Arcana

Arcana is the word for the two halves of a tarot deck. It comes from the Latin arcanum, meaning “secret” or “mystery” — the arcana are, poetically, the deck’s hidden knowledge.

A 78-card deck divides into the Major Arcana — 22 archetypal cards, from The Fool to The World, dealing with the big themes and turning points of a life — and the Minor Arcana — 56 cards in four suits, covering the everyday texture of work, feelings, conflict, and money. When a reader distinguishes “major” from “minor,” they’re describing which of these two groups a card belongs to, and roughly how much weight it tends to carry in a reading.