Greetings everyone!
After months of research, I’ve been gifted my first tarot deck earlier this month. I started working with my deck almost immediately, and had quite some success, both during readings for myself and for my friends. I’m still at the very start of my journey, but feel deeply connected to my deck already.
However, sometimes I have a hard time with figuring out if I should work with all 78 cards or just the Major Arcana. I’ve read about how the Major Arcana is typically used for bigger questions/intentions, or things that have been with us for a long time. The Minor Arcana was explained to be a bit less vague.
Do you recommend using the whole deck for daily readings for example? Or if you want to do a Celtic Cross, which Arcana fits best? Is it really only about the intention/question?
Thank you, and have an amazing rest of your day!
Hi there! How exciting! 
What do you feel most called to do? (I recommend trusting that answer above any you may receive, including mine.)
When I’m doing readings, whether daily or otherwise, I use the whole deck. Some years ago, I took a wonderful tarot course that I would recommend to anyone. As part of it, we drew three cards every day. For nine weeks. It helped me really learn the cards and start to see past their meanings.
Here’s one way of looking at the Major Arcana vs the Minor Arcana (and thank you for asking this because I really do need to do a post on this for the site): The Major Arcana is focused on archetypes and the big picture things. When these come up in a reading they are immovable. They are things that must be faced, worked on, experienced.
Minor cards, including the court cards, are the day to day things. You can do things in your life to change whether or not those will happen. That’s why they’re also great for daily readings.
Both can answer small or large questions. I think of the Major Arcana as shining a spotlight on things that are going to have a bigger impact.
Hope that helps.
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Thank you for the answer, this explanation helps a lot!
To be honest, I mostly used the deck like this as well. I really appreciate the directness I feel around the Minor Arcana cards, however when mixed in with the Major Arcana, they sometimes confuse things for me a little bit. It’s like I’m trying to look into a lake, but can only see the stream that’s keeping it up.
Do you think pulling clarity cards can help this, or should I just try to work more with the Minor Arcana? The sheer number of cards sometimes overwhelmes me, and I have to admit I avoided looking at the suits in their wholeness for a while.
Sorry if these are a bit too specific/personal questions, but I trust the guidance gained from here.
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Oh good! Yes, I agree - the majors make it very clear.
I think clarity cards can be helpful but they can also get like a bit like Uno where you’ve suddenly got the whole deck out on the table. Or maybe that’s just me haha.
There’s a lot in every card, but I will say what I think helped me the most was pulling three cards a day for those nine weeks and journaling about it. I simply pulled the cards, sat with the three for 10 minutes or so, then wrote down what came to me. If I needed to, I looked up the meaning. Then, I did that again the next day. I learned to zoom out from the individual cards and start to see the whole story.
Starting with just those three, and journaling about what was coming up, what I noticed, what the theme was, noticing which was the cards were facing (were they facing each other, or away), what suits were coming up, what was the dominant color (and what element does that connect to), etc. every day let me sink into the cards. And, I found it more helpful than pulling just one card, because I could start to read connections between the cards but it was much less overwhelming than doing the Celtic Cross. (It’s not to say you can’t do that spread, it’s just a lot of information to put together).
Ask anything about the cards - I try to pop in here every couple days or so. I’ll also keep publishing tarot content on the site that might be useful to you (you can find all of it here: https://www.pagangrimoire.com/category/tarot/) and might start a newsletter dedicated to explaining how to get into reading if there’s enough interest.
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These are extremely useful tips, and I love your articles!
Thank you for giving such clear explanations.
Have an amazing rest of your day!
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Thank you! You’re welcome You too and feel free to ask any questions. Sometimes it just takes me a little time to get back to them but they’re always welcome.
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Hi beautiful soul! I absolutely love this question, it’s one I ask myself often, even after a full year of being surrounded by tarot.
Personally, I lean toward working with the Major Arcana more often, especially for specific practices like “Arcana of the Day” or when I pull a card to connect with the moon’s energy. Sometimes I’ll decide afterward to add a Minor Arcana as a complementary message, it really depends on how the reading is unfolding. I usually stick to pulling 2–3 Major Arcana at most, just to keep the message clear and avoid overwhelm. But honestly, intuition is such a huge part of it. Tarot is a mirror for the soul, a direct line to our inner knowing, so whatever feels right for you in the moment is definitely the path to take.
Trust yourself, you’re already in flow with your deck. 
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Thank you so much for this, I really appreciate your kind words and the explanation!
I think I’ll try to mix these tips up a bit, because working on my intuitive skills is also a goal of mine.
Greetings!
I’m more traditional perhaps, but I’ve always been of the opinion that to get an honest reading, to always use the full deck. For daily readings, if you’re an absolute beginner, doing simple 3-card weekly or even daily 1-card readings is a way to start. If you’re struggling, even skipping readings altogether and just meditating on a single card a day works as well. Whatever feels the most organic to you to get to know the cards (especially if it’s not the traditional raider-waite deck).
Edit: The Major Arcana is like the personal journey of the soul as it goes through all the major cycles and stages of its life. The minor arcana are the finer details in between. I do think it helps to study them separately in the beginning.
Hope that helps!
Cheers.
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