Major Arcana

The term "Major Arcana" refers collectively to the 22 suits

of trump cards found in a 72-card deck of Tarot cards (the Minor Arcana forming the respective 56). The word

"Arcana", meaning "secret", is mostly used in reference to occult or divinatory usages of the deck.

When viewed in order, the Major Arcana depict the "Fool's Journey", with each card representing a respective stage in life. Each of the Major Arcana encompasses a set of meanings relative to their part of the "journey", serving as a metaphor for the various aspects of life.

"They are psychological images, symbols with which one plays, as the unconscious seems to play with its contents. They combine in certain ways, and the different combinations correspond to the playful development of events in the history of mankind. Those are sort of archetypal ideas, of a differentiated nature, which mingle with the ordinary constituents of the flow of the unconscious."

Arcanists take this idea in earnest, assigning specific Arcana to different arcanists based on the archetypes

which best fit their personality and path in life.

The Arcana that one is associated with reflects many

factors about them: What their role is, how they'll

develop, what their past was like, and what they'll do in

the future.

Just as well, each persona, shadow and fiend in the forgotten realms can be associated with a specific

Arcana. Arcana type can reflect the compatibility

between a Persona user and others around them,

including fiends and even their own Persona.

Read through the description of each Arcana's

meaning and try to pick the one that you feel best

suits your character. An individual's Arcana isn't

something that one picks for themselves; it is

determined by the unconscious. Something

important to note is that though some “characters”

in the Arcana are given a certain gender (such as the

Priestess and Emperor), they are more meant to

embody “masculine” and “feminine” archetypes, not

concrete roles.

There are no inherently "good" or "bad" arcana: each

suit has its own set of positives and negatives. The beautiful part of Tarot reading is that there aren't any truly wrong answers--only different interpretations. A character's Arcana may even change over time or after undergoing a significant development, so don't stress if the suit you chose doesn't seem to fit after a while.

When interpreting the meaning of a Tarot card, drawing

it in the upside-down position can have different

connotations than when it is drawn right-side-up from

the deck. When considering your character's Arcana affiliation, you are free to take the reversed

interpretation into account if you so choose.

When a card is reversed, its meaning may be seen

as the "flipside" or "mirror" of that Arcana's usual

meaning. It may also indicate that the "energy"

of the card is diminished, akin to a current

attempting to flow uphill instead of down. Reversed

readings are often negative, but do not necessarily

have to be as a rule.