A Quick & Dirty Guide to the Tarot


	This is meant to provide a quick overview of the Tarot
for readers who aren't familiar with it.  It doesn't dwell
on the various symbolism of every card; a web search on
Tarot will turn up more than enough of that, if you're so
inclined.  This guide is based mostly on the Rider-Waite
Tarot deck, probably the best-known variation.

	The standard Tarot is a 78-card deck, which consists of
a 56-card Lesser Arcana and a 22-card Major Arcana (or
Trumps).

	The Lesser Arcana is split into four suits, similar to
the modern poker deck:

* Wands (or Staves, Batons) - corresponding to clubs.
* Blades (or Swords) - corresponding to spades.
* Pentacles (or Coins) - corresponding to diamonds.
* Cups (or Grails) - corresponding to hearts.

	In general, non-Reversed Cups cards have positive
connotations, Blades cards have negative connotations, and
Wands and Pentacles contain both.  There are, however,
positive Blades and negative Cups cards.

	A card that is dealt upside-down is considered
Reversed.  A Reversed card usually (but not always; there
are exceptions) has roughly the opposite of its ordinary
meaning.

	Each suit of the Lesser Arcana is numbered in a manner
similar to poker cards:  Ace, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten, Page, Knight, Queen, King.  (Page
and Knight replace the poker deck's Jack.)  The Page through
King are sometimes called "court cards"; some Tarot
traditions include the Ace as well.

	The Major Arcana's 22 cards are each unique, and
consist of 21 numbered cards and one unnumbered or "zero"
card (The Fool).  The complete Major Arcana are:

0. The Fool
1. The Magician
2. The High Priestess
3. The Empress
4. The Emperor
5. The Heirophant
6. The Lovers
7. The Chariot
8. Strength (some non-Rider decks have Justice as 8)
9. The Hermit
10. (The Wheel of) Fortune
11. Justice (some non-Rider decks have Strength as 11)
12. The Hanged Man
13. Death
14. Temperance
15. The Devil
16. The Tower
17. The Star
18. The Moon
19. The Sun
20. (The Last) Judgment
21. The World

	For information on what the cards mean and how to read
them, I'd suggest <A HREF =
"http://www2.dgsys.com/~bunning/top.html">Learning the
Tarot: An Online Course</A>.  It's got the nicest layout of
the various sites I browsed, and it's got much more
information than you'll ever need. ^_^