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Deck structure

Identify the two arcana groups, four suits, and fourteen ranks within each suit.

Foundations · Lesson 2 · About 5 minutes

The complete deck

The library contains 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana run from The Fool at zero to The World at twenty-one. Their broad themes can be useful for exploring a larger question, but they do not make a reading more powerful or an event more inevitable.

Four suits, fourteen cards each

The Minor Arcana contain Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Each suit has Ace through Ten, followed by Page, Knight, Queen, and King. Court cards can describe roles and approaches available to anyone; they do not need to identify a particular age or gender. Compare a numbered card with a court card and notice how their images organize attention differently.

Know the convention

This library follows Rider–Waite–Smith numbering: Strength is VIII and Justice is XI. Some traditions exchange those positions or use different suit and court names. A difference is a reason to check the deck's convention, not to assume that one reader has drawn an invalid card. Judgement and Judgment are spelling variants for the same card here.

Try it yourself

Write 22 + (4 × 14) and check that it totals 78. Choose one card from each suit, then identify whether its number belongs to Ace–Ten or a court rank.

Check your understanding

How many cards are in each Minor Arcana suit?

  1. 10
  2. 14
  3. 22
Reveal the answer and explanation

14

Each suit has ten numbered cards, Ace through Ten, plus four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen, and King.

Explore the cards

Practice with the Daily Reflection spread.

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