← Language
ES EN FR IT PT DE NL SV
HomeArticlesDecks and systems

Sabio Tarot · Decks and systems

By Sabio Tarot

The full tarot deck or only Major Arcana to start?

Twenty-two cards can seem a gentler entry point than 78. You can study their names and images without dividing your attention among four suits. But if you always stop at the Major Arcana, you miss a substantial part of the deck's language: numbered cards, court cards and distinctions among everyday concerns. The useful choice depends on the practice you want during your first few weeks.

The familiar deck combines 21 trumps and the Fool with 56 suit cards, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The V&A describes today's version of the same structure as 22 Major and 56 Minor Arcana. Both ways of counting help explain why a 22-card edition can be a deliberate selection rather than a complete tarot deck.

What you gain by starting with 22

Fewer cards make it easier to get to know each image and compare relationships among them. If you draw one card a day, you can work through the whole group in a few weeks and build a small journal of observations. The Major Arcana names and figures may be memorable, especially in an edition with clear illustrations.

You can also study visual history: find the Fool, Chariot, Justice or World in two decks and describe how the scene changes. This work does not require believing that every card has had a single meaning since the fifteenth century. The Met reminds us that these cards began in a gaming context; today's interpretations belong to later layers.

The limit appears when a reading consists only of large themes. If you are asking how to prepare for a particular conversation, you may want the nuances of suit, number and court card that disappear when you set aside the 56 Minor Arcana. This is not a flaw in the Major Arcana; it follows from working with a smaller vocabulary.

What you gain by using all 78 from the beginning

Suit cards let you practise distinctions among feelings, action, thinking and resources, if that is the map used by your manual. Numbered cards invite comparison across sequences; court cards offer roles or attitudes. A mixed spread lets you connect a broad theme with a more specific situation without mechanically assuming that a Major Arcana card always “weighs more”.

The cost is mental effort. Trying to memorise 78 definitions in a week tends to produce rigid answers. Using the full deck does not require knowing everything before you draw your first card. You can describe it, consult a compatible source and note what you actually observed.

A four-week bridge

Week 1: work with six Major Arcana cards you can compare visually. Set a focused question for each session and record the title, one visible detail, the spread position and a hypothesis. Do not turn a single card into a prediction.

Week 2: add the four Aces. Ask what changes as you move from a Major Arcana image to four beginnings associated with different suits. If your deck is Marseille, describe symbols and composition; if it is Rider–Waite–Smith, add the scene details it actually shows.

Week 3: choose the same number—for example, Three—in all four suits. Compare without memorising lists: what remains because of the number, what changes with the suit, and what contradicts an oversimple rule?

Week 4: add one court card from each suit and make three-position spreads whose positions you decide before shuffling. Only then compare mixtures of Major and Minor Arcana. This progression does not promise quick mastery; it helps you see what you need to study next.

When to buy each format

A 22-card deck may be enough if your first aim is to study images of the trumps or do brief exercises focused on them. If you want to follow a manual that teaches suits, court cards and combinations, you will need all 78 cards or accept that you can practise only part of it. Read the book's contents before buying: a long section on the Minor Arcana cannot be put into practice with a Major-only box.

The edition matters as much as the count. Twenty-two illegible cards or a book describing another deck may hinder learning more than a complete box with a good guide. Check four samples, card size and visual correspondence.

To decide, use how to choose your first deck and Major and Minor Arcana. If you already have a full deck, you can simply set aside the Minor Arcana at first and bring them back in stages.

An example spread shows what is missing

Question: “What should I prepare before presenting my idea?” Positions: “central theme”, “detail to check” and “next step”. If you work only with Major Arcana, you may draw three images of broad processes—initiative, review, change—and have to ground them with questions beyond the cards. With Minor Arcana included, a suit card in the second position may suggest examining a conversation, a resource or a sequence of actions. Neither deck supplies the project's facts on its own, but a 78-position vocabulary offers more kinds of comparison.

Nor should “Major” automatically mean “more important”. In a specific consultation, a Minor Arcana card placed in “detail to check” might be exactly what helps organise the next action. “Major” names a category within the deck; it is not a rule requiring you to ignore the position or devote more pages of interpretation to every such card.

The problem with memorising keywords alone

With 22 cards, the list looks manageable: “Magician = initiative”, “Justice = balance”, “Chariot = progress”. If that is where your study ends, a three-card spread of Major Arcana may become a string of unrelated nouns. The smaller group is useful because it gives you time to describe the images, compare positions and offer one sentence that answers the question. Reading one Major Arcana card carefully may teach you more than rushing through all 22 with one word apiece.

Use the same discipline when you add the Minor Arcana. Do not compensate for the greater number by speeding up. Choose four Aces and compare how your edition draws each suit. Then choose one number across all four suits. Finally add court cards, which may be read as a person, attitude or role according to the question. Progress comes from relationships, not from a race to complete 78 card notes.

How to tell when you are ready for the full deck

You do not need a test on card meanings. Draw two Major Arcana cards and explain in writing: the question, each card's position, two visible details, a hypothesis and the limit of your conclusion. If you can do that without falling back on an automatic keyword, add a Minor Arcana card and repeat. If it stops you, practise with one suit for a few days and compare neighbouring cards.

The quality of your notes is another signal. If you can reread them and reconstruct why you proposed an interpretation, the method is working. If all you wrote was “everything is going to change” and you can no longer tell which question prompted the phrase, you need better recording and precision before buying more cards.

Moving from 22 to 78 does not mean abandoning the Major Arcana. It means widening the vocabulary of a reading while keeping a steady habit: observe, ask, relate, and do not promise what the image cannot establish.

Sources consulted