How does one use a majors-only deck?

[cuileann]

I'm a relative newbie, and I don't quite understand why a deck would be majors only, or how one would use such a deck. Nonetheless, I now own one, because I couldn't resist the art!

 

Any thoughts, musings, answers welcome!

Edited May 5, 2021 by cuileann

[HOLMES]

The main thing to realize every card is a major force while in the minors  you have more stuff that deals with mundane events. The only major deck i had was the lovers tarot. 

Just use it sparingly would my advice for like a fools journey spread. 

[katrinka]

I tend to treat them like a full pack: just ask a question and draw. People like Wirth apparently considered the Majors alone sufficient. 😉
And I've read that Continental readers tend to separate the Majors and Minors when reading anyway. So if you read playing cards, Lenormand, or similar, you can put a supplemental small draw of Majors on the side. 
Whatever you do, I think it's important not to constantly view them as life-altering, especially in this situation. The Majors may be weightier in contrast with the Minors, but in actual practice, they can and do refer to regular, day-to-day events.

[legendaryelement]

You can search for “majors only tarot spread” and many blog posts will come up.

https://beingdoingtarot.com/tarot-major-arcana-only-reading/

 

https://www.biddytarot.com/major-arcana-tarot-spreads/

 

http://www.tabulamundi.com/tabula-mundi-tarot-major-arcana-only-decks-and-how-to-use-them/

[TheLoracular]

The only Major Arcana tarot I own is the H.R. Giger Tarot and I've never actually done divination with it.  I got it back in the early 90s during my "goth phase" for basically that same reason:  I liked the art and what looking at it provoked for me.   I still pull it out and admire it for its... alieness... sometimes XD  

I have done Major only readings though with other decks, either for something Qabalistic and a path on the Tree of Life (because each Major Arcana can be linked to one of the 22 paths) or looking for specific archetypes for myself or a querent.   Most of these Major-only readings have been just 1 card draws, 3 at most but I think there's a lot more in those links @legendaryelement provided which are great resources.

[JudyReadsCards]

12 hours ago, katrinka said:

I tend to treat them like a full pack: just ask a question and draw... 

[I]t's important not to constantly view them as life-altering... in actual practice, they can and do refer to regular, day-to-day events.

 

This. ☝

I have an old fortune telling deck that's only 12 cards. If it's possible for someone to read with that, 22 cards should pose no difficulty. 🙂

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, JudyReadsCards said:

 

This. ☝

I have an old fortune telling deck that's only 12 cards. If it's possible for someone to read with that, 22 cards should pose no difficulty. 🙂

 

Well hello! 😁

Yes, and there's only 24 runes, and a lot of them are associated with gods. But you can consult them about anything. 
And there are those witch's runes, there's only 13 of those. But they work.
12 cards would work. It's only when you go way down - maybe to a binary system like a coin flip - that you lose accuracy, IME. 

[Guest]

90 % of the tarot readings I do are with the 21 trumps and Fool cards. These cards do not need to be seen as archetypes or such like. They can be events and mundane.
 

I don’t see these cards are major or more important than the pips. 

[devin]

42 minutes ago, timtoldrum said:

90 % of the tarot readings I do are with the 21 trumps and Fool cards. These cards do not need to be seen as archetypes or such like. They can be events and mundane.
 

I don’t see these cards are major or more important than the pips. 

 

Same here. But with the addition of the aces, as I find they add some extra perspectives to a reading. 

 

In fact, I must start readings with pips again, don't want to get too rusty. 🤔

Edited May 6, 2021 by devin

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, devin said:

Same here. But with the addition of the aces, as I find they add some extra perspectives to a reading. 

 

In fact, I must start readings with pips again, don't want to get too rusty.

True. I know others that add the aces and courts.

 

I’m having a break from tarot right now. But I do enjoy an occasional pip or two as a treat lol

[HOLMES]

2 hours ago, timtoldrum said:

90 % of the tarot readings I do are with the 21 trumps and Fool cards. These cards do not need to be seen as archetypes or such like. They can be events and mundane.
 

I don’t see these cards are major or more important than the pips. 

 

I wonder if it is that language thing again. For what i understand lots of book on the marseille when over here for years i thought the marseilles was an ancient dead tarot. Then over the years learned differntly. 

I think it every english tarot book always divided up the major and minor. With emphasis on major over minor

 

I supposed aftet reading your post imagining myself access to only 22 cards i would read for mundane events. Probably only 3 cards spreads ? 

