Tarot and oracle glossary: arcana, suits, spreads and famous decks

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The deck: cards, suits and court cards

• Tarot: a deck of 78 cards (22 trumps and 56 suit cards), born in northern Italy in the 15th century. It is used to play (French tarot, tarocchi) and, since the late 18th century, for reflective readings. See the history of tarot.
• Tarocchi: the Italian name for tarot, attested from around 1502 (in Brescia). Previously these decks were called carte da trionfi.
• Trionfi: "triumphs" in Italian: the name of the allegorical cards of tarot in 15th-century Italy. The same idea gave English the word trump.
• Trump (atout): in the game of tarot, a card that beats the other suits. The French word comes from the expression "à tout". The 22 trumps of tarot are also called major arcana.
• Arcanum (arcane): from the Latin arcanum, "secret". The word refers to tarot cards within the divinatory and occultist tradition since the 19th century (Paul Christian, 1863). It is not used by tarot players.
• Major arcana: the 22 figure cards of tarot (from the Fool to the World), numbered in Roman numerals. See the guide to the major arcana and the detailed card profiles.
• Minor arcana: the 56 suit cards: four suits of ten numbered cards and four court cards. See the guide to the minor arcana.
• Lame (French, literally "blade"): another name for a tarot card, especially a major arcanum. The word spread with 19th-century occultist authors.
• Suit (French "couleur"): a series of cards bearing a common emblem. The Latin tarot has four suits: wands, cups, swords and pentacles (coins).
• Wands (or batons): the suit associated in tradition with fire and action. See the wands.
• Cups: the suit associated in tradition with water and emotions. See the cups.
• Swords: the suit associated in tradition with air, thought and conflict. See the swords.
• Pentacles (or coins): the suit associated in tradition with earth, possessions and the concrete. See the pentacles. "Pentacles" is the term used in Waite's tarot; "coins" is the more traditional name in Marseille-style decks.
• Numbered cards: the cards from ace to ten in each suit. They are also called pips in English. In the Marseille tarot they are not illustrated; in the Rider-Waite-Smith they are.
• Court cards (or figures): the four characters of each suit: page, knight, queen and king. See the court cards.
• Page (Valet): the first court card of each suit, often associated with a young messenger or with a beginning.
• Knight (Cavalier): the second court card, a figure in motion. This card does not exist in the ordinary 52-card deck.
• Fool (Mat / Excuse): the unnumbered card of the Marseille tarot (numbered 0 in Waite's). In the French tarot it is called the Excuse and is used in play.

Famous models and games

• Visconti-Sforza: the most famous painted tarots of the 15th century, made in Milan for the families who ruled the duchy. The cards are scattered between Bergamo and New York.
• Sola Busca: an Italian tarot from the late 15th century (1490s), whose 78 cards are all illustrated, including the numbered cards. It is sometimes cited as a precedent for Waite's illustrated cards.
• Marseille tarot: a model of tarot established in France in the 17th and 18th centuries (Noblet, Dodal, Conver, among others). The name is late (Papus, 1889; popularised by Paul Marteau, 1930). See Marseille or Rider-Waite-Smith.
• Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS): a tarot published in December 1909 in London by William Rider & Son, designed by Arthur Edward Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. The first widely distributed tarot to show a scene on every card.
• Thoth tarot: a tarot designed by Aleister Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris in the late 1930s and early 1940s; the book appeared in 1944, the deck in 1969.
• New tarot (tarot nouveau): a variant of the playing tarot, adopted in France around 1900, with double-headed cards illustrated with scenes of everyday life.
• Minchiate: a 97-card Florentine game related to tarot, attested since the 16th century.
• Etteilla tarot: the first tarot designed for divination (around 1789), the work of Jean-Baptiste Alliette, known as Etteilla, who changed its order and names.

Practice: spreads, readings and related terms

• Spread: the way of laying cards on the table according to a layout, with each position answering a question (past, present, future; obstacle, advice, and so on). See the three-card spread or the cross spread.
• Querent (or questioner): the person who asks a question using the cards, whether it is themselves or someone else.
• Significator: a card chosen to represent the querent in certain spreads, according to criteria specific to each method.
• Card of the day: a reading of a single card, in the morning, as a theme for reflection during the day. See the card of the day reading.
• Reversed card: a card drawn upside down. Some readers see a block in it, others an inner energy, and others ignore it entirely. There is no universal rule.
• Shuffling (or mixing) and cutting: preparatory gestures of a reading. Each person has their own method: what matters most is to be consistent. See preparing and putting away your deck.
• Cartomancy: divination with cards, using an ordinary playing deck, a tarot or an oracle. Its use in Europe is attested at the end of the 18th century.
• Oracle (oracle deck): a deck of illustrated cards with open themes and no fixed structure of 78 cards, such as angel or animal decks. To be distinguished from tarot. See choosing a tarot or an oracle.
• Lenormand: a 36-card illustrated deck used as an oracle. Its name pays tribute to Marie-Anne Lenormand (1772-1843), who did not in fact create it: it derives from a German parlour game of 1799. See the Lenormand guide.
• Divination: the practice of seeking hidden or future information in signs. See the history of divination.
• Reading (or interpretation): the translation of the cards into a story or advice. It depends on the reader, the deck and the context.
• Clarification: an extra card drawn to clarify the meaning of a previous card. Depending on the reader, it is either useful or superfluous.
• Reading journal: a notebook in which you record your readings to look back on them later. See keeping a reading journal.
• Synchronicity: a term proposed by Carl Gustav Jung for a coincidence judged meaningful without a causal link. Some readers see in it an explanation of tarot. It is a philosophical idea, not a verified theory.

The definitions in this glossary are those in common use, sometimes different from one school to another. Where authors disagree, we say so. None of these notions guarantees a prediction: tarot is presented here as a tool for reflection.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Full glossary.