A Guide to Tarot Card Readings -

The Major Arcana

The cards of the Major Arcana, also loosely referred to as “the trumps,” address your life’s most important issues and larger themes. Often, they represent universal forces that lie outside the sphere of your direct control. They may also reveal the life lessons a situation is designed to teach or help you see your situation in a larger context.

Click a card image to see more about the card.

Trump 0: The Fool

Keywords

Freedom, faith, inexperience, innocence

Range of Meaning

Light: Freeing yourself from limitation. Expressing joy and youthful vigor. Being open-minded. Taking a leap of faith. Attuning yourself to your instincts. Being eager or curious. Exploring your potential. Embracing innovation and change.

Shadow: Being gullible and naive. Taking unnecessary risks. Failing to be serious when required. Being silly or distracted. Lacking experience. Failing to honor well-established traditions and limits. Behaving inappropriately.

Trump 1: The Magician

Keywords

Capability, empowerment, activity

Range of Meaning

Light: Taking appropriate action. Receiving guidance from a higher power. Becoming a channel of divine will. Expressing masculine energy in appropriate and constructive ways. Being yourself in every way.

Shadow: Inflating your own ego. Abusing talents. Manipulating or deceiving others. Being too aggressive. Using cheap illusions to dazzle others. Refusing to invest the time and effort needed to master your craft. Taking shortcuts.

Trump 2: The Papess/High Priestess

Keywords

Intuition, reflection, purity, initiation

Range of Meaning

Light: Listening to your feelings and intuitions. Exploring unconventional spirituality. Keeping secrets. Being receptive. Reflecting instead of acting. Observing others. Preserving purity.

Shadow: Being aloof. Obsessing on secrets and conspiracies. Rejecting guidance from spirit or intuition. Revealing all. Ignoring gut feelings. Refusing to become involved, even when involvement is appropriate.

Trump 3: The Empress

Keywords

Fertility, productivity, ripeness, nurturing

Range of Meaning

Light: Nurturing yourself and others. Bearing fruit. Celebrating your body. Bearing (literal or figurative) children. Reveling in luxury. Mothering those around you in positive ways. Enjoying your sexuality. Getting things done.

Shadow: Overindulging. Being greedy. Smothering someone with attention. Debilitating someone by being overprotective. Inhibiting productivity by obsessing on productivity. Being overcome by addictive behavior.

Trump 4: The Emperor

Keywords

Authority, regulation, direction, structure

Range of Meaning

Light: Exercising authority. Defining limits. Directing the flow of work. Communicating clear guidelines. Being in control of yourself and others. Tempering aggressive masculinity with wisdom and experience.

Shadow: Micromanaging. Crushing the creativity of others with a rigid, iron-fisted approach. Insisting on getting your own way. Assuming a dictatorial mindset. Using overt force to achieve your goals and maintain order.

Trump 5: The Pope/Hierophant

Keywords

Guidance, knowledge, revelation, belief

Range of Meaning

Light: Teaching or guiding others. Searching for the truth. Asking for guidance from a higher power. Acknowledging the wisdom and experience of others. Taking vows. Engaging in heartfelt rituals. Volunteering.

Shadow: Using experience as a means of manipulating or misguiding others. Being dogmatic. Favoring tradition over what is expedient or necessary. Going through the motions of empty rituals. Concealing wisdom. Restricting access to spiritual truths or the gods.

Trump 6: The Lovers

Keywords

Love, passion, unity, choice

Range of Meaning

Light: Being in love. Showing your love to others. Expressing passion or romantic feelings. Aligning yourself with groups or like-minded others. Bringing people together. Making well-informed decisions.

Shadow: Debilitating passion. Allowing an unhealthy desire for love to motivate destructive behavior. Disrupting unity. Working against the best interests of those who care about you. Ill-informed decisions.