Ohh  i found i was starting to read my tarot as combos more, i dislike the book on tarot combos though. 

 

I do have a couple of major only majors book.living the tarot, the rabbis tarot, the christian tarot (exact  name escapes me )

 

 

 

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, HOLMES said:

I think it every english tarot book always divided up the major and minor. With emphasis on major over minor

Most Anglo-American literature is derivative, yes. There was, however, greater diversity in the earlier part of the 20th century. 

 

But these days, so many believe that the Smith-Waite was/is standard. So they follow a model laid out by Eden Grey. There was never a standard tradition.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Guest

[cuileann]

Wow! I'm still getting a feel for this site and this is amazing already. Thank you all so much for your interesting and illuminating replies - much appreciated.

[PathWalker]

So - from a few years ago, I am reviving this thread. I have just counted my majors decks and there's "quite a few" LOL

Off to check out the links from above, but anyone got anything new to add.

Persuade me why I should keep and use them?

Thanks

PathWalker

[gregory]

I use them as I would any other deck. Shuffle, draw and read. What reason is there NOT to read with them, @PathWalker  ?

[Tanga]

4 hours ago, PathWalker said:

So - from a few years ago, I am reviving this thread. I have just counted my majors decks and there's "quite a few" LOL

Off to check out the links from above, but anyone got anything new to add.

Persuade me why I should keep and use them?

Thanks

PathWalker

 

Errrr... why do you need persuasion?

Some people learn majors only methods of reading. 

I am ingrained into an RWS format as that is what was around and what I 1st learned with.  But I do use my Next Generation Tarot majors only - because I can't read pip decks, and was so disgusted that they didn't bother with the minors I removed them. LOL.

[Chariot]

I agree, about reading with only Majors, if that's what you want to do.  Try doing it, and see how it works for you.  Ask yourself: Do you get a result that turns out to be accurate after events have played out?  Do you get a reading that's understandable when you do the reading, so you can apply the reading to upcoming situations?  See what works.  You can also use reversals, which can help increase the tarot's vocabulary.  Just experiment.

I would add, what others said earlier, though.  Be aware that tarot books, etc, tend to regard Majors as more important—even pivotal—moments.  So...be careful not to 'catastrophise' the results of a reading.  Death ...omg, somebody's going to die?  Erm, no, probably not.  But perhaps you have finally finished a task and won't be returning to it again.  Stuff like this.

Edited March 28 by Chariot

[gregory]

@PathWalker has, I think, been reading for long enough not to rely on books. And anyway - if you are reading only with majors, there's no mileage at all in whether they are more important than minors - if the majors are all there is, that argument falls !

 

But my big thing is still - what reason is there NOT to use them ?

[Sar]

On 5/5/2021 at 5:11 AM, cuileann said:

I'm a relative newbie, and I don't quite understand why a deck would be majors only, or how one would use such a deck. Nonetheless, I now own one, because I couldn't resist the art!

 

Any thoughts, musings, answers welcome!

Read them as usual. Do not even think about the minors, they are not there. 

[DanielJUK]

Many Marseilles readers, only use Majors spreads and readings. There are many spreads out there for use with Marseilles but I think you could adapt them for whatever Majors decks you want to read with.

 

Philippe Camoin has the Spread of Le Mat (or Spread of the Pilgrim) he published.

From his blog....

https://en.camoin.com/tarot/Three-Card-Spread.html

 

It's 3 cards. and it's the classic past, present and future. He says it's an essential spread for majors readings.

"The part of the path that is behind him, is his past. The part of the path where he finds himself now, is the present. And the part that he has not reached, his future"

Jodorowsky took that 3 card spread and made a more complex 7 card thread which uses maths.

From Mary Greer's blog....

https://marykgreer.com/2009/09/04/jodorowskys-three-card-theosophic-sum-spread/

 

Just some spreads to try before making any decisions 🙂 

[PathWalker]

Thank you all for your input.

I think I may be being hijacked by my linear thinking pattern. As in, I learnt with a 78 card deck, therefore a 22 card deck is something COMPLETELY different!

 

 

[gregory]

2 hours ago, PathWalker said:

Thank you all for your input.

I think I may be being hijacked by my linear thinking pattern. As in, I learnt with a 78 card deck, therefore a 22 card deck is something COMPLETELY different!

 

 

 

 

Sounds about right.

 

Unless your 78 card decks don't include Empresses and Towers.... (DV decks don't count on that one.)

