Tarot Card Meanings · All 78 Cards
Tap any card for its upright and reversed meanings, love, money, and health readings, and the symbols in its artwork.
Major Arcana · 22 Cards
From 0, The Fool, to 21, The World—cards of life’s big currents, archetypal events, and spiritual lessons.
🪄 Suit of Wands · Fire
Wands are drawn as living wooden staffs and correspond to the element of fire. They cover the passion and will that make us start things, work and business, and creative energy. A reading full of Wands often says it is time to act.
🏆 Suit of Cups · Water
Cups are chalices that hold water and correspond to the element of water. They cover relationships like love, friendship, and family, the flow of feelings, and intuition and imagination. Many Cups in a reading signal that the heart and relationships are the core theme.
⚔️ Suit of Swords · Air
Swords are double-edged blades and correspond to the element of air. They cover thinking and judgment, words and communication, and the conflicts and decisions that arise along the way. Many Swords in a reading suggest that sorting out your thoughts is the key.
🪙 Suit of Pentacles · Earth
Pentacles are gold coins engraved with a star and correspond to the element of earth. They cover the tangible world—money and property, jobs and labor, the body and health. Many Pentacles in a reading mean practical planning and consistency matter most.
How the 78-card tarot deck is structured
A tarot deck has 78 cards in two parts. The 22 Major Arcana are numbered from 0 (The Fool) to 21 (The World) and symbolize the big flow of life and fundamental themes. The 56 Minor Arcana are split into four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles), each with ten number cards (pip cards) from Ace to 10 and four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen, and King.
The four suits at a glance
| Suit | Element | Areas of life | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🪄 Wands | Fire | passion, action, business, work, creativity, energy | attempts, challenge, overload, will |
| 🏆 Cups | Water | emotion, love, relationships, intuition, art | empathy, romance, hurt, healing |
| ⚔️ Swords | Air | reason, thought, conflict, decisions, trials | worry, wounds, logic, opposition |
| 🪙 Pentacles | Earth | money, material world, reality, results, health, stability | money, assets, effort, achievement |
The Minor Arcana formula: [suit] + [number or rank]
Combine the meaning of the suit with the meaning of the number (or the court card’s rank) and the core meaning of any Minor Arcana card falls into place.
| Number / rank | Core meaning |
|---|---|
| Ace (1) | seed, new beginning, potential |
| 2 | balance, choice, partnership |
| 3 | expansion, cooperation, first results |
| 4 | rest, comfort, stagnation |
| 5 | change, conflict, loss, hardship |
| 6 | recovery, sharing, movement, resolution |
| 7 | assessment, strategy, challenge, reorganizing |
| 8 | swift progress, overload, focus |
| 9 | near fruition, vigilance, perfectionism |
| 10 | end of a cycle, completion, excess |
| Page | curiosity, beginner, messenger, learning stage |
| Knight | action, energy, charging ahead, boldness (sometimes haste) |
| Queen | receptivity, maturity, compassion, care, inner strength |
| King | leadership, mature authority, control, mastery |
For example, Cups (emotion) + 1 (beginning) = Ace of Cups, the start of new love, and Swords (thought) + 4 (rest) = Four of Swords, giving a tired mind a break.
Major tarot deck traditions
- Marseille tarot: the traditional deck established in 17th–18th century France.
- Rider-Waite tarot: the 1909 standard deck whose illustrated scenes make meanings easy for beginners to read. Our interpretations follow this tradition.
- Thoth tarot: a deeply symbolic deck created by the occultist Aleister Crowley.
Compare them in three major tarot deck types.