From the Fool to The World
The Major Arcana are the 22 cards that most people encounter and recognize in the tarot. Taken together, we usually arrange them in a linear narrative that traces a person’s progression, from a place of relative immaturity, inexperience, and naiveté (Key 0: The Fool) to a place of mastery, both of themselves and the world around them (Key XXI: The World). This narrative is commonly known as The Fool’s Journey, a story originating with a set of Italian playing cards from the 15th Century known as the Trionfi. The idea of the Major Arcana belonging to a progressive journey was further developed in the Tarot de Marseilles, and popularized in North America by Eden Grey in the 1960s and 1970s. Their symbolism is unmistakable and iconic, so much so that some readers do tarot readings only with these cards. (I personally don’t, for reasons that I outline in the my introduction to the Minor Arcana.)
With the Major Arcana comes discussions of big picture ideas: The intense and heavy themes of existence, that could include the loss (or gain) of vital aspects of your identity, or big realizations and insights into the way you’ve lived your life. These events also often come with the (metaphorical!) death of old assumptions about who and what you are. It could also signify important significant shifts to your belief systems or patterns of thought. All of these changes, are uncomfortable, challenging, or even painful. Nevertheless, they are needed to obtain the balance necessary to get to the goals you want to reach. Needless to say, these are themes that all people contend with over the course of their lives. But for ace and aro folx, they have an especially significant impact.
For those who are more metaphysically disinclined, these cards can represent aspects of someone’s emotional, or psychological development. As someone proceeds onward from the innocence of the Fool, they are called to be present with various aspects of their personality to attain the inner mastery of the World; this could include a confrontation with aspects of their inner selves that they have been fearful of, or avoiding. Meanwhile, for those who would describe themselves as being more spiritually attuned, the Major Arcana can represent someone’s spiritual evolution and/or the significant themes that God, the Goddess, Spirit, or The Universe are calling to your attention.
However you choose to approach both this set of 22 cards and the tarot as whole (with both of course being completely valid in their own right), the Major Arcana are cards that command your attention and focus in a tarot spread. If a Major Arcana card comes up in a spread, note its directionality (i.e. where the human figure(s) are looking, or oriented towards) of the cards that surround it, especially the Court Cards. What cards are facing away from the Major Arcana card? What cards look like they’re travelling towards it? What are the human figure(s) in the Major Arcana card itself oriented towards?
These questions have become important parts of my own tarot reading methodology (informed by tarot figures like Yoav ben Dov, Caitlin Matthews, and my own tarot instructor, Andrew McGregor), and underscore how important it is to understand context when reading the tarot. While it is easy to rely purely on set, prescribed meanings for the Major Arcana, the context in which we lay down and read the cards, and the context of the relationships between them, is what gives them power and vitality in relaying the messages that we seek. It is this same context that helps us, as ace and aro people, gain insight from what the cards tell us. It is in both connection, and context, where the magic of the tarot lies.
And after all, as someone on one of my favorite TV series once said, “…context is for kings”.
Previous: Introduction — Asexuality and the Tarot
Next: The Fool
