The Tarot deck consists of 78 cards, divided into the Major and Minor Arcana. The Minor Arcana is divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Each suit contains different messages designed to guide us on our path towards liberation.
The suit of Swords is connected to the air element, which signifies the intellect, thoughts, patterns, processes, words, communication, and self-expression. In the Tarot, the Air element corresponds to the suit of Swords, which is associated with action, change, force, power.
In a traditional Tarot deck, the Suits only apply to the pips (A-10) and the Court (4×4). This results in many people not learning the basics properly, leading to the Tarot not functioning as well as it should.
The Minor Arcana tarot cards are divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Each suit speaks to a specific aspect of the human experience. In a traditional Tarot deck, the Suits only apply to the pips (A-10) and the Court (4×4). However, research has shown that not all decks follow this system, and the meanings of the Tarot Suits may vary.
In the Mother Tarot and Dark Days Tarot decks, the suit of Wands is associated with the element of air, while the suit of Swords is associated with the element of air. In the Daughters of the Moon and Rainbow Earth tarot decks, the air element suit is called Blades and Stories, respectively.
Pentacles govern money, health, material circumstances; Swords govern thought, speech, and communication; Cups govern emotions, relationships, and more. The Minor Arcana is divided into four suits reflective of the four elements: Cups (Water), Pentacles (Earth), Swords (Air), and Wands (Fire).
📹 Minor Arcana Patterns – Understanding the Tarot Suits & Four Elements
Thank you for your support over the years! I have retired from teaching tarot, but want to leave these videos as a resource for …
What suit in Tarot represents air?
The author’s deck design was influenced by their intuitive preference and learning style of witchcraft. They learned the basics of solitary witchcraft through Ariel Gatoga’s A Witch’s Primer course, which associates blades with fire and wands with air. When they picked up the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck, they were confused by the association of wands with fire and swords with air. The author created their decks based on what felt right to them and their intuitive preference.
What is the card suit equivalent to in Tarot?
Hearts historically represented the clergy and spirituality, and in the modern era, they represent the heart and emotions. The suit of cups in the Tarot aligns with the heart, representing the spirit. The suit of Swords aligns with the suit of spades, representing challenges, boundaries, and character building. Clubs align with Wands, tools for manifestation, representing farmers and creation. Diamonds historically represented trade and commerce, aligning well with the Tarot’s suit of Pentacles, representing resources and money.
What are the 4 suits of cards?
The international standard deck comprises two black and two red suits: spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds. The term “spade” is likely a reference to the Old Spanish “spado,” while “club” is a direct translation of “basto,” which indicates the presence of Spanish suits.
What tarot suit is spades?
This guide explains the meanings of tarot cards, focusing on spades, hearts, and clubs. Spades represent communication and challenges, hearts symbolize emotions, family, and relationships, and clubs symbolize change and swift action. The sword suit represents communication, the cups suit represents emotions, and the club suit represents change and action. Understanding these tarot cards can help you relate playing cards to the deck.
What do the four suits represent?
The four suits in playing cards represent different aspects of the economy, such as the military, church, merchant class, and agriculture. The Spades suit represents the military, the Hearts suit represents the church, the Diamonds suit represents the merchant class, and the Clubs suit represents agriculture. While most card games, like poker, do not follow a suit order, some, like Bridge and Seven Card Stud, follow suit order from highest to lowest.
Vijaya Bharti, a gaming writer, has a passion for virtual worlds and interactive storytelling, and her understanding of game design and culture is evident in her compelling content. She finds leisure in playing online games, writing about games, and watching web series.
What do spades represent?
The four suits of cards, hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, represent love, emotions, wealth, materiality, intellect, and growth. Each suit is associated with a season, with the heart linked to spring, diamonds to summer, spades to autumn, and clubs to winter. These card symbols have been used in games worldwide, interpreted by fortune tellers, and enjoyed by many. Their power lies in their ubiquity and symbolic depth. When dealing a hand of cards, pause to consider the intricate history and symbolism you’re holding.
Each card provides a narrative about human life’s journey, blending emotional, material, intellectual, and creative elements. The deck of playing cards offers a model of the universe in miniature, encapsulating the emotional, physical, intellectual, and creative aspects of existence in a pack of 52 cards.
What are the 4 suits of tarot cards?
Cartomantic Tarot cards, derived from Latin-suited packs, typically have a Minor Arcana of 56 cards, with 14 cards in each suit: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. The four court cards are page, knight, queen, and king. Some variations have princess and prince cards, while others have damsel and mounted lady cards. The historical Tarot of Marseilles contains 56 cards, while later packs based on French suits have only three court cards per suit. The Minor Arcana is believed to represent mundane life features, while the court cards may represent people one meets. Each suit has distinctive characteristics and connotations.
What Tarot suit is Aquarius?
Aquarius – The Star is a card that symbolizes hope, promise, and new beginnings, often depicting a water-bearer by a stream. This card is a positive omen for those experiencing difficulties or needing change. Pisces – The Moon, which governs the tides and flow of the ocean, water, and our bodies, is represented by a crayfish emerging from the water to see two dogs howling at the Moon, indicating fear, confusion, and illusion.
What element is each Tarot suit?
The Tarot minor arcana consists of four suits with their own elemental correspondences. These associations provide a general feeling about each suit and can help you understand the main themes of your reading. An abundance of cups indicates relationships and emotions, while swords indicate conflicts and intellect. Polarities, or active or passive, play a significant role in how elements interact with one another. Active and passive polarities are part of a balanced whole, with each having their strengths and weaknesses.