[Nemia]

I have a number of Majors-only decks, and I use them just as I would any other deck. Each Major has a lot of information anyway, and if you know you won't have any minors, you can consider the more "mundane" aspects of the Majors as well. And if you know your cards well, you are aware that most Majors are connected to Minors. In order to remember which is associated with which, you should know the astrological associations and of course the elements. 

 

All Majors associated with cardinal signs (Aries: the Emperor; Cancer: the Chariot); Libra (Justice); Capricorn (the Devil) are associated with the Two, Three and Four of their elements. The Queens are also associated with the cardinal signs. 

 

All Majors associated with fixed signs (Taurus: the Hierophant; Leo: Strength; Scorpio: Death; Aquarius: the Star) are associated with the Five, Six and Seven of their elements. The Knights are also associated with the fixed signs. 

 

All Majors associated with mutable signs (Gemini: the Lovers; Virgo: the Hermit; Sagittarius: Temperance; Pisces: the Moon) are associated with the Eight, Nine and Ten of their elements. The Kings are also associated with mutable signs. 

 

So if you're stuck with a Major that doesn't tell you anything, you might think about the Minors that go along with it, and maybe find an echo there, a pattern or a theme. 

 

Another, more remote or difficult possibility to find echoes of Minors in the Majors is the planetary ruler. Let's say you have the Tower, ruled by Mars. 

 

 

If you are a Thothie, you probably know the Minors ruled by Mars: Two of Wands, Three of Disks, Five of Cups, Seven of Wands, Nine of Swords and Ten of Cups. Does any of these echo with you? Well, that would mean throwing your net out pretty wide... and it's probably less practical than the zodiac associations, which are so easy to remember. 

 

Anyway, the Majors and Minors are connected in many ways, and even when you work "only" with the Majors, the Minors are still there as a quiet presence, and you can call them to help you when you feel you're stuck. 

 

However, you won't usually need that anyway. 

 

I sometimes do Majors Only readings with full decks when I want to focus on deeper issues. Another possibility is to divide the deck and do a "split reading". Let the Majors tell you about root problems and destiny; the Courts about people and character traits; the Minors about how it all plays out. I did that in some of my ancestral readings and it gave me very clear answers. 

 

[AnomalyTempest]

4 hours ago, Nemia said:

Let the Majors tell you about root problems and destiny; the Courts about people and character traits; the Minors about how it all plays out.

Oh what a great idea. I love this as a writer. I often use tarot when I'm in writing slump and this really sounds fun and informative

 

 

[Misterei]

@PathWalker

 

I use my Majors Only Piedmontese deck with a 1926 version of Tirage en Croix--a traditional majors-only spread. [although there are options to add minors] I use this spread fairly often with Majors Only

Here is an example from my personal journal of doing a Majors Only Tirage en Croix [French Cross]

 

Here is @akiva post about how he does french cross / tirage en croix.

I will add to his post that this version was published by Oswald Wirth in 1926 but Wirth learnt it from Peladan who had been using it for years before.

I have an instructional video for Tirage en Croix / French Cross posted on my YT channel but self-promotion is prohibited here -- it's out there should you wish to find it. 

 

I also have one Majors only deck that I purchased JUST for the artwork. Arcani I Gatti cat Tarot by Il Meneghello.  

I never read with it--but ADORE the art work and just thumb through the cards to cheer me up every once in a while.

On 3/25/2026 at 3:47 PM, Tanga said:

Some people learn majors only methods of reading. 

I am ingrained into an RWS format as that is what was around and what I 1st learned with.  But I do use my Next Generation Tarot majors only - because I can't read pip decks, and was so disgusted that they didn't bother with the minors I removed them. LOL.

As you mention, many old school TdM readers only used the majors and didn't particularly bother with minors.

I also ended up with a "majors only" deck b/c I have a deck which i liked the Trionfi but detested the Courts. So I ended up throwing away the minors and keeping only the Majors. Et voila! A majors-only deck 😉

On 3/27/2026 at 4:22 AM, DanielJUK said:

Many Marseilles readers, only use Majors spreads and readings. There are many spreads out there for use with Marseilles but I think you could adapt them for whatever Majors decks you want to read with.

Exactly. I use my majors only deck with French Cross.

All in all, I tend to avoid Majors-only decks. Even with French Cross I like the option to use minors for clarification if necessary.

Yet, there is a real simplicity to throwing a French Cross with all majors. It usually gives a direct and unambiguous answer.

Edited March 29 by Misterei