A Tarot deck consists of 78 cards. They are divided into 22 Major Arcana, or (less esoteric) trump cards, and 56 Minor Arcana or suit cards. The latter are subdivided into 4 suits with 14 cards each.

The four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles/Disks) are the same as Clubs, Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds in the French deck of ordinary playing cards. The order of the 14 cards is also almost identical; they are numbered from 1 (Ace) to 10, followed by the four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen, and King (which, depending on the deck, may sometimes have different names and genders).

If you remove the Major Arcana and take out the Knight, you have 52 cards with which you can play Rummy or Poker. If you then set aside all the cards from Two to Six, you have a Skat deck with 32 cards.

The numbered cards of the Minor Arcana reflect everyday life themes and situations. The court cards are considered more difficult to interpret; they can represent people, but they can also personify something or show corresponding aspects within the self. More on that later. If you follow the card sequence from Ace to 10, a development emerges for each suit. The Ace is a beginning, the 2 a duality, the 3 a first step, the 4 stability, in the 5 a conflict emerges, in the 6 it is (partially) resolved, the 7 is almost a happy ending, in the 8 a plateau is reached or something significant changes again, the 9 is the climax, and the 10 finally the conclusion. Very, very roughly. Certainly not every book and guru share this view. I have read it in various forms in various places over the years and find it mostly consistent.*

The suits are, of course, more than just suits. Each is assigned to an element, just like the zodiac signs, and represents a specific area of life or quality. The Wands (Fire) represent will, creativity, energy. The Cups (Water) deal with the emotional world, the unconscious, and of course all things romantic. Swords (Air) are associated with the mind, thinking, the rational. And the Pentacles or Coins (Earth) deal with the material, which includes both the body with all health issues and finances. One can, of course, read even more into it.

The Major Arcana (Arcanum, by the way, means mystery) address major life themes, fate, the path of life. They are numbered from 0 to XXI and tell (more or less) a story. The 0 is the Fool, who steps out into the world freely and naively. Another beginning. The I is the Magician, the master of all four elements/suits. Then follows the High Priestess (II), who is associated with intuition, among other things. III and IV are the Empress and Emperor, often viewed as the mother and father of the Fool. The V is the Hierophant, who represents institutions (church, school, education), for example. The VI are the Lovers, duality. The VII is the Chariot, now things are picking up speed! Then comes Strength with the VIII, which you need for this endeavor. IX, the Hermit, signals retreat and introspection. With X follows the Wheel of Fortune, and the first cycle ends.

With XI, Justice, a new cycle begins. XII, the Hanged Man, shows stagnation or a change in perspective. Death with the overused number XIII brings change and something new. Temperance, XIV, warns against extremes and exuberance. The Devil, XV, indicates bonds through unhealthy dependencies. With XVI, the Tower, everything falls apart, rock bottom, before with the Star, XVII, miracles suddenly can happen. The Moon (XVIII) points to the hidden and unconscious, with the radiance of the Sun, XIX, everything will turn out well. XX, Judgment (Last Judgment) calls for one’s own resurrection, with the World (XXI) everything is victoriously in balance. All’s well that ends well.

You can also assign elements, planets, and all sorts of things to the Major Arcana, and numerology can be pursued in various ways. But you don’t have to.

Well, and at some point I just had the desire to make something cool and coherent out of this system. That’s how the idea came about to design a card deck for the Creative Thesis that uses the structure of Tarot and implements the basic idea of this activity book for »more creativity«. Only better than a book ever could. And without mysticism and fortune-telling.

Besides Skat and Rummy evenings, Tarot cards can be used primarily for various readings. The simplest is drawing a single card. Either as an inspiring card for the day or as an answer to a question, for example: »What should I focus on today?« You get the Fool and can start your day happily and naively. If you like it more complex, you can draw several cards for a predefined spread. There are some very well-known spreads, and in every Tarot book I’ve ever opened, the authors have come up with additional spreads of their own. But you can also just ask a question, draw three or four cards, and interpret them in context. Tarot is not rocket science

Normally, cards are drawn face down, so you see the back of the cards and draw randomly. Preferably, of course, by holding the cards with your right hand near your heart and selecting with your left. Intuition, the universe, and a pinch of magic then bring forth the answer. Or not. I’ve drawn a lot of cards. Often they made sense, sometimes not. Much more important than right or left or magical rituals seems to me the personal interpretation and resonance. If I have a romantic issue, the handsome Page of Cups will naturally appeal to me, and I understand what the cards want to tell me. With other cards, it would be less clear. I would have to think further outside the box, use my imagination, allow ideas. Be creative?

Tarot cards (in my personal opinion) don’t give answers; they only provide impulses. Prompts for reflection, for contemplation. And that’s enough – because, as we all know, sometimes it only takes the right impulse at the right time to break up a long-held knot. The impulse can be found in conversations as well as in reading a good book or watching the Tatort on Sunday evening (Tatort is a pretty down to earth crime series on the german television). The cards are, in my opinion, a fantastic medium to approach the process more consciously.

For the sake of completeness, it should also be mentioned that Tarot cards can be read right-side up and upside down. Some do it, some don’t. I don’t. If you draw/lay a card here and it appears upside down, so that the bottom is up and the sky is down, it is also interpreted in the opposite way. The Fool upside down could then mean that the situation requires more seriousness and maturity. This seems quite complicated to me, and even more complicated in the context of several cards in a layout with fixed meanings. And for me, each card carries its opposite anyway. That’s why I, like many others, have always interpreted the cards only right-side up. From this, however, an interesting detail emerges for the design: In order to have the possibility of using cards right-side up and upside down, the backs of the cards don’t just have to be identical (otherwise you can’t draw randomly face down), they should also be symmetrical; otherwise, I can see beforehand where top and bottom are. Exciting – especially since the Crowley cards are not symmetrical on the back.

No less exciting is the medium of a card deck itself. Not only because of the variety in application but also because of the format. Depending on which card size you choose, you have about the size of a smartphone screen available for the design. And when you look at how much symbolism and meaning and storytelling each card holds, that’s quite a challenge.

Okay. Highly complex project, amazing topic, challenge in design, feelings of complete overwhelm. Absolute madness.*

This is exactly what I want to do for my thesis!