Tarot

**The tarot** is a pack of playing
cards, used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to
play games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot. Although many
people associate it almost exclusively with tarotology/cartomancy,
the invention of using it for this purpose did not come in vogue
until the eighteenth century. Though there are pseudo histories trying to give it an ancient origin story.

## General info

Like common playing cards, the tarot has four suits (which vary by
region). Each suit has 14 cards, ten cards numbering from one (or
Ace) to ten and four face cards (King, Queen, Knight, and
Jack/Knave). In addition, the tarot has a separate 21-card trump suit
and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool
may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit.

Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play card games.
In English-speaking countries, where these games are not played,
tarot cards are used primarily for divinatory purposes. The trump
cards and the Fool are sometimes called "the major arcana"
while the ten pip and four court cards in each suit are called minor
arcana. The cards are traced by some occult writers to ancient Egypt
or the Kabbalah but there is no evidence of such origins or of the
usage of tarot for divination before the 18th century.

Considering tarot corrupt or evil began
long before it was considered to have mystical aspects. In the
seventeenth century it as not uncommon for preachers to rail against
the card game alone. But up to present day there are still many
churches which teach that it has ties to the occult and should be
avoided.

## Tarotology

**Tarotology** is the term for the
theoretical basis for the reading of Tarot cards, a subset of
cartomancy, which is the practice of using cards to gain insight into
the past, present or future by posing a question to the cards. The
reasoning behind this practice ranges from believing the result is
guided by a spiritual force, to belief that the cards are instruments
used to tap either into a collective unconscious or into the
subject's own creative, brainstorming subconscious. In order to give
a purported justification for the concept of a reading that doesn't
violate naturalism. Despite this, there is little evidence of the
reading providing any relevant insight beyond an overlay for
psychological ideas.

Many involved in occult and divinatory practices attempt to trace
the Tarot to ancient Egypt, the kabbalah, divine hermetic wisdom, and
the mysteries of Isis. These are considered pseudo histories however.
Possibly the first of those was Antoine Court de Gébelin, a French
clergyman, who wrote that after seeing a group of women playing cards
he had the idea that Tarot was not merely a game of cards but was in
fact all of those above things. Since that time, various esoteric
meanings have been attached to it, and certain occultists have began
to consider it a means to uncover and depict truths about the
relations that compose the universe itself.

The actual source of the occult Tarot can be traced to two
articles, the first written by him himself. second has been noted to
have been even more influential than Gebelin's. The second author
takes De Gebelin's speculations even further, agreeing with him about
the mystical origins of the Tarot in ancient Egypt, but making
several additional, and influential, statements that continue to
influence mass understanding of the occult tarot even to this day.
Claiming that the terot is the book of thoth, that it came from
gypsies who he considered to have ties to ancient egypt, and
introduces the concept of tarot readings.

In megaten, tarot cards show up in the
persona games, often with characters or demon races representing the
attributes of different arcana. In Persona 4, Igor uses the Tarot
cards to read the protagonist's fate. They are also used by Margaret,
the protagonist, and the Investigation Team to summon their Persona
by being struck with either by hand or a weapon. In Persona 5,
Chihaya Mifune performs divination with the Tarot Cards.

Note that since different demon races
are represented by different arcana, an implication being given is
that tarot represents structures that pervade reality and their
attributes themselves. In the same way demons represent certain ideas
and aspects of reality, the arcana associated with them implies a
similar relation and understanding. And that the cards can be used to
understand and give context to what demons might be involved with
what role and properties in reality.

**Eliphas levi**. The concept of the
cards as a mystical key was extended by Eliphas Lévi. Lévi rejected
Court de Gébelin's claims about an Egyptian origin of the deck
symbols, going back instead to the Tarot de Marseille, calling it The
Book of Hermes, claiming it was antique, that it existed before
Moses, and that it was in fact a universal key of erudition,
philosophy, and magic that could unlock Hermetic and Cabbalistic
concepts. According to Lévi, "An imprisoned person with no
other book than the Tarot, if he knew how to use it, could in a few
years acquire universal knowledge, and would be able to speak on all
subjects with unequaled learning and inexhaustible eloquence."

ccording to Dummett Lévis' notable contributions include: being the
first to suggest that the Magus (Bagatto) was to work with the four
suits. Associating the Hebrew alphabet with the Tarot trumps. Linking
the ten numbered cards in each suit to the ten sefiroth. Claiming the
court cards represented stages of human life. And Claiming the four
suites represented the Tetragrammaton.

Since his time, Tarot has often become used in conjunction with
the study of the **Hermetic Qabalah**. In these decks all the
cards are illustrated in accordance with Qabalistic principles, most
being influenced by the Rider-Waite deck. Its images were drawn by
artist Pamela Colman Smith, to the instructions of Christian mystic
and occultist Arthur Edward Waite and published in 1909. A difference
from Marseilles style decks is that Waite-Smith use scenes with
esoteric meanings on the suit cards.

