The Major Arcana

The traditional tarot deck is made up of 78 cards, which are broken into the Major Arcana (22 cards) and the Minor Arcana (56 cards). The Major Arcana is typically what people think of when they think of the tarot. They’re the big picture cards, the ones like Death or The Devil that get drawn at the start of a scary movie. It makes a certain amount of sense that these cards are used in stories this way, given that the focus on the big archetypal energies at play in our lives, though I will say Death and The Devil are hardly the terrifying cards pop cultures make them out to be. (The award for the scariest card in Major Arcana goes to The Tower, by the way. But that, too, has its gift: burning anything that doesn’t serve us to the ground).

The Major Arcana likewise represents the Fool’s Journey, which I often consider a contrast to Joseph Cambell’s hero’s journey. The traditional hero’s journey tends to be more masculine-focused and rather too linear, with its emphasis on leaving home and later returning to it (I’m essentializing a lot here). What I love about the Fool’s Journey, in comparison, is that it honors the fact that we are always both at the end of one journey and starting another. Life is a series of beginnings and endings, not a linear thing. 

Like writers, we are always wrapping up one story and always starting a new one, always searching for new horizons and always returning home. The Fool’s Journey likewise emphasizes the metaphysical journeys we all go on—we might not leave our literal homes, but we can journey into the unconscious, the creative realm, and the dreamworld and be transformed.

The Cards in the Major Arcana

Each card in the Major Arcana represents an archetypal figure that helps The Fool learn something about himself or the universe as he continues his journey. It’s significant that this set starts at zero, with The Fool, and ends with 21, The World, signifying that the ultimate journey for The Fool is to be at home in The World.  

The Fool is zero, or starting with nothing. He represents a blank slate, childlike in his innocence. Each figure he meets along his journey is essential to his transformation into a man of the world. Below are the cards that make up the Major Arcana and the archetypal energy they represent (links to each card coming soon).

Card Archetypal Energy

1. The Magician Manifestation

2. The High Priestess Intuition

3. The Empress Abundance

4. The Emperor Security

5. The Hierophant The Sacred

6. The Lovers Union

7. The Chariot Determination

8. Justice Accountability

9. The Hermit Interiority

10. The Wheel of Fortune Luck

11. Strength Confidence

12. The Hanged Man Surrender

13. Death Endings

14. Temperance Balance

15. The Devil The Shadow Self

16. The Tower Necessary Destruction

17. The Star Nourishment

18. The Moon Lunacy

19. The Sun Happiness

20. Judgment Awakening

21. The World Wholeness

Themes of the Major Arcana

The Major Arcana also focuses on the larger story arcs in our lives, the archetypal and ancestral forces, the big-picture events, and the things we are fated to live out. We have free will, sure, but lately, I’ve begun to explore the idea that some things in our lives are fated. These ideas on fate have come to me specifically because of my work with the tarot and how it has helped me better understand things in my life that seem more fixed or, in some cases, destined to be. 

Think of fate as the stories written in our DNA, the stories written in our natal charts, if you are astrologically inclined, or things that get passed down to us blood memory, ancestry, and our own personal mythology. Often, we think of fate in negative ways—the terrible things that were doomed to happen—as a way to make sense of difficult situations. But I think there’s another side to fate. It’s our story, and the tarot can help us understand our individual path and love and appreciate it. 

So when Major Arcana cards appear in our readings, they give us a big-picture perspective of our lives, helping us better understand who we are, what our stories are, and how to lean into our fate. They represent our unique Fool’s Journey, inviting us to journey deeper into self and flow with the universe.

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!

Welcome to The Bruja's Guide to Tarot

Welcome to The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot, where I explore how conversations with the tarot can help us heal our relationship to joy, pleasure, and the magic of everyday life. I'm all about hope as an important part of healing. I also think that when it comes to the mystic world, it’s best to keep things simple. There’ll be no ten-card readings here, cryptic prophecies, or magical cures written in these readings, only simple one-card readings and gentle insights to guide you on your journey.

