon from afar |
17 | The Star | A pokemon pouring water in the ground, watched by flying pokemon |
18 | The Moon | A mightyena and other dog pokemon looking at a floating Lunatone |
19 | The Sun | Grass pokemon dancing around a Solrock |
20 | Judgement | Togekiss blowing a horn while ground pokemon hide under the earth |
21 | The World | Mew, accompanied by four pokemon in each corner |
The images on the Major Arcana are often very heavy with symbolism, with far more to the illustration than a mere depiction of the card title. The Major Arcana are usually regarded 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.