For anyone who's ever seen a tarot deck, you'd probably agree on how mystical it looks without losing any authenticity. Being able to see the various images of the cards, you'd be intrigued and even anxious. At least, I know I get the goosebumps...still. In getting to understand its mysterious nature, you tend to be transported into a trance-like state trying your best to remain in a behaved demeanor afraid you'll be smitten by the gods and deities that are gonna come any minute if you're rowdy. Well, I don't know about that but one thing's for sure, the tarot means serious business. It's not one of those cheap tricks that you see off the street sideways. It's the real deal. You can say it is an instrument in self-rediscovery at its simplest. By making the attempt to unlock certain feelings and emotions of yourself, it allows you to understand better things that are currently happening in your life. You might even go as far as to say it's a mystical shrink assisting us in decoding those feelings in order to become information that we can use for our betterment. According to some experts, tarot is about interpreting archetypes. It is interpreted in the same way that dreams are interpreted and is an ancient language of symbols same as Astrology and Numerology. Getting to the basics in tarot reading would require a few crash courses in related fields. One such field as previously mentioned is Astrology which is a parallel school of thought to the tarot and even go hand in hand. There are some sites that offer basic tutorials in astrology free of charge and you can use this to gain a better understanding of tarot along the way.

First of all, there are 78 cards in the tarot deck. It is composed of the Major and Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana is then sub-composed of the Trump cards and the Fool while the Minor Arcana is sub-composed of the ten pip cards and four court cards in 4 suites. There are only 22 cards in the major arcana which are the unique cards in the deck so it really isn't too hard to familiarize yourselves with them. In addition, these cards usually depict a scene where people are being featured as well as circumstances surrounding them. The pip and court cards in the minor arcana are almost identical to the standard 52-card gaming deck with 4 suites that is widely used today. The only difference is an additional court card for every suit making it 56 cards. Here is a brief and basic breakdown of the tarot deck composition, the major and minor arcana and their respective meanings:

The Major Arcana

The Fool                                     Innocence and Beginning   
The Magician / The Juggler         Power and Action
The High Priestess / The Popess Knowing and Psychic
The Empress                               Femininity and Abundance                              
The Emperor                               Rulership and Authority
The Hierophant / The Pope         Law and Respect
The Lovers                                  Love and Passion          
The Chariot                                 Skill and Control
 Justice                                        Truth and Equality
The Hermit                                  Wisdom and Solitude
Wheel of Fortune                         Luck and Destiny
Strength / Fortitude                    Courage and Patience
The Hanged Man / The Traitor    Surrender and Sacrifice
Death                                          Transition and Termination                 
Temperance                                Balance and Connection                    
The Devil                                     Loss and Addiction
The Tower / Fire                          Exposure and Eruption
The Star                                       Hope and Promise
The Moon                                    Confusion and Influence
The Sun                                       Life and Energy
 Judgment / The Angel                 Faith and Honesty
The World                                    Success and Satisfaction

Human condition is what the Major Arcana mainly deals with. Each card represents the joys and sorrows every person would experience in a lifetime. Now if you might notice the keywords associated with the trump cards in the major arcana, they are very generic or general in point of view and does not really appear to help us out in terms of what we're looking for. This is precisely the point! They can be considered as guides in yielding a general truth about your current situation, allowing you to further identify specifics for your own. But if not interpreted correctly, they can also be tricky. Quite a few of them can be understood to be one thing but mean something entirely different. For example, when the 'Hanged Man' card is dealt, it may initially strike you as a very bad sign. On the contrary however, it can mean 'suspension' where we are asked to suspend ourselves both emotionally and in physical action in order to get a better understanding of a situation. This in turn allows us to make better decisions concerning a given circumstance. Additionally, sacrifice as associated to the 'hanged man' would usually entail one having to sacrifice a routine or possession that they value in order to get better results on what they want to happen. Another very simple misunderstanding that people often make concerns the 'Death' card. It doesn't really mean actual death but rather, ending a particular chapter in our lives or experiencing a big change in our lives, could be for better or worse. Lastly and as an interesting side note, the Fool is usually interpreted as the protagonist of a story, and the Major Arcana is the path the Fool takes through the great mysteries of life and the main human archetypes. This path is known traditionally in Tarot as the Fool´s Journey.

The Minor Arcana

            Wands (Staves / Batons)            Fire/Spirit                     Creativity and Will
            Coins (Pentacles)                       Earth/Physical              Material body or possessions
            Cups (Chalices)                         Water/Emotion             Emotions and Love
            Swords                                      Air/Thought                 Reason

Where the Major Arcana cards are thought of as the "power" cards or big players in a reading, the Minor Arcana serve in supportive roles and augment the reading with further insight and detail of circumstances. The purpose of the Minor Arcana is to bring clarity and further its definition of what the Major Arcana has revealed. These cards are the supportive role-players to the prime archetypes of the Major Arcana. Each suit has 14 cards, being Ace (One), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King. The numbers associated with every suit in the minor arcana are also very important in that they provide the needed specificity in card readings. The number meaning of Tarot cards can provide additional light to a tricky spread. A quick breakdown of the number cards would tell us: The Aces, represents their respective suit and announces their respective themes. The Middle Cards explore various flavors of areas in one's life with each successive number and assist in specifying the answers to queries about these i.e. power (card 2), leadership (card 3), excitement (card 4) and competition (card 5) and so on. The Tens would be the ones to conclude on the themes presented in the Aces. As for the court cards, they are people with personality archetypes again representing various personality types of people out there. Generally, the King demonstrates authority and control, the Queen represents relationships and self-expression while the Knight and Page resemble excess or extremes and pleasure or abandon respectively.

Now this is the basic structure of the tarot deck explained for dummies as only a dummy like myself could. So there you have it. That is a simple breakdown of the contents of the standard tarot deck. There are of course sites out there that give more specific details about these cards for a better understanding of them. Some sites offer lessons or tutorials in astrology free. Happy reading folks!