Tarot card definitions can often lead to confusion, but many believe that it shows one’s future. A tarot deck is a special deck of cards featuring 12 trump cards, the fool, and in addition to the ordinary deck of cards has an extra face card per suite. While in Europe, tarot cards have been used traditionally to play a wide variety of trick taking card games, in the United States and Other English speaking countries, however, the most often usage is for fortune telling and divinatory purposes. Many consider that tarot readings are related to astrology, the Kabala, Pythagorean numerology, the I Ching and Aura-Soma.
The imagery on tarot decks is very detailed. Several deck styles exist primarily as forms of artwork, as well as many types of regional specialty tarot card decks. For example, in English speaking countries the most popular deck of tarot cards is the Rider-Waite deck, or the Rider deck. The artist Pamela Colman Smith drawn the images on these cards under the supervision of Christian mystic and occultist, Arthur Edward Waite and published by the Rider Company in 1910. Tarot decks such as the Universal Waite, Golden Tarot, Aquarian Tarot, Nigel Jackson Tarot, and Gilded Tarot are said to have directly evolved from the Rider-Waite deck.
The major arcana has 22 cards, 21 trump cards along with the Fool. The 56 cards minor arcana has the four face cards and the pip. The meaning of the word “arcana”, “matters which are hidden” is a reference to the occult significance of the symbols on each card. The Death card represents mortality, deterioration; the Devil weakness, temptation; the Emperor means stability, power, reason, while the Empress means action and initiative, pleasure; the Fool extravagance, delirium; the Fortune card means destiny, success, prosperity; Hanged man comes for wisdom and sacrifice; the Hermit card means treason, corruption; the Judgment represents renewal, decision; the Lovers attraction, trials; the Magician means skill, subtlety and the World stands for voyage or flight.
In a tarot deck, the suits are associated with the four elements: Swords with air, Wands with fire, Cups with water and Disks with Earth. It should also be noted that certain methods of performing tarot readings consider cards to have a different meaning when they are reversed. In most cases, a reversed card simply has the opposite meaning of the standard tarot definition. To some people, one of the most astonishing aspects of learning to read tarot cards is the discrepancies in the many printed definitions for each card. Because of their symbolic nature, tarot cards are intended to be a tool and help the subconscious to communicate with the conscious mind. This makes it very hard to identify an “official” definition for each card. If you’re serious about learning how to read tarot cards, you may find it useful to keep a definition notebook with one page devoted to each card in the 78-card tarot deck. If you write down every definition you encounter for any particular card, as well as your own thoughts on what the symbols may mean, you will eventually come up with a hybrid definition that is best suited to your needs.