I still had a few cards left in the Major Arcana to go through,
but I don’t want to leave you guys hanging on the Minor Arcana.
There are four suits in the Minor Arcana: Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles.
Each suit has an Ace through 10 with four face cards.
The cards within a suit all fall into a category:
The Cup cards are all associated with relationships and connections.
Wands are action cards.
They require movement,
Most of the wand cards often call for a directing of energy.
Swords are conflict cards.
For me, they are similar to the vibes of Justice in the Major Arcana:
Cold and cutting straight to the truth.
In my experience, swords can be brutal, but the truths they reveal are worth it.
Finally, the Pentacles.
Pentacles deal with material wealth and money.
Finances are their forte.
They can be really helpful when you need to make a daunting decision.
I also got a comment asking about doing readings for guidance, (I responded but I don’t know if everyone can see it).
The answer is literally all the time.
I used to get panic attacks and anxiety spirals all the time.
Doing a reading really helps slow your mind down and focus on something other than your thoughts or whatever is stressing you out.
Can’t think of a question in the middle of a panic attack?
Understandable.
My go-to for when I want to do a reading just because is to ask the question “What do I need?”
There are also other ways to use tarot cards to help your mental health.
Tarot is a great meditation tool.
There are many different methods that you can research online if you are interested,
but the most basic way to meditate using tarot is to choose a card and really visualize the aspects of the card in your life.
It’s great for the mind.
Tarot is a seriously interesting research rabbit hole to go down.
For example, every card is associated with a star sign(s), numbers, and even medicinal plants.
If you do get interested in researching this topic or topic related to tarot,
you might run into “rituals” or “spells” (I put them in quotes because they are referred to differently based on context, culture, religion, etc.).
Like tarot, the modern-day perceptions of these practices are very skewed and are probably not what you think.
But it is important to do your research before you try to replicate something you find online.
There are what are known as closed practices,
which means that the practice in question is significant to a specific culture,
and the people from that culture have asked others to stop appropriating it.
An example of this is burning White Sage, which is an Indigenous practice that mainstream pop culture picked up a few years ago.
And that’s all folks,
I hope you guys enjoyed my blog posts as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Happy reading!
Thank you so much for teaching us about tarot cards! It has been an interesting learning experience, and I am on the lookout for a deck that speaks to me. It makes total sense that readings can be used as a method of meditation, for reality is vast and confusing, which makes any kind of guidance a comforting feeling. Looking at the picture of the zodiac signs and the cards that align with them, I see that my sign (virgo) aligns with the Hermit card. This is interesting because I often struggle with balancing introspection and loneliness, especially since coming to college. I look forward to doing more research on this topic.
I have loved reading your blogs this semester! This was a topic I knew nothing about, but is so interesting. I am now interested in doing readings and learning more about the meanings of each card. I love how you broke down each blog post into specific cards so the material was more digestible.