Reading the Minor Arcana

Numbers, suits and pictures: a system for the fifty-six cards that does not require memorising them.

Suit plus number

Every Minor Arcana card is a suit crossed with a number, and the numbers carry their own story: Ace is a seed, Two is a choice or a pairing, Three is growth, Four is stability, Five is disruption, Six is repair, Seven is testing, Eight is mastery through work, Nine is nearly there, Ten is completion. Cross the number with the suit and you have a meaning before you open any book.

The Five of Cups is disruption in the heart: grief, spilled feeling. The Five of Pentacles is disruption in the material world: hardship, being left out in the cold. Same five, different element.