The minor arcana are a set of 56 cards complementing the major_arcana in the tarot_card deck. They are commonly used in either fortune_telling or playing card games depending on country. On e621, viewers are far more likely to encounter the former than the latter.

The minor arcana typically feature custom-made art, often rich with symbolism and first popularized with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

The minor arcana of playing_card versions of the tarot deck are instead known simply as the suited cards and commonly use the symbols of regular playing cards (clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades) instead of the traditional tarot suits. Additionally, aces are replaced by ones.

Our modern playing cards are derived from the minor arcana with the four knights removed and two jokers added.

The Minor Arcana

• 1-10, Jack/Page, Knight, Queen, and King in the following four suits:
• pentacles
• cups
• swords
• wands

For more information:

• Tarot (Wikipedia)
• Tarot Card Games (Wikipedia)