Lesson 2: The Major Arcana Part I The Fool (0) to The Wheel of Fortune (10)

Pleasure of Tarot

I do hope you took the time to do the exercise in the first lesson, as it is so important for you to be able to communicate the meanings of the cards in your own words, and not to simply repeat my interpretations, or any other tarot reader’s interpretations, word for word.

This second lesson will cover the first 11 cards of the Major Arcana, the remaining 11 will be covered in lesson 3.

As I mentioned earlier, this is an introductory course and by no means gives you all the information available on learning to read the Tarot. It will take time and practice to develop your skills, and at this early stage, keeping things simple should help you to build the confidence to do your own readings.


In lesson one we covered the list of the Major Arcana that describes the element, planet and astrological sign associated with each card.

Major Arcana cards that carry an astrological sign can be used as a guide for timing in a reading, (we’ll cover this later in the lessons about spreads), so it’s very useful to familiarize yourself with these cards.

Essentially the dates of each astrological sign can be associated with the corresponding Major Arcana card in a reading.

For example if The Emperor came up in a spread, it may be signifying a date between 21st March and 20th April. Here’s a table to help you learn the dates.

# Card Title Astro Sign Dates
4 The Emperor Aries 21st March - 20th April
5 The Hierophant Taurus 21st April - 21st May
6 The Lovers Gemini 22nd May - 21st June
7 The Chariot Cancer 22nd June - 23rd July
8 Strength Leo 24th July - 23rd August
9 The Hermit Virgo 24th August - 23rd September
11 Justice Libra 24th September - 23rd October
13 Death Scorpio 24th October - 22nd November
14 Temperance Sagittarius 23rd November - 21st December
15 The Devil Capricorn 22nd December - 20th January
17 The Star Aquarius 21st January - 19th February
18 The Moon Pisces 20th February - 20th March

We also touched on the fact that the Major Arcana represents a journey from earliest awareness (The Fool numbered 0) to fulfillment (The World numbered 21), and that the cards represent the qualities and experiences we must incorporate in our lives before we can realize our full potential, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

Also that the Major Arcana naturally falls into two groups with the Wheel of Fortune significantly at mid point, this turning point between one half of life’s experiences and the other is very important.

Try to keep these factors in mind as you learn the Major Arcana cards, however, we will be referring to this in more detail in the lessons covering spreads.