Minor Arcana: What It Is and What It Means
The Minor Arcana are the 56 tarot cards of the four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. What each suit represents.
What they are
They're the 56 cards that go along with the 22 Major Arcana in the 78-card deck. They're divided into four suits of 14 cards each: Ace through Ten, plus the Page, the Knight, the Queen and the King.
The four suits
Wands: action, energy, ambition and creativity; associated with the element of fire. Cups: emotions, relationships and intuition; water. Swords: thought, communication and conflict; air. Pentacles (coins): work, money and the material world; earth.
How they're read
While the Major Arcana point to big themes, the Minor Arcana describe day-to-day situations: a conversation, an expense, a meeting. The court cards usually stand for people or attitudes. A spread with lots of Pentacles, for example, is read as focused on practical matters.
Like everything in tarot, it's a symbolic reading meant to get you thinking, not a sure prediction.
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