Finding The Pattern: The Major Arcana & the Tarot Court

The tarot is a fascinating tool of communication and clarity, where we build trust in our own stories through the mythic archetypes presented to and invented by us in the cards.

When I held my first tarot deck and saw all the patterns spread out before me in the images of the cards, I was completely enchanted and continue to be enchanted by the cards all these decades later. While there is plenty of esoteric mystery to explore with the cards, the tarot, at its roots, is simply pointing out patterns of common experiences. From the pain of a broken heart, the pride of a skill well-developed, the boredom we all experience from time to time, the way grief changes us, and how we feel open and brave we can feel when we are able to be who we really are in the world - all these stories and so many more are told in the tarot. Storytelling is one of the ways we develop empathy and curiosity about ourselves and others, and the tarot is a storytelling tool.

One of the structures of story found in the tarot is the delineation between the Major Arcana, which are cards signifying major life events and patterns, and the Minor Arcana or cards that represent day-to-day experiences. Within the Minor Arcana is the tarot Court which are a set of sixteen characters that have an interesting relationship to the Major Arcana, helping us to find big patterns in small moments.

Knowing that the tarot court cards are ones that readers struggling with again and again (myself included!), from their hierarchical structure to sparse traditional meanings and more, I wanted to share the ways that I have come to understand the tarot court in a way that brings meaning to my own, and hopefully your, healing practice. I started earlier this year by exploring the often difficult to decipher tarot Court through the lens of healing ritual (check out part one and part two).

Now, I want to explore the tarot court in a way that's a bit more experimental and intuitive.

One of the fascinating aspects of the tarot Court cards are the way that they act like a more subtle expression of the energy and archetypes of the Major Arcana cards. Major Arcana cards often represent big energy and patterns in our life that are showing up over an extended period of time, whereas the Minor Arcana, including the Court, represent smaller energetic patterns and day-to-day insights. Yet, the deep patterns of the Major Arcana are reflected in the everyday experiences of the Minor Arcana, especially in the Court.

The Neutral Vibes Tarot

When I see the Page of Swords show up in a reading, for example, I am reminded of the energy of the Magician. While the Page of Swords has achieved some level of skill and self-control, they are are still developing their confidence and knowledge. Their body, however, has already begun to mimic that of he Magician, directing them to the wisdom of “As Above, So Below.” For me, the Page of Swords hints at the energy of the Magician, but in a more subdued and developing way. We are not meant to be gazing at the mysteries with intensity everyday (the Magician), but we are still living in a world of those mysteries (Page of Swords). In other words, the mysteries as profound are represented by the Magician while the mysteries as profane are represented by the Page of Swords.

While not every day is a profoundly meaningful sort of Major Arcana day, the energy of the Major Arcana and profundity is always at play. Through the Court cards we are a way to spot some of those deep currents of mystery represented by the Major Arcana. One of the ways these correspondences work in readings is by helping us understand our relationships with other folks in the grander scheme of our personal Major Arcana journey.

Let’s say that you pull the Page of Pentacles for a card representing a new significant other in your life. I connect the gentle energy of the Page of Pentacles with the Strength card, which would tell me that this new significant other in your life may illuminate the dynamic of Strength in your life, whether by testing it, affirming it or in some other way connect with how you embody and connect to Strength in your life. The Court cards are not meant to identify a deep valley or high peak of a pattern of energy - that’s the work of the Major Arcana - but help us to notice where that pattern is occurring in a more diffused way in our everyday life.

The Natural Ink Tarot

If you're intrigued by this idea of the Major Arcana’s connection with the Court, I’ve gone ahead and listed my very loose correspondences between the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. For my personal correspondences, there are a few Major Arcana cards that don’t have direct links to the Court: the Fool, the Lovers, the Wheel of Fortune, the Star, the Moon, and the Sun. The lack of correspondence for these Major Arcana cards are for the following reasons: 

• The Fool always represents who is being read for so doesn’t need a corresponding Court card

• With The Lovers, no Court card seemed to represent that particular energy to me but instead any Court card could represent oneself or others in a Lovers relationship (which is a traditional meaning for the Court card, the current, past or prospective romantic partner).

• The Wheel of Fortune is an abstracted, impersonal energy and does not easily correspond to any of the inherently personal Court cards.

• The celestial cards (The Star, The Moon, and The Sun) are similar to the current of the Fool, being deeply personal to those being read for. 

