Major Arcana

The Major Arcana are the twenty-two allegorical picture cards of the tarot: twenty-one numbered I to XXI, and the Fool, which bears no number. In the trick-taking game, the twenty-one numbered cards serve as trumps. In tarot reading, they are given the strongest meanings: great principles, life stages, psychological or spiritual forces. Their sequence is often read as a path of growth, from the Magician to the World. Many readers work with these twenty-two cards alone.