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The 'Major Arcana' ('Trumps Major', 'Major Trumps') of the Tarot deck consists of 22 cards. The name 'Major Arcana' is used only in esoteric practice. Game players using Tarot decks for ''playing'' call them Trumps and usually only show a Roman or Arabic numeral on each card, plus some decoration that is identical on all of them.
In esoteric sets, each Major Arcanum depicts a scene, mostly featuring a person or several people, with many symbolic elements. In many decks, each has a number (usually in Roman numerals) and a name, though not all decks have both, and some have only a picture. The earliest decks bore unnamed and unnumbered pictures on the Majors (probably because a great many of the people using them at the time were illiterate), and the order of cards is not standardised. However, one of the most common set of names and numbers is as follows:



The images on the Major Arcana in esoteric decks are often very heavy with symbolism; in occult decks, there is far more to the illustration than a mere depiction of the card title. The Major Arcana are usually regarded by card readers as relating to matters of higher purpose or deep significance, as opposed to the Minor Arcana which relate to the everyday world and matters of immediate significance.

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★ Iconography of Tarot cards / many examples

★ Information on the Tarot, its history and use from ancient divination