I created my Major Arcana and Court card correspondences when working with my Smith Waite Tarot and the imagery of this particular deck of cards definitely contributed to my correspondence choices. Keep that in mind if you’re interested in creating your own correspondences for your favorite deck (which I hope you do!). There are more traditional ways of connecting one card to another, mostly through astrological correspondences, but that was not my focus for my own list. I hope you feel inspired by tradition but not burdened or beholden to it whenever you read the cards, create correspondences, and use tarot as a tool of healing.

The Weiser Tarot

The Major Arcana & Court Card Correspondences

• 0. The Fool: See Note Above

• I. The Magician: Page of Swords

• II. The High Priestess: Page of Cups

• III. The Empress: Queen of Wands

• IV. The Emperor: King of Wands

• V. The Hierophant: King of Cups

• VI. The Lovers: See Note Above

• VII. The Chariot: Knight of Pentacles

• VIII. Strength: Page of Pentacles

• IX. The Hermit: Queen of Pentacles

• X. Wheel of Fortune: See Note Above

• XI. Justice: King of Swords

• XII. The Hanged Man: Knight of Cups

• XIII. Death: Page of Wands

• XIV. Temperance: Queen of Cups

• XV. The Devil: King of Pentacles

• XVI. The Tower: Knight of Wands

• XVII. The Star: See Note Above

• XVIII. The Moon: See Note Above

• XIX. The Sun: See Note Above

• XX. Judgement: Knight of Swords

• XXI. The World: Queen of Swords

Finding the Pattern Tarot Spread

If you are trying to better understand how the pattern of a Major Arcana card is playing out in your personal relationships and development of your own identity in these relationships, the following spread is meant to help.

Begin by choosing the Major Arcana card whose energy you want to explore, setting that at the top of your spread. Next, separate out the Court cards from your deck - you'll be pulling only from the Court cards for this spread.

Card 1. How I am Manifesting the Pattern

This card represents how you currently understand and are manifesting the energy of the pattern of the Major Arcana card you are exploring. For our example, let's say you are exploring the energetic patterns of the Hierophant in your life and you pull the King of Cups to represent you. The King of Cups shows that you are deeply engaged in the work of examining the hierarchical structures, restrictions, and allegiance to authority in your life, that this is a front and center focus for you. If you are seeking more clarity, you can pull two more cards from the Minor Arcana to represent how you can ease the strain of this pattern in your life (i.e. the Hierophant energy can be very serious, here are some ways to lighten up) as well as support your explorations (i.e. talk about what you're exploring with friends instead of trying to untangle it all on your own).

Card 2. The Person Helping My Understanding of the Pattern

This card, as the position title suggests, helps you identify a person in your life who is beneficially assisting your ability to explore and understand the energy of the Major Arcana card you are working with. Everything from personal and familial relationships, social and work relationships, as well as para-social relationships can show up here. For our example let's say that you pull the Queen of Pentacles who represents the energy of your high school English teacher who encouraged all of their students to read banned books, helping you to understand how the energy of the Hierophant often seeks to restrict the flow of information. 

Card 3. The Person Hindering My Understanding of the Pattern

This card helps you to identify a person in your life who is challenging your ability to understand the energy of the Major Arcana card you're exploring. For our example, you might pull the Knight of Swords, who represents an online video essayist on popular culture who you used to love for their what you thought was incisive commentary, but are coming to realize are shallow in their opinions and driven more by gossip than insight. 

Card 4. The Person to Connect With

This card represents someone who may or may not be currently connected with in your life (whether they are someone you haven't connected with recently, to someone you haven't met yet) that you would benefit from knowing as you explore the energy of the Major Arcana card you've chosen. Let's say you pull the Queen of Wands - this card might represent someone who brings a fiery, creative energy to your explorations of the often cold and reserved Hierophant, helping you find playfulness and bravery on your journey.

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Explore the rest of my tarot Court series with a look at the Pages and the Knights (including an overview of the Court structure and non-hierarchical alternatives to the royalty theme) followed by the Queens and Kings. If you’re looking for more tarot spreads, I have a whole collection to inspire your practice, too. For those ready for deepening your knowledge of how herbalism intersects with tarot, come this way.

