Tarot is a 78-card deck used as a tool for introspection: it doesn't predict a fixed future, but offers images and symbols for thinking about a situation from another angle.
7 short lessons to learn the fundamentals, step by step.
Start →Tarot was born in 15th-century Italy as a deck of playing cards, quite similar in structure to a Spanish or French deck. It wasn't until the late 18th century, in France, that it began to be used for divinatory and esoteric purposes, which is when the layers of symbolism (astrology, kabbalah, alchemy) we associate with it today were added.
That double history explains its structure: on one hand it has suits like a regular deck (Cups, Pentacles, Swords, and Wands), and on the other it has a set of 22 cards with no equivalent in any playing deck, the Major Arcana, which hold the biggest archetypes and stages of a life.
They run from 0 (The Fool) to 21 (The World) and are usually read as a journey: a person moving through the great stages of life, from the initial impulse to fulfillment. When a Major Arcana comes up in a spread, it usually points to something with weight of its own, beyond the everyday detail.
They're split into 4 suits of 14 cards each (Ace through 10, plus Page, Knight, Queen, and King). If the Majors speak to the big, structural things, the Minors describe the day-to-day detail: which area of life is where the card's message plays out.
Each card can come up “upright” (in its normal orientation) or “reversed” (turned upside down). Generally, the upright meaning describes the card's energy expressing itself more fully or directly, while the reversed one points to that same energy blocked, in excess, or asking to be looked at inward before being projected outward. It's not a “bad” meaning: it's the same card, seen from another angle.
A spread is simply how many cards are drawn and in what positions, where each position has its own meaning (past, present, obstacle, etc.). On Quirón you have these options:
It depends on who you ask. For some people it's a divinatory tool; for others, a symbolic mirror that helps put into words something already sensed but hard to name. What both views tend to agree on is that tarot works better with open, reflective questions (“what do I need to see about this situation?”) than with closed yes-or-no questions.
Tarot is a 78-card deck used as a tool for introspection: it doesn't predict a fixed future, but offers images and symbols for thinking about a situation from another angle.
It has 22 Major Arcana (from the Fool to the World, with no equivalent in a regular deck) and 56 Minor Arcana split into 4 suits —Cups, Pentacles, Swords, and Wands— of 14 cards each.
Generally, the upright meaning describes the card's energy expressing itself more fully or directly, while the reversed one points to that same energy blocked, in excess, or asking to be looked at inward before being projected outward.
It depends on who you ask: for some people it's a divinatory tool, for others a symbolic mirror that helps put into words something already sensed. It works better with open, reflective questions than with closed yes-or-no questions.
This content is an informative introduction to tarot, meant as a guide for self-knowledge and entertainment, not an exact method of prediction or a substitute for professional advice on important decisions.
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