-- tarot quick reference --
This reference page (and all tarot-related information in this garden) represent my cumulative research and personal practice of tarot. You may find information here that contradicts or disagrees with your own knowledge of tarot, and that's okay. Everyone approaches the tarot differently. This garden merely demonstrates my approach.
suits
- Pentacles
- Element: earth
- Playing card suit: diamonds
- Represents:
- Material things, possessions
- Money
- Career/school matters
- Nature
- Swords
- Element: air
- Playing card suit: spades
- Represents:
- Thoughts, rationale, intellect
- Mental health
- Communication or conflict (i.e., miscommunication, disagreeing views)
- Truth
- Justice or injustice
- Wands
- Element: fire
- Playing card suit: clubs
- Represents:
- Action or energy
- Inspiration
- Passion
- Creativity
- Competition
- Cups
- Element: water
- Playing card suit: hearts
- Represents:
- Emotions
- Imagination
- Intuition
- Love
- Relationships (of any type: familial, platonic, romantic)
numbers
Numbers in the tarot reflect the progression of the The Fool's Journey. See #arcs of the major arcana.
- Ones: new beginnings, opportunity, potential
- Twos: balance, stability, choice
- Threes: unification, synthesis, fruition
- Fours: structure, stability, stagnation
- Fives: change, conflict, instability
- Sixes: harmony, relief
- Sevens: introspection, reflection, maturing
- Eights: regeneration, redirection, redistribution
- Nines: completion, realization, full maturity
- Tens: end of a cycle, renewal
court cards
Many tarot readers assign particular personalities, genders, or appearances to these cards, but I prefer the following method that can be applied more universally.
Court cards typically represent people (often oneself) who demonstrate:
- Kings: external mastery and total control of their suit
- Queens: internal mastery and wisdom of their suit
- Knights: passionate, wild, or driven expression of their suit
- Pages: youthful and curious novices of their suit
However, they may be times when the context of the spread doesn't imply a person. In these cases, I use the following elemental associations and formula.
"This court card represents [card suit] as expressed by [court card suit]."
- Kings: Swords
- Queens: Cups
- Knights: Wands
- Pages: Pentacles
For example, the Knight of Cups would be Cups as expressed by Wands. So, this card may represent romantic feelings (Cups) expressed with bold, overt, flirtatious gestures (Wands).
reversed cards or cards in "negative" positions
Reversed/negative cards represent energy that is...
- Blocked: This energy has stalled or has hit some sort of obstacle.
- Distorted: This energy is being misunderstood or misused.
- Inverted: This energy has turned for the better/worse.
- Note that cards in "negative" positions are always negative (e.g., a card representing "what I lack right now" will always represent an absence of something, no matter if the card meaning is generally positive or negative).
arcs of the major arcana
The Major Arcana represents the cycles of life, as one begins a new journey and learns and matures from it, both externally and internally. When a Major Arcana card appears in a reading, it often signals where the querent is in this journey right now. Because The Fool represents the querent, it does not belong to an arc; The Fool travels through the arcs (referred to as The Fool's Journey).
- Arc I
- The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot
- Youth
- Manifesting and exploring
- Arc II
- Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance
- Adulthood
- Trials and tribulations, seeing things from all perspectives
- Arc III
- The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World
- Old age
- Great change, full realization and mastery