Pick up any tarot deck and you'll find 78 cards inside. But 22 of them are a bit different. These are the Major Arcana, and they deal with the big stuff. The big life themes. The turning points and milestones that make us who we are. The word "arcana" means secrets or mysteries. So if a Major Arcana card appears in your tarot reading, this is usually an indication of something bigger than a temporary mood or a minor day-to-day event.

When one of these cards appears in a reading, it tends to stand out. The message is a little more weighty than the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana can indicate issues that are more deep-rooted rather than surface level. Many people use the Major Arcana for self-reflection, journaling, meditation, or just to get a broader perspective of where they are in life. Some readers use the 22 cards as a mirror to their own lives, to see their own life patterns, fears, ambitions, and recurring lessons.

Major Arcana Cards

The 22 cards each represent a stage, an archetype or a force you'll recognise from real life. There's the wide-eyed beginner stepping into something new. The trickster figure who learns through clever action. Some cards point to inner shifts like surrender, awakening, or release. Others indicate outer events like endings, unions, or moments of clear judgement. They encompass pretty much every major life event you can think of.