Introduction to the Tarot Cards
The Tarot is a deck of 78 cards containing timeless archetypes, mystical symbols, and layers of hidden wisdom. Known historically as trionfi, tarocchi, or tarock, the tarot has been used for centuries as a tool for divination, meditation, and self-discovery. Each card has a meaning that can illuminate unconscious processes and reveal guidance for life’s questions.
When drawn in a spread, the cards interact with one another to tell a story. A skilled reader weaves these meanings into a narrative, showing the querent patterns, choices, and hidden influences. Tarot card meanings act as mirrors of the psyche, pointing towards both external circumstances and internal transformations.
Tarot readings are often done through spreads: specific layouts designed to answer different types of questions. A Celtic Cross spread may map out the dynamics of a situation, while a three-card spread offers quick insight into past, present, and future. Whatever the spread, the symbolism in the cards reflects spiritual energies, showing how unseen forces shape ordinary life.
How to Approach the Tarot
To work with tarot, one should enter a calm, receptive state. Meditation, ritual, or prayer can help prepare the mind. The messages often come in symbolic or dreamlike forms, not literal instructions. Like dream interpretation, tarot requires openness to metaphor and intuitive leaps.
Treat the cards as a sacred tool. They are an altar in miniature, holding keys to profound inner truths. A single reading can shift perspective, spark self-awareness, or even alter the course of someone’s path.
Anyone can learn tarot. Start by drawing a daily card and keeping notes on how its meaning plays out in your life. Over time, the language of the cards becomes second nature. The symbolism is not inherently positive or negative; challenging cards like Death or the Tower may be uncomfortable, but they signal transformation, endings, and the need for awareness. In this sense, every card is a guide towards growth.
Origins and Roots of Tarot
Although the tarot began as a 15th-century card game in Europe, its symbolic richness soon took on mystical dimensions. The Major Arcana have been connected to mythological gods, Jungian archetypes, stages of the Hero’s Journey, and esoteric systems like astrology, Kabbalah, and alchemy.
Some claim tarot’s wisdom is Egyptian, others see planetary correspondences, while many believe the archetypes arise naturally from the collective unconscious. Whatever its origin, tarot has adapted to countless frameworks: mystics have mapped the cards to the Tree of Life, modern thinkers have compared them to the periodic table, and artists continuously reinvent their imagery.
This adaptability is the tarot’s power. It can complement any spiritual path or philosophy, serving as a universal mirror of the human condition.
Structure of the Tarot Deck
The tarot deck is divided into two main parts:
- Major Arcana (22 cards): The ‘greater mysteries’, archetypal images like the Fool, the Lovers, and Death. These cards represent profound themes, turning points, and spiritual lessons. Majors carry extra weight in readings and often signal big changes.
- Minor Arcana (56 cards): The ‘lesser mysteries’, which focus on everyday experiences, relationships, struggles, and growth. They are divided into four suits—Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles—each aligned with one of the four elements.
The Four Suits
- Wands (Fire): Energy, drive, willpower, action, creativity, and conflict.
- Cups (Water): Emotions, love, intuition, dreams, and the subconscious.
- Swords (Air): Intellect, communication, truth, struggles, and clarity.
- Pentacles (Earth): Work, money, health, physical reality, and material concerns.
Each suit contains ten numbered ‘pip’ cards and four court cards.
Court Cards
The courts (traditionally Page, Knight, Queen, and King) represent personalities, roles, or aspects of the self. In a reading, they may describe actual people, facets of the querent’s psyche, or symbolic energies at play.
Pip / Numbered Cards
The numbered cards (Ace through Ten) map cycles of growth and challenge within each element. In modern illustrated decks such as the Rider-Waite-Smith, these are depicted through symbolic scenes instead of pips, making their interpretation more story-driven.
Upright and Reversed Meanings
Depending on the tarot deck, cards may appear upright or reversed. Upright meanings often show the direct, active expression of a card’s energy, while reversals can suggest blockages, internalisation, shadow aspects, or simply the opposite of the upright meaning. Both upright and reversed interpretations add depth, allowing each card to speak across a wide spectrum of possibilities.
Alternatively, with decks like the Book of Thoth that do not use reversals, readings can be enhanced by interpretting elemental dignity. This method is more nuanced, as it allows cards to be well-dignified, neutral, or ill-dignified. An ill-dignified card can be interpretted as though it were reversed.
Tarot as a Tool of Transformation
The tarot is a symbolic language, a system of wisdom, and a guide for personal alchemy. By working with the cards, one learns to adapt, evolve, and see the deeper meaning in life’s events. Every card, whether joyful or difficult, is a chance to adapt, grow, and align more closely with the spiritual centre.
Explore All Tarot Card Meanings
Below you will find a complete index of tarot card meanings. Click on any card image to read about its symbolism, upright and reversed interpretations, and deeper esoteric connections:
- Major Arcana (22 cards) – the archetypal journey of the soul.
- Minor Arcana (56 cards) – everyday life expressed through the four suits.
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced reader, this guide offers everything you need to understand the tarot in depth.
Major Arcana
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Minor Arcana Number Cards
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Minor Arcana Court Cards
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Click the images below to learn about each tarot deck.
| Surrealist | Diary | bifrost |
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| by Ari Bach | by Ash Abdullah | by Jeremy Lampkin |
| Langustl | Crowley-Thoth | Rider-Waite |
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| by Stephan Lange | by Crowley & Harris | by Waite & Smith |
Discover other methods of cartomancy in the forms of Madam Lenormand and playing cards.