When I started reading the tarot, I was deeply intimidated by the esoteric knowledge coded within the iconography of these cards. I relaxed, however, when I learned that this form of invitation originally started as a card game. That simple history allowed me to get playful. Still, I often felt like I would never understand the meaning of each card and was overwhelmed by the number of books and online resources on the subject. I’ve read so many great ones (the only ones I’ll talk about here). I’ve read other sources that overwhelmed me with their fixed interpretations of the deck and complex ten-card readings. Eventually, I got to a place where I found the resources that spoke to me and gradually got more comfortable interpreting the cards in my own way.

It might seem strange, in many ways, to write another guide to tarot reading when there is just so much out there. But one thing I rarely saw was advice for those of us who don’t want to be professional readers and don’t necessarily want to learn how to do complex spreads. When I published Conversations with the Tarot, in fact, is when I learned that there are many tarot readers like myself who just want to have a conversation with the cards. 

That’s all I do: A daily pull over my first cup of coffee. Sometimes, it’s after a yoga practice or meditation, and sometimes, after a stroll in my garden. I seldom have a specific question in mind when I shuffle and pull a card. I just want to know how things are going. Sometimes I want to chat about a dream I had or just check-in with the cards and see what they want to say. I’m not rigid about this either. If I miss a day, that’s fine. If the cards call to be again after work or before bed, then we talk. To me, reading the tarot is a conversation between the reader and the deck, one that grows over time in depth, nuance, and understanding, as any healthy relationship does. It’s also deeply personal and idiosyncratic—again, just like any healthy relationship. It’s not about waiting for the tarot to tell you what to do or magically answer all your questions or solve all your problems. It’s about relearning your own intuition and instincts, those powerful tools that often get dulled or disused in a world that prefers the extroverted, the performative, and the concrete.

This way of exploring the tarot is for the practical mystic wanting a simple way to develop their daily mystic practices. Over time, you will develop your own way of reading each card based on synchronicity, your life experience, and your relationship to the cards. You don’t need to have any tarot experience to begin your reading journey or any plans to read for anyone other than yourself. You just need an open mind and a willing heart—and a deck. On this blog, I’ll offer a gentle perspective imbued with everyday magic, as is everything I do. We’ll explore your relationship to specific cards—the ones you have an affinity for and the ones you don’t. We’ll work through dated iconography and celebrate the images that have stood the test of time. Best of all, we’ll get comfortable reading beyond the guidebook when it doesn’t resonate with you.

I work with the Rider-Waite-Smith here since it is the most common and oldest deck, with archetypal images that can speak to anyone. Although I’ve explored and often consult a variety of other decks, I find myself consistently returning to the Rider-Waite-Smith. Since this is the most iconic and standardized deck, I’ve found it an ideal starting place to help new readers navigate their tarot journey. It makes it easier to learn the meanings of each card and the overall story of the deck, including other decks that might speak to you along the way. Grounding yourself in these iconic images also helps new readers get comfortable drawing on your lived experience and intuition to interpret the symbolism of the cards, which is always fluid and changing, especially as we deepen our relationship to the deck. 

That’s all I’m doing here: writing about my way of reading the tarot to help you find YOUR way of reading the tarot. This blog is for the everyday reader. The newbie is looking to find a less intimidating roadmap into this form of divination. It’s also for the seasoned reader looking to freshen up on the basics. One thing I’ve learned in my years of studying the tarot is that I’m deeply nourished by conversing not just with the tarot but with other tarot readers. They bring valuable perspectives to interpreting the cards that always help inform my own take.

As I always say, true magic is in the everyday. The tarot, if it speaks to you, can help you reconnect to your innate sense of well-being and rediscover the daily enchantments all around you. So, if you’re interested in learning more about conversing with the cards, join me here on The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot, where there will be advice, insights on the cards, tarot readings, and more than a little magic.

Ready to begin?

The Bruja’s Guide to Tarot is the divination sister to the scholarly The Bruja Professor, a witchy take on literature, the occult & pop culture, and Enchantment Learning & Living, an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you.

If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday…and good conversations with the tarot, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s to a magical life!