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The Tarot Cards
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Brief explanation: The Tarot deck is divided into two parts. The 22 Major Arcana and the 56 Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana is what CLAMP seems to be concerned with. The Minor Arcana is divided into four suits (Just like a normal deck of playing cards. Yes, there is a correlation, but I'm not there yet, so hold your horses) and each suit has a connection to the 4 basic elements. Cups/water, Wands/fire, Swords/air, and Pentacles/earth. Each Suit has 14 cards, Ace, King, Queen, Knight, Page, and numbers 2-10.
Now back to the correlation between the normal playing deck and the Tarot cards. The normal playing deck was adapted from the Tarot cards. I have heard you can play card games with a tarot deck, I just haven't found the games yet. In a normal deck the Knight and the Page have been merged into the Jack. The Jokers come from the Major Arcana card 0 the Fool, the last cards of the Major Arcana, and the Magician, the first card. The Fool along with the Magician are two of the most important cards of the deck, sort of catalysts if you will, thus Jokers are wild cards.
Ok, now that we've covered all of that, we get to my little bit of advice and stuff about each card. I will be taking my description of the cards directly out of the little book that comes with the Rider (Waite) Tarot deck. The non-CLAMP images are also the Rider deck. This deck is recommended for first time user. Some people choose to stick with this deck, others (like I) move to different decks that suit their personal preferences better. And there are a *lot* of decks to choose from. Now for the advice. (This is what I do. This is by no means law, nor will it work for every one) If you start use them for readings and stuff, take some time to become familiar with the book definition of each card, then toss the book. I think a lot of this is intuition and interpretation. You may pick up something the book doesn't.
READ THIS!!!!!!
Yes, Tarot card reading can be a complete and utter sham, designed to suck you dry of all your money. There, I feel better.
On with the show.
Remember these are from the book.
1: The Magician (Shirou Kamui): Skill, diplomacy. It addresses sickness, pain, loss, disaster. If the Querent (Person the reading is done for) is male; self-confidence, will.
Reversed (If it's upside down): Physician, Magus, mental disease, disgrace, disquiet.
2: The High Priestess (Hinoto): Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent( if male) the Querent, if female; silence, tenacity, wisdom, science.
Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge.
3: The Empress (Kanoe): Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.
4: The Emperor (Kyogou Monou): Stability, power, protection: a great person: aid, reason, conviction.
Reversed: Benevolence, compassion, credit; also confusion to enemies, obstruction, immaturity.
5: The Hierophant (Aoki Seiichirou): Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse.
Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness
6: The Lovers (Monou Kotori): Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.
Reversed: Failure, foolish designs.
7: The Chariot (Arisugawa Sorata): Succor, providence; also war, triumph, presumption, vengeance, trouble.
Reversed: Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat.
8: Strength (Nekoi Yuzuriha): Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity.
Reversed: Despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord.
9: The Hermit (Yatouji Satsuki): Prudence; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption.
Reversed: Concealment, disguise, policy, fear, unreasoned caution.
10: The Wheel of Fortune (Kuzuki Kakyou): Destiny, fortune, success, luck, felicity.
Reversed: Increase, abundance, superfluity.
11: Justice (Kasumi Karen): Equity, rightness, probity, executive.
Reversed: Law in all departments, bigotry, bias, excessive severity.
12: The Hanged Man (Sumeragi Subaru): Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophesy.
Reversed: Selfishness, the crowd, body politic.
13: Death (Sakurazuka Seishirou): End, mortality, destruction, corruption.
Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnabulism.
Okay, we don't have the other three analyzed yet... we aren't perfect!