Tarot Cards: Rider-Waite Greater and Lesser Arcana

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I. THE MAGICIAN

Skill, diplomacy, address, sickness, pain, loss, disaster, self-confidence, will, the Querent himself (if male).

Reversed: Physician, Magus, mental illness, disgrace, disquiet.

II. THE HIGH PRIESTESS

Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed, the woman who interests the Querent (if male); the Querent (if female), silence, tenacity; wisdom, science.

Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge.

III. THE EMPRESS

Fruitfulness, initiative, action, long days, clandestine, the unknown, difficulty, doubt, ignorance.

Reversed: Light, truth, the unraveling of involved matters, public rejoice, also, according to another reading—vacillation.

IV. THE EMPEROR

Stability, power, aid, protection, a great person, conviction, reason.

Reversed: Benevolence, compassion, credit, also confusion to enemies, obstruction, immaturity.

V. THE HIEROPHANT

Marriage alliance, captivity, servitude, mercy and goodness, inspiration, the man to whom the Querent has recourse.

Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness.

VI. THE LOVERS

Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.

Reversed: Failure, foolish designs.

VII. THE CHARIOT

Succor, providence, also war, triumph, presumption, vengeance, trouble.

Reversed: Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat.

VIII. STRENGTH

Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity.

Reversed: Abuse of power, despotism, weakness, discord.

IX. THE HERMIT

Prudence, also and especially treason, dissimulation, corruption, roguery.

Reversed: Concealment, disguise, policy, fear, unreasoned caution.

X. WHEEL OF FORTUNE

Destiny, fortune, success, luck, felicity.

Reversed: Increase, abundance, superfluity.

XI. JUSTICE

Equity, rightness, probity, executive.

Reversed: Law in all departments, bigotry, bias, excessive severity.

XII. THE HANGED MAN

Wisdom, trials, circumspection, discernment, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy.

Reversed: Selfishness, the crowd, body politic.

XIII. DEATH

End, mortality, destruction, corruption.

Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism.

XIV. TEMPERANCE

Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation.

Reversed: Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, also unfortunate combinations, disunion, competing interests.

XV. THE DEVIL

Ravage, violence, force, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, fatality, that which is predestined but not for this reason evil.

Reversed: Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness.

XVI. THE TOWER

Misery, distress, ruin, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception.

Reversed: According to one account, the same in a lesser degree, also oppression, imprisonment, tyranny.

XVII. THE STAR

Loss, theft, privation, abandonment, although another reading suggests hope and bright prospects in the future.

Reversed: Arrogance, impotence, haughtiness.

XVIII. THE MOON

Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, error.

Reversed: Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.

XIX. THE SUN

Material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment.

Reversed: The same in a lesser sense.

XX. THE LAST JUDGEMENT

Change of position, renewal, outcome.

Reversed: Weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity, also deliberation, decision, sentence.

XXI. THE WORLD

Assured success, route, voyage, emigration, flight, change of place.

Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.

0. THE FOOL

Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, bewrayment.

Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.

KING OF WANDS

The physical and emotional nature to which this card is attributed is dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble. He uplifts a flowering Wand and wears, like his three correspondences in the remaining suits, what is called a cap of maintenance beneath his crown. He connects with the symbol of the lion, which is emblazoned on the back of his throne.

Divinatory Meanings: Dark man, friendly, countryman, generally married, honest and conscientious.

Reversed: Good, but severe; austere, yet tolerant.

QUEEN OF WANDS

Throughout this suit the wands are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen’s personality corresponds to that of the King, but is more magnetic.

Divinatory Meanings: A dark woman or a countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honorable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. Also, love of money.

Reversed: Good, economical, obliging, serviceable. Also signifies opposition, jealousy, deceit, and infidelity.

KNIGHT OF WANDS

He is shown as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids.

Divinatory Meanings: Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence.

Reversed: Rupture, division, interruption, discord.

PAGE OF WANDS

In a scene similar to the former, a young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.

Divinatory Meanings: Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favorable testimony concerning him. He is a dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities of his suit.

Reversed: Anecdotes, announcements, evil news. Also indecision and the instability which usually accompanies it.

