The Minor Arcana (or Lesser Arcana) of occult or divinatory tarot refers to the portion of a Tarot deck that consists of 56 cards. The Minor Arcana are roughly similar to the cards found in a common deck of playing cards. They are distinguished from the Major Arcana (or Greater Arcana) of a Tarot deck which consists of 22 cards. The Major Arcana and Minor Arcana cards in combination form a complete Tarot deck and consist of 78 cards in total.
The Minor Arcana are divided into four suits, derived from the older Latin playing card suits most commonly named Wands or Batons, Cups, Swords, and Coins (also called Pentacles or Disks), although there are a wide variety of different names and suit symbols used. The cards can be used for divination by occultists. The Minor Arcana is related to the deck of 52 playing cards used in most modern card games.
Within the Minor Arcana there is another subdivision referred to commonly as The Courts or the Court Cards. This consists of the four character or personage cards that are in each suit of the deck; the Page, the Knight, the Queen, and the King. Contemporary playing cards do not include a Knight card, which accounts for why there are only 52 cards in a playing card deck. In some way the Page and Knight cards were merged to form the Jack in playing cards. Each suit of the Minor Arcana has ten cards numbered one through ten with the first card commonly referred to as an Ace. In addition to the ten cards there are the four court cards which make a total of 14 cards for each suit of the deck. The four suits in combination make up the Minor Arcana with 56 cards.
The reason for the distinction of Major Arcana and Minor Arcana in a Tarot deck stems from the perceived meanings that cards in each group have when used for divination. The Minor Arcana are said to represent more mundane aspects of life, including the people we meet which are represented by the Court Cards. Minor Arcana cards in contemporary Tarot decks are usually fully illustrated, a tradition that began with the Rider-Waite Tarot deck.
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Often, the suits are associated with one of the four classical elements, with a common set of associations being Wands with fire (or air), Cups with water, Swords with air (or fire), and Coins with earth. Other associations are possible.
| Latin suit[1] | Element | Class | Faculty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wands (Staves or Batons) | Fire | Peasantry | Creativity and will |
| Coins (Pentacles) | Earth | Merchants | Material body or possessions |
| Cups (Chalices) | Water | Clergy | Emotions and love |
| Swords | Air | Nobility and military | Reason |
Each suit has 14 cards, being Ace (One), two through ten, Page, Knight, Queen, and King. The last four are called court cards, and may have different names in different decks. One common variation is the replacement of the page and knight with a prince and princess. There are Italian playing card decks which have a page, maid, knight, mounted lady, king, and queen.
Modern minor arcana decks often have the numbered minor arcana cards (Ace to 10 of each suit) named and numbered, although many resemble early decks in that there are no titles or numbers on those cards. The numbered minor arcana cards usually have the appropriate number of symbols for the suit depicted, and the court cards usually have the corresponding person depicted holding the symbol of their suit.
Modern divination decks, especially if based on the Rider-Waite tarot deck (circa 1910), will have a symbolic scene depicted on the numbered minors, although this was generally not the case before the Rider-Waite deck was published. Before this, with the exception of a handful of decks, the numbered cards of the minors showed a geometric arrangement of the suit symbols.
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