TheMinor Arcana, sometimes known as theLesser Arcana, are thesuit cards in acartomantictarot deck.
Ordinary tarot cards first appeared in northern Italy in the 1440s and were designed fortarot card games.[1] They typically have four suits each of 10 unillustratedpip cards numbered one (ace) to ten, along with 4court cards (face cards). Tarot games are still widely played in central and southern Europe;French Tarot is the second most popular card game in France afterBelote.
By contrast, cartomantic tarot cards emerged in France in the late 18th century, popularised by occultists such asEtteilla. The terms "Major" and "Minor Arcana" originate withJean-Baptiste Pitois (1811–1877),nom de plume Paul Christian.[2]
In their contemporary versions, the Minor Arcana are often illustrated—a convention popularized by theRider–Waite tarot in 1910. Used in atarot card reading in conjunction with theMajor Arcana, the cards of the Minor Arcana suggest subtleties and details, and signify day-to-day insights.[3]
Cartomantic tarot cards derived fromLatin-suited packs typically have a Minor Arcana of 56 cards, with 14 cards in each suit:Wands (alternately batons, clubs, staffs, or staves[citation needed]),Cups (chalices, goblets, or vessels[citation needed]),Swords (or blades[citation needed]), andCoins (pentacles, disks, or rings[citation needed]). The four court cards are commonly:page (jack or knave),knight,queen, andking. Some variations have princess and prince cards replacing the page and knight cards; the historicalVisconti-Sforza Tarot expands the court with two additional cards: the damsel and the mounted lady. While the historicalTarot of Marseilles contains 56 cards, later packs based on theFrench suits of clubs (♣), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and diamonds (♦) have only three court cards per suit, with a jack in addition to the queen and king.
Indivinatory, esoteric and occult tarot, the Minor Arcana are believed to represent relatively mundane features of life. The court cards may represent the people whom one meets.
Each suit also has distinctive characteristics and connotations commonly held to be as follows:[4]
| Latin suit | French suit | Element | Class | Faculty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wands, batons, clubs, staves | ♣️Clubs | Fire | Artisans | Will and creativity |
| Swords, blades | ♠️Spades | Air | Nobility and military | Reason or logic, wisdom, and intellect |
| Cups, chalices, goblets, vessels | ♥️Hearts | Water | Clergy | Spiritual matters, or emotions and love |
| Pentacles, coins, disks, rings | ♦️Diamonds | Earth | Merchants | Material matters, or possessions and career |
Illustrations from the Rider–Waite tarot, the most popular amongst English speakers, divided by suit and arranged in ascending order offace value.
In theHermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, number cards are associated with planets, corresponding to their placement inKabbalah.[5]
Media related toMinor Arcana at Wikimedia Commons
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