Lesson One – Memorizing the Classic Card Meanings

The following describes the general meanings of the numbers in the Minor Arcana,

• Aces Roots, gifts, beginnings, initiation, birth, positive force, primary impulse, rush of energy, enthusiasm, initial commitment accompanying this fresh start.

Ace Examples in the Suits

Disks/Pentacles new and secure footing on the physical plane, courage to take a risk and see how far you can leap.

Wands emergence of tremendous passion for a new project through which you can express your values and ideals.  Typically, these plans involve others who are swept along in the heat of the moment.

Cups  the gift of love and healing and restoration of harmony.  Able to nurture yourself, a heightened sensitivity towards your own needs is drawing fulfillment into your life.

Swords a flood of new ideas.  You mind hungers for a challenge.  This may be a time of beginning a new period of concentrated study and training which will open up more options for you.

• Twos Creativity, pairs, unity, adjustment, balance, romance, harmony, privacy, polarity, magnetism. The new addition may have disturbed old pattern, and adjustment to change is essential.

• Threes Synthesis, spirituality, ancestry (grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, son, daughter), trinity, initial testing game, unsettled feeling.

• Fours Stability, completion, the four elements, wholeness, a square, a cross, order, need for structure and personal safety, rigidity, a space where something special can happen, boundaries.

• Fives Our five senses, struggle, conflict, a break, fear, awareness of unity in duality, gain skills in communication and negotiation, trust your instincts.

• Sixes  Developing self-confidence, self-esteem, enjoyment of successes, sharing your gains with others.

• Sevens  Plodding evaluation, inner work, self reflection, naturally combines the masculine 4 and the feminine 3, representing keeping your eye on the big picture on staying the course on your commitments.

• Eights  Movement, change, inspiration, new direction, definite, expansion, decision making time.

• Nines  Intensity of energy, completion and finality, summing up of numbers, trinity of trinities, three threes, seeing the results of your actions and making a break from repetitive cycles of despair.

• Tens  Synthesizing and expression, transition, transformation, achievement to the next level where the process begins again, establishing ways of resolving conflicts and dilemmas.

Lesson One

• Introduction to Minor Arcana
• Number Symbolism in the Pip/Number Arcana
• Introduction to Major Arcana
• Introduction to People and Court Cards