Numbers and elements: the key to the Minor Arcana
At first glance, the 40 number cards of the tarot look like 40 separate items of vocabulary. In fact they form a grid: every card is the point where a number and an element meet. Once you have understood the ten numbers and the four elements, you can work out almost any card for yourself, even one you have never seen before. This article puts the grid in your hands.
The four elements and their areas of life
Each suit of the Minor Arcana is assigned to one of the four classical elements. This assignment isn’t natural science but an old way of ordering human experience that has proved its worth as a framework for interpretation.
| Suit | Element | Area of life | The question it asks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wands | Fire | Drive, will, projects, passion, vigour | What do I want? |
| Cups | Water | Feelings, relationships, intuition, closeness | What do I feel? |
| Swords | Air | Thinking, language, conflicts, decisions, truth | What do I think? |
| Pentacles | Earth | Body, work, money, everyday life, security | What do I have, what do I do? |
Fire and Air are regarded as active, outward-facing elements, Water and Earth as receptive, inward-facing ones. That alone helps: a reading full of Wands and Swords says “This is about action and conflict”, while one full of Cups and Pentacles says “This is about support and connection”.
Every element also has a darker side. Fire can burn, Water can flood, Air can cut, Earth can harden. That is why Swords is the suit with the most painful images: not because thinking is bad, but because thoughts can wound in a way no wand and no cup can.
The numbers from Ace to Ten
The ten numbers describe a development that runs the same way in every suit, just with different material. Imagine you are starting something new: a job, a relationship, a project. The numbers are the stages you pass through.
| Number | Core meaning | Wands | Cups | Swords | Pentacles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ace | Impulse, seed, pure potential | Spark, new enthusiasm | Feeling that overflows | Clear thought, breakthrough | Opportunity, offer, foundation stone |
| Two | Counterpart, choice, tension | Making plans, the world in your hand | Meeting as equals | Stalemate, closing your eyes | Juggling, keeping your balance |
| Three | First form, growth, cooperation | Waiting for results, foresight | Celebration, friendship | Heartache, painful truth | Craftsmanship, recognition |
| Four | Stability, structure, standstill | Festivity, homecoming, foundation | Surfeit, apathy | Rest, retreat, pause | Holding on, control |
| Five | Crisis, loss, friction | Scuffling, competition | Grief, eyes on what was spilled | Hollow victory, a quarrel that leaves losers | Hardship, being shut out |
| Six | Balance, movement, exchange | Success, recognition | Memories, childhood, a gift | Passage to calmer shores | Giving and receiving |
| Seven | Testing, assessment, standing firm | Holding your ground | Wishful images, illusion | Cunning, secrecy | Pausing, checking the harvest |
| Eight | Movement, pace, mastery | Rapid development | Walking away from what no longer sustains you | Trapped in your own thoughts | Diligence, practice |
| Nine | Almost there, abundance or exhaustion | Last line of defence, tenacity | Contentment, a wish fulfilled | Worries in the night | Independence, enjoyment |
| Ten | Completion, excess, conclusion | Burden, shouldering too much | Fulfilled togetherness | Rock bottom, but the end | Inheritance, family, permanence |
The sequence has a rhythm you can remember: Ace to Three build up, Four holds on, Five breaks open, Six balances, Seven tests, Eight moves, Nine fills, Ten completes. The odd numbers bring unrest and development, the even ones calm and form. That isn’t a law, but it is a guide that holds true surprisingly often.
How to work out an unfamiliar card
Suppose you draw a card you don’t know and have no dictionary to hand. Then you proceed in three steps:
- Determine the element. Which suit is it? In other words: which area of life is meant? Pentacles, so work, money, the body, the tangible.
- Determine the number. Which stage of the development? A Five, so crisis, loss, friction.
- Combine the two and compare them with the image. Crisis in the tangible: money troubles, illness, the feeling of being left out in the cold. And sure enough, the Five of Pentacles shows two people in the snow in front of a lit church window. The image confirms what you worked out and adds a nuance: help is close at hand, but the two of them don’t see it.
Another example: the Seven of Cups. Water, so feeling and imagination. Seven, so testing and assessment. Feelings that need to be tested: what is real here, and what is wishful thinking? The image shows seven cups in the clouds, filled with treasure, a snake, a laurel wreath and a veiled figure. A display full of possibilities, none of which can be grasped. The reasoning hits the mark.
And a third: the Four of Wands. Fire, so vigour and enterprise. Four, so stability and structure. An enterprise that has taken shape: the topping-out ceremony, the homecoming, the moment you see that something is standing. The image shows four wands with a garland of flowers, and people dancing behind them. It fits.
Where the system reaches its limits
Not every card fits neatly into the grid. By this logic, the Four of Cups ought to mean “stable feelings”, yet it shows a bored young man who doesn’t see the cup being offered to him: stability that has turned into inertia. The Six of Swords would be “balanced thinking”, yet it shows a silent crossing with bowed heads: balance as a passage after a loss. In 1909 Pamela Colman Smith often put human experience above pure system, and that’s a good thing.
So use number and element as a framework, not as a formula. They give you the direction; the image sets the tone. When the two come together, you are reading the card. When they contradict each other, the image is right, and the friction is often exactly the nuance that sets this one card apart from all the others. In the card dictionary you’ll find a detailed interpretation of each of the 40 number cards; with the grid in your head, you’ll be able to guess most of them in advance.