2. A brief history about Tarot:
Through the ages the tarot has been used as playing cards before being seen as divination cards or a map for personal growth.
The origin of the Tarot is very difficult to define. We do not have a defined date of when it was created. From all the explanations I read here is the one, describe in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s book “the way of tarot”, that resonates best with me.
As the card games were banned in the statutes of Saint-Victor of Marseille Abbey for those pursuing a religious vocation in 1337, we need to go back at least to the year 1000.
At that time in Spain and in the south of France we could see a church, a synagogue and a mosque cohabitating in peace and in proximity to one another. Respecting each other, the wise men of the three religions had no hesitation about discussing and learning from each other.
“It is possible that a group consisting of sages from the three faiths, foreseeing the decay of their religions-which, out of a thirst for power, would inevitably stir up hatred between the sects-and the forgetting of the sacred tradition, worked together to deposit this knowledge in a humble card game, which amounted to preserving and concealing it so that it could travel through the darkness of history until it reached a remote future where individuals of a higher level of consciousness would decipher its wonderful message.”
We can see the Christian influence in Arcana II, V, XIII, XV, XX, and XXI. The Jewish influence appears among others in the nameless Arcana as one can read the four Hebrew letters, Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay, designating the deity, in the head of the skeleton. The Arcana XII shows on his chest the ten Sephirot of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The Minor Arcana contain Muslim symbols such as for example on the top of the Ace of Cups the circle with nine points representing the initiatory enneagram.
3. The 22 Majors Arcana:
a. General overview:
The tarot game is compounded of 78 cards: 22 Majors Arcana and 56 Minors Arcana.
To summarize we could say that the 22 major Arcana deal with major life events compared to the 56 Minor Arcana that deal with aspects of everyday life (Wands: Mental activity ex: ideas/ Cups: Emotions ex: love/ Swords: Obstacles and spiritual issues / Pentacles: Physical world and material goods). The Minor Arcana give advices on how to act. But as in coaching we don’t use advices we will not use these 56 Arcana.
4 main families of Minor Arcana
We will focus only on the 22 Major Arcana as they describe the major events in life. Each one of the 22 Major Arcana has also a human counterpart with its own special set of strengths and weaknesses. Always keep in mind that the tarot is progressive.
First I will give you a general overview of the 22 Major Arcana and go more and more into details for each one of them. Once you get more familiar with their meanings, I will show you how I think we could use them in coaching.
Approach « the path of life »:
By putting each card side by side in a chronological order you will notice the individual human evolution! Imagine yourself as a character evolving from card to card.
Childhood age (who we are, our roots):