Whether or not you work with tarot, I hope that this post has inspired you to take a look at the big patterns showing up in little ways (especially in your relationships) in your life. May you be freed from those relationships that seek to keep you stuck and small. May you be drawn towards the people and places where you feel seen, where you are able to connect through collaboration and compassion. May we find each other again and again through our healing work.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

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Tarot Decks Shown

The Neutral Vibes Tarot
The Weiser Tarot
The Natural Ink Tarot

Creating Your Own Oracle of Care

I love the complexity that tarot offers us and the many ways that it can be used as a tool of self-inquiry and healing.

Tarot cards like many tools of divination are multi-layered. The initial image you see on a tarot card is only the first layer of meaning. Below that are layers of tradition from the astrological to the numerological to the herbal, your own personal associations with an image, the artist's vision, intuitive insights, and more.

Looking at the Fool card, for example, you could read the card as someone about to embark on a new adventure based on looking at the traditional imagery of the card. The tradition of numerology associated with tarot tells us that the number 0, the number of the Fool card, represents unnamed potential.¹ Within elemental tradition, the Fool represents the element of Air, an element prone to swift action and sudden insight, while modern astrological association pairs the Fool with Uranus, the planet of innovation and limitlessness. And those are all just the initial meanings of each of those lines of interpretation. Beyond divination, tarot cards can be used for spellwork, in healing practices, for self-inquiry, meditation, art, and more. These packs of (usually) 78 cards contain a great deal of versatility in their use and meaningfulness to our modern complex lives.

So am I now going to lead you through a multidisciplinary exploration of each card? No, quite the opposite. I just wanted to highlight how a complex tool like the tarot can be used in simple ways when life feels overwhelming. While I love the tarot as a tool of self and community care, it took me a moment to figure out how to not get overwhelmed by all the ways I could interpret a card when I just wanted some to-the-point guidance. 

Some of you might be wondering why I didn't just purchase an oracle deck geared towards self-care, but I had a hard time finding a deck that spoke to me. I was also wary of buying yet another deck, especially an oracle deck with a new system that I would have to learn. What I really wanted in these moments was a tool that I know could hold all of my complexity while being familiar and friendly. Something that I could rely on to help me out of funks, reorient my compass of care, and help me reconnect with the people, creatures, and places I love. 

Did I end up trying to transform the major arcana of my tarot deck into a self and community care oracle? Yes, and it's been a lot of fun! Here's how I did it. 

I started by pulling out the Major Arcana from my tarot deck and then grabbed a pen and paper. I jotted down a list of things that helped me feel cared for and reconnected to my community from the more practical (eat some lunch! call a friend!) to the more magickal (rebuild my altar!). This list is less about aspirational goals and much more about what skills or practices you already have in your toolbox or are working on developing. Taking time off to travel sounds lovely, but we're looking at something that you'd be able to do with relative ease (i.e. something you could theoretically do even if it might take some mental-emotional effort) and little planning. 

So I've shared with you one example of a list of correspondences inspired by my own with some thoughts and variations thrown in to help inspire you. I hope you see this as a starting point, borrow what works for you, adapt what doesn't, and tailor-make your major arcana into an oracle of care that works for you. This could be a really beautiful and fun activity to do with your tarot reading group, coven, magickal collective or whoever you gather with as part of your tarot practice.

The Future Ancestor Tarot by lexa luna studios

The Major Arcana Oracle of Care

On my list below I've included both traditional and modern names for the Major Arcana because I use both in my practice. Some of these names are of my own making, but others I've marked where they have come from in with the following symbols: 

• The Slow Holler Tarot ▽

• The Gaian Tarot ◎

• The Collective Tarot ✴︎

• The Future Ancestor Tarot ❁

0. The Fool - Play a Game
Whatever type of game makes the most sense to you, go ahead and take some time to play it either on your own or with friends. If you're feeling a need to stretch beyond the mundane look up experimental travel or exploration games or maybe make a ritual out of your play to move energy.  

I. The Magician - Altar Work
Time to tidy up, clean, remake or make a new altar.

II. The High Priestess - Take Some Time to Journal
The High Priestess encourages self inquiry and the act of writing and journaling helps us do just that. 

III. The Empress, The Land, Experience, The Gardener ◎, Reception ✴︎ - Get Outside
Enough said.

IX. The Emperor, The Web, Framework, The Builder ◎, The Navigator ▽ - Take Your Herbs
This can easily include any medication you might've been neglecting as well as herbal body care like face masks and body oils if that is something you'd like to do but have been putting off. 

