Introduction to Tarot

Structure of the Deck and The Meaning of Number

This lecture is based on the Rider Waite deck, but may be applied to other Tarot decks
that are based on Rider Waite or have a similar structure. Some may also fit Crowley’s
Thoth deck, as this deck has similar Golden Dawn origins as the Rider Waite deck.
It will not apply as much to older decks, such as Marseilles, but you may find some of
this information helpful.
Structure of the Deck
(Please read over this section even if you know something about Tarot).
Historically, Tarot decks have 78 cards divided into two sections:
1. Major Arcana (or Trump cards)
2. Minor Arcana (or Pip cards)
The Major Arcana contains 22 cards ranging from “0: The Fool” to “21: The World.”
The sequence of the Major Arcana has been a standard sequence for centuries.
However, you can find decks, especially older decks, which have a different sequence
of these cards or even have completely different cards for the Major Arcana.
The Minor Arcana has 56 cards organized into four suits. Each suit contains
fourteen cards—ten numbered cards (Ace through 10) and four Court cards
(Page, Knight, Queen, King). The four suits in the Rider Waite deck are Wands, Cups,
Swords, and Pentacles. The Minor Arcana cards have similar origins to standard
playing cards, and the suit symbols reflect the Italian origins of Tarot. You can also find
other terms for some of these suits. Wands can also be called Batons, Staves, or Staffs,
and Pentacles can also be called Coins, Disks, or Discs. The original Italian terms are
Bastoni (Wands), Coppe (Cups), Spade (Swords), and Denari (Coins or Pentacles).
A Pentacle is a coin or disk containing a five-pointed star in the middle.
Cartomancy is the term for divination through cards. This term is usually reserved for
divination with standard playing cards. This discussion only covers divination with Tarot
and only briefly touches on the historical connection between standard playing cards
and Tarot decks.
Some French Tarot decks use the same symbols of Clubs, Hearts, Spades, and
Diamonds that you find in standard playing-card decks. Clubs correspond to Wands
(Bastoni), Hearts correspond to Cups (Coppe), Spades correspond to
Swords (Spade), and Diamonds correspond to Pentacles/Coins (Denari). The English
term “Spades” derives from the Italian term “Spade,” which means “Swords.”
Most Tarot decks display the numbers on the cards as Roman numerals,
although some recent decks display the numbers as standard Arabic numerals.
The “face” cards in a standard playing-card deck correspond to the Court cards in a
Tarot deck, with the “Page” and “Knight” merged into the single card called “Jack.”
Some believe that there may be a connection between Fool in the Major Arcana and the
Joker in a standard playing-card deck.
The suit symbols in a playing-card deck are termed “Pips” and you can see this term
also used for Tarot decks. Tarot decks, such as the historical Visconti-Sforza Tarot or
the Marseilles Tarot, are sometimes called “pip-only” decks, as the cards in the
Minor Arcana (outside of the Court cards) contain no illustrations beyond the number of
suit symbols designated by the number on the card.
The reference to Major Arcana cards as “Trump” cards also derives from
playing-card terminology. This relates to the historical use, first in 15th century Italy
and then in other European countries, of Tarot cards for card games that are called
trick-taking games. In Italy this game is called Tarocchi, which is the plural of Tarocco,
the Italian term for Tarot cards.
The English term “trump” or “trumps” derives from the Italian term “Trionfi,” as these
cards score higher than even the highest-scoring pip cards. Contemporary card games,
such as gin rummy, bridge, spades, or hearts are trick-taking games and have similar
origins to the card games played with Tarot decks. Certain areas of Europe,
especially Italy, still use Tarot decks for playing card games.
15th century Italy had separate decks of cards, also referred to as “Trionfi,”
that displayed allegorical scenes and scenes of medieval Italian life. Tarocchi decks
merged this deck with a four-suit deck more related to standard playing cards.
This merging is the origin of the 78-card Tarot deck.
“Tarot” itself is a French term. In Austria and Germany, it is called “Tarock.” You can
find some “Tarock” decks that have less than 78 cards. This relates to certain card
games in Austria and Germany that don’t use the full contingent of 78 cards. Some of
these French and German decks display allegorical or historical scenes relating to life in
medieval France, Germany, and Austria rather than the standard Major Arcana cards.
The same may be true of decks from Spain, but I’ve never seen a Spanish Tarot deck.
