Being a Jungian, I originally envisioned the Major Arcana of the DC Tarot along the lines of the Hero's Quest, with the Fool traversing the stages of life, descending into the underworld (subconsciousness), and eventually reaching a higher state of being. I also felt that the Manichean duality of the layout played well to the conventions of the comics I was using as a basis - Superheroes as the light, conscious mind, and Supervillains as the dark subconscious.
But as I began to assign characters to cards, I found the symbollism of the comics did not divide so easily into black and white as I had expected. Instead, I found a recuring pattern of threes, each trio containing symbols or characters linked to one each of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman - the Holy Trinity of the DC Universe! In the end, the 22 cards of the Major Arcana would be divided into three groups of paired triplets, each under a card representing a stage in a Hero's development, all underneath a single card representing us, the reader.
| Golden Age | Vertigo | Fourth World | Modern Age |
(Click on a name to see an illustration and explanation of the card.)
(All characters, except "Reading", copyright 1999, DC Comics.)
(Terror Tots copyright 1999, Paul Fricke and Len Strazewski.)
For those of a more traditional bent, the correspondences to the usual cards are given below:
| The Prodigal Son | = | The Fool | The Shadow | = | Strength |
| The Darknight Detective | = | The Magician | The Divided Man | = | The Hanged Man |
| The Warror Princess | = | The Papess | Transmogrification | = | Death |
| The Empress | = | The Empress | Paradise | = | Temperance |
| The Emperor | = | The Emperor | Fortress | = | The Devil |
| The Pope | = | The Pope | Arkham | = | The Tower |
| False Dichotomy | = | The Lovers | The Star | = | The Star |
| Masks | = | The Chariot | The Night | = | The Moon |
| Serendipity | = | Justice | The Sun | = | The Sun |
| Endings | = | The Hermit | Reading | = | Judgement |
| Origins | = | The Wheel of Fortune | Adventures | = | The World |
| Golden Age | = | Wands | Vertigo | = | Cups | Fourth World | = | Swords | Modern Age | = | Pentacles |
Further discussion of the DC Tarot imagery