The Major Arcana are the load-bearing walls of a tarot reading; the Minor Arcana are the rooms you live in. One defines structure, the other defines daily experience.
Major Arcana (22 cards)
These represent archetypal forces and life-defining moments. When The Tower appears, something is collapsing — not your morning coffee order, but a belief system, a relationship foundation, an identity. Major cards carry weight. A reading dominated by Majors suggests you're in a period of significant transformation.
Minor Arcana (56 cards)
These track the texture of everyday life across four domains. In Chaos Tarot:
- Codes (Air) — Thought, communication, analysis
- Networks (Water) — Emotion, relationships, intuition
- Signals (Fire) — Will, passion, action
- Vectors (Earth) — Material reality, work, health
Each suit runs Ace through 10 (numbered cards showing a progression) plus four court cards (Page, Knight, Queen, King) representing personality aspects or people in your life.
The practical difference: if a Minor card appears, you're dealing with something manageable and specific. If a Major appears, pay closer attention — the universe is underlining something.