The use of playing cards, including Tarot cards, for divination has probably been around
as long as playing cards have been with us. One later development, especially in 18th-
and 19th-century France, was to connect Tarot to pre-existing esoteric and
occult systems. Men such as Antoine Court de Gébelin (ca. 1719-1784)
and Etteilla (nee Jean-Baptiste Alliette, 1738-1791) began to interpret Tarot from the
point of view of such systems as alchemy, Kabbalah (Qabalah), Hermeticism,
Free Masonry and Rosicrucianism.
In late 19th century England, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn utilized this
esoteric version of Tarot in its rituals. A. E. Waite and illustrator Pamela Colman Smith,
both associated with the Golden Dawn, published the Rider Waite deck in 1911 and
Waite wrote his “Pictorial Key to the Tarot” also in 1911. This book also introduced the
Celtic Cross tarot layout. This is the origin of modern Tarot. The Golden Dawn is also
the origin of Aleister Crowley’s Thoth deck, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris.
Even though the Golden Dawn did not last beyond the early 20th century, the influence
of this organization has lasted well into the 21st century. The Rider Waite deck is still
the most popular deck in the United States and many later decks have been patterned
after this deck or are so close to almost be a “clone” of Rider Waite.
You can sometimes find contemporary Tarot decks that have more than 78 cards.
Deck creators and publishers have sometimes added a few extra cards to the deck.
However, you will not find a Tarot deck that has less than 78 cards or has another
structure other than a deck that has four suits of fourteen cards each and is combined
with the cards termed the Major Arcana or Trumps.
Even though you can find divination/oracle decks with a different structure or a lot less
(or more) than 78 cards, these decks are not technically Tarot decks—regardless of the
term “Tarot” being applied to these decks. These other decks would be more properly
called oracle decks rather than Tarot decks.
In the second section below, I am only discussing Tarot decks – especially those decks
that derive from the Rider Waite deck.
The Meaning of Number
What do I mean by “the meaning of number”? In some way or another, most of us have
been dealing with the concept of number for most of our lives. We can’t live without it.
Most of the time, though, we deal with the concept of number from the perspective of
numeration or counting. Seven days make up a week; twenty-four hours make up a day;
if I have one pencil and buy five more, I now have six pencils.
Adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, balancing a checkbook, calculating interest –
all of these actions deal with number from the concept of numeration. When we say that
seventy-eight cards make up a Tarot deck or that the Minor Arcana has four suits,
we are using the concept of numeration to describe the deck.
Another meaning of number is the concept of sequence. The number two comes before
three and after one. The number five comes before six, but after four. In this discussion,
I am not considering negative numbers, only positive numbers.
The most common sequence is to start with the number one, unless you start with zero,
making one the second number in the sequence. You obtain subsequent numbers by
adding one to the current number, making the sequence never-ending unless you
determine an ending number. When I was younger, my brother and I decided to count
to one million by taking turns writing a sequence of numbers on paper. If my mother
hadn’t made us stop, we probably would still be counting.
You can start your sequence at any number you choose and use any number to
determine the pattern of the sequence. Some other common sequences are to count by
odd and even numbers (1,3,5,7 … 2,4,6,8 …), count by fives (5,10,15,20 …), count by
tens (10,20,30,40 …) or to count by hundreds (100,200,300 …).
In metaphysics, the concept of number relates to the discipline of numerology.
In numerology, the individual numbers have meanings that are beyond their numerical
or sequential properties. These meanings can be spiritual, psychological, esoteric,
or symbolic. Many modern systems of numerology derive from Pythagoras, a Greek
philosopher from the 6th century BC. He believed that everything could be expressed in
numerical terms because all things are ultimately reducible to numbers.
I’m not a numerologist, but have read up on the topic since becoming a Tarot reader.
You can find many different attributions for the meaning of numbers according to
modern systems of numerology. Some numerologists are also Tarot card readers and
use their understanding of numerology when interpreting the cards.
Here’s my own basic Pythagorean understanding of the numbers One through Ten:

1. Beginning/Unity
2. Duality/Partnership
3. Creativity/Growth
4. Stability/Structure
5. Instability/Change
 6. Harmony/Cooperation
7. Spirituality/Wisdom
8. Infinity/Rebirth/Regeneration
9. Completion/Attainment
10. Final manifestation/New beginning

While it is true that you can use modern interpretations of Pythagoras to understand the
meaning of number in Tarot, you can find places where the system just doesn’t quite fit.
The reason for this is that the numerology of Tarot doesn’t derive from Pythagoras,
but from the hermetic version of Kabbalah (sometimes spelled Qabalah). As noted in
the first section above, both the Rider Waite deck and the Thoth deck connect to their
creators’ understanding of Kabbalah along with other esoteric systems.
Due to the structure of the Tree of Life, it is the numbers 1 through 10 that hold the
primary meaning in Kabbalistic numerology. Kabbalah contains 32 paths, and the
numbers 1 through 10 are the first 10 “paths,” corresponding to the 10 Sephiroth on the
Tree of Life. Paths 11 through 32 are the 22 lines that connect these 10 positions,
and also connect to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The attributions connected to
these paths derive from the esoteric/spiritual attributes of these Hebrew letters.
The Tree of Life is meant to illustrate the Kabbalistic understanding of the creation of
our physical reality. “In the beginning” would correspond to the number 1 and the
number 10 corresponds to this physical reality we live in now. In addition, the numbers
4, 10 and 22 carry further meaning in Kabbalah.
The number 4 corresponds to the four-letter name for God in Hebrew, read from right
to left, called the Tetragrammaton:

This is one reason why in Kabbalah you don’t just have one Tree of Life, but four,
corresponding to what is called the four Kabbalistic worlds. Each of these worlds
corresponds to a letter that also corresponds to one of the magical elements of
Fire (Yod), Water (Heh), Air (Vav) and Earth (second Heh). These four Kabbalistic
worlds are Atziluth (Emanation/Fire), Briah (Creation/Water), Yetzirah (Formation/Air),
and Assiah (Manifestation/Earth).
Another way of looking at these four worlds is called “Jacob’s Ladder” and shows how
these four worlds intersect:
This is another way to see the intersecting of the four worlds:

In Tarot, these four worlds connect to the suits of the Minor Arcana:
The number 10 corresponds to the ten positions on the Tree of Life and in Tarot these
ten positions correspond to the Ace through 10 in each suit of the Minor Arcana and
also correspond to Court Cards in each suit (by way of numbers 2,3, 6 and 10). As you
then have four separate Trees of Life, one for each of the four elements, this gives you
a connection to all 56 cards in the Minor Arcana.
The number 22 corresponds to the 22 paths that connect the 10 positions on the
Tree of Life. Each of these paths connects to one of the 22 Hebrew letters and also to
the 22 cards in the Major Arcana. I am not going to spend a lot of time discussing the
Major Arcana in this lesson, as the use of number in the Major Arcana does not
systematically connect to the meanings of the ten numbers that I will be covering here.
Sometimes, Kabbalah will talk about 32 paths. This is because the first 10 numbers that
correspond to the 10 positions (or sephiroth) on the Tree of Life are also called paths.
However, usually when you use the term “paths” in Tarot you refer to the paths that
connect the 10 positions. These paths are numbered 11 to 32 and are the 22 paths that
connect to the Major Arcana in Tarot.
Above, I had mentioned the uses of numbers as sequence. In the Major Arcana,
the connection to number is that of sequence, not of numerology. The Lovers is number
6 because it falls between The Hierophant, number 5, and The Chariot, number 7,
not because it corresponds to the meaning of the number 6 (Tiphereth/Beauty) on the
Tree of Life in the same way as the Sixes in the Minor Arcana.
This is true of the use of number in all of the Major Arcana, although it is possible to
non-systematically connect all Major Arcana cards to the numbers 1 through 10 by
numerological reduction. I sometimes do this in readings.
Number 1 cards: The Magician (1), Wheel of Fortune (10), Sun (19)
Number 2 cards: The High Priestess (2), Justice (11), Judgement (20)
Number 3 cards: The Empress (3), The Hanged Man (12), The World (21)
Number 4 cards: The Emperor (4), Death (13)
Number 5 cards: The Hierophant (5), Temperance (14)
Number 6 cards: The Lovers (6), The Devil (15)
Number 7 cards: The Chariot (7), The Tower (16)
Number 8 cards: Strength (8), Star (17)
Number 9 cards: Hermit (9), Moon (18)
Number 10 cards: Wheel of Fortune (10), Sun (19)

