Living The Major Arcana Everyday

While the Major Arcana of the tarot represents ancient archetypes, and deep rooted symbolism, these big seemingly external forces are also at play in many ways through our every day within us. While I encourage the student of tarot to contemplate how these arise in their daily lives, below is a quick summary of examples in which I tend to see these archetypes make way into our microcosm daily.

0 — The Fool

Every morning when you wake up you are The Fool. You have a choice to make. How will you start this day? Let each day be a new one, fully reborn as the unassuming. Be joyful and start the day with a leap of faith that divinity will catch you, and today will be a good day.

1 — The Magician

Now you are up and inputting your will into the world. You are acting as the creator, setting intentions and manifesting the world as you see it. Use this opportunity to put forth good intent, and create magnificent change.

2 — The High Priestess

To create this magical intention we seek divine guidance and use our intuition to guide us in our actions. Those card as part of your day represents that moment of divine assistance, in drawing in that light to align with your self for the day.

3 — The Empress

Now we truly create. Pregnant with ideas our day really begins as we prepare to birth our intentions and actions into the material world. One should enter their workday especially with the intention to make something beautiful, while appreciating and seeing the beauty that surrounds us.

4 — The Emperor

Then things get serious. Having our plans set forth for the day we claim dominion over our selves. We are in control of our kingdom and like the king on his throne we expect things to go our way and fall into place. This isn’t a bad thing by any means as long as you seek to control YOUR self, YOUR ego, YOUR actions. Never try and control others, that is their own kingdom to deal with.

5 — The Hierophant

Speaking of other, here is where authority comes into play. A teacher, a boss, even a book can act as Hierophant during your day. Shown as a religious figure this can most certainly be a moment of spiritual teaching or guidance. A reflection into the doctrines that help us along our paths.

6 — The Lovers

Union, conflict, duality. This is where the one becomes two and often we must make a decision. This is also about uniting your lower self and higher self into alignment consciously, so on the daily this can most certainly be represented by something as simple as that extra cup of coffee you know you shouldn’t have while your adrenal glands beg for more. What choice will you make?

7 — The Chariot

Well what did you choose? Victory! Hopefully. This card represents overcoming that obstacle or tough decision and pressing forward through your day. You are the charioteer and in some ways regardless of the choice you made you must continue forward, even if this means you have to deal with the consequences later of having that extra cup of coffee. At least those wheel are spinning fast?

8 — Strength

Now that we have faced the choices and made the decision we had an opportunity to show our strength. The true courage it takes to make even those seemingly small decisions, because no matter what we have to face that lion, and by divine grace may we tame its fiery side.

9 — The Hermit

Now it’s time for inner reflection. A choice has been made and we can step back wiser from it. This could also be a quick break, a moment to yourself to check back in with the wise one that guides you. Yourself. Especially on those most hectic of days in which big decisions were made and action took place, some time to withdrawal is necessary.

10 — The Wheel of Fortune

That portion of your day is now complete. Wow, that’s a lot and you probably haven’t even had lunch yet. Now we have completed a cycle of sorts and it is up to the karmic wheel of fate to unfold the next half of our day before us, so that we may use all that we have already experienced to start the next chapter.

11 — Justice

The scales of balance are always in place. Constantly shifting and swaying from moment to moment. Each action you took today had a reaction even on the most minute of scales, constantly adding weight to one side or another. The key here is to stay balanced through the day in different ways. Don’t burn yourself out in any one thing (especially work) Take a minute to breathe, go on a walk, try something different. Be disciplined in balancing your mental health needs with that of what is needed from you in the physical realm so that each day isn’t just a perpetual cycle towards severity.

12 — Hanged Man

While there is a lot to this card it’s most prevalent interpretation has to do with sacrifice. We sacrifice something everyday, the most valuable and on a consistent basis would be time. Of course this sacrifice could come in many forms, but our time is something that everyone values, and the external world wants a lot of it. This is a reminder to be discerning in what you’re sacrificing time for. A friend in need is always worth it, but maybe sacrificing your time to social media is not. Be mindful of what is sacrificed and for what?