X. The Hierophant, The Guild ▽, Virtue ❁ - Talk To Your Ancestors
Whether the Mighty or Beloved Dead, it's time to reach out to your ancestors because they're reaching out to you.

XI. The Lovers, Connection, Interdependence - Appreciate Some Art and/or Do Art
I either pull out some art books or scroll around online art exhibits for inspiration, but art comes in many forms and shows up in all sorts of places. It's time to seek it out and find yourself reflected back at you. Other times, this is a reminder to pick up an art project that I've set aside or start a new one.

XII. The Chariot - Turn Your Heart to Holy Places
The Chariot is a card of will and having a clear sense of direction. When I pull this card I take a moment to reorient myself that which feels sacred to me and to help it feel more tangible I actually turn and face towards the direction of holy places. Old growth forests, ancestral lands, your Grandma's house, whatever and wherever it might be, spend some time orienting yourself to that sacred place to help you feel it where you're at right now.

XIII. Strength - Move Your Body and/or Eat Some Lunch
When I pull the Strength card I do a workout because working out brings me a lot of joy even if it sometimes feels hard to show up to. Move your body in a way that feels good to you and you know would be of benefit to you in the moment - from getting up and taking a shower to getting up to going for a run to dance parties with your roommates and so on. Sometimes this card comes up as a reminder to nourish my body with food, whether that's eating lunch, getting a snack or calling some friends to meet up for dinner.

IX. The Hermit - Alone Time
Time to clear your schedule and get some quality alone time. Is this one of my favorite cards to pull? Yes, yes it is.

X. The Wheel of Fortune, Chance ✴︎ - Watch a Movie or Show
Doesn't have to be complicated or deep, just watch something that you enjoy, maybe inspires you or at least cheers you up. 

XI. Justice, Reconciliation, Intersection ▽, Accountability ✴︎ - Evaluate Expectation Versus Need
Here is an opportunity to rebalance the scales in my life of where I'm putting my energy. When the Justice card comes up I pull out a piece of paper and make two columns: one is for expectations and the other is for needs. In the expectations column I write down all the things that I feel like I'm expected to do (they might be my own expectations, expressed or assumed expectations of others, cultural expectations etc.) and feel most pressing and present in my life right now. An example of an expectation might be to finish a blog post by tomorrow because that's a deadline I set for myself and I worry that I'll let down my readers if I don't. In the needs column I write down my most present needs and to do this I might need to take a moment to check in with myself, scan my energy, and settle into my body a bit. An example of a need might be needing to take the rest of the day off from work and rest because I've been pushing my limits for too long. When I'm done making my list I try and reconcile the expectations versus needs and I often find that I've put too much weight on expectations and not enough on my actual needs. Usually simple revelations and solutions arise (i.e. I can take an afternoon off and delay blog post by a day without causing any harm and instead creating a lot of benefit) after going through this process.

XII. The Hanged One, Metamorphosis ❁, the Precipice ▽ - Read a Chapter of a Book
One of my primary associations with the Hanged One is someone who is seeking wisdom and does this through inner strength and perception. Reading a book takes more effort than staring at a screen, wakes up my inner world, and is a wisdom seeking activity for me. I either read a chapter from a book that I'm already in the process of reading or pull a book at random from my shelves, open to a chapter, and read that.

The Gentle Tarot by mari in the sky and Nourishing the Nervous System by Tayla Shanaye

XIII. Death - Change Your Sheets
While I chose "change your sheets" because fresh and clean bedsheets always feels luxurious to me (I feel so old writing that sentence), you could easily substitute "change your clothes" or "change your hairstyle" or "change your location" for "sheets." The point is to choose some sort of simple but physically tangible change to your environment that can be done with relative ease.

XIV. Temperance, Balance, Homeostasis - Practice Breathwork
Sometimes it's helpful to have a time marker for your breathwork practice. "Practice 5 Minutes of Breathwork" can feel a lot more doable than an open-ended "Practice Breathwork" prompt. Or you could choose a specific breathwork practice like a Tree of Life meditation for this card. Breathwork is an act of rebalancing and tempering energies so it feels like a very Temperance card thing to do.

