The Fool's Journey: remember the 22 Major Arcana through one story

When you're new to tarot, memorising meanings is the hardest part. 22 Major Arcana, a string of keywords for each, and you forget them as soon as you've learned them.

There's a method I really recommend: treat them as a journey. The hero is card 0, the Fool, carrying a small bundle and about to step off a cliff.

The hero: the Fool, setting out with a bundle

1–7　Learning to stand firm in the world

8–14　Turning inward

15–21　Facing change and completion

Three stretches of road

In Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack lays out cards 1 to 21 in three rows of seven. Here they are in a form that's easier to remember:

• 1–7, learning to stand firm in the world: gaining skills, learning the rules, making a first choice of your own, then climbing into the Chariot and charging off.
• 8–14, turning inward: halfway along the outer road, you start asking "who am I, really?" The Hermit holds up his lantern, the Hanged Man sees things from another angle, Death clears away the old.
• 15–21, facing change and completion: The Devil and The Tower are about limits and upheaval; the Star, Moon and Sun offer different ways of seeing; and finally Judgement and the World look back over the way and confirm what has been completed.

Sallie Nichols' Jung and Tarot reads this road through Jungian psychology, as the process of a person slowly becoming themselves.

When you draw a Major Arcana card, you can ask

Which stretch of the road am I on now?

If you draw The Hermit, you may be on the second stretch and need some quiet time alone to think. If you draw The Tower, it may be the upheaval of the third stretch, when old structures fall.

This is a way to remember, and also one way to read. Life obviously doesn't line up neatly from 0 to 21.

To practise on your own, use the daily card and see which stretch today's Major Arcana falls in. The full reading list and guide are in the tarot study room.

Common questions