One number, four suits
The Fours in tarot
Structure. Something is stable, and stability is not always the same as good.
Four is the square, the table, the foundation. In the deck it means a thing has taken a fixed form, and the four cards then argue about whether that is a rest or a trap.
Four of Wands is the warmest: a threshold crossed, a celebration, a home. Four of Pentacles is the coldest: a man holding his coins so tightly he cannot move. Four of Swords is a rest that is genuinely needed. Four of Cups is boredom with three good things on offer.
Read a Four by asking what is being held still and whether holding it is currently costing anything.
The four Fours
The same idea in four elements. Reading them side by side is the fastest way to see what the number is doing and what the suit is doing.
Four of WandsWands · Fire read the full meaningcelebration, homecoming, stability
Four of CupsCups · Water read the full meaningapathy, discontent, withdrawal
Four of SwordsSwords · Air read the full meaningrest, recovery, retreat
Four of PentaclesPentacles · Earth read the full meaningsaving, control, security
The rest of the sequence
Ace through Ten, then the four court ranks. Reading down this list is reading the minor arcana as one story.
Number crossed with element
This is the whole trick to the minor arcana. Forty numbered cards look like forty things to memorise and are really ten numbers crossed with four suits. Learn what a Five does and what Cups are, and the Five of Cups is constructible before you have ever read its page.
The lesson on the numbers, Ace through Ten teaches the sequence properly, and the one on the court cards covers the sixteen that need their own study.