What is tarot?
The 78-card deck, the Major and Minor Arcana, the four suits, and how Sortes uses tarot for reflection, not prediction.
The deck in one page
A tarot deck has 78 cards. Twenty-two are the Major Arcana, from The Fool to The World, and they tend to describe larger themes: a beginning, a choice, a loss, a turning point. Fifty-six are the Minor Arcana, in four suits of fourteen cards each, and they tend to describe everyday life: work, feelings, conflict, and material matters.
The four suits in the Rider-Waite deck used by Sortes are Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles. Cups often point to feelings and relationships. Wands often point to energy, work, and will. Swords often point to thought, conflict, and decisions. Pentacles often point to money, work, health, and the physical world. A suit is a hint about the area of life, not a verdict about it.
Upright and reversed
A card can appear upright or reversed. In Sortes, a reversed card is not a bad card. It usually points to the same theme turned inward, delayed, blocked, or seen from the other side. The Fool reversed, for example, can mean a start held back by fear, rather than a start that is doomed.
Reversal is one reason a reading is better read as a whole than card by card. Two cards can pull in opposite directions, and that tension is often the useful part.
Reflection, not prediction
Sortes treats tarot as a mirror for reflection. A reading offers language for what you already sense, a different angle on a decision, and questions worth sitting with. It does not guarantee what will happen, and it never replaces professional advice about health, money, or legal matters.
If a reading feels wrong, that is also information. A useful response is to ask what part felt off, and what you would have wanted it to say instead. That answer often names the real question better than the first one did.
How Sortes uses tarot
Sortes has three free entry points. The daily card is one free card each day, with no account and no payment. The deck browser lets you read all 78 card meanings at your own pace. The spreads are the paid readings: Quick Insight with one card, topic spreads with three cards, and the Celtic Cross with ten cards. The first full reading is free, and later readings cost one credit each.
Readings in Sortes are for reflection and perspective only. They are never guaranteed predictions, and they never replace professional advice.