Tarot Card
A card (French lame) is, in tarot vocabulary, a synonym for a tarot card. The French word applies equally to the 22 major cards and to the 56 minor cards, that is to the full set of 78 cards in the complete deck.
Origin and etymology
The French word lame comes from the Latin lamina, meaning a thin plate of metal, wood or cardboard. Its use to designate a tarot card became established in 19th-century French esoteric literature. Eliphas Levi, in Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (1854-1856), regularly speaks of the lames of the tarot to underline their both material and symbolic dimension. Papus took up the expression in The Tarot of the Bohemians (1889), which deeply shaped the French-speaking cartomantic tradition. The term contrasts with the more neutral English word card by emphasizing the physical support of the symbol.
Evolution and tradition
In the 20th-century French tradition, lame remained the preferred term among esoteric authors. Alejandro Jodorowsky and Marianne Costa, in The Way of Tarot (2004), consistently use the word to designate each card of the Tarot de Marseille restored by Philippe Camoin. Conversely, the Anglo-Saxon tradition descended from the Golden Dawn and the Rider-Waite keeps the word card. This terminological difference reflects two sensibilities: a French approach that sacralizes the object, and a more pragmatic Anglo-Saxon approach. The word arcanum is used in parallel but designates more precisely the symbolic content than the physical support.
Practical use
On Tarotoui, the word card (or French lame) is used as a common synonym, alternating with arcanum. One can equally say the card of the Magician, the Magician card or arcanum I. French-speaking tarot readers speak of reversed card or upright card depending on the orientation drawn. The phrase to draw a card simply means to draw a card, whether major or minor. In a Celtic Cross or pyramid spread, each position is occupied by a distinct card.
Going further
Confusing card and arcanum is harmless, but a useful nuance exists: card designates the printed physical support, arcanum its symbolic content. A damaged card remains a card; the arcanum is untouched. Note also that in some hasty translations, the French lame has been rendered as blade, which is a mistranslation since blade refers to a knife or sword edge.