Trump 7: The Chariot

Keywords

Advancement, victory, triumph, success

Range of Meaning

Light: Breaking through barriers. Moving forward with confidence and authority. Reaching the pinnacle of success. Basking in the glory of achievement. Guiding an effort to total victory. Establishing yourself as a worthy leader.

Shadow: Resting on laurels. Riding roughshod over the feelings or expectations of others. Focusing more on past successes than future opportunities. Failing to rein in impulsive behavior.

Trump 8: Strength

Note: In decks influenced by the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, Strength (or its equivalent) is Trump 8 and Justice (or its equivalent) is Trump 11. But in some decks, the two cards are reversed.

Neither arrangement is inherently better than the other. In this book, however, you’ll find the entry for Justice under Trump 11.

Keywords

Discipline, boldness, self-discipline, power, vitality

Range of Meaning

Light: Imposing restrictions on yourself for your own benefit. Bringing your passions under the control of reason. Resisting impulses that work against your best interests. Taking bold action.

Shadow: Indulging weakness, even when you know it will damage your health and happiness. Languishing in addiction. Allowing your instincts to tame and conquer you. Failing to take a stand when necessary.

Trump 9: The Hermit

Keywords

Solitude, experience, stillness, withdrawal

Range of Meaning

Light: Becoming or seeking out a guru. Going on a retreat. Recharging spiritual or creative batteries. Lighting the way for those with less experience. Stepping back to gain perspective.

Shadow: Being a loner. Fearing contact with others. Becoming a know-it-all. Inflating claims of expertise. Hiding your skills and talents out of fear of unworthiness.

Trump 10: The Wheel

Keywords

Luck, randomness, cycles, karma, fate, revolution

Range of Meaning

Light: Allowing events to unfold. Seeing the larger pattern in everyday events. Trusting your luck. Watching for cycles. Believing that “what goes around, comes around.”

Shadow: Losing money gambling. Refusing to do your part to bring a plan to fruition. Taking a fatalistic approach to life. Fighting the natural course of events.

Trump 11: Justice

Note: In decks influenced by the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, Justice (or its equivalent) is Trump 11 and Strength (or its equivalent) is Trump 8. But in some decks, the two cards are reversed.

Neither arrangement is inherently better than the other. In this book, however, you’ll find the entry for Strength under Trump 8.

Keywords

Balance, law, fairness, objectivity

Range of Meaning

Light: Making an objective decision. Weighing an issue carefully before taking action. Appropriately scaling your reaction to a situation. Getting all the facts. Considering evidence. Deliberating.

Shadow: Delivering harsh criticism. Obsessing on rules and regulations. Playing by the book even when it is destructive or counterproductive to do so. Confusing snap decisions with timely action. Playing favorites.

Trump 12: The Hanged Man

Keywords

Enlightenment, sacrifice, perspective, suspension, reversals

Range of Meaning

Light: Seeing growth opportunities in unpleasant events. Experiencing a dramatic change in personal perspective. Making the best of an unforeseen change in your life or work. Suspending disbelief. Making sacrifices.

Shadow: Being untrue to yourself and your values. Refusing to make sacrifices when appropriate. Refusing to adapt to new situations. Blaming others. Profiting at the expense of others.

Trump 13: Death

Note: When the Death card appears, don’t panic. Remember: the language of the Tarot is symbolic. In the vast majority of cases, the Death card should be read as a metaphor, not as a warning of impending doom! Use common sense, and let context be your guide.

Keywords

Ending, conclusion, transition, passage, departure

Range of Meaning

Light: Bringing an unpleasant phase of life to an end. Recognizing and celebrating the conclusion of something. Putting bad habits to rest. Becoming a new person. Leaving one person, place, or thing for another. Letting go.

Shadow: Obsessing on death and dying. Refusing to give up old habits or unhealthy relationships. Insisting that everything and everyone should stay the same forever. Failing to take good care of yourself.

