minor arcana pips in readings

Today on CARD TALK, I’ll cover:
-why the pips are great, actually
-four ways to interpret these cards in readings
-suggestions for getting comfortable with pips

Resources mentioned:
Next Level Tarot lecture series
3am.tarot conservatory membership

For more on Meg, check out 3amtarot.com, and order your copy of Finding the Fool through Bookshop.org or your favorite local bookstore.

Find episode transcripts and more over on the CARD TALK website. And as a special thank you for CARD TALK listeners, click here to download a completely free, exclusive workbook for building your best personal tarot practice.

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Chapters

• 0:11 Interpreting Minor Arcana Pip Cards
• 6:09 Interpreting Minor Arcana Pips

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

I'm Meg Jones-Wall and this is Card Talk, a mini podcast for tarot basics and evergreen insights. I'm here to help you build a tarot practice that works for you. Glad you're here. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about how to interpret minor arcana pip cards when they show up in your readings. Now, if you haven't listened to the most recent episode before this one and have no idea what I mean when I say the word pip, I lovingly highly recommend pausing this episode and going back and listening to the last one, because in that episode, I give you a general overview on the minor arcana in general, as well as the portion of the minor arcana that we're talking about right now, which are the numbered minor arcana cards of the tarot. These are the suited cards, numbered one through 10 or ace through 10. That episode is going to be helpful for you. So, now that we're all on the same page.

Speaker 1: 1:03

The major arcana gets a lot of press in the tarot, but there are 40 of these pip cards in the deck, which means that actually it's the biggest section of the tarot, even when we're breaking the minor arcana up into pips and court cards. Now what that means is that, while tarot is very magical and does its thing. Statistically, it is not unlikely that you're going to pull these cards fairly regularly. Now I think that when a lot of folks are new to the tarot, they make the mistake of not taking these cards very seriously or not thinking that they are particularly important in the reading, especially when a major arcana card shows up in a reading, like if you're doing a reading with multiple cards and you have a few pips and then a major. I think often the minors just sort of get lumped in with the majors or the major is the star of the reading and any other card that shows up becomes ancillary or like it's just chiming in. It's just there to be supportive and honestly, I think that's due to in large part, a lot of writers and teachers and content creators.

Speaker 1: 2:02

We focus on the majors too right. The majors are big cards. They're complex, they're nuanced, they have a million correspondences, they're confusing as hell and they're flashy right, they're sexy, they're interesting. There's so much to dig into. Plus, the majors are often the cards that people who are new to the tarot see first or might know about before they ever start handling the cards. Even in books you'll often see that the section on the majors is a lot bigger. The major arcana cards will literally have more pages per card than the minor arcanas do. It makes the majors in every way feel like the most important aspect of the tarot.

Speaker 1: 2:40

But, as I wrote in my first book, every day is not a major arcana day and like thank God for that, some days we're tired. Some days we don't want a big soul level, transformative experience. We don't want to do massive introspection or change. Some days we just want to chill and live our lives and just get through it. Every day is not a major arcana day, which means that every reading does not have to be a major arcana reading. Some days get to be focused, some days get to be quiet, some days get to be joyful or painful or just real in an everyday mundane kind of way. Now remember, as I stressed in the last episode, every day or mundane does not mean insignificant or unimportant, but every single thing that happens doesn't have to completely change us right. Some days we just are going to sit and do our work. Some days we're just going to go have a drink with a beloved friend. Some days we're just going to go grocery shopping and take care of our home. Some days we're just going to rest because we don't feel that great right. Sometimes things just happen and we have to just live our lives and I think that these numbered PIP cards, this 40 card section of the deck, really represents those daily life moments, the good, the bad, and the kind of just okay, that day happened, sort of days. Now that might sound great in theory, but what does that look like in practice?

Speaker 1: 3:55

When minor arcana pip cards come up in our readings, how do we interpret them? I'm going to talk about four major ways that you can understand these cards when they show up in your readings and you can start working them in a practical way so that you know what to do when these cards show up in your readings. The first and perhaps simplest way to interpret these cards when they show up in your readings is to read them like the energy or the vibe. In other words, this is interpreting these cards as a way of acknowledging how you already feel. I love thinking about these cards as helping you put language to, or clarity around, an emotion, sensation, desire, need, insecurity, worry, boundary or something else that is literally already present.

