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Your Questions About Major Arcana

David asks…

what is the house of major arcana?

I’ve read about it in a book but I’ve found just about nothing other than that a Queen of France created it. And I know that Major Arcana is a Tarot card reading

TarotTrumps answers:

Well, no, the Queen of France didn’t invent it. There are a lot of stories about the origin of tarot cards but here’s the account given by the historians. Tarot was invented in mid 15th Italy for the Milanese court. It consists of two parts: a standard pack of Latin suited playing cards (that occultists call the Minor Arcana) and a fifth suit of picture cards (that occultists call the Major Arcana). These extra cards took as their theme a triumph procession, hence their early name of trionfi, meaning triumphs and from which we get our word trump! And this is what there were, a suit of fixed trump cards for use in a family of games that continues to be played throughout continental Europe today.

It was not until the end of the 18th century that a Parisian occultist published the claim that they came from Ancient Egypt and contained the secrets and wisdom of Egypt’s priests. He also published the first account of how to use the cards in divination. During the 19th century, a number of French occultists expanded these beliefs, claiming that the trumps corresponded to the paths of the Tree of Life. At the end of the 19th century, a group of British occultists introduced tarot to the English speaking world, integrating the cards into their magic system. This group was called the Order of the Golden Dawn and some of its members heavily redesigned the cards to create the type of occult packs that you will be familiar with today.

William asks…

Help me develop supernatural powers based on the Major Arcana for a story I’m making?

I want it to have the opposites as complements, like Sun/Moon one. I plan to include some string-like (not adhesive like spider man) qualities for the Hanged Man Tarot, but I’m out of ideas for the rest.

TarotTrumps answers:

The Hanged Man’s powers should be cancelling kinetic energies, since the Hanged Man card deals with stagnation and limbo.
I’d say use each card’s meaning to base the hero/heroine’s powers on. Some examples:
High Priestess – Secrets to be revealed – telepath/empath
Heirophant – False fronts – shapeshifter
Temperance – Patience/Mercy – disabled genius that created/maintains the
Tower – base of operations.

Good luck.

Mandy asks…

What are some things like the Major Arcana(22), Zodiac(12), Deadly Sins/Heavenly Virtues(7) ?

Is there a term for that type of ‘astrology/paranormal’ grouping? What else is like these things that are 5 or more for a theme for me to be used in an art concept?

TarotTrumps answers:

If I understand you you might want to check out the Seven Directions(North, South, East, West, Above,Below,Mystery Within/Without) or the Four Sacred Herbs (sage, cedar, sweet grass and tobacco) The Three Phase of time( Past, Present, Future) The Four Agreements ( look it up), The Three Fates( again look it up) The Nine Rings of Hell, The Seven Tiers of Heaven, The Three Rings of the Elf Lords, The Seven Rings of the Dwarves, the Nine Rings of Men, The One Ring to Rule Them All and A partridge in a pear tree. That’s all I can come up with right at the moment. :) hope it helps ya out

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Artistic Insight Into Making Your Own Tarot Deck

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Image via Wikipedia

Author: Frederick Gimino

Designing your own Tarot Deck can be fun and fulfilling. Even if your artistic talents are less than masterful a fully functional, unique, and aesthetically pleasing deck can be created. Whether you choose to decorate an existing deck or create your own here are some helpful ideas to get you started down the right path.

Many people use the Golden Dawn Deck for inspiration. This is because The Golden Dawn Deck encourages people to design their own sets of Tarot cards. To do this, you can either copy the original design and redraw them with your own take on them or create your own deck with symbols and pictures from scratch.

Once you have settled on a design for your Tarot deck you should copy the design so you can construct your own. Your artwork may vary from the design of the deck you copied, but in the end you will have your own unique deck of Tarot cards. (more…)