The Major Arcana

I can see how this is going to be a VERY wordy section. And yet, it cannot be any other way.

I wish I had a quid for every time I've seen people open up the little booklet that comes with any deck of tarot cards, lay out the cards in some sort of spread and read the meanings straight out of the book. Perfect paint by the numbers stuff, but it doesn't work. The trick is to understand what each card actually represents and then, by dint of so-called "lateral thinking" try to lace all the meanings together into a coherent whole.

That sounds pretty easy, but the Major Arcana is so full of meaning (and you'll probably only remember/relate to the bits that appeal to you anyway) The only thing I can really do is to waffle on as much as possible and hope that you'll get the general idea, and that something will hit chords that you'll be able to build on later, if and when you become a proficient Tarot reader yourself.

I must say that I've never really liked the little cut-and-dried meanings most people give for the Major Arcana cards. I've included them (just because it's expected) and they'll work just fine with the Inner World Tarot. But to me, the actual meaning of each card is given in the description paragraphs. The meanings come from an Italian translation of Emily Peach's manual (it's been printed under various titles, such as "The Tarot Workbook", and it's the most complete beginner's book on the tarot that I've ever seen)