A standard tarot deck contains seventy-eight cards in two unequal families: twenty-two trumps now called the Major Arcana and fifty-six suit cards called the Minor Arcana.
What the division describes
The Major Arcana are named and numbered images such as the Fool, the Tower and the World. The Minor Arcana use four suits, each with ten numbered cards and four court cards. “Major” and “minor” do not mean important and unimportant; they describe two structures with different jobs inside the deck.
The split is later terminology. Early Italian packs were playing cards with an additional trump sequence. Occult correspondences, divinatory keywords and the now-familiar narrative of the Fool developed through later reading traditions.
Choosing a deck to study
Choose one system and learn its internal grammar before mixing correspondences. Compare the publisher's card list, the court titles and the companion book. A complete historical edition should also state what earlier deck or artwork it reproduces.
Reading the two parts together
The trumps often frame the large condition or turning point; suit and court cards make the situation concrete through number, element, role and sequence. The useful distinction is scale, not rank.
