Tarot Suits and Elements for Beginners

The Minor Arcana are 56 cards, and to a beginner that feels impossible to memorize. But the suit does half the work. If you can tell which suit a card belongs to, you already know which area of life it's talking about. This lesson covers the four tarot suits and their elements.

Four suits, four elements

Each suit has an element. It helps to picture it literally: what does fire do, what does water do.

Wands are Fire. Fire burns and moves. Wands are about action, work, energy, the urge to start something. A spread full of Wands means someone is doing something, or badly wants to. The full guide: suit of Wands.

Cups are Water. Water takes the shape of its container and reflects. Cups are about feelings and relationships, what happens on the inside. Lots of Cups means the question is really emotional, even if it was asked about work. A good first card to meet: Ace of Cups.

Swords are Air. Air is invisible, but it cuts like wind. Swords are about thoughts, words, decisions and conflict. Lots of Swords means the situation is happening more in someone's head than in real life. The full guide: suit of Swords.

Pentacles are Earth. Earth is solid and slow. Pentacles are about money, handiwork, the body, the home. Lots of Pentacles means the material side of things, and what takes a long time to build. The first card of the suit: Ace of Pentacles.

How the elements get along

This is the step that separates confident reading from reading off a list. Elements are either allies or rivals.

• Fire and Air support each other: wind fans the flame. Wands next to Swords is an idea that quickly turns into action.
• Water and Earth are allies too: water feeds the soil. Cups next to Pentacles is feeling with something solid under it, like a family and a home.
• Fire and Water clash: one puts out the other. Wands next to Cups is the urge to act getting in the way of feelings, or the reverse.
• Air and Earth don't understand each other well: thoughts with nothing to stand on, or work with no plan.

You don't need to memorize this as a rule. Just ask yourself whether neighboring cards help each other or pull in different directions.

Count the suits in a spread

A simple trick for any spread. Lay the cards out and count which suit shows up most.

If three cards out of five are Cups, the person is asking about money but is really thinking about a relationship. If every card is a Sword, it's time to stop overthinking and talk to someone out loud. If a suit is missing entirely, that's a clue too: no Pentacles in the spread means money isn't the main issue right now.

Exercise for the week

Every day, draw your card of the day and, before reading the description, name its suit and element in one sentence. For example: "Swords, air, lots of conversations today." After a week you'll recognize the area of a question faster than you can remember the card's name.

All 56 Minor Arcana cards, sorted by suit, are in our tarot card meanings section.

What's next

In lesson 4 we'll go through the numbers from Ace to Ten: they show what stage a situation is at.