Tarot glossary
What is a suit in tarot?
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A suit is each of the four groups of 14 cards that make up the Minor Arcana of the tarot: Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. Each suit has its own symbol and field of themes, such as action, emotion, thought and material life. The Major Arcana belong to no suit.
The four suits
Tarot inherited its suits from the old Italian decks, which used batons, cups, swords and coins. Each suit has 14 cards. In modern English-language decks, the most common names are Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles.
- Wands (or Batons): initiative, action, energy.
- Cups: feelings, bonds, intuition.
- Swords: ideas, truth, conflict.
- Pentacles (or Coins): work, money, the body.
What makes up a suit
Each suit has ten numbered cards, from Ace to Ten, and four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen and King. Reading a whole suit is like following a story that begins with a seed (the Ace) and ends in a completed cycle (the Ten).
When many cards of the same suit come up in a spread, the theme of that suit tends to stand out in the reading.
Names and associations vary
Names change between decks. The Rider-Waite-Smith uses Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles, while Marseille-style decks usually say Batons, Cups, Swords and Coins. The associations with the four elements also change from school to school.
The most common link is Wands with fire, Cups with water, Swords with air and Pentacles with earth. Some traditions, however, swap Wands and Swords, so it is worth checking what your deck or author adopts.
Frequently asked questions
- Do the Major Arcana have a suit?
- No. The 22 Major Arcana have their own name and figure, with no suit. Only the 56 Minor Arcana divide into the four suits.
- Are Wands and Batons the same suit?
- Yes. It is the same suit under different names, depending on the deck and the language. The same goes for Pentacles, Coins and Disks.
- Which suit speaks of love?
- Cups is the suit most tied to feelings and relationships. Even so, cards from other suits and from the Majors also enter readings about love.
Educational content, for reflection. Tarot does not replace medical, legal or financial advice.