Symbols in our deck
As you open up your new Tarot deck, no matter the style and artwork, the format is always the same: 22 majors and 56 cards that are suited.
Traditionally the suits are the elements of fire, earth, water and air. And are represented by the wands, pentacles, cups, and swords, but lets dive a little deeper and look at how some artists represent that.
We cannot gloss over Pamela Coleman Smith’s contribution to the popularity of Tarot today. She was the first to add more than just a number of items to the minor arcana cards. Most decks used to be “pip” decks-think a deck of Playing Cards-just a lot of hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds on the cards. She created what we know use and love The Rider Waite deck-she was commissioned to make the art on this deck by Arthur Edward Waite ( the Waite part of the Rider Waite), which was published by the Rider publishing company. She decided to add all the figures in the minors, this is what made tarot more approachable. There is a lot more info on her now, and she is worth looking into-she was so interesting and lived in amazing times! Onto the suits!
The wands suit represents the motivation, inspiration and creative forces in our lives. Where do you find that in your body and life, in yoga we see this in the third chakra, in our lives we may see this in getting lost in our writing, our music, anything that we can just “zen out” in. This is the energy we find ourselves when we are truly engaged and inspired.
As we look at our cards in the Smith-Waite deck, we see sticks with sprouting buds used as the symbols for this suit. This is also a sign that this suit is about Spring, and can be used-to a degree-for timing in your readings. When we get to the court cards we see animals with the characters. The queen has a black cat in almost every deck I own and have seen. This cat is a feral reminder to stay wild, to not let anyone put out the fire of your alchemy and creativity. The king has a salamander crawling up to his throne, and salamanders appear on the cloth behind his throne and on the knights robes that cover his armor. Salamanders are the elemental spirits for fire, they are used here to remind us of fire and how we can use that fire and withstand the heat, like used to be believed about these little elementals.
You will find artists and authors have represented these elemental forces in amazing ways:
The Erotic Tarot by Sofie Birkin uses candles for this suit, and the queen has a gorgeous snake with her.
We see this snake motif in the court cards carried into The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans, her deck is stunningly beautiful, simple and natural. Her wands are sticks.
In the Millennial deck the wands are Vibes!
As we move into the Pentacles, we see this energy often as coins (this suit can defiantly represent abundance and finances), flowers and natural settings. This suit is related to the earth element, slow moving, supportive energy, and we often see natural landscapes around the characters. The court cards show us introspection and slow movement with the page and knight, the queen has a little bunny near by on the lower right side of the card, and is surrounded by a frame of flowers, mountains and green grass. The king is ensconced in a similar setting, with grapes, and flowers all around him. If we look back to the 9 in this suit as well, the beautiful self made woman in the card is also in front of a vineyard and a lush landscape and home.
In other decks we see this as earth bound animals in The Wild Unknown Tarot-the court cards are buffalos! The ace has a beautiful deer on it!
The Erotic Tarot uses Roses for Pentacles which is stunning and the Millennial uses “Swag” which technically is coins!
The cups are the suit most associated with the water element. We see lots of water, cups and in many decks we see sea animals. The cups represent the watery flows emotions in our live-love, relationships and our shifting emotions. Our “feels” which is exactly what the millennial deck calls this suit-accompanied by a small coffee cup on each card. In the Rider Waite deck, and many others we see the page of cups with a cup and a little fist in there-they seem to be having a chat-this fish is said to be the pages’s subconscious or perhaps his heart.
In the Naked Heart Tarot the court cards are Whales, there are fish on a lot of the cards-it is truly one of my favorite decks and is so beautiful!
The Erotic Tarot uses shells.
As you look through different decks you can see how this suit almost always is some sort of water or container for it.
The air element is represented by the swords suit. This is fast moving, deep thinking, active energy-it you look at all the knights together in the deck, this, is the knight whose horse is running-full speed ahead. This is how our mind works, this is why so many of these cards seem scary! Our mind can race, our thoughts can hold us prisoner if we let them, and we see this in these cards.
In the Light Seers deck, the author and illustrator Chris Ann uses birds to symbolize the energy of this suit. The Erotic Tarot uses feathers for this suit, the Housewives tarot uses mostly kitchen knives, sometimes cocktail stirrers!
As you travel on your journey with Tarot and start to collect decks, or if you decide to create your own, take these ideas and run with them!
What represents inspiration to you? That’s your spark for the wands suit.
What represents safety and support to you? That’s the groundwork for your pentacles suit.
What represents love, connection and your hearts desire? That is the well you pull your ideas out of for your cups cards.
And finally what represents your mind? Your thought, intellect and worries? That is the breath your breathe into your sword cards.
I, personally, am so grateful for all the authors and artists who create our modern decks, each one shows me more about the tarot, more about the energies at work.
Remember to take a look at the little books that come with them to understand the motivation of the creator of the deck, there is always something more to learn.
The cups