Human Experience and Tarot Symbolism

Abstract

In front of me there are twenty-two pictures, the twenty-two Major Arcana of Tarot. The word Arcana derives from Latin arca as a chest; arcere as a verb means to shut or to close; symbolically, Arcanum (singular) is a tightly shut treasure chest holding a secret: its implicit meaning. In reference to Greek etymology, Arcana relate to arce that means origin or inception. Jung conceptualized the archetypes of the collective unconscious as primordial, original, images engraved in our psychic constitution; these archaic images may have inspired the artists who designed the Tarot pictures.