Arcana

the esotericists have chosen the wrong path by giving each Arcanum a precise meaning. Sometimes these meanings are naive — strength, death, love, chance, and so on; and sometimes they are complex — alchemical, Rosicrucian, astrological, kabbalistic, and other deliriums.

Jodorowsky argues that the received tradition of assigning fixed meanings to each Arcanum fundamentally misreads the cards, which must instead be encountered visually and relationally.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004thesis

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the difference between the Major and Minor Arcana began to be more apparent. It is true that this difference is mentioned in all the books; unfortunately, where complex

Hamaker-Zondag contends that while the Major/Minor Arcana distinction is universally acknowledged, its psychological depth remains chronically underexamined in the literature.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997thesis

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only once has it taken on a complete form as a whole in pictures — and this is in the 22 tarot cards of the major arcana. However, not only are the archetypal events illustrated in these motifs, many connections between individual stages become transparent in the structure of the cards.

Banzhaf identifies the twenty-two Major Arcana as the singular complete pictorial encoding of the hero's journey archetype, whose structural connections between cards convey deep mythological intelligibility.

Banzhaf, Hajo, Tarot and the Journey of the Hero, 2000thesis

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If an Arcanum is a letter, if two are a syllable, three will form a word. More than three could constitute a sentence.

Jodorowsky proposes a generative linguistic model in which individual Arcana combine combinatorially to produce higher-order meanings, as letters compose syllables, words, and sentences.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004thesis

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in most of the works on the Tarot, the Major Arcana are studied like a series of paintings with meanings tha

Jodorowsky criticizes the dominant scholarly habit of treating each Major Arcanum as an isolated image with predetermined meaning, countering instead with a multiform, polyphonic interpretive approach.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004thesis

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Each card of the Major Arcana has creative and destructive sides. We can become locked, so to speak, into a drive, so that what is initially creative stagnates, and turns into a force that opposes the original aim.

Hamaker-Zondag applies Jungian dynamism to the Major Arcana, arguing that each card represents a psychic drive capable of both progressive and regressive expression.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997thesis

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Each card of the Major Arcana represents a primary pattern, a part of the way that we, as human beings, must walk in order to find ourselves.

Hamaker-Zondag defines the Major Arcana as primary archetypal patterns constituting stages of the individuation journey rather than static symbolic portraits.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997thesis

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it is first necessary to become familiar with the Major Arcana, the four Suits of the Minor Arcana, the function and value of the cards, and the symbology of the numbers that underlies the entire organization of the Tarot and connects each of its elements to the whole.

Jodorowsky presents the bipartite structure of Major and Minor Arcana as the foundational framework through which numerological and symbolic coherence of the entire deck is disclosed.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004supporting

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To grasp the twenty-two Major Arcana in a single glance, you can use this pattern that connects them in eleven pairs that each add up to a sum total of 21, the figure of realization.

Jodorowsky reveals that the twenty-two Major Arcana can be organized into eleven complementary pairs summing to twenty-one, demonstrating the deck's internal structural logic.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004supporting

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The Christian influence is obvious in Arcana II, V, XIII, XV, XX, and XXI. The four Hebrew letters, Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay, which designate the deity, can be distinguished in the head of the skeleton of the nameless Arcana.

Jodorowsky traces the syncretic religious origins of specific Arcana, arguing that their imagery preserves encrypted symbols drawn from Christian, Kabbalistic, and Islamic traditions.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004supporting

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To accept this interpretation of Arcanum XIII, we must begin by recognizing the first movement the sight of this card inspires in us. The same holds true for all the Major Arcana: this figure will appear seductive, while another will seem repulsive or antipathetic.

Jodorowsky proposes that the affective first impression each Arcanum provokes is the authentic starting point for interpretation, prior to any symbolic or esoteric overlay.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004supporting

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Having engraved these drawings in my memory, when I held the cards in my hands, which existed both in the outside world and in my mind, I became aware of their infinite complexity. When I sought to interpret the optical sentences that the union of two or more of the Arcana gave me, I found myself obliged to translate them into words, which amounted to limiting them.

Jodorowsky argues that the semiotic richness of the Arcana exceeds verbal language, and that translating their visual syntax into words inevitably diminishes their meaning.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004supporting

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In the Major Arcana, this action manifests quite visibly in Arcanum VII, The Chariot, and Arcanum XVII, The Star.

Jodorowsky demonstrates how the numerological concept of seven — action in the world — is encoded across both Major Arcana and Minor suit cards, illustrating the deck's systemic coherence.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004supporting

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which of the Major Arcana cards can be used as your individual lifetime cards. In a way, they are similar to astrological sun signs. It is an ideal way to establish your own personal relationship to these ancient archetypal symbols.

Greer advocates using the Major Arcana as personally-keyed archetypal symbols whose assignment by birth numerology mirrors the individualizing function of astrological sun signs.

Greer, Mary K., Tarot for Your Self: A Workbook for the Inward Journey, 1984supporting

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This Arcanum seems to be telling us that perfection of the intellect is in the void, the emptiness obtained through meditation, when the mind (the container) no longer identifies itself with words (the content).

Jodorowsky reads a Minor Arcanum (Eight of Swords) as encoding a specific contemplative teaching, demonstrating that profound psychological meaning is not exclusive to the Major Arcana.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004supporting

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This four-card layout can also be done using the whole deck, that is to say, with both the Major and Minor Arcana.

Hamaker-Zondag notes that the Major and Minor Arcana may be used together in spreads, acknowledging their complementary rather than hierarchical interpretive roles in practice.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997supporting

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The entire Tarot pack was brought into play, but divided into five decks. The person drew a Major Arcanum, which he placed in the center; this was the essential energy he had at his disposal.

Jodorowsky's reading method positions a single Major Arcanum as the central energy axis of a spread, with the four Minor suit cards arrayed around it, enacting the hierarchical yet complementary relationship between the two registers.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004supporting

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VIII Justice — XVIII The Moon Faces of Perfection With degree 8, as we saw earlier, perfection has been achieved, and there is nothing left to be added or taken away.

In analyzing paired Major Arcana by numerological correspondence, Jodorowsky illustrates the structural principle whereby each Arcanum's meaning is sharpened through its relationship to a distant numerical mirror.

Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, 2004aside

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you can deal the Major and Minor Arcana separately, or you can deal from a deck in which the Major and Minor Arcana have been shuffled

Hamaker-Zondag presents the procedural choice of separating or combining Major and Minor Arcana in divination as a methodological decision with interpretive consequences.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997aside

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