TEN OF WANDS

A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.

Divinatory Meanings: A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honor and good faith. It is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a lawsuit—there will be certain loss.

Reversed: Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.

NINE OF WANDS

The figure leans upon his staff and has an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. Behind him are eight other staves erect, in orderly disposition, like a palisade.

Divinatory Meanings: The card signifies strength in opposition. If attacked, he will meet the onslaught boldly. With this main significance there are all its possible adjuncts, including delay, suspension, adjournment.

Reversed: Obstacles, adversity, calamity.

EIGHT OF WANDS

The card represents motion through the immovable—a flight of wands through an open country.

Divinatory Meanings: Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity, swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed towards an end which promises assured felicity; that which is on the move, also the

arrows of love.

Reversed: Arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels.

SEVEN OF WANDS

A young man on a craggy eminence, brandishing a staff, six other staves are raised towards him from below.

Divinatory Meanings: It is a card of valor, for on the surface, six are attacking one, who has, however, the vantage position. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion, wordy strife, in business—negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for the combatant is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him.

Reversed: Perplexity, embarrassments, anxiety.

SIX OF WANDS

A laureled horseman bears staff adorned with laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side.

Divinatory Meanings: The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations. On the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King’s courier. It is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope.

Reversed: Apprehension, fear—as of a victorious enemy at the gate, treachery, disloyalty, as of gates being opened to the enemy.

FIVE OF WANDS

A posse of youths are brandishing staves, as if in sport or strife. It is mimic warfare, and hereto correspond the...

Divinatory Meanings: Imitation, for example, sham fight, the strenuous competition and struggle of the search after riches and fortune. Hence some attributions say that it is a card of gold, gain, opulence.

Reversed: Trickery, Contradiction, litigation, disputes.

FOUR OF WANDS

From the four great staves planted in the foreground there is a great garland suspended, two female figures uplift nosegays and at their side is a bridge over a moat, leading to an old manorial house.

Divinatory Meanings: They are for once almost on the surface—country life, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the perfected work of these.

Reversed: The meaning remains unaltered—increase, felicity, beauty, embellishment.

THREE OF WANDS

A calm, stately figure, with his back turned, looking from a cliff’s edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground and he leans slightly on one of them.

Divinatory Meanings: He symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, discovery, commerce; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea.

Reversed: The end of troubles, suspension or end of adversity, disappointment, and toil.

TWO OF WANDS

A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore. He holds a globe in his right hand and a staff in his left rests on the battlement, another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily should also be noticed on the left side.

Divinatory Meanings: Between the alternative readings there is no marriage possible, on the one hand, riches, fortune, magnificence. And on the other, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification. The design gives one suggestion—here is a lord overlooking his dominion and alternately contemplating a globe. It looks like the malady, the mortification, the sadness of Alexander amidst the grandeur of this world’s wealth.

Reversed: Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear.

ACE OF WANDS

A hand issuing from a cloud grasps a stout Wand or Club.

Divinatory Meanings: Creation, invention, enterprise, the powers which result in these, principle, beginning, source, birth, family, origin, the beginning of enterprises, according to another account—money, fortune, inheritance.

Reversed: Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition, to perish, also—clouded joy.

KING OF CUPS

He holds a short scepter in his left hand and a great cup in his right, his throne is set upon the sea, on one side a ship is riding and on the other a dolphin is leaping. The implicit is that the sign of the Cup naturally refers to water, which appears in all the court cards.

Divinatory Meanings: Fair man, man of business, law, or divinity, responsible, disposed to oblige the Querent. Also equity, art and science, including those who profess science, law and art, creative intelligence.

Reversed: Dishonest, double-dealing man, roguery, exaction, injustice, vice, scandal.

QUEEN OF CUPS

Beautiful, fair, dreamy woman (as one who sees visions in a cup).

Divinatory Meanings: Good, fair woman, honest, devoted, who will do service to the Querent. Loving intelligence, and hence the gift of vision, success, happiness, pleasure, also wisdom, virtue.

Reversed: The accounts vary; good woman, otherwise, distinguished woman but one not