The Fool (0) is a kind of “wild card” that connects to nothing and everything. If you know
something about Tarot birth cards, you might note that the above list looks a bit like the
list of birth card pairings. The Sun and The Wheel of Fortune appear in multiple places
because of the numerological connection of the numbers 19 and 10 to the number 1.
The chart below shows how you can fit all 78 cards of Tarot into Kabbalah.
Remember that you actually have four Trees of Life, one for each of the four elements.
It is the Minor Arcana that changes from one Tree of Life to another. The Major Arcana
connecting to the paths is the same for each of the four Trees of Life. You can have
varying attributions for how the Court Cards connect to the Tree of Life. However, Kings
and Knights connect to numbers 2 and 6, and Queens and Pages connect to numbers
3 and 10. Beyond showing this, I’m not spending time on Court Cards.

I will spend the rest of this lesson discussing the meaning of the 10 numbers in
Kabbalah and what these mean for Tarot.
We show these 10 numbers as 10 separate positions on the Tree of Life and often
speak of the process of moving from the number 1 in the beginning to the number 10 at
the end. Yet, in Kabbalah, these 10 sephiroth are looked upon as having been created
almost simultaneously, in one single movement—almost like a flash of lightning.
This is sometimes referred to as the “Path of the Lightning Sword.”

Kabbalah also has other ways of grouping the 10 sephiroth in order to present certain
understandings about the creation of our physical reality.
You can group the 10 positions into three pillars. The right-hand pillar is Masculine and
corresponds to the element of Fire. The left-hand pillar is Feminine and corresponds to
the element of Water. The central (or middle) pillar is the synthesis of Masculine and
Feminine, and corresponds to the element of Air. The only exception is the number 10.
Even though it is part of the central pillar, the number 10 corresponds to the element
of Earth, as the element of Earth is derived by the combining of Fire, Water, and Air.

The right-hand Masculine pillar is also called the Pillar of Mercy and the left-hand
Feminine pillar is also called the Pillar of Severity. These designations come from the
names of the center sephiroth on each of these pillars.
You can also group the 10 positions into three triads. Note that the uppermost triad
points upward and the two lower triads point downward. If you consider the Hermetic
statement, “As above, so below,” the uppermost triad is the “above” and the two lower
triads are the “below.” It is interesting to note that in Kabbalah “below” has two
different levels. The term “supernal” in the Supernal Triad means “from above.”

