Cult of Tarot Forum

I was looking this morning at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and it suddenly hit me that it is a parallel to the Tarot suits.

If you aren't familiar with it, or even if you are, there is a pretty good and succinct description of it on Wiki

Basically, it is an explanation of how we develop (or don't) psychologically. It is most often represented as a pyramid, although Maslow himself never represented it that way.

In pyramid form it looks as if we move through a progression of stages although most psychologists agree that the stages constantly overlap in life.

The pyramid is shown most often in 5 stages.


What struck me is how those stages can correspond to the 5 suits of the Tarot.
(No doubt someone has already thought of this and there is very likely a deck out there call Maslow's Tarot or something similar.)

I would categorise it like this:

Psycological Needs - Coins (Pentacles)
Safety needs - Wands
Belonginess and Love - Cups (obviously)
Esteem Needs - Swords

Self Actualisation - The Major Arcana

There is probably a spread out there for Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, but I wonder if attaching the suits to the different categories might not yield some interesting results.

Has anyone tried this?
Do you agree with my connections of the suits?

I believe that somehow the tarot taps into something so deep and basic that it's possible to apply it to just about everything. Your comment about overlapping reminded me of dear Nemia's thread about Ikigai, Here - I printed out the diagram and used it as a spread a few times - I found that the overlapping parts make interpretation clearer. I guess Maslow's Hierarchy could be used in the same way. I do hope Nemia is OK - she hasn't been here in a while. We share a birthday (although I'm older), and it's coming up soon.

just to say great topics & diagrams! Thank You both!