Tarot Cafe - Suits and Symbols

In the Tarot, and in a standard deck of playing cards there are four suits in the Minor Arcana. In this session we will dive into some of the surface meanings and connections for each of these four suits.

Most of us recognize the common suits in the Tarot as Swords, Wands or Rods, Cups or Chalices, and Coins or Pentacles (sometimes also called Discs). These four suits correspond with the playing card suits we are likely equally familiar with which are; Spades, Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds. Most of us take for granted the choice of these symbols, but there is a deeper meaning in the suits and the story each corresponds to.

For the purposes of brevity and basics, we will be focusing on the correspondences most common to the French, Italian, or Spanish. If you are interested and willing to do a bit of poking around you may also enjoy what you find in the Egyptian, Celtic, and various other histories. The playing card has traveled far, and seen much of history. We will likely revisit the suits again in the future and debate further the merits of each connection, but for now let’s try to keep it simple.

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