Minor arcanum does not mean minor importance to your personal tarot reading.

The tarot deck of cards includes fifty six cards comprising the minor arcana.  These cards are separated into four suits much like a deck of playing cards.  The suits used in the tarot deck are swords, cups, wands and pentacles. 

The meanings of the minor arcana are not necessarily easy to decipher.  Each card that is selected when you have your tarot reading done has a significant meaning to the entire reading.   Using the meaning of each suit and each card number as well as the position in which the card appears in the reading means that the same card can mean something quite different from one reading to another.

Maybe no divination practice is more widely done then tarot cards. Almost every culture around the world from China to Russia to Europe to the United States has their own version of tarot. This has led to several inconsistencies over the years between decks. Some of the differences are small, others are quite big. Let’s take a look at seven common differences between decks as they vary from culture to culture
 

·        Changes in suits – For most basic tarot decks, there is a major arcana and a minor arcana. The minor arcana is made up of four different suits. In most decks, those four suits are wands, cups, swords and coins. But in some decks, the suits vary. Wands have been replaced with shorter, thicker batons, and in some decks, coins have been replaced altogether with pentacles. With different suits come different interpretations. Most readers use multiple decks depending on their mood that day and will interpret pentacles differently then they would coins, even though the suits are replaced for each other. It is unknown if the overall impact of having pentacles over coins or batons over wands chances the spirit of the deck, but some readers are very loyal to one or the other.

The world of Tarot is a wondrous and fascinating place filled with mystical power and interesting legend. How the various tarot decks evolved from their original form to that of the common deck of playing cards is one of history’s best stories, but let’s take a look at some of the most well known cards that make up the old-fashioned tarot deck.

Remember, however, that many different tarot decks contain different cards from one another. Especially in the case of the minor arcana, the “suits” can change from deck to deck. There isn’t any consensus “right” deck, they all have their own powers to help a trained reader divine the future.