Polarities in Tarot Elements are also referenced in astrology, with active and passive polarities being part of a greater and balanced whole. Each suit has its own summary, allowing you to better understand the reading’s main themes.
What tarot suit is Aquarius?
Aquarius – The Star is a card that symbolizes hope, promise, and new beginnings, often depicting a water-bearer by a stream. This card is a positive omen for those experiencing difficulties or needing change. Pisces – The Moon, which governs the tides and flow of the ocean, water, and our bodies, is represented by a crayfish emerging from the water to see two dogs howling at the Moon, indicating fear, confusion, and illusion.
📹 Cups are Air & Swords are Water | Picard Tarot Suits
We probably all know about Tarot decks that swap the air and fire elements between the swords and wands… but have you ever …
I have grown obsessed with Eudes Picard’s system ❤ I didn’t even notice the air/water observations in the Rider-Waite deck until I saw this article! And you brought up some interesting points here because ever since I studied the Picard system, I totally see swords as water and cups as air even in normal decks, it’s so trippy 😂 If you think about it in the natural state of a cup, it’s empty, and a sword can cause pain, so the elements switched with these two suits aren’t that odd… But, the reason Picard switched the suits had a lot to do with how he used “The Houses” as an astrologer which was a system that was previously used before the modern version, though I need to research this more because I heard this in passing on another article and I could have misinterpreted something. Also he terms the major arcana as “causes” (celestial based) which I’m assuming is the metaphysical and physical representation of the planets, zodiac and elements… and the minor arcana as “affects” (terrestrial based) possibly representing indirectly “the houses”, whereas in the GD system it’s the decans?!? I need to look more into this but that’s what I’ve been hearing around esoteric Spanish circles on YouTube.
I love this topic ha! Emotions and the mental are definitely connected somehow, head and heart. To have them working together to gain stability in life and to manifest. The mental suit to gain control of the ego and mind which involves emotions. And a goal of the cups is to control the emotions which will involve the mind. I heard this somewhere and it makes sense to me although I don’t really have a deep understanding of it all, it’s fascinating
There is a Thompson Leng reproduction available on Tarot Collectables. Theres a fellow Tarot Tuber that has both that AND the 1930s decks and says the one from Tarot Collectables is an almost SPOT ON representation of the original. Also the Thompson Leng deck is what i would call a continental deck masquerading as an RWS clone. If you notice for instance the 4 of swords looks alot like the RWS 5 of wands. Also the whole suit of wands in the TL is set up with the continental pips. (ie: Holy light, Etteilla, Knapp Hall, and decks of that same esoteric system). I really like your articles Anna. Good work. Im looking forward to your TarotThon article.
Hello, Anna. Nice article. Your Spanish pronunciation of ‘El Gran Tarot Esoterico’ is correct 🙂 Apart from the Balbi and the Esoterico, other decks I know that follow the Suits elements or the graphic depictions are: – The very deck created by Eudes Picard and that can be seen in his book. – Crystal Tarot – Eclectic Tarot – Egyptian Tarot Deck, Comte C. de Saint-Germain – Grand Tarot Belline – Ibis Tarot – Knapp-Hall Tarot – Universal Wirth Tarot – Yeager Tarot of Meditation Some of them aren’t fully ‘Picardian’ ^_^, but the idea is there too.
Lately I’ve been reading books on Marseille Tarot by Camelia Elias.She likes to associate batons with air(like wind in the treetops),swords with earth( spades for digging),coins for fire(molten metal), and cups with water. I really like her approach to tarot but prefer the more traditional associations. I do appreciate that all these discrepancies, inconstancies in tarot and qabalah really forces us to come to our own unique understanding of how it all fits together.
In my beginning days of tarot maybe in March, I bought my first tarot book in a used book store . I bought David Fontana’s Essential Guide to the Tarot. I fell in love with the cards in the book and quickly hunted a deck down. The book is a quick reference that’s very easy to use almost too basic . It encourages numerology because of the pips but is not Marseille in its images . I Ignore that little fire /air distinction in the book. I ultimately suspect it was a typo because the paragraph in the book is basically cut and pasted the same on each wand or sword page. It hasn’t stopped me from using the deck or the book. It was my first deck with pip cards that didn’t have people in it. And started me interested in a Marseille.
I love this article…last week in another tarot chat, I was commenting about El Gran Tarot Esoterico de Maritxu Guler as an example of the extrange, for me, relation between swords and water. Someone replied saying that the apparent reason for this choice was that the water is considered in astrology a deep and dangerous element and for this reason is a perfect match for the swords ( I do not know much about astrology). I am still wondering about the bad reputation of the swords. Why the representation of the human mind should be so painful in nearly every card. Thank you for your lovely article.
I suppose the elemental corespondents could make sense. The empty cup containing air is like our lungs containing air . Breathing in oxygen and out carbon dioxide . Our breath like the caterpillar / butterfly Swords are forged in fire but then are cooled by quenching it in oil or water . Swords draw blood and the tears of our enemies
I’d just ignore the system “rules” and read it as I do normally. The more I learn about Tarot the more I think that “pick your system and stick with it” idea 😅 And as you said the brain and the heart are connected in every human. Mindfuckery indeed. But hey…I survived 🤓 Don’t know that is it the Thoth system that drives us Thoth lovers even deeper with elemental stuff. For me atleast it is the foundation of it.