**Carl Jung**. Although it is common
now to tie tarot to jungian ideas, jung himself actually didn't write
much about it. He did however say that he wished he was able to, but
was not able to find the time. One writer did say of him however
that: “Jung suggested investigating cases where it could be
supposed that the archetypal layer of the unconscious is
constellated\*—following a serious accident, for instance, or in the
midst of a conflict or divorce situation—by having people engage in
a divinatory procedure: throwing the I Ching, laying the Tarot cards,
consulting the Mexican divination calendar, having a transit
horoscope or a geomantic reading done. If Jung’s hypothesis is
accurate, the results of all these procedures should converge.”

Jung said “[This investigation would
consist of] studying an incident (accident) by the convergence . . .
of a multitude of methods, with the help of which we could try to
find out what the Self “thought” of this particular accident. . .
. The generally rather vague formulations of divinatory techniques
resemble these “clouds of cognition” that, according to Jung,
constitute “absolute knowledge.” and “Under certain conditions
it is possible to experiment with archetypes, as my ‘astrological
experiment’ has shown. As a matter of fact we had begun such
experiments at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, using the
historically known intuitive, i.e., synchronistic methods (astrology,
geomancy, Tarot cards, and the I Ching). But we had too few
co-workers and too little means, so we could not go on and had to
stop.”

**The Fool's Journey** is a metaphor for the journey through life. Each major arcana card stands for a stage on that journey. It is referenced in various persona games. it begins with the Fool, a card which represents beginnings. The Fool stands for each individual as they begin their journey of life. He is a fool because only a simple soul has the innocent faith to undertake such a journey with all its hazards and pain. It goes through each card in order, ending with the world, representing that the fool reenters the World, but this time with a more complete understanding due to his experiences. He has integrated all the disparate parts of himself and achieved wholeness. He has reached a new level of happiness and fulfillment. This concept of the fool's journey is a basis for why the main character's main arcana is generally fool in persona games.

## Tarot Reading

**Tarot reading**. One of the main
criticisms of tarot card reading is its distinct lack of a common
reading method among its practitioners. During a tarot card reading
there are three mains steps that the reader will use, but how each of
these steps is carried out varies significantly between
practitioners. That being shuffling, laying them out, and
interpreting them. Additionally, a reader may have their own distinct
way of interpreting the cards; some tarot cards can have up to ten
meanings, and it is up to the reader to use their intuition to
interpret them.

Readings are often done by laying out three cards in a row, or
alternately five in a cross shape. Readings can also be done with or
without allowance of reversing cards. Reversing cards means that if
the card shows up upside down, you will present it that way, and it
will lead to an alternate interpretation. Reversed cards often have a
more negative connotation, but not necessarily a pessimistic one, but
rather one that can just imply some form of inhibitment in a
particular area, often meaning reversal of the ordinary meanings. The cards each have very
general meanings, leaving the one doing the reading to use intuition
to try to tell a story. Readings are generally done only with the
major arcana, though some versions do include minor arcana.

## Major Arcana

**The** **Major Arcana** or **trumps** are a suit of twenty-two
cards in the 78-card Tarot deck. They serve as a permanent trump and
suits in games played with the Tarot deck, and are distinguished from
the four standard suits collectively known as the Minor Arcana. The
terms "Major" and "Minor Arcana" are used in the
occult and divinatory applications of the deck, and originate with
Jean-Baptiste Pitois, writing under the name Paul Christian.

In the *Persona* series, the Personas' Arcana were originally functionally equivalent to demon races. According to the Persona World guide, each Arcana in Megami Ibunroku Persona equals a specific race, however these racial equivalences were not kept in Persona 3 onwards, where they began to be more mixed. But all the same, one can look at the races for interesting context of them used as a symbol. Likewise, one can compare the characters associated with each arcana to see what their social link was trying to express.

Note that some persona games, especially those which have re-releases with additional Social links will have bonus arcana which are based on the thoth tarot deck which changes some of the card names. Which is why at the bottom of this chart there will be a few alternate arcana. Note that some decks also have justice and strength in reversed places, but here it is shown the way persona does.

## Minor Arcana

The **Minor Arcana** (or **Lesser Arcana**) are the 56 suit cards of the 78-card deck of tarot playing cards. The Minor Arcana comprise four suits with 14 cards each. Although there are variations, the Minor Arcana commonly employ the Italo-Spanish suits:
 Wands (alternatively, batons, clubs, or staves), cups (or chalices), swords, and
pentacles (alternatively, coins, disks, or rings). In contrast, the
corresponding French suits are clubs (♣), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and diamonds (♦). They are often not included in tarot readings. Note the obvious close relation between tarot minor arcana and regular playing cards.

In persona 2 personas from the minor Arcana are featured in these games via mutation only. These personas cannot be summoned normally in Velvet Room nor their tarot cards ever exist. In 3, The Minor Arcana cards appear during Shuffle Time and grant the player various effects depending on which card is chosen: Cups restores the protagonist's or party's health if drawn (amount depends on number), wands or staves grants bonus experience or stats if drawn (amount depends on number), pentacles or coins grants bonus Yen if drawn (amount depends on number) and swords rants the player a random weapon (power depends on number). The most important relation of minor arcana is the relation between cups and hearts, in game specifically talking about the holy grail. This is foreshadowing of how the phantom thieves of hearts are related to the holy grail indirectly.

Although the minor arcana do not show up as obviously in megaten, we can still list their associations. The minror arcana are even more ambiguous than the major, with many card having many different interpretations, some even contradictory. Here we will list a few of the more common ones.