Speaker 1: 4:41

Sometimes the tarot is really good at helping us recognize something that is already inside of us or that we're already acting on, naming a choice that might feel bigger than we realize, naming an emotion that we've been struggling with but haven't really let ourselves sit down to process, etc. And so I think that these cards in particular can be great about saying, hey, you feel tired, right, and that can be really affirming when it shows up in our readings in just a very simple but soothing way. So the first way is really to think about these as the energy or the vibe that is already present. The second way you can interpret minor arcana pips in your readings is as a motivation and similar to energy and vibe. This is really naming something that is present or might be becoming more clear, as a way of helping you recognize it and embrace it and understand it. In other words, this is the cards naming a want or a need or a purpose and really helping to clarify something that is driving you forward, providing a sense of urgency or perhaps causing you to slow down, hold back or reconsider. Your motivation is really what's propelling you forward or living underneath the choices that you're already making, and sometimes being able to associate your motivation with a specific minor arcana card can again just feel really affirming. It's just a way of clarifying what's already going on and helping you give language to it and see it more clearly.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Third, I'm going to give you one of my favorite ways to interpret the minor arcana pips when they show up in a reading, and that is seeing them as the point in the cycle or the story beat that you were in. Now I talk a lot about numerological cycles and story arcs and narratives and especially if you're interested in numerology, this is a particularly interesting way to interpret the cards. But it's really about showing you where in the larger story or cycle you are. For example, an ace might be representing that you're in the beginning of something, that something is being initiated or being activated, that a new idea or emotion or desire is starting to pop up. A five might represent the messy middle right, that there's an opportunity for an expansive pivot or for a change in direction. A two or seven even could indicate a moment of choice or a need to check in with the self and take action that is deeply authentic.

Speaker 1: 7:03

And a nine could represent an ending or a change in direction or the recognition that something needs to be released, simply by acknowledging the number and the place in the cycle that we are or the part of the suit that we're in can really help to ground you and anchor you into the narrative. It can be a great way of reminding you how far you've already come and where you might be heading next. And it can also help you, by looking at the cards that came before it and the cards that come after, really orient yourselves. And that really leads nicely into the final way that I like to interpret these pips, which is as practical advice. When you know where you are in the story, you can start to anticipate what might be coming next or really process again the motivation that is propelling you to the next step. And when we interpret these cards as practical advice, we can think about the pips as being able to offer us something really tangible and realistic, something that you can do right now or in the immediate future to make progress, to find clarity, to act with integrity, to step back from rushing, to change direction or whatever else you might need in this particular moment. I love using tarot for practical advice because it just gives the cards a chance to give you some straight up insight, to suggest some guidance or to give you a really practical next step, something that you can just hang on to and say okay, now I know what to do today.

Speaker 1: 8:25

The Minor Arcana pips are really versatile because, again, like we talked about in the last episode, those correspondences give us a lot of space to explore. The combination of elemental energy and numerological energy gives us so many things to play with and so many potential meanings for these cards. So don't be fooled by their simplicity. Just because, with a lot of Rider-Waite-Smith or Solobusca inspired imagery, it seems like it's pointing to a particular emotion, a particular moment in time or a vibe or a meaning, does not mean that you can't find tons more depth there when you actually give them your attention. You don't have to read the card only as the meaning that's depicted on your particular version of a deck. You really get to make these cards your own and I think with the pips there's so much space for that because of the beauty and magic that are inherently baked into the correspondences associated with each of these cards.

Speaker 1: 9:21

Now, even for single card readings, these pips have a lot to offer. But, as I said at the beginning of this episode, especially if you're doing multi-card readings or using spreads, if you're pulling a lot of cards at once, it's pretty likely that you're going to end up with a couple of these cards showing up in your readings. So, really taking the time, both outside of readings and within your readings, to build relationships with these cards, to learn how to connect them to your own story and your own self, as well as learning how to connect them to each other and to the majors and the court cards All of this is going to give you a lot of additional richness and nuance and really give you the opportunity to let your readings become deeper and richer and more powerful. The longer you read tarot and this is also my best advice If one of these cards come up and for using a spread, or you ask your cards a question and one of these cards shows up and it doesn't really seem to answer your question, right, if you ask about like I'm really tired, I'm really struggling with energy, I'm really struggling with focus, I'm not sure what to do, and you pull a card like the priestess, it might feel fairly clear what you might want to do, right? The priestess is so often associated with introspection and authenticity, and checking in, delving into mystery, listening to the self, you might be like, oh cool, I'm just going to slow down, do what I have to do to get through the day and really take some time to meditate and journal and check in with myself.