Trump 14: Temperance

Keywords

Blending, synthesis, mediation, combination, harmony

Range of Meaning

Light: Bringing opposites together. Moderating your actions or emotions. Finding middle ground. Reaching compromises. Synthesizing solutions that please everyone involved. Using the old to make something new.

Shadow: Going to extremes. Disrupting group efforts. Ignoring healthy approaches to life. Becoming an addict. Practicing gluttony. Tearing something or someone apart. Breaking alliances.

Trump 15: The Devil

Keywords

Shadow, materialism, bondage, delusion

Range of Meaning

Light: Appreciating the luxuries that life has to offer. Being comfortable in your own skin. Enjoying your sexuality. Splurging on an expensive personal item. Embracing the fact that everyone has a darker side. Dealing with unhealthy impulses in healthy ways.

Shadow: Putting excessive emphasis on appearances. Always wanting more. Valuing possessions more than people or relationships. Allowing base instincts to govern your life. Being selfish. Attributing your own dark impulses to outside forces or other people.

Trump 16: The Tower

Keywords

Demolition, upheaval, deconstruction, disaster, destruction

Range of Meaning

Light: Breaking out of old, confining habits and mindsets. Clearing the way for new growth. Dispelling the influence of an inflated ego. Getting back to basics. Stripping away harmful illusions. Receiving sudden insight.

Shadow: Clinging to traditions that repress growth. Engaging in willful blindness. Rejecting evidence that change is needed. Ignoring guidance from a higher power. Maliciously engaging in destructive behavior.

Trump 17: The Star

Keywords

Hope, optimism, openness, certainty, faith, longing, truth

Range of Meaning

Light: Hoping for the best. Believing good things happen to good people. Seeing events in the best possible light. Adopting a generous spirit. Seeking guidance from above. Embracing possibility over probability.

Shadow: Denying unpleasant truths. Denying personal accountability and saying, “Things just happen!” Ignoring signs and omens. Preferring illusion to reality. Spreading pessimism and stinginess of spirit.

Trump 18: The Moon

Keywords

Mystery, fantasy, imagination, dreams, uncertainty

Range of Meaning

Light: Enjoying healthy fantasies and daydreams. Using your imagination. Practicing magic or celebrating the magic of everyday life. Attuning yourself to the cycles of nature. Embracing the unknown.

Shadow: Becoming unable to separate fantasy from reality. Suffering from delusions. Losing your appreciation for the fantastic or magical. Adopting a ruthlessly logical mindset. Failing to appreciate life’s mysteries.

Trump 19: The Sun

Keywords

Joy, brilliance, validation, attention, energy

Range of Meaning

Light: Seeing things clearly. Experiencing intense joy. Celebrating your own successes. Knowing you’re good at what you do. Gaining recognition for your personal genius.

Shadow: Being dazzled by your own accomplishments. Becoming absorbed in your own self-image. Feeling rushed and distracted. Exerting yourself to the point of exhaustion. Overstating your abilities or misrepresenting your achievements.

Trump 20: Judgement

Keywords

Revival, renewal, resurrection, evaluation, invitation

Range of Meaning

Light: Receiving a wake-up call. Discovering a new purpose in life. Becoming totally and completely yourself. Receiving a well-deserved reward. Passing an evaluation or examination. Welcoming the start of a new phase of life.

Shadow: Being weighed in the balances and found wanting. Failing to measure up to a well-defined standard. Being caught goofing off or misbehaving. Failing to prepare for an examination you know is coming. Rejecting an opportunity to reinvent yourself.

Trump 21: The World

Keywords

Wholeness, integration, totality, completeness, fullness

Range of Meaning

Light: Having it all. Knowing and loving yourself as completely as possible. Seeing the interconnection of all things and people. Enhancing your perspective. Living life to its fullest. Understanding the meaning of life.

Shadow: Allowing greed and envy to prevent you from enjoying what you do possess. Failing to see the larger design in ordinary events. Believing that everything that exists can be touched, counted, or measured. Failing to see the divine reflected in those around you.

Chapter continued ⇒