Popularity of Tarot
New Age products seem to be gaining in popularity with every year that passes and tarot cards are no exception. Per this Specialty Retail article, consumers spend almost $230 billion per year on New Age products.
There are many unique varieties of tarot decks available today that either advertise a particular theme or contain unique art work. The standard tarot deck has 78 cards; 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana. The 22 major arcana start at 0 for the Fool and end at 21 for the World. The minor arcana have 4 suits; pentacles, swords, wands and cups. The numbering of these are 1 – 10. The minor arcana also include a King, Queen, Knight and Page for each suit.
The best tarot deck to buy is a deck that has unique pictures on “all” the cards not just the major arcana. Some cheaper decks will display story-like pictures for the major arcana but for the minor arcana, they only show simple pictures of 10 cups, 9 wands, 8 swords etc. Without story-like pictures for each of these, it is harder to learn what the minor arcana cards mean. The picture below of 3 minor arcana cards is from a classic popular deck called Ryder Waite.
It is a challenge for new tarot card users to learn the meanings of 78 cards particularly because a single card has different meanings depending on the category such as; business, family, love or health. It takes a lot of time to learn how to apply the meanings to your individual questions.