XV. The Devil, Oppression ✴︎ - Clear Out
When I pull the Devil card one of the simple practices I do is add something to my donation box. While the Devil has many complex interpretations, one of the ways to understand this card is how we can get tangled up in being restrained by our stuff as well as our fears and expectations around what we do and do not own and what that says about who we are. If the Devil card is coming up in the context of my self and community care oracle, I know it's time to let go of something that's been taking up too much space in my life and that I know longer need. This is not an invitation for a full downsizing of all your belongings, but rather an opportunity to clear out a drawer of items you no longer need, as you call in the space to feel more free in your life.

XVI. The Tower, the Storm ▽, Disaster ✴︎ - Clean Up
When the Tower shows up I choose something to clean up. Often this is my workspace, but sometimes it's a project that I've been putting off. Often what is challenging about Tower energy is the aftermath of things falling apart, so pulling the Tower card is an opportunity to acknowledge the mess and clean up what I have control of.

XVII. The Star - Read Some Poetry
You can easily replace this with "read from a sacred text" or similarly reflective and inspiring text.

XVIII. The Moon - Time for a Lunar Ritual
No matter the phase of the Moon I make time for a lunar ritual when I pull this card. Though originally written for the New Moon, the rituals for each sign of the zodiac in my New Moon Healer's Project can be adapted for any phase if you're looking for some inspiration.

XIX. The Sun - Indulge Your Inner Child
What cheered you up as a kid? Maybe it's time to replicate that in an appropriate adult way. Playing with dolls, making a tree fort, outlining an extensive game of mutants versus bad guys? Do it! 

XX. Judgement, Restoration, Liberation ✴︎, The Awakening ▽◎ - Sound Therapy
You don't have to have any fancy equipment for sound therapy - humming or singing does wonders for our nervous systems and even better when it's with others.

XXI. The World - Call a Friend
Your friends love you, give them a call. And if that's feeling too hard, and you're wanting to speak with a person, maybe reach out to a chat or text hotline where there are folks waiting to chat with you no matter what. But if you can, reach out to a friend or a family member, and let them help draw you back into your community.

The Weiser Tarot

How to Use Your Major Arcana Oracle of Care

You've put together your list of correspondences for self and community care so it's time to put your new deck-within-a-deck to use. While I often keep at least one tarot deck of mine with the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana always separated for times like this, more often than not I just grab whatever deck is at hand and begin pulling out the Major Arcana cards. I find this to be a meditative process that helps me calm down and focus in on asking for what I need. 

With the 22 cards of the Major Arcana in hand, I shuffle, I pull a card and often that's it! Remember, this is supposed to be an easy to implement practice, so this might be the summation of what you do. Sometimes I like to set the card up on my desk, build a mini altar of herbs and stones around it, but most of the time the card goes right back in my deck and I carry on with the suggestion. 

You can write your self and community care correspondences directly on your tarot cards (it's totally ok to write on your tarot cards!) or keep your correspondence list written in your Book of Shadows, witch's notebook, notes app, or back of a receipt that you keep in that drawer.

And because I know that there are some of you who like a bit of complexity in their practice as a way to help move you out of a state of stagnation, you can always look up the astrological correspondence of each card and then compare to where that correspondence is in your birth chart. If you pull the Moon card, for example, you might tend to the energetic needs of your Moon sign and whatever House (i.e. area of your life) it shows up on your birth chart. 

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If you're looking for some more inspiration around using tarot as a tool of healing, here are some of my favorite healing practices to use with tarot. For an in-depth journey into the world of tarot and herbalism check out The Tarot Apothecary.

However you use your Major Arcana Oracle of Care, I hope that it inspires you to use and build upon your own collection of tools, whatever they may be, that help you get out of a funk and feel more centered and content.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤ Thanks, friends. ❤

Footnotes

(1) My favorite theory about the development of numerology is that Pythagorus had ordinal linguistic personification synesthesia and his personal synesthetic number system got codified as a universal instead of a personal experience. I wonder a lot about the influence of synesthesia in the codifications of magickal correspondences beyond numerology. Many synesthetes are not aware that they have synesthesia so there is a lot of room for things like this to happen and there is also a long tradition of trying to induce synesthetic experiences within magickal and philosophical circles. All of this is to say that abstract correspondences are only as meaningful as you want them to be and it's ok to find meaning in present traditions or dream up new ones.

Tarot Decks Featured

The Future Ancestor Tarot by lexa luna studio
The Gentle Tarot by mari in the sky
The Weister Tarot published by Red Wheel/Weiser