Difference between revisions of "Minor Arcana"

The '''Minor Arcana''', sometimes called the '''Lesser Arcana''', are the suit cards in a [[Tarot]] deck. Minor Arcana cards first appeared in tarot card games, with pip cards numbered one (ace) to ten, along with court cards (or face cards) in each of four suits. In contemporary tarot decks the Minor Arcana are often illustrated—a convention popularized by the [[Rider–Waite Tarot]] deck in 1910. Used in a tarot card reading in conjunction with the [[Major Arcana]], the cards of the Minor Arcana suggest subtleties and details and signify day-to-day insights.

Tarot variations derived from Italian decks and Spanish decks typically have a Minor Arcana of 56 cards, with 14 cards in each suit: [[Wands (Tarot)|Wands]] (alternately batons, clubs, staffs, or staves), [[Cups (Tarot)|Cups]] (chalices, goblets, or vessels), [[Swords (Tarot)|Swords]] (or blades), and [[Pentacles (Tarot)|Pentacles]] (coins, disks, or rings).

The four court cards are commonly page, knight, queen, and king. Some variations have princess and prince cards replacing the page and knight cards; the historic Visconti-Sforza tarot deck expands the court with two additional cards: the damsel and the mounted lady. While the historic [[Tarot of Marseilles]] contains 56 cards, later decks based on the French suits of clubs (♣), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and diamonds (♦) have only three face cards per suit, with a jack (or knave) in addition to the queen and king.