The 78 tarot cards in order are the 22 Major Arcana, running from 0 The Fool through to 21 The World, followed by the 56 Minor Arcana in four suits, Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. Each suit runs Ace through Ten, then the four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen and King. Together that is 22 plus 56, the full deck of 78.
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Open the reading helperThe two halves of the deck: Major and Minor Arcana
Every traditional tarot deck is built from two parts. The Major Arcana is the set of 22 named, numbered cards that most people picture when they think of tarot: The Fool, The Magician, The Lovers, Death, The Star and so on. These are the big, archetypal themes, the turning points of a life. The Minor Arcana is the other 56 cards, sorted into four suits that read a little like an ornate deck of playing cards. They speak to the everyday: work, feelings, decisions and money. You can read more in our guides to the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana.
The word "arcana" simply means secrets or mysteries, from the Latin arcanum. It is worth saying gently and honestly at the outset: in the Lunar Haus tradition we read tarot as a mirror for reflection and a language of symbols, not as a machine that predicts a fixed future. The order below is the conventional sequence used by the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the most widely read deck in the English-speaking world.
The 22 Major Arcana in order (0 to 21)
The Majors are numbered from zero, which is the first small nuance to know. The Fool is card 0 and comes first, so the sequence effectively runs from The Fool to The World across 22 cards.
- 0. The Fool , new beginnings, innocence, the leap of faith
- 1. The Magician , will, skill, focus, manifestation
- 2. The High Priestess , intuition, mystery, the inner voice
- 3. The Empress , abundance, nurture, creativity
- 4. The Emperor , structure, authority, stability
- 5. The Hierophant , tradition, teaching, shared belief
- 6. The Lovers , love, union, a values-based choice
- 7. The Chariot , drive, willpower, forward motion
- 8. Strength , courage, gentleness, inner power
- 9. The Hermit , solitude, reflection, inner guidance
- 10. Wheel of Fortune , cycles, change, turning points
- 11. Justice , fairness, truth, cause and effect
- 12. The Hanged Man , pause, surrender, a new perspective
- 13. Death , endings, transformation, letting go
- 14. Temperance , balance, patience, blending
- 15. The Devil , attachment, temptation, feeling bound
- 16. The Tower , sudden change, upheaval, revelation
- 17. The Star , hope, healing, renewal
- 18. The Moon , dreams, intuition, uncertainty
- 19. The Sun , joy, warmth, success
- 20. Judgement , awakening, reckoning, a calling
- 21. The World , completion, wholeness, arrival
One note on numbering. In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck used here, Strength is 8 and Justice is 11. Older decks such as the Tarot de Marseille swap those two, placing Justice at 8 and Strength at 11. Both are "correct" within their own tradition, so if you meet a deck that lists them the other way, nothing is wrong. Explore the bookends of the journey in our guides to The Fool and The World.
The 56 Minor Arcana in order, suit by suit
The Minor Arcana is far more orderly than it first looks. There are four suits, and each contains exactly the same fourteen cards: ten "pip" cards numbered Ace (one) through Ten, followed by four court cards, the Page, Knight, Queen and King. The suits carry these broad, traditional associations:
- Wands , energy, passion, creativity and drive (fire)
- Cups , love, emotion, intuition and relationships (water)
- Swords , thought, truth, conflict and the mind (air)
- Pentacles , money, work, the body and the material world (earth)
Suit of Wands
- Ace of Wands
- Two of Wands
- Three of Wands
- Four of Wands
- Five of Wands
- Six of Wands
- Seven of Wands
- Eight of Wands
- Nine of Wands
- Ten of Wands
- Page of Wands
- Knight of Wands
- Queen of Wands
- King of Wands
Suit of Cups
- Ace of Cups
- Two of Cups
- Three of Cups
- Four of Cups
- Five of Cups
- Six of Cups
- Seven of Cups
- Eight of Cups
- Nine of Cups
- Ten of Cups
- Page of Cups
- Knight of Cups
- Queen of Cups
- King of Cups
Suit of Swords
- Ace of Swords
- Two of Swords
- Three of Swords
- Four of Swords
- Five of Swords
- Six of Swords
- Seven of Swords
- Eight of Swords
- Nine of Swords
- Ten of Swords
- Page of Swords
- Knight of Swords
- Queen of Swords
- King of Swords
Suit of Pentacles
- Ace of Pentacles
- Two of Pentacles
- Three of Pentacles
- Four of Pentacles
- Five of Pentacles
- Six of Pentacles
- Seven of Pentacles
- Eight of Pentacles
- Nine of Pentacles
- Ten of Pentacles
- Page of Pentacles
- Knight of Pentacles
- Queen of Pentacles
- King of Pentacles
The four court cards can feel like the trickiest part of the deck, because they often stand for people, ages of life, or facets of your own character. If they puzzle you, our court cards guide unpacks each of the sixteen in turn.
Why the order matters: the Fool's Journey
The sequence of the Major Arcana is not random. Many readers understand it as the Fool's Journey, a symbolic story of growing up and waking up. The Fool sets out as card 0, open and untested, and meets each archetype in turn: the focused will of The Magician, the inner knowing of The High Priestess, the love and choice of The Lovers, the upheaval of The Tower, the hope of The Star, and finally the wholeness of The World. Read this way, the Majors are less a list to memorise and more a map of the stages we all pass through. The mythologist Joseph Campbell described this shape of departure, trial and return as a pattern found in stories the world over, which is part of why the cards feel so resonant.
You do not have to accept any of this as literal to find it useful. The order gives the deck a spine, a way to see how one theme flows into the next, and that structure is what makes the cards such a good tool for reflection.
How to use this list
You do not need to memorise all 78 cards to begin. Most readers learn the four suit meanings first, then the ten numbers, then the courts, and finally the 22 Majors, because that structure lets you reason your way to a meaning rather than recalling it cold. A useful way to check your understanding is to pull one card, place it in the sequence above, and ask what it borrows from its suit, its number and its neighbours. Fuller background on the deck's history and structure is available at Tarot on Wikipedia, with dedicated entries on the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana.
Keep exploring
If you would like to learn the cards properly rather than card by card, our free course The Tarot Path walks you through the whole deck in order, and the tarot hub gathers every guide in one place. When you are ready to lay the cards out, the tarot spreads library gives you a shape for any question. Take it gently, one card at a time, and let the order be your guide.
Frequently asked questions
The 78 tarot cards in order are the 22 Major Arcana, running from 0 The Fool to 21 The World, followed by the 56 Minor Arcana in four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles), each running Ace through Ten, then Page, Knight, Queen and King.
A traditional tarot deck has 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. The 56 Minors are split into four suits of 14 cards each, being ten numbered cards plus four court cards.
The Fool comes first. It is numbered 0, so it sits at the very start of the Major Arcana. The Magician follows as card I (1), the first numbered card in the sequence.
The four Minor Arcana suits are Wands (energy and drive), Cups (emotion and relationships), Swords (thought and conflict) and Pentacles (money and the material world). Each suit has 14 cards.
Each suit has four court cards, in order: Page, Knight, Queen and King. Across the four suits that gives 16 court cards in total, which often represent people or facets of character.
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck numbers Strength as 8 and Justice as 11. Older decks such as the Tarot de Marseille swap them, placing Justice at 8 and Strength at 11. Both are correct within their own tradition.
The Fool's Journey is a way of reading the 22 Major Arcana in order as a symbolic story of growth, where The Fool sets out and meets each archetype in turn, ending in the wholeness of The World. It is a lens for reflection, not a literal prophecy.
