The 22 Major Arcana are the trump cards of the tarot, numbered from 0 to 21. Read one at a time they are a list of archetypes; read in order they tell a story, usually called the Fool's journey. This guide walks through that story, shows how the cards fall into three stages, and explains the astrological symbols Fate Hall prints on many of them.
The Fool sets out
The Fool carries the number zero. In many old decks the card had no number at all, and it was never part of the sequence of trumps. Modern readers treat the Fool as the traveller who walks through all the other cards: each Major Arcana card is a person met, a lesson learned or a trial faced on the way. Seen like this, drawing a Major Arcana card in a reading says where you are on a larger arc of growth, not just what is happening this week.
Three rows of seven
A popular way to see the structure, used by many twentieth-century teachers, is to lay cards 1 to 21 out in three rows of seven. Each row is a stage of the journey:
| Stage | Cards | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| The Fool (0) | The Fool | The traveller who sets out with nothing but trust |
| 1 – 7 | The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot | Learning the outer world: skill, knowledge, care, order, tradition, choice and will |
| 8 – 14 | Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance | Turning inward: courage, solitude, change, fairness, surrender, endings and balance |
| 15 – 21 | The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World | Meeting the greater forces: temptation, upheaval, hope, illusion, joy, awakening and completion |
The first row deals with the world around us: learning skills, meeting mother and father figures, joining a tradition, choosing a partner and setting off with purpose. The second row turns inward: finding courage, solitude and fairness, facing change and endings, and learning balance. The third row meets forces bigger than the self: what binds us, what shatters, and finally what heals and completes us. Laid side by side, cards in the same column often echo one another — the Magician, Strength and the Devil all deal with power, for example, from mastery to gentleness to bondage.
Each card as a step
Here is the whole sequence with a one-line lesson for each step. For the full upright and reversed meanings Fate Hall uses in readings, see Tarot Card Meanings.
| Card | Lesson on the journey |
|---|---|
| 0. The FoolSymbol ◯︎ | Begin with trust and an open mind. |
| 1. The MagicianSymbol ∞︎ | Use the tools you already have. |
| 2. The High PriestessSymbol ☽︎ · Moon | Listen to what you know without words. |
| 3. The EmpressSymbol ♀︎ · Venus | Let things grow with care and patience. |
| 4. The EmperorSymbol ♈︎ · Aries | Give your life a structure you can stand on. |
| 5. The HierophantSymbol ♉︎ · Taurus | Learn from teachers and tradition, then decide what to keep. |
| 6. The LoversSymbol ♊︎ · Gemini | Choose by your values, not only your feelings. |
| 7. The ChariotSymbol ♋︎ · Cancer | Steer opposing drives in one direction. |
| 8. StrengthSymbol ♌︎ · Leo | Gentle courage outlasts force. |
| 9. The HermitSymbol ♍︎ · Virgo | Step back to find your own light. |
| 10. Wheel of FortuneSymbol ☸︎ | Circumstances turn; meet them rather than fight them. |
| 11. JusticeSymbol ⚖︎ | Weigh your actions honestly; they have consequences. |
| 12. The Hanged ManSymbol ▽︎ | A pause or a new angle can unlock what effort cannot. |
| 13. DeathSymbol ♏︎ · Scorpio | Let something end so something else can begin. |
| 14. TemperanceSymbol ♐︎ · Sagittarius | Blend extremes into a working balance. |
| 15. The DevilSymbol ♑︎ · Capricorn | Notice what holds you, and whether the chain is really locked. |
| 16. The TowerSymbol ⚡︎ | When false structures fall, the ground becomes clear. |
| 17. The StarSymbol ★︎ | After the storm, hope and healing return. |
| 18. The MoonSymbol ☾︎ | Move carefully through uncertainty and fear. |
| 19. The SunSymbol ☉︎ · Sun | Enjoy clarity, warmth and success openly. |
| 20. JudgementSymbol ♇︎ · Pluto | Hear the call to rise and take stock. |
| 21. The WorldSymbol ♄︎ · Saturn | A cycle completes; a new one waits. |
The astrological symbols
Many Major Arcana cards on Fate Hall carry a small symbol. Where that symbol is a zodiac sign or a planet, it follows the correspondences set out by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in late nineteenth-century England, which also shaped the Rider–Waite deck most readers know today. The Emperor carries Aries, the Hierophant Taurus, the Lovers Gemini, the Chariot Cancer, Strength Leo and the Hermit Virgo; Death, Temperance and the Devil carry Scorpio, Sagittarius and Capricorn; and the High Priestess, the Empress, the Sun and the World carry the Moon, Venus, the Sun and Saturn. Justice, the Star and the Moon card show scales, a star and a crescent instead, though the Golden Dawn linked them to Libra, Aquarius and Pisces to complete the twelve signs. Judgement carries Pluto, a modern addition after the planet's discovery in 1930.
These links are a bridge between tarot and astrology. If your Sun sign is Leo, for instance, you may feel a particular connection to the Strength card; if you are going through a strong Saturn period, the World's themes of completion and structure may stand out. A few cards on Fate Hall show a simple shape instead — a circle for the Fool, an infinity sign for the Magician, a wheel for the Wheel of Fortune — and these are visual reminders of the card rather than astrological links.
Using the journey in a reading
- Count the Major Arcana. In a three-card spread, one Major card is common; three is rare and suggests a turning point. The odds for a ten-card spread are in the Celtic Cross guide.
- Notice the row. Cards from the first row often point to practical, outward matters; the second row to inner work; the third row to big changes that are not fully in your control.
- Look at the step before and after. If you draw the Hermit, the card before it (Strength) and after it (the Wheel) hint at where the lesson came from and where it leads.
- Reversed cards. A reversed Major Arcana card is often read as a lesson not yet learned, resisted, or turned inward. Fate Hall reverses each card with a chance of a little over one in three.
Common questions
Why are Strength and Justice numbered 8 and 11 on Fate Hall? In older Marseille-style decks Justice is 8 and Strength 11. The Golden Dawn swapped them so that Strength (Leo) and Justice (Libra) would fit the order of the zodiac, and the Rider–Waite deck followed. Fate Hall uses the Rider–Waite order.
Is the Death card bad news? Almost never in the literal sense. On the journey it marks the end of a chapter, which makes room for Temperance, the balance that follows.
Is there anything like this in Eastern traditions? The I Ching is also a sequence of 64 situations that many readers see as a cycle of change, from the Creative and Receptive at the start to "Before Completion" at the end — an unfinished ending that, like the World card, leads back to a new beginning.
Related guides
- Tarot Card MeaningsUpright and reversed meanings for all 78 tarot cards — the 22 Major Arcana and the four suits of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles — and the spreads you can draw on Fate Hall.
- The Celtic Cross SpreadThe ten positions of the Celtic Cross, how to read the cross and the staff, patterns to look for, and the odds of reversed and Major Arcana cards in a ten-card spread.
- Sun, Moon and RisingWhat your Sun, Moon and Rising signs each describe, the twelve signs with their elements and rulers, and why the Moon and Rising signs need your birth time and place.
- The 64 Hexagrams of the I ChingAll 64 hexagrams of the I Ching (Book of Changes) in King Wen order, with their trigrams and a plain-English summary, plus how a reading is cast with three coins and changing lines.