RWS Minor Arcana Cards In Context: Mastering The elements In Daily Life
RWS Minor Arcana Explained
The 56 Minor Arcana (Lesser Mysteries) cards of the Rider Waite Smith tarot represent the day to day ups and downs of life. These are circumstances or events which free will allows you to improve and alter through self-mastery. If you get mostly Minor Arcana cards (in a reading that involves several cards), you can look for patterns in the three divisions of Suit, Number and Rank for intra-relational insights (e.g. lots of Wands: ambition).
The 40 Number/Pip Cards from the Rider Waite Smith (RWS) tarot. From top to bottom: Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles.
You can learn about the Minor Arcana through the three divisions of Suit (Element), Number and Court Rank. Each section here has links to articles on every individual division (e.g. the Suit of Pentacles, the Pages) as well as the entire division (e.g. All 16 Court Cards).
RWS Minor Arcana Suits: Wands, Cups, Swords & Pentacles
First, the Minor Arcana cards of all tarot decks are divided into four Suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. In the RWS system, each Suit corresponds to an occult Element (Fire, Water, Air and Earth respectively) and in turn to distinct life areas.
For example, Wands (Fire) cards correspond to power and ambitions (as inculcated by the lower will), whilst Cups cards correspond to emotions and imagination (relationships and artistry). Esoterically, each Element also corresponds to a “world” (occult realm) on the qabalistic tree of life.
Click on an Ace card to learn about it’s full Suit in the RWS tarot system.
The RWS Number Or Pip Cards (Ace-10s)
Each of these four Minor Arcana Suits is itself further divided into Number (Pip) cards and Court Cards. Within the esoteric structure of the RWS tarot, each Number (e.g. all 5s) corresponds to a sephira (sphere) on the qabalistic tree of life.
The images below show which sephira corresponds to which RWS Number card (Ace-10). These images will be clickable in the future when the sephiroth series is finished.
The RWS Court Cards
Finally, the Court Cards represent people and personalities encountered in daily life. Every (Minor Arcana) Suit one Court Card from each of the Ranks: Page, Knight, Queen and King. Combine a Rank with a Suit, and you get a foundational yet comprehensive understanding of one Court Card.
Click on the Court Cards image to learn about these tricky cards in depth.
How to Read the RWS Minor Arcana
As Daily Life and Experiences
Unlike the grand, spiritual lessons of the Major Arcana, the Minors are about the immediate and the personal; jobs, relationships, arguments, desires, joys. They represent the specific, tangible, day-to-day situations, thoughts, feelings, and actions that make up the fabric of our lives. When a Minor Arcana card appears, it points to a specific and practical area of concern.
A Five of Pentacles speaks to a concrete experience of material hardship (not just a “scarcity mindset”!). A Four of Wands points to a specific celebration or event. A Three of Swords represents a specific, painful message.
As Stages of a Journey
The Ten Numbered cards in each suit tell a story of progression, from the initial spark of the Ace to the final completion or consequence of the Ten. This numerical journey shows us where we are in a process.
The Aces are the raw, new potential of their element. The numbers Two through Nine represent the development, challenges, growth, and conflicts that arise from that potential. The Tens represent the final fulfillment, completion, or ultimate end-point of the suit's journey. This progression allows us to diagnose the stage of any given situation, whether it is just beginning (Ace), in conflict (Five), or reaching its conclusion (Ten).
As Elemental Equanimity
The Minor Arcana Suits coresponding to the four occult Elements connects them to the theurgic practice of balancing (and purifying) the Elements within one’s lower self.
For example, a Swords (Air) card advises you to purify your mind: communicate clearly, honestly and softly in pursuit of Truth. A Pentacles (Earth) card advises a practical, grounded, or long-term course of action - it would produce positive karma. A Cups (Water) card encourages you to discern your emotional impulses so that they may elevate you to the Divine rather than trap you in temporary pleasures. A Wands (Fire) card urges you to strive boldly and fearlessly into the unknown with faith that God is with you (and without so much rashness or anger).
The positive qualities of each Element expressed consistently, and the initiate is ready to attune their higher mind with their Divine Soul. This elemental balance is known to be the primary goal of outer order (lesser mysteries) work within Golden Dawn based magical systems.
Additional Notes: RWS Minor Arcana
RWS Imagery: Smith’s Threatrical Scenes
Perhaps the most appealing feature of the Rider-Waite-Smith Minor Arcana is that the numbered cards, or "pips," are fully illustrated with allegorical scenes. In most earlier tarot decks, such as the Tarot de Marseille, the 4 of Cups would simply show four cups. In the RWS deck, it shows a person sitting pessimistically under a tree with three cups as a fourth is offered by the Hand of God. This scene, illustrated by Waite’s Rosicrucian sister Pamela Coleman Smith, creates a rich visual story of apathy and discontent. This innovation by A.E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith is likely what made the deck so accessible and popular; it transformed the Minor Arcana depictions to objects of their suit to intuitively readable images.
RWS Esoteric Correspondences: Astrology
The Golden Dawn system, upon which Waite based his deck, assigned complex astrological correspondences to the Minor Arcana. The 36 numbered cards (from the Two to the Ten of each suit) were mapped to the 36 decans of the zodiac, which are three 10-degree divisions of each of the 12 signs. For example, the Five of Wands corresponds to the first decan of Leo, while the Eight of Cups corresponds to the first decan of Pisces. The Aces are considered pure expressions of their Element and are not tied to the zodiac. The Court Cards have their own separate system of astrological and Elemental attributions, which are discussed in their respective articles.
