By Eleanor McKenzie
No, this is not a blog about Savile Row tailoring. It’s about the ‘Suits’ of the tarot’s Minor Arcana, which are Cups, Pentacles, Swords and Wands. Whereas the cards of the Major Arcana provide information about soul or spiritual lessons to be learned on our journey, the 58 cards of the Minor Arcana give us information about events, emotions, behaviours and activities that relate to our daily lives.
Personality types in the Minor Arcana
But there is something else interesting about these Suits, because they also represent personality types. I’m going to give you a brief overview of each one, reminding you that most likely you have attributes of more than one Suit, but there will be a dominant one.
Each Suit relates to an element, and therefore to the astrological signs as well. However, just because you’re an Aries, don’t assume you’ll automatically be a Fire/Wands person. After all, Aries is only your Sun sign, and there will be combinations of the other three elements in your astrological chart.
CUPS
Element: Water
Signs: Pisces, Cancer & Scorpio
Compassionate, patient and sentimental, Cups people prefer partnerships, co-operation and team effort. They’re often sensitive to the needs and values of others. Emotional, intuitive, nurturing, protective and imaginative, their shadow side when it emerges is sulky and passive-aggressive.
WANDS
Element: Fire
Signs: Aries, Leo & Sagittarius
Impatient, enthusiast and passionate, they are motivated by competition, and are self-motivated, optimistic risk-takers. They also enjoy sports and physical activity. On the shadow side, they’re also egotistical, sometimes aggressive and prone to exaggerate.
SWORDS
Element: Air
Signs: Aquarius, Gemini & Libra
Talkative, quick-minded and analytical, they are good negotiators, and love new ideas and concepts, as well as social networking. Intellectual, observant and inventive, on the shadow side they can become anxious, indecisive and prone to gossip.
PENTACLES
Element: Earth
Signs: Capricorn, Tauru & Virgo
Practical, conservative, hard working and cautious.,they enjoy saving money, spending time in nature, and above all they crave the familiar, and a sense of security that comes from comfortable routines. Grounded and materialistic, their shadow side can manifest as greed, resistance to any change and being covetous.
Court cards of the Minor Arcana
A quick word about the Court cards of each Suit. Just as a standard deck of playing cards has Court cards, so does the Minor Arcana. In the standard Tarot deck, the Rider Waite deck being the most universally popular, there are Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings.
When any of these cards appear in a reading, they usually refer to an actual person who is already in your life, or someone you may be about to meet. They my also represent the person who has asked for the reading, and so can indicate their role in the issue.
When a Page appears, it typically refers to a child or young person up until about 21 years of age. A Knight is in the twenties and thirties. Both the Pages and Knights I read as not being defined by sex. They often represent the person’s own children, or in the case of Knights, younger co-workers, for example.
Queens, of course are mature women, and Kings are mature men.
For example, when the King of Pentacles turns up in a reading, depending on where the card is positioned in the spread, it suggests a man with business know-how and financial acumen is either in your life, or about to enter it. A Queen of Cups for example, could be a female who gives you emotional support, while the Kings of Swords or Wands are going to bring inspirational ideas and the passionate energy to make an idea work.
These are generalisations, of course, as the full meaning of the card has to be considered in the context of all the cards in the spread.
So, which Suit do you think suits you? And what about your family and friends?
Got a pressing question that you’d like the tarot to answer?
Book one of my tarot spreads and find out what is happening in your life now.
Comments