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Minor Arcana in Tarot

The Minor Arcana is 56 cards that deal with daily life. Your choices, your feelings, your actions, your resources. The everyday stuff that actually shapes how things play out.

While the Major Arcana points to big themes and turning points, the Minors fill in the texture – the context, the timing, the practical next steps. They turn abstract insight into something you can actually use.

What are the Minor Arcana?

The Minor Arcana is 56 cards split into four suits: Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles. Each suit runs from Ace to Ten, then includes four court cards – Page, Knight, Queen, King.

Together, they reflect everyday patterns and decisions. The situations you’re navigating, the choices you’re making, the feelings you’re managing. They’re what turn a reading from “here’s a big theme” into “here’s what to actually do about it.”

Once you understand how one suit flows from Ace to King, you can apply that same pattern to the other suits. Just adjust for the element and theme. That’s what makes learning them faster – you’re learning patterns, not memorising 56 separate meanings.

Four of Cups tarot card from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck.

Tarot Suits Explained

Pentacles

Pentacles traditionally deal with work, money, your body, and resources. Skill building, stability, taking care of the material world. When Pentacles show up, expect slow, steady progress. Guidance about craft, health, routines, and investments that support long-term wellbeing.

You’ll see gardens, coins, earthy landscapes. Symbols of growth, security, and what you get when you put in sustained effort.

Cups

Cups traditionally deal with emotion, intuition, and connection. How you give and receive care. How feelings move through relationships and creative work. When Cups appear, expect honesty about needs, boundaries, and trust. Guidance on healing, empathy, and meaningful support.

Water imagery – rivers, lakes, oceans – showing emotional flow. They reflect joy, grief, love, and longing. No sugar-coating the hard stuff.

Swords

Swords traditionally deal with thought, truth, and communication. Clarity, conflict, decisions that cut through confusion. When Swords show up, expect precision and accountability. Guidance on honest words, fair decisions, calm problem-solving.

Air imagery – clouds, wind, open skies. They reveal both the freedom of truth and the sting of sharp words. Swords don’t fuck about.

Wands

Wands traditionally deal with desire, energy, creative drive. Momentum, courage, the spark that gets things moving. When Wands appear, expect clarity about purpose and pace. Guidance on risk, focus, and the actions that keep a project or calling alive.

Sprouting branches, leaves – symbols of growth and movement. They highlight ambition, inspiration, and the will to push through challenges.

Numbers in Tarot and How They Read

Numbers one through ten show a full arc – from beginning to completion. Aces start things. Twos test balance. Threes build. Fours stabilise. Fives disrupt. Sixes restore. Sevens question. Eights master. Nines refine. Tens complete.

Learn the number first. Then see how it plays out inside each suit.

For example, Fives always signal disruption or challenge. But the flavour changes based on the suit. Five of Cups? Emotional loss. Five of Wands? Competitive clash. Five of Swords? Mental conflict. Five of Pentacles? Financial strain.

Court Cards at a Glance

Here’s the traditional framework for court cards and how I work with them:

Pages

Pages bring curiosity and fresh perspective. New messages, beginner steps, study. They’re not about immaturity – they’re about learning energy.

Pages show where a simple question or a first attempt will unlock movement. Where starting from scratch actually matters.

Knights

Knights bring motion and change. Pursuit, travel, shifts in pace. They’re not chaos – they’re momentum.

Knights show where a clear aim and consistent action will carry you forward. Match the Knight’s style to the suit to understand the tone and method.

Queens

Queens bring mastery and influence that’s felt, not forced. Stewardship, culture, care that gets results. They’re aligned leadership, not performative authority.

Queens show where depth, skill, and protection of values will produce the outcome that actually matters. Not just any outcome – the right one.

Kings

Kings bring visible authority and systems that hold. Structure, strategy, measurable results. They’re about responsibility, not control for the sake of control.

Kings show where firm choices and clear boundaries will keep the work on course. Where someone needs to step up and make the call.

Courts can represent people, aspects of yourself, or approaches to a situation. Context and your question decide which meaning applies.

Pentacles
Cups
Swords
Wands

Major Arcana vs Minor Arcana

Five Tarot Cards in a Spread. A mixture of the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana.

Majors typically set the theme. Minors show you how it’s actually playing out.

When a Major appears, that’s your lesson or turning point – the core of what’s happening. When Minors cluster, they’re giving you the plan and the detail – what to do, when, and how.