13 — Death

We all die a little bit each day, but even more symbolically this death represents an ego death or a transformative death, something we should strive to undergo everyday. Things shouldn’t always be as suspected, and we have to let that part of us that wanted it to be a certain way go so that we can live in the now and move forward in acceptance of whatever transformation or change we had to make in our day. Let go of what you thought and continue evolving.

14 — Temperance

What do we learn from this acceptance of our little ego deaths? More balance. Tempering all of the elements of our life into harmonious synthesis so that we may move along more in control and in tune than before. The weighing the scales, the sacrifice, the transformation, we are now in a better spot than ever in our day to bring it all together in harmony.

15 — Devil

Then this guy shows up. The ol’ Devil card and the next card are probably the most improperly feared cards in the Major Arcana (besides Death of course), but really the Devil card in my opinion is about our ties to Earthly inclinations. Unless you’re a level 99 monk in the Himalayas chances are you are tied to physical things, people, habits, desires. A lust for life isn’t a bad thing, and deriving pleasure from our existence shouldn’t really be shunned, as on the path of self development it is learned that the Devils around us can’t be ignored, but must be addressed and satiated properly. Hence, the Temperance needed going into this daily temptation of whatever it may be for you.

16 — Tower

While the Tower may most certainly be seen as gigantic destruction of the old, why not live a little Tower everyday? For me there is always something in myself that I have to deal with being destroyed. An assumption, a belief, an expectation. What we build in place of the crumbled Tower is what is important. Let those false assumptions burn away and much like the Death card we can do so much more if we accept and move on rather than sit and mourn our losses. A lot of people don’t like to be wrong, and chances are we are all wrong more often than we’d like, so be open to accept your own wrong whatever it is, and let truth be built in its place.

17 — Star

As we build ourselves back up in the evening from all that is transpired let us revel in our dreams and hopes, for from the Tower this is what builds our new reality, what we want to make of tomorrow while still in today has a big influence on how that next day may or may not go. Always plan for success, and always plan to get one step closer to fulfilling your dreams, but be open to change and malleable like water, so some hopes and dreams aren’t always what they seem.

18 — Moon

It is time to reflect. Coming down from our days in the evening our minds unwind and play back various happenings from the day, but don’t be deceived! These are memories from our perspective, and memory is tricky. Don’t get caught up in the watery emotions of what you should have done or what you should have said. The day is done, and as the night begins don’t get caught up in your shadows, keep moving towards the light of a new and ever brighter day.

19 — Sun

The Sun card in its simplicity represents happiness, and not only should this regularly be experienced throughout your day, but happiness should especially be experienced at the end of the day. These previous reflections and recollections have a lot to do with processing, but here we want to just let that shining light brighten our souls as we give thanks and meditate on all of the love and awesomeness we get to partake in each day. Even if you had a particularly bad day, there are often nuggets of simple pleasures laced throughout that you may be able to garner some happiness out of in retrospect. Don’t forget the good that happens each day.

20 — Judgment

If we are to look at this card as a literal judgment when it comes to our daily lives then let this be an internal judgment, and give yourself a break. You’ve done all you can for today. The call came and you answered. You lived through another rotation, ripe with feeling, emotions, love, and even transformation! It is time to let go and rejoice in the trumpets of triumph. You rose to the occasion, even in the face of adversity.

21 — The World

Now we have reached an even greater completion, and the world dancer soothes us into the end of our day. We have the four elements present, the wreath of cyclical completion, and the duality of ourselves on the daily all at play and in perfect harmony. As we wrap up our day this call to our higher selves and true purpose should always be acknowledged as we settle down and aspire to get even closer tomorrow to serving our true purpose, just as we did today.

0 — The Fool

Here we are, at the end but entering the beginning again. As we drift off to sleep we should all become the fool again. Stepping off the ledge of this reality and into our dreams where we are once again renewed with the knowledge of what was experienced previously so that we may be reborn in the morning as the fool. Starting out our day with trust and limitless potential. Let go of what has already happened and accept what is on its way.

Feel free to comment with ways you’ve seen the tarot take shape on a consistent basis in your own life.