Tarot is often associated with divination, but first of all it is a great book of images. The twenty-two major arcana in particular form a sequence of figures that tells of a journey: from the lightness of the Fool to the completeness of the World. Reading them symbolically means looking at them as mirrors of human experience, not as verdicts on the future.
An Italian origin
The earliest known tarot cards come from the courts of fifteenth-century northern Italy, where they were used for a card game called "triumphs". Some hand-painted decks from that period, made for noble families, are still kept in museums and libraries today.
Only later, in the eighteenth century, did some French scholars propose an Egyptian origin for the cards, a hypothesis without historical foundation but one that helped bring them into the world of esotericism. Since then tarot has become a symbolic system linked to alchemy, Kabbalah and Hermetic tradition.
Two decks have influenced modern reading more than any others:
- the Tarot of Marseille, a traditional pattern widespread in France from the seventeenth century onward;
- the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, published in England at the beginning of the twentieth century, with illustrations rich in symbolic detail even in the minor arcana.
There is a well-known difference between the two decks: Strength and Justice have swapped numbers, VIII and XI.
The Fool's journey
One of the most common symbolic readings sees the major arcana as stages of an inner journey. The Fool, unnumbered or numbered zero, is the wanderer who passes through all the other cards. The sequence is often divided into three groups:
- from I to VII: the outer world, learning, figures of authority, first choices;
- from VIII to XIV: inner work, trial, sacrifice, balance;
- from XV to XXI: encounter with the deep forces, the fall of illusions, rebirth and completeness.
The symbolic meaning of the arcana
| No. | Arcanum | Symbolic meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | The Fool | beginning, freedom, trust, naivety |
| I | The Magician | will, skill, potential |
| II | The High Priestess | hidden wisdom, silence, study |
| III | The Empress | fertility, creativity, nature |
| IV | The Emperor | order, structure, authority |
| V | The Hierophant (Pope) | tradition, teaching, bridge to the sacred |
| VI | The Lovers | choice, union, values |
| VII | The Chariot | direction, mastery of opposing forces |
| VIII | Strength (or Justice) | inner courage, gentle mastery of instinct |
| IX | The Hermit | solitary search, inner light |
| X | The Wheel of Fortune | cycles, change, what cannot be controlled |
| XI | Justice (or Strength) | balance, truth, responsibility |
| XII | The Hanged Man | sacrifice, suspension, change of perspective |
| XIII | The nameless arcanum (Death) | transformation, end of a cycle |
| XIV | Temperance | harmony, measure, alchemy of opposites |
| XV | The Devil | attachments, shadow, bonds that imprison |
| XVI | The Tower | collapse of false structures, revelation |
| XVII | The Star | hope, inspiration, healing of the soul |
| XVIII | The Moon | the unconscious, dreams, fears, illusion |
| XIX | The Sun | clarity, joy, rebirth |
| XX | Judgement | awakening, calling, renewal |
| XXI | The World | completeness, integration, fulfilment of the journey |
Three often misunderstood cards
Arcanum XIII
In the Tarot of Marseille card thirteen often bears no name: it shows a skeleton with a scythe reaping a field. It is the card that frightens people most, but its symbolic meaning is not physical death: it is the necessary end of one phase so that another can begin. The skeleton reaps what is ripe, and the field will bear fruit again.
The Devil
In this card two small figures are chained to the Devil's pedestal, but in many versions the chain is loose enough to slip off. The symbolic message is clear: many of the bonds that imprison us are accepted ones, and they can be loosened.
The Tower
Lightning strikes the top of a tower and two figures fall. It is the collapse of what had been built on pride or illusion. Painful, but liberating: what falls makes room for the light of the Star, the next card.
How to use the arcana symbolically
In the teaching of Maestro Cornelio tarot cards are tools for reflection. A single card observed with attention can open questions that the rational mind alone would not ask.
A simple exercise:
- choose an arcanum that strikes you, without drawing it at random;
- observe it for a few minutes, noticing colours, gestures, objects and the direction of gazes;
- ask yourself at what moment in your life you find yourself in that same position;
- write one sentence summing up what the card suggests to you.
In short
- Tarot was born in fifteenth-century Italy as playing cards and became an esoteric symbol later.
- The twenty-two major arcana form a path from the Fool to the World.
- Each arcanum represents a phase or a force of human experience.
- Feared cards such as the thirteenth, the Devil and the Tower carry meanings of transformation and liberation.
- Symbolic reading uses the cards as mirrors for inner reflection.