The 22 Major Arcana cards are based on the 22 pathways that connect the 10 sephirot in the Kabbalah also known as the tree of life.
Besides being the basis of esoteric Jewish and Christian theosophy, the Kabbalah can be found in many forms of mysticism, and the occult. Translated into the Tarot it pictorially tells the archetypical story of life.
If you know anything about me or have read my book Tarot and the Chakras, you know I like stories. Every card interpretation has a story, plus there are other stories throughout the book. Some are personal and some are historical. In learning, like many, I remember things by their stories.
Here are two examples of stories from Tarot and the Chakras:
EMPRESS
As children, we frequently visited my father’s mother. My siblings, cousins, her own six children, and I called her Mom. Although she was poor, she would always feed us and give us candy and corny presents. Mom would prepare a huge pot of boiled chicken and bake cakes topped with leftover cake crumbs. Whatever she cooked tasted great because it was made with love. I treasured the small packaged toys that were bought in the five-and-dime store. We were fed with unconditional love.
CHARIOT
Ancient Egyptian tombs depict reliefs of warriors riding into battle on chariots drawn by horses. Historians believe that the chariot was the key to an Egyptian pharaoh’s military success. The pharaoh’s men first borrowed the domestication of horses from their neighbors.
They then built sophisticated chariots, designed for efficiency and speed, to be pulled by the horses. The invention of the chariot revolutionized technology and led the Egyptians to victory.