Together they keep a reading both meaningful and practical. You get insight that actually translates into action that fits real life.

How to Read the Minor Arcana

Start with the suit – what area of life are we talking about? Cups (emotion), Wands (drive), Swords (thought), Pentacles (resources).

Then look at the number – where are you in the cycle? Beginning, middle, challenge, completion?

Then look at the actual image. What’s happening? What’s the mood? What do the symbols and body language tell you?

Translate all of that into plain language. Not textbook phrases – actual everyday words that make sense for this person’s situation.

End by deciding what can help now, what can wait, and what the most honest next step is.

You can also look for patterns across the spread. Are the Minors repeating themes? Contrasting each other? Building on each other? How do they interact with any Majors that showed up? This builds a richer story.

When Minor Arcana Appears in Clusters

A run of one suit spotlights that area of life. Loads of Swords? You’re stuck in your head, overthinking, dealing with communication issues. Loads of Pentacles? It’s all about work, money, body, practical stuff.

When a number repeats, it shows where you are in a cycle. Use clusters to set priorities and figure out where to slow down or speed up.

If you get a clear sequence in the same suit – like Six, Seven, Eight – that suggests ongoing progress or escalation. If the numbers jump around, it might mean scattered focus or multiple things happening at once.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Reading by keywords only

Keywords help you start, but the image, the position, and the context matter more. Look at body language, what people in the card are looking at, how the card flows with the others around it.

Translate into your own words. Use plain language that fits the person’s actual reality. This keeps your interpretation grounded and flexible instead of just regurgitating memorised definitions.

Ignoring numbers

Numbers tell you where you are in the story. Skip them and you miss the stage of the work – you lose the thread of the reading.

Always note the number, then add the suit context and image detail. This makes each card’s role in the bigger pattern clear and easy to apply.

Treating courts as people only

Courts can be people, roles, or approaches. Ask yourself: does this card describe an actual person, a voice inside the querent, or a way of acting in this situation?

Let the question and the spread decide. Don’t force a court card to mean only one thing.

Mixing suits without balance

Too many suits in one answer blurs the point and confuses priorities. Group by suit first to find the dominant theme. Answer that clearly. Then add one supporting point from the next most active suit if needed.

Keep the story structured and the advice focused. Don’t scatter the message.

Overlooking suit balance in a spread

Pay attention to what’s dominant and what’s missing.

A spread heavy in Pentacles but light on Cups? You’re prioritising work and stability over emotional needs. Full of Swords with no Wands? All analysis, no action.

These patterns shift the whole reading. Don’t ignore them.

Study Tips

Pick one suit for a week. Pull a card each day and write a short reflection on how that suit shows up in real life. Keep it specific and grounded. You’ll start spotting clear patterns that connect the suit’s themes to daily events.

Create a number map. Ten rows (one for each number), four columns (one for each suit). In each box, note how that number’s energy plays out in that suit. Quick reference that makes your readings sharper.

Build a court reference from your own life. For each rank in each suit, write down a person, role, or approach it could represent. Update it as your understanding deepens. Make it yours, not someone else’s interpretation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the easiest way to start learning the Minor Arcana?

One suit at a time. Pick Cups, Wands, Swords, or Pentacles and learn its core theme first. Then pull from just that suit daily and see how it shows up in real life. Keep notes in your own words, not copy-pasted from a book. The meanings need to feel natural to you, not like you're reciting someone else's interpretation.

Do I need to know the Majors before learning the Minors?

No. You can start with either. Majors give you big-picture themes. Minors teach you the everyday patterns that make readings feel relevant and practical. Most readers learn them alongside each other because that's how they actually work in readings – together, not separately.

How long does it take to learn the Minor Arcana?

Depends how often you practise. With daily use, you could feel confident in a few months. Without regular practice, it'll take longer. Consistency matters more than speed. You're not trying to memorise 56 cards – you're building a relationship with them. That takes time and repetition.

Can reversed Minor Arcana cards change the meaning?

Yeah, reversals can shift things – blocked energy, delays, opposite meanings, the internal side of what the card's showing. Whether you read with reversals is up to you. Some readers do, some don't. Neither approach is wrong. Pick what works for your style and stick with it.

What’s the difference between Minor Arcana in tarot and playing cards?

The structure is similar – suits and numbers – but tarot has richer imagery and an extra court card (Pages). Playing cards can be read intuitively, but tarot gives you more symbolism and structure to work with. The pictures tell stories. That makes building interpretations easier and deeper.