In addition, the number 10 sits separate and is not part of any of the triads. This is
because 10 represents this physical reality and it takes all of the numbers from 1 to 9 to
put the physical world in place. In some ways, the only thing that exists on this physical
plane is represented by the number 10. Everything above it, from our point of view,
is hidden. The lower the number is the higher up it is on the Tree, and the more hidden
and abstract what it represents becomes.
This means, for example, that the number 9 and what it represents may be hidden,
but is actually very close to the physical world of the number 10; but the number 1 is so
distant and abstract that you can’t get there from here. Kabbalah has a meditational
practice called “pathworking.”
Some say that you can’t get any higher than the number 6 through your own human
efforts. The number 6 is sometimes referred to as the “spiritual” center of the Tree and
is also its structural center. Note that in the earlier chart that displays all of the paths on
the Tree of Life that most positions have three or four paths that connect to them.
Position 6 has eights paths that connect to it and this emphasizes the central
importance of this number.
This is only the most basic understanding of the immensity that is Kabbalah and
Kabbalistic numerology. Even though it may seem abstract and unnecessary to the
understanding of Tarot, if you come to understand the basics of Kabbalah you will have
a better understanding of the structure of Tarot. This is especially true of decks such as
the Rider Waite that are specifically designed to illustrate this information.
Someone once asked me why the Fives in the Minor Arcana look so “negative.”
This connection to Kabbalah and the meaning of the number 5 (Gevurah/Severity)
on the Tree of Life is the reason for this “negative” look of these cards. In some ways,
all of the Fives in the Minor Arcana offer the same meaning—at least the meaning,
in Kabbalah, of the number 5. This basic meaning is then “translated” by the elements
of the four suits in order to get to the specific meaning of each of the Fives.
For example, the meaning of the 5 of Wands filters the meaning of the number 5
through the element of Fire and the 5 of Swords filters that same meaning through the
element of Air. This is true of the Ace through Ten in each suit of the Minor Arcana.
When you look in the Rider Waite deck at the four Aces from the Minor Arcana,
it’s hard not to notice the structural similarity of these cards—all show a white hand
emerging from a cloud offering the symbol of one of the four suits. This similarity makes
it a bit more obvious that these cards, in some way, all point in the same direction.
That similarity comes from the meaning of the number 1. The fact that the number 1 is
so close to the beginning of things is why that similarity is more apparent.
Yet, this same similarity of meaning is true of all forty cards in the Minor Arcana that
connect to the numbers 1 through 10. It is also true that the further away you get from
the source in the number 1, the less obvious that similarity becomes. Note the real
difference in tone between the 10 of Cups and 10 of Pentacles on the one hand and the
10 of Wands and 10 of Swords on the other.
A basic understanding of the meaning of the numbers in the Minor Arcana will only help
you become a better reader. This is especially true when the same number comes up
multiple times in the same reading.
For example, if you have the 3 of Pentacles in a reading, your usual way of interpreting
that card may suffice; but if you also have the 3 of Cups and the 3 of Wands in that
same reading, the overall meaning of the number 3 may be just as important as the
specific meaning of each of these cards.
If, in addition, you also have the Empress in that same reading, even if this card doesn’t
connect to the meaning of the number 3 in the same way, its presence may further
emphasize the meaning of the number 3.
The more you can analyze the meaning of the numbers that show up in a reading,
the more information you can obtain in that reading. I also like to ask a client to choose
a number from 1 to 10 before I start the reading. Not only does this give me more
information about the client’s state of mind, it also makes it significant when this number
also shows up in the reading.
Here is a list of the basic meanings of the numbers 1 through 10 in Tarot as these
meanings come from Kabbalistic numerology:
1 (Aces): Unity, Origin, Potential (beginnings, seeds, possibilities)
2 (Twos): Expansion, Duality, Life Force
3 (Threes): Form, Container, Fertility
4 (Fours): Stability, Kindness, Grace
5 (Fives): Discipline, Clarification, Might (sources of stress or anxiety)
6 (Sixes): Harmony, Pleasure, Perfection (ideals, the beautiful)
7 (Sevens): Passion, Karma, Instinct (what gets you up in the morning)
8 (Eights): Intellect, Progress, Science (the genius of your own mind)
9 (Nines): Fruition, Cycles, Results
10 (Tens): Sensations, Completion, Consequences

From Leisa ReFalo’s “Tarot of Color,” used with permission. Additions in parentheses
added by me. Tarot of Color is copyrighted 2005-2007 to Leisa ReFalo.

You can also get a lot of information by using the names of these 10 positions in
combination with the general meaning of the element. I’ve also added the Golden Dawn
esoteric titles as an added point of interpretation

Ace of Wands: The potential of the will.

(The Root of the Power of Fire)
Two of Wands: The wisdom of the will.
(The Lord of Dominion)
Three of Wands: The understanding of the will.
(The Lord of Established Strength)
Four of Wands: The mercy/grace of the will.
(The Lord of Perfected Works)
Five of Wands: The severity of the will.
(The Lord of Strife)
Six of Wands: The beauty of the will.
(The Lord of Victory)
Seven of Wands: The victory of the will.
(The Lord of Valor)
Eight of Wands: The splendor of the will.
(The Lord of Swiftness)
Nine of Wands: The foundation of the will.
(The Lord of Great Strength)
Ten of Wands: The kingdom/manifestation of the will.
(The Lord of Oppression)
Ace of Cups: The potential of the heart.
(The Root of the Power of Water)
Two of Cups: The wisdom of the heart.
(The Lord of Love)
Three of Cups: The understanding of the heart.
(The Lord of Abundance)
Four of Cups: The mercy/grace of the heart.
(The Lord of Blended Pleasure)
Five of Cups: The severity of the heart.
(The Lord of Loss in Pleasure)
Six of Cups: The beauty of the heart.
(The Lord of Pleasure)
Seven of Cups: The victory of the heart.
(The Lord of Illusionary Success)
Eight of Cups: The splendor of the heart.
(The Lord of Abandoned Success)
Nine of Cups: The foundation of the heart.
(The Lord of Material Happiness)
Ten of Cups: The kingdom/manifestation of the heart.
(The Lord of Perfected Success)

Ace of Swords: The potential of the mind.

(The Root of the Power of Air)
Two of Swords: The wisdom of the mind.
(The Lord of Peace Restored)
Three of Swords: The understanding of the mind.
(The Lord of Sorrow)
Four of Swords The mercy/grace of the mind.
(The Lord of Rest from Strife)
Five of Swords The severity of the mind.
(The Lord of Defeat)
Six of Swords The beauty of the mind.
(The Lord of Earned Success)
Seven of Swords The victory of the mind.
(The Lord of Unstable Effort)
Eight of Swords The splendor of the mind.
(The Lord of Shortened Force)
Nine of Swords The foundation of the mind.
(The Lord of Despair and Cruelty)
Ten of Swords The kingdom/manifestation of the mind.
(The Lord of Ruin)
Ace of Pentacles The potential of manifestation.
(The Root of the Power of Earth)
Two of Pentacles The wisdom of manifestation.
(The Lord of Harmonious Change)
Three of Pentacles The understanding of manifestation.
(The Lord of Material Works.)
Four of Pentacles The mercy/grace of manifestation.
(The Lord of Earthly Power)
Five of Pentacles The severity of manifestation.
(The Lord of Material Trouble)
Six of Pentacles The beauty of manifestation
(The Lord of Material Success)
Seven of Pentacles The victory of manifestation
(The Lord of Success Unfulfilled)
Eight of Pentacles The splendor of manifestation.
(The Lord of Prudence)
Nine of Pentacles The foundation of manifestation.
(The Lord of Material Gain)
Ten of Pentacles The kingdom/manifestation of manifestation.
(The Lord of Wealth)

In my opinion, Tarot is first and foremost an energy system and that is what makes it
flexible and able to connect to so many different types of situations. The primary source
of that energy is in the four elements, but that energy is translated and modified in many
places by the meaning of the numbers, which also have their own energies. I hope that
this brief overview has helped you understand a little more about the meaning of
number in Tarot and why it is important.
This has only been a brief overview of a complex subject. Yet, even a simple
understanding of Kabbalistic numerology can add so much to your kitbag of
interpretive techniques, especially in the Minor Arcana. I hope that this information will
help you to gain your own understanding of the meaning of number in Tarot.