Using the Major Arcana only...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 17 Jun 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

AmbitiousMind	17 Jun 2004
I've been doing tarot reading for about 10 years now. But I've only used the Major Arcana and recently started using all the cards and I love it. I'm not always sure about the card so I have to look them up but am getting use to it. One reason I started using a full deck was because I felt I wasn't giving people the best read with only the Major Arcana. And I also questioned my own abilities. "Was I a 'legitimate' tarot reader without the whole deck?" Do others use just the Major Aracana? One deck I own I can only read the Major. The rest do not give me anything. That's the TAROT OF THE WITCHES. Although I get some very interesting readings for people with this deck, I can only use the Major Arcana. Is this okay?

closrapexa	17 Jun 2004
I suppose anything is ok if you feel comfortable with it. I know some one who reads with only two cards and gives very accurate readings, only maybe the readings in this case have more of a phsycic nature. In any case, if you feel confident enough to read with inly the majors, then bye all means. Still, speaking for myself, I find the minors are an integral part of the reading.

hedgecub	17 Jun 2004
Well if you think about it, there are about as many majors as there are runes, and people can give great readings with runes. The majors represent enough different facets of life that you can certainly give many varied readings with them. The main advantage of having minors is that it can help you pinpoint things more effectively, but ultimately it really depends on the reader. I personally need the variety of specific meanings in a 78 card deck to be able to give decent readings; you sound actually like you're rather more skilled in being able to see the various nuances of the majors.

sunflowr	17 Jun 2004
Interesting topic! I have a deck I really like but I can't read the minors because they assigned air to wands and fire to swords.. and it's quite evident in several cards.. the aces and courts. It bothers me and gets in the way. Yet I really do like the deck and want to use it. So I have been thinking of it being a majors-only deck. Any ideas of majors-only readings? I may start a separate topic for this but maybe it would be good here too.

Le_Corsair	18 Jun 2004
Very often, the people who own a deck with pips for minors do a lot of majors-only readings. :joke: If you are going to incorporate minors into your readings, it helps to own a deck with illustrated minors, such as the Rider-Waite-Smith. Bob :THERM

Diana	18 Jun 2004
When I started out with Tarot, I only used the Major Arcana. I thought the Minors were too daunting. I was wrong. They are very easy. (I use the so-called "non-illustratated" minors like those in the Tarot of Marseille. They are incredibly readable and easy to understand. Of course, they are not unillustrated - that is a strange misconception that people have about them). Then I started doing my readings with Minors and Majors. They were great. And now I am slowly going back to how I did it in the beginning. About 90% of my readings I do these days are with Majors only. Within the 22 Major Arcana... all the Minors are hidden. That is why it works so well when you do readings with them only. And I bet you if you used only the Minor Arcana, you would find the Majors hidden within them too. AmbitiousMinds are often InnovativeMinds too. Good for you. The best Major Arcana readings are done with a Tarot of Marseille. I suggest you get yourself one. You will never regret it.

Rusty Neon	18 Jun 2004
A way that a number of francophone, Tarot de Marseille authors who are into majors-only readings get more 'valency' out of the major arcana is to assign pairs of major arcana (instead of a single major arcanum) for a single position in the spread. Thus, for example, the spread position gives not Chariot, but Chariot + Emperor. This combination of Chariot + Emperor could help direct the reader's mind to divinatory nuances of the Chariot in the context that the drawing of the Chariot, alone, might not. Likewise, the other-way-around combination Emperor + Chariot could help direct the reader to draw out nuances of the Emperor that the drawing of the Emperor alone might not. As well, the combination of Emperor or Chariot could bring out synergies, or a synthesis, of meanings that neither of the two cards could, alone, have. Sometimes, they also use pairs made up of a major arcanum plus a minor arcanum. The addition of the minor, again, could help direct the reader's mind to divinatory nuances that drawing of the major alone might not. Or to create synergies, or a synthesis.

mariskiss	18 Jun 2004
Hi, For those of you who only use Majors, what spread do you use? I've had very accurate readings using the Celtic Cross Spread using majors only. If I need more insight, after doing the spread with majors only to get a general idea, I shuffle the minors and lay them beside the majors in the same spread...the little details come into play, it works great for me. Does anyone else use this technique??

Sillanza	18 Jun 2004
Like sunflowr, I have a deck whose minors tend to hinder more than they help, so I tend to use it as a majors-only reading deck. I will often use smaller, 3-7 cards spreads for this type of reading, treating it as a catalyst for further readings. Then we can pick which influence we want to elaborate on, and I usually switch to another deck to do subsequent readings incorporating the minors. Sometimes I'll lay a fairly large spread that just happens to contain no majors at all. In these cases, sometimes I will separate the majors and draw from them to help clarify the message or influence of some of the particular minors in the spread.

Esther	20 Jun 2004
I can relate. I have this deck that adore. I love the Major Arcana illustrations, and I feel comfortable reading it. However, the Minor Arcana is very plain, and shows nothing but nine pentacles, four swords, two cups, or whatever the card is. So it's hard for me to remember what all the cards mean. A while ago, though, I got the Medievel Scapini Tarot, but didn't do many readings with it. Recently, I sat down with it and made an effort to really study the illustrations of the Minor Arcana, and I found it's a lot easier for me to remember what the cards mean.

cartarum	24 Jun 2004
an interesting thing to point out, is that if you use a simple past present future spread with only the majors, and do not use a question, then the tarot explains what i call "facts of life" when you get good reading without a question, the majors alone almost exactly mimic eastern taoist philosophy! diana is absolutely right about reading with the minors alone, and finding majors. i wrote a thread in general forum on this particular subject.

tao51	30 Jun 2004
Was of the Marsailles group. I used only the upper arcane. I has good readings. Then I met someone who used the lower arcane as well. Those readings had a more complete story. I found that my readings had better insight when I used the full deck.--Tao

The Using the Major Arcana only... thread was originally posted on 17 Jun 2004 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.