Tarot Card Meanings
Tarot cards have caused fear, fascination, curiosity and wonder in people for many years. Not a bad accomplishment for a simple deck of cards. The cards are used in tarot reading (fortunetelling). Interpreting the meaning of the cards is a difficult endeavor, even for those well practiced in tarot.
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Tarot
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A tarot card deck is made up of 78 cards. There are four suits consisting of swords, cups, pentacles and wands, with each suit containing the numbers two though 10, a page, a knight, a queen, a king and an ace. There are also 22 extra cards that are referred to as the major arcana, which contain such famous cards as The Fool (which refers to freedom and new beginnings), Death (which may refer to mortal death, an abrupt change or a corruption of something good), The Tower (sudden, violent change as of plans or relationships--things that were once rock-solid tumbling down) and The World (which usually refers to a journey completed and new possibilities beyond it once the closure is complete). The four suits are referred to as the minor arcana.
Suits
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Each suit of the minor arcana has its own meaning that is reflected in their cards. Swords is associated with the element of fire, and it contains a great deal of combat and chaos. Wands are associated with air, and they signify changes and distances. Pentacles are associated with earth, and they're very steady, like rock. Lastly, cups are associated with water, and they're very adaptable, changeable and free flowing.
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Individual Cards
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Every individual card, whether it's in the major or minor arcana has a general meaning or meanings associated with it. The death card, as stated above, may signify actual death. It can just as easily signify change, mortality or corruption. Which meaning a card has largely depends on where it's located in a tarot spread.
Tarot Spreads
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Tarot spreads are what you see when a tarot card reader lays out tarot cards in a pattern. In this case, the tarot cards should be thought of as letters, and the spread as a sentence. While each letter has a sound all its own, it's only when they're spoken in a sequence that they have a real meaning. This is why individual meanings are so difficult, because the meaning will change depending on where a card shows up in the spread.
Inversion
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Something that will also change from one practitioner to another is the meaning of inverted tarot cards. If a card is laid upside down, it generally means the opposite of what it would ordinarily mean. In this way the Death card, instead of meaning corruption and failure, could mean success or a fresh start. Learning how to properly interpret the tarot is like learning a language. You must be able to interpret all the differing combinations.
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