Scans of each card can be seen at www.marytcusack.com/maryc/decks/html/Tarot/Children.html
The Major Arcana (or Trump cards) are the foundations of the tarot. These are the gods and goddesses of the deck, and as such they represent cosmic, karmic, universal forces or changes and present profound and overarching life lessons. The figures in these cards are all some kind of animal-human hybrid (with few and purposeful exception). This is because they unite the themes of the human condition and the universal, primal energies of nature.
The Aces, or “Root cards” are the root or essence of each suit. The skeletons in each Ace are of an animal from their domain and represent the core or foundations of their power. The bones are, after all, what we leave behind: they are our truest form after life and death have stripped us of all that is superfluous and superficial. They are our foundations, and so too are the Root cards the foundations of each suit.
Court cards, or “face cards” refer to The Page, The knight, The Queen, and The King of each suit. If the major Arcana can be thought of as the divine, and the Aces as the "elemental spirits" just below them, then the court cards represent the people living powerfully in that physical plane the next tier down. This is signified by human figures interacting with their animal companions, highlighting the relationship humans share with their animal counterparts in the mortal plane.
