Arcana
Tarot Divination · The Zodiac · Natal Charts
Introduction
Arcana is the original name of tarot’s seventy-eight cards: the twenty-two trumps are the Major Arcana, and the fifty-six smaller cards the Minor Arcana; arcana is Latin for “secrets.” I borrowed the name for a divination program that runs locally: tarot in its left hand, for asking about a matter; a natal chart in its right, for looking at a person. From seventy-eight cards shuffled and cut by hand to planets and houses calculated from the birth time, every draw and chart is produced locally. AI handles only the final step: turning the direction of the cards into ordinary human language, in Xingyao’s voice.
Where Arcana Comes From
Tarot cards were not mysterious at first. In the Italian courts of the fifteenth century, they were used for a card game called tarocchi; the Visconti-Sforza deck commissioned by Milan’s ducal family still rests in museums today. Tarot acquired its divinatory identity only in late-eighteenth-century France. In 1909, the deck created by the occultist A. E. Waite and the artist Pamela Smith established the form of modern tarot—seventy-eight cards, with twenty-two Major Arcana and fifty-six Minor Arcana.
Astrology is far older. Priests in Mesopotamia looked upward and recorded celestial signs, while the zodiac was divided into twelve signs in Babylon. By the Hellenistic age in Alexandria, natal astrology—the practice of reading a life from the moment of birth—had taken shape. Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos organized it into a field of study, and its framework of houses, planets, and aspects remains in use today.
Cards and stars met in the late nineteenth century. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn assigned the thirty-six numbered Minor Arcana to the zodiac’s thirty-six decans—three decans for each sign, ten degrees for each decan. The “Card of the Current Decan” that changes with the seasons on the page uses this correspondence from more than a century ago.
A card face or natal chart is ultimately a mirror, and what it reflects is the person holding it. It decides nothing for you; it simply lays the thoughts already inside you out on the table.
Shuffling and Watching the Stars
Choose “Tarot” on the home screen to enter. First select a reading mode: “Guidance of Fate” asks about the direction of a life, while “Worldly Whispers” handles the matters immediately at hand. Then choose a one-card or three-card spread and write down what you want to ask. You can also leave the question blank and let the cards decide what this reading will speak about.
What follows is a complete ritual: shuffle by hand, cut the deck, and draw the cards meant for you from a fan spread across the table. Xingyao offers two readings. The first is classical and explains each card in turn; the second is a whisper, plain speech from the heart. Because the readings involve private matters, no screenshots of them appear here. There is no need to fumble through a first visit: the upper-right corner holds a note written by Xingyao, with everything you need to know.
On the astrology side, “My Sign” uses your birthday to identify your Sun sign, while “My Chart” uses your birth time and place to cast a complete natal chart and explain it house by house, planet by planet.
The home screen also carries the “Card of the Current Decan,” which changes with Beijing time, and a daily message from the stars. Likewise, results involving a personal natal chart are not shown here.
Shadows of the Past
Every draw is archived automatically: when it happened, what you asked, which cards you drew, and the two passages Xingyao gave you at the time are all gathered into “Shadows of the Past” for you to revisit whenever you wish. You can delete a single night or clear everything at once; before changing devices, export a backup with one tap and import it again. The records exist only on your own device and never reach any cloud—your cards can be opened by you alone.
How It Works
Shuffling, cutting, and drawing are all handled by deterministic code on your device, with no cloud black box involved. The card you draw is determined by every shuffle and cut you make by hand; it is not dealt by a server. The meanings of all seventy-eight cards and the directional passages for each card are built in locally. A local astronomical engine calculates planetary positions from the birth time and place; it neither consults tables nor goes online. AI is pinned to one task: “put the direction already present in the cards into plain language.” It may not invent judgments, dilute a clear tendency into ambiguity, or reverse it. The network is used for one thing only: to let Xingyao speak.
About Xingyao
Xingyao serves as the guide to this series. She is an original virtual character IP I designed, with deep-blue hair and a golden crescent set among it. All seventy-eight card faces are reinterpretations based on the original deck, and several of the Major Arcana depict Xingyao herself. The illustrations for the twelve zodiac signs and the two cover visuals also incorporate her character design.
Xingyao?Entry
Arcana is here:
The door is locked and requires a passphrase—this is a room for my own use, so visitors should stop here on this page.