Major and minor arcana
A deck holds 22 major arcana (The Magician, The High Priestess, The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, Death, The Tower, The Star, The Sun, The World and so on), each carrying heavy symbolic weight in the divinatory tradition, plus 56 minor arcana in four suits — wands, cups, swords and coins — much like an ordinary pack of cards.
How a reading works
The reader shuffles, the querent frames a question or an intention, and a set number of cards is drawn according to the chosen spread: three cards for past-present-future, the Celtic cross, a simple cross, and many others. Each card is then interpreted according to its own meaning, its position in the spread and whether it falls upright or reversed.
A divinatory practice, not a science
Like astrology and numerology, tarot has never been shown to predict events. Many psychologists do, however, recognise its value as a projective support: the images give people a vocabulary for something they already sense but have not yet put into words.
A word of caution
Online psychic and tarot services often charge heavily for "personalised" readings, sometimes through premium-rate lines. In many countries such services fall under consumer protection rules and must be presented as being for entertainment. No reading should ever replace medical, legal or financial advice.
Major and minor arcana
A divinatory tarot deck has seventy-eight cards: twenty-two major arcana, from the Magician to the World, and fifty-six minor arcana in four suits. The majors are read as stages or general forces, the minors as concrete everyday situations.
Spreads range from a single card drawn for a specific question to complex layouts of ten cards or more. The method matters less than the question asked: a closed question produces a thin reading, an open one a useful conversation.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to believe in tarot to find it useful?
No, and many contemporary readers present a spread not as a prediction but as a support for reflection: the images bring out what you already think without having put it into words. Used that way it is a tool for a conversation with yourself, and it requires no belief at all.
Can tarot predict the future?
Nothing suggests so, and no controlled study has shown that a spread yields information about future events. What creates the impression of accuracy is the symbolic richness of the cards, which lets almost any image be attached to almost any situation, together with the selective memory that keeps the coincidences.
When should you be wary?
As soon as readings become repeatedly paid for, as soon as one announces a misfortune that a further ritual would avert, or as soon as it is used to decide in place of a doctor, a lawyer or a therapist. Those three signals characterise a scam, not the practice of tarot.