Speaker 1: 10:45

But if you pulled a card like the five of wands or something which is typically depicted in a lot of Rider-Waite-Smith themed decks as like conflict and fighting a battle that you can't necessarily win, that might not make sense to you as an answer for your question. You might be like how is fighting with people going to help me feel better when I'm already exhausted? I don't have the energy to go fight with people and I don't even want to fight about anything, I just want to rest. But when you're able to pull back from those kind of standardized meanings and instead remember that five is about expansion and adjustment, adventure and freedom, looking at something differently and breaking free from old habits and fire or the suit of wands, is this energy of passion and pursuit. It might give you permission to take a creative chance or try something a little bit different, really explore something that's going to feel freeing and activating and joyful in a way that doesn't have pressure, you might think. Instead of just I need rest, you might think what's going to help me find some freedom in the things that matter most to me, and if the tarot is encouraging me to do that, maybe that means I try a different way of expressing myself creatively, with low stakes or no stakes. Maybe that's actually going to help me feel like I can find joy in the things that I'm working on right now, instead of just feeling like I have to rest my body. Maybe my spirit actually needs some motivation and excitement to help me feel refreshed in a different way.

Speaker 1: 12:12

Now, that's just a quick example, but I really want to encourage you not to blow off these cards just because of what the cards imagery is right. Really pay attention to the correspondences and the vibes, but again, don't be afraid to start mapping your own story onto the cards and see what happens. Now, if you were looking for support in learning how to connect different cards together, multiple cards together in a reading, if you're struggling with tarot spreads or you want to take on bigger tarot readings, I want to recommend my lecture series next level tarot, which is specifically on supporting you with using tarot spreads and multi-card readings. This was created out of a ton of requests for intermediate resources and it really includes ways to weave cards together, tell stories within the cards and navigate confusing readings. So if you've been reading for a while and you still find yourself kind of struggling with these cards or struggling when a lot of them come up in a reading, I really want to encourage you to check this out Now. You can buy this as a standalone series and just listen to it on your own at your convenience, but it's also part of the 3am tarot conservatory membership program, so I'll put links to both of those in the show notes If you find that supportive.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Now, like with all of these episodes, I do like to end with a tip or a trick, but also this entire episode was trips, tips and tricks. So instead I will just say that if you find yourself really stuck on a card, separate it out from the reading itself and just think about the potential meanings for that card. Tell a story about what you see on the imagery, but also go beyond it and think about the different ways that the meanings of these numbers and elements could come together in various ways to represent different things. Having a lot of meanings for each card might feel really overwhelming at first, which is why so many beginner tarot courses and books and resources just focus on a few keywords. But as you get to know the cards more, you really can start to layer in more meanings. And when you start to have more meanings available to you for your cards, then it's going to make your readings feel a lot more accessible, because if your immediate thought when a card comes up, it doesn't make sense with your question or your spread or whatever you're doing, you have this catalog of other options to consider and to think about what's going to make the most sense for you.

Speaker 1: 14:22

Again, building out that catalog, finding all of the layers of each card, takes a long time. You could say it takes a lifetime. It is part of the long term development of a personal tarot practice, but you might as well start now. It's really fun. There's no right or wrong answers here. You really do get to make the cards your own in a way that's going to be supportive for you and your readings. All right, that is all I have for you today, but, as always, thank you so much for spending this time with me and I'll be back again soon with more card talk. Card talk episodes are always free for everyone to enjoy, so if you love what you hear. Please consider supporting the podcast by subscribing, recommending card talk to a friend or two or donating to help with production costs. You can find episode transcripts. Learn more about me and join my signature Tarot Conservatory membership program through my website, 3amtarotcom. Thanks for listening and see you next time you.