Major Arcana Tarot Card Meanings
The Major Arcana is the powerhouse of any tarot deck. It consists of twenty-two cards which are archetypal representations of human nature. They are numbered and named in most decks but not all. I see the first card of the Major Arcana as being The Fool, which is numbered zero. However, some put this at the end and consider the Magician, number one, as the first card of the Major Arcana. It does not matter, as this speaks to the cyclical quality of the Major Arcana and it could be said that The Fool is a representation of the whole of the Major Arcana, or even the complete deck; it speaks of the journey that we all set out on from the moment we are born into this world and until we leave it.
The Major Arcana represents the experiences we have in life; each experience helps us to learn some karmic wisdom and until we are able to do so, we’ll probably encounter the same experience again and again until the lesson is learned. The journey and the lessons are quite linear and ordered in the Major Arcana, however life is rarely if ever so ordered.
The Rider-Waite Major Arcana tarot card meanings given here are based on my observations of their images, which are rich with symbolism and readily evoke connections to people and situations with their meanings.