The Tarot and the Human Condition

I often marvel at the tarot deck, not because of its fortune-telling aspect, but more at the amount of information it holds about the human condition.

(I’m referring to the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck in this post since it’s the only one I know something about and a lot of what follows is based on my interpretation of the cards.)

The tarot deck is made up of the minor arcana and the major arcana.

The minor arcana consists of four suits – pentacles, cups, wands and swords. They represent the four elements – earth, water, fire and air, respectively, and they provide a good picture for four typical types of people. The major arcana represents ether or space, depending on what you believe.

I believe the major arcana is what everyone has to go through after they’re done being worldly. Some people would call it becoming spiritual, but I think that word comes with too much baggage.

The Four Suits in a Nutshell

• Pentacles: The earthy types are grounded, practical and materially-inclined
• Cups: The water types are emotional, sentimental and relationship-oriented
• Wands: The firy types are passionate and dreamy, they love to stand for a cause and make a difference
• Swords: The airy types are the brainy intellects, always needing to hone their minds and sharpen their arguments.

In truth, we’re usually combinations of the different elements, but that’s not to say that there isn’t something to learn from the different journey each suit takes. If you look at tarot decks, you’ll see that each suit has its own obstacles and lessons. These mirror what happens when we’re too concerned about materials, relationships, ideals or intellect.

I suspect that every human emotion can be expressed using a certain combination of the different tarot cards, even though not everyone will see the same expression in each combination. Because they’re pictures, they can be interpreted in so many different ways. It’s precisely because of this room for interpretation that allows the tarot to offer insights into our subconscious, depending on how we read the cards. See, life expresses through us!

I love the imagery in it and how well it depicts the journey from the the conscious, unconscious to the collective unconscious. There’s much to learn from the cards, but no need to get superstitious about it. I don’t think a deck of cards can or should provide advice on what to do, but it can show us what’s bothering us through the meaning we give them. And it offers a decent structure to assess our personal growth with.

The Rider Waite tarot deck is pretty damn interesting.