Tarot Cards and Their Meanings
Discover the meaning of each of the 78 tarot cards.
Seventy eight cards, and really only one language
People looking at a tarot deck for the first time are often intimidated, sweet soul. Seventy eight cards, each with its own picture and its own name. Where does one begin. When I was learning at my grandmother's table nobody ever handed me a list. They showed me a card and asked what I felt. Years later I understood that tarot is not a thing to memorise. It is a language. And like every language it begins with a handful of words, after which the sentences build themselves.
On this page you will find the meanings of all the cards. But let me say this at the outset. Do not try to memorise these texts. If a scene from your own life comes to mind while you read a card's meaning, then you have truly learned that card. If nothing comes, its time has not arrived yet, and that is completely normal. Tarot is a teacher that knows how to wait.
The Major and Minor Arcana
The deck falls into two parts. The Major Arcana is twenty two cards and speaks of life's great turnings. It begins with the Fool and ends with the World, and between them a whole human story passes. When these cards appear in a spread the subject is rarely a small matter. They are the turning points that look like fate at the time and that we recognise as our own choice only years later.
The Minor Arcana is fifty six cards and speaks of daily life. Money, work, conversations, hurt feelings, journeys, matters of the household. Most cards in a spread come from the Minor Arcana, and that is good news, because daily life is the part that can be changed. When Major Arcana cards multiply the tone of a reading grows heavier, and that is when I begin to speak more slowly.
The four suits and the element each one carries
The Minor Arcana divides into four suits and every suit belongs to an element. Cups are the water element; feelings, relationships, intuition and imagination live in their territory. When cups gather, the reading is speaking from the heart. Wands are fire; passion, enterprise, courage and the wish to create belong here. When wands appear, something is beginning or some energy has been set in motion.
Swords are air; thought, communication, truth and sometimes a clarity that hurts. When many sword cards arrive, a person is stuck somewhere in their own mind, and the reading usually points to something that has gone unspoken. Pentacles are earth; money, health, home, work and everything solid. Pentacles concern patience, because nothing in the soil grows overnight.
Number cards and court cards
Each suit carries number cards from one to ten, and those numbers are the stages of a story. The ace is a beginning, a pure potential. Twos are choice and partnership, threes the first result, fours a stillness, fives loss and testing, sixes recovery, sevens patience and endurance, eights speed and effort, nines almost the end, and tens completion. Once you grasp that sequence you have already solved half of the seventy eight cards.
The court cards are the Page, the Knight, the Queen and the King. They describe both people and levels of maturity. The Page is the learner and brings news. The Knight is motion and is sometimes too hasty. The Queen rules from within, nourishes and understands. The King rules from without, decides and shoulders responsibility. When a court card appears I first ask whether this is a person or a part of you, because most of the time it is both at once.
Are reversed cards really bad
No, and I am firm about this. A reversed card is not a bad card. A card that arrives upside down usually says that its energy has turned inward, is running late, or has been overdone. A reversed Sun can mean joy that has not yet found its way outside. A reversed Tower can even show that the collapse has already been survived. Fearing a card because it is reversed is like judging a sentence without listening to its tone.
Some readers never use reversals at all, and that is a perfectly valid method. I do use them because they add nuance, but I always tell a student the same thing. First get to know all seventy eight cards upright. The reversed meanings will arrive on their own afterwards. People who plunge into reversals too early usually come back confused.
How to learn the cards without memorising them
The method that works best is this. Every morning draw a single card from the deck, look at the picture for one minute, and write in a notebook whatever comes to mind before reading anything about it. Then read the meaning. In the evening note in two sentences how the day went. After thirty days you will hold your own tarot dictionary, and it will belong to you in a way no book could ever manage.
The second method is grouping. Lay all the aces side by side and see the difference between them. Then all the fives, then all the queens. Cards speak much faster when they stand next to one another. The third is storytelling. Draw three cards at random and tell a small tale that joins them. It sounds like a game, but tarot is a language of symbols and symbols are learned through stories.
Working with your own deck
People often ask me which deck they should buy. My answer is always the same. Buy the deck whose pictures move something in you when you look at them. The classic Rider Waite pattern is easiest for beginners because its number cards carry scenes too, and scenes teach reading. But never work with a deck you find ugly, because these are the pictures you will be looking at every day.
Take care of your deck, wrap it in a cloth, do not let it lie loose in a drawer. The reason is not magic but respect. People pay closer attention to what they treat with care. And one more thing. Do not be afraid of someone else touching your deck. The old beliefs forbid it, but for years I have let every curious visitor hold mine and the cards still speak.
Where to go after the card meanings
The quickest road to learning is regular practice. On the card of the day page you can pull a single card each day and build that thirty day habit I described without any effort at all. The free tarot reading page answers a question you ask with three cards, and it is the most practical way to see how the cards speak to one another.
If you want a deeper look, the tarot spreads page holds classic layouts such as the Celtic Cross and teaches what each position means. The zodiac signs page is surprisingly useful too, because an old tradition pairs every sign with a card, and knowing your own sign's card gives a person a home inside the deck.
Choose a card and begin reading
Open a card from the list below that draws your eye and read its meaning. Then close your eyes and consider where that card lands in your own life. Learning tarot takes years, but the first real step is taken with a single card. I have been looking at these cards for thirty years and they still tell me something new. Do not rush. The deck will wait for you.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to learn tarot?
Grasping the basic meanings takes a few months, my dear, but hearing the cards speak to one another takes years. The good news is that you can give useful readings from the very first day. Start by drawing one card daily and do not be hard on yourself. After thirty years I am still learning, and I consider that the beauty of the work rather than a shortcoming.
Do I have to memorise the card meanings?
You do not, and those who memorise usually read worse. A list of meanings is a dictionary, not a language. Look at the picture, notice what it makes you feel, then read the meaning and join the two. A card learned this way is never forgotten, because it becomes experience rather than recitation.
Is a reversed card bad news?
No. A reversed card usually says that its energy has turned inward, is delayed, or has been taken too far. Sometimes it points straight at good news. A reversed Tower, for instance, can show a collapse already survived. Fearing a card because it is upside down is like judging a sentence without listening to its tone.
Can I read tarot for myself?
You can and you should, since it is the best way to learn. The only thing to watch is reading for yourself on a subject you are emotionally loaded about. In that moment a person sees what they wish to see. For a question like that, either wait a few days or borrow someone else's eyes.