Foundations of Tarot: Understanding the 78-Card System and Its Traditions

The Tarot deck is a structured symbolic system developed in fifteenth-century Europe and transformed over centuries into one of the most widely used tools for personal reflection and intuitive inquiry in the modern world. Yet many people who pick up a deck for the first time are overwhelmed by 78 cards, multiple numbering systems, dozens of spread options, and conflicting interpretive traditions. This course gives you the conceptual architecture to make sense of it all. By the end of this course you will be able to describe the historical development of the Tarot, explain the structure and symbolic logic of the Major and Minor Arcana, identify the four suits and their elemental and thematic associations, and approach any card with a principled interpretive method rather than relying solely on memorization. What you will learn: - The documented history of Tarot from its origins as a card game to its adoption by occultists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - The 22 Major Arcana: their sequence, archetypal meanings, and the narrative logic connecting them as a symbolic journey - The structure of the Minor Arcana: four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles), their elemental associations, and the pip-to-court progression - How to read court cards — Pages, Knights, Queens, and Kings — as personality types, developmental stages, or situational energies - Reversed cards: the major schools of thought on whether and how to read reversals - The three-card spread as a foundational structure and how to vary its framing across different questions - How different Tarot traditions (Waite-Smith, Thoth, Marseille) approach symbolism differently — and why those differences matter - Building a personal keyword system to reduce rote memorization and develop genuine interpretive fluency The course proceeds through structured readings organized by card group, each accompanied by illustrated reference guides and reflection prompts. Comparison tables allow you to track similarities and differences across multiple cards simultaneously. Journaling templates are provided for recording your responses to individual cards before consulting any reference — a practice that many experienced readers identify as the single most important learning habit. This course is designed for students who are new to Tarot or who have dabbled with it and want a solid conceptual foundation. No prior experience with divination, astrology, or related traditions is required. You will finish with a clear map of the entire deck and a reliable starting method for any reading.