Minor Arcana Tarot Card Meanings
The Minor Arcana is made up by the remaining fifty-six cards of the Tarot deck, which is further divided into four suits; Cups, Pentacles, Swords and Wands. Each suit is similar to a regular playing card suit with cards numbered from Ace to Ten and with four court cards; Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings. In addition to this, each suit is governed by its own and element and has its own qualities, which is changed by the numerical value of the card.
This is where any knowledge you have of astrology and even numerology can be very helpful and can be incorporated into your understanding of the Tarot cards. For example, I see connections between the suits and the elements as I learned them in Astrology; but more about that a little later, for now let’s look at the cards in each suit.
Generally speaking, the following is true when looking at the Minor Arcana tarot card meanings:
Aces, being the first card of the suit, denote beginnings and contain the potential of all that is possible with that suit.
Twos symbolise duality; two opposing forces, the balance of two things or the union of two.
Threes are the introduction of a third and new factor after the duality of two, where things finally start to come together.
Fours indicate the first plateau; either a place to rest and view the work done so far before continuing on or a place to reassess and decide on a different course of action.
Fives take you away from the security and stability of the Fours with a new challenge. This challenge may be difficult and even involve a loss, but we come out stronger for having been through it.
The Sixes take us back to the notion of balance and harmony, which is much needed after the Fives; they are a combination of the Twos and Threes, so you usually find the newness of the latter with the balance and exchange of the former.
Sevens are similar to the Fives in that they introduce a new challenge, but there is also the opportunity to succeed by holding steady to what you believe against the unexpected challenges here and using the knowledge obtained thus far.
Eights are a combination of Twos and Fours; this leads to a much more stable place, but perhaps to stable. It could be that now there are more rules to bind, but doing what one has to is also a necessary part of progress at times.
Nines are where everything comes together; good or bad, this is the culmination of all that has been done and achieved. This makes the Nines one of the most powerful cards in the suits as they speak of completion.
Tens have the numerical values of Ones, and bring everything round full circle. But rather than just starting at the beginning again with the Aces that just held the potential of what was to come, the Tens hold the progress and all that has been accumulated throughout the journey through the suit.
The court cards generally indicate people in a reading and take on the personality traits of their suit. They don’t always correspond to the actual age of the person that they represent because they speak more to where that person is in their life in relation to goals and life lessons.
Pages can represent children, but when there isn’t a child, they can represent that young energy, eagerness and newness that is connected with children. They can be male or female.
Knights are a young energy; similar to teenagers and young adults. They represent the idealism and actions seen in teenagers. They are finding who they are and going out into the world fighting for what they believe and want to achieve. Like Pages, they can be male or female.
Queens have a similar energy to the Empress which is strongly female. This is an older energy than the Knights and one that is certain about who she now is and is working towards achieving her goals.
Kings are like the Emperor; they make things happen and are in charge. Much like the Queens, they are an older more assured energy than the Knights.