Tarot card graphics are the pictures on the cards - each deck a miniature art collection. The graphics tell stories, ask questions, and push the mind one direction or another. Tarot card graphics will grow on you and speak to you in different ways at different times. Each tarot card is a graphic display of images that portray people, places, emotions, ideas and abstract concepts. The melding of all these qualities by the mind produces infinite discoveries.

The graphics on the Magician and the High Priestess cards had an interesting impact on an architect. He made a connection between the literal word "architecture", its deep cognitive implications, and the two tarot cards, the Magician and the High Priestess. To begin, consider the word "architecture." The Greek roots of architecture are:

1) arche, meaning the first inkling, the creation, the first spark of an idea; and

2) techne, meaning to give form to the formless, the making, the putting together of ideas into a creation.

Now consider the meanings of the two tarot cards: 1) the Magician and 2) the High Priestess. The Magician represents creation. This card represents working with the hands as a skilled artist or craftsman, and it implies that opportunities are at hand. The High Priestess represents intuition and inner wisdom. She has to do with giving form to that which is formless.

At a point in his life when he was needing to make a choice of study for his career, a tarot reading presented him with these two cards. Of course there were other cards in his reading, but the graphics on these particular cards caught his attention more than any of the others. He chose architecture and has enjoyed a successful career, but he didn't fully understand the impact that the graphics had on him at the time. It was only years later, in retrospect, that he revelation became evident to him.

This is an example of how tarot card graphics work on the subconscious mind. You may be looking for specific answers, or you may be simply enjoying the artwork. Nevertheless, it is the combination of the symbols, no matter how subtle, and their graphic presentation on the cards, that will speak to you. This example of the architect and the role that the tarot card graphics played in leading him to a deeper understanding of his own profession and his place in it is not unique. It is merely an example, one out of millions, of the influences the tarot card graphics have on the human psyche.