Tarot for beginners.

You don't need all 78 cards memorized to start reading. Here's the honest minimum, plus the complete Major Arcana for when you're ready to go deeper.

Where to actually start

A full tarot deck has 78 cards — 22 Major Arcana (the "big" archetypal cards) and 56 Minor Arcana (four suits of everyday, situational cards, similar in spirit to a standard playing-card deck). You do not need to know all 78 to give a genuinely useful reading.

The most beginner-friendly approach: learn the 22 Major Arcana first. They cover the big-picture themes — love, change, fear, success — and a simple three-card pull using only the Majors (past / present / future, or situation / action / outcome) is a complete, useful reading on its own.

Your first spread

Shuffle, pull three cards, lay them left to right. Card one: where things stand right now. Card two: what's being asked of you. Card three: where this is heading if nothing changes. Read them as a sentence, not three separate facts — the story between the cards usually matters more than any single meaning.

Reversed cards

A reversed (upside-down) card isn't automatically "bad" — it often just means the card's energy is blocked, internalized, or not yet expressed, rather than its opposite. Many beginner readers choose to ignore reversals entirely at first and only add them once the upright meanings feel automatic — that's a completely valid way to start.

Reference

The complete Major Arcana

All 22 cards, upright and reversed, in traditional order.

#	Card	Upright	Reversed
0	The Fool	New beginnings, leap of faith, innocence, spontaneity	Recklessness, naivety, being taken advantage of
I	The Magician	Manifestation, resourcefulness, having all the tools you need	Manipulation, untapped potential, poor planning
II	The High Priestess	Intuition, mystery, the subconscious, hidden knowledge	Secrets, disconnection from intuition, withheld information
III	The Empress	Abundance, nurturing, fertility, creativity	Creative block, dependence, neglect
IV	The Emperor	Structure, authority, stability, discipline	Rigidity, domination, lack of flexibility
V	The Hierophant	Tradition, institutions, learning, shared belief systems	Rebellion against convention, questioning authority
VI	The Lovers	Union, partnership, alignment of values, a significant choice	Disharmony, misalignment, avoiding a decision
VII	The Chariot	Willpower, determination, victory through control	Lack of direction, aggression, loss of control
VIII	Strength	Inner strength, courage through patience, compassion	Self-doubt, weakness, raw force without control
IX	The Hermit	Introspection, solitude, inner guidance	Isolation, withdrawal, avoiding needed connection
X	Wheel of Fortune	Cycles, fate, turning points, change	Resistance to change, bad timing, feeling out of control
XI	Justice	Fairness, truth, cause and effect, accountability	Unfairness, avoiding consequences, dishonesty
XII	The Hanged Man	Surrender, new perspective, pause before action	Stalling, resistance to necessary sacrifice
XIII	Death	Endings, transformation, letting go to make room for new	Resistance to change, stagnation, fear of the inevitable
XIV	Temperance	Balance, moderation, patience, blending opposites	Excess, imbalance, impatience
XV	The Devil	Attachment, restriction, unhealthy patterns, temptation	Breaking free, reclaiming power, facing addiction honestly
XVI	The Tower	Sudden upheaval, revelation, breaking down what's false	Avoiding disaster, delayed collapse, fear of change
XVII	The Star	Hope, renewal, healing, inspiration after hardship	Despair, disconnection, loss of faith
XVIII	The Moon	Illusion, the subconscious, uncertainty, intuition over logic	Confusion clearing, releasing fear, hidden truth surfacing
XIX	The Sun	Joy, success, vitality, clarity	Temporary setback, delayed joy, over-optimism
XX	Judgement	Reckoning, awakening, a call to a higher purpose	Self-doubt, ignoring a call to change, harsh self-judgment
XXI	The World	Completion, wholeness, achievement, integration	Incompletion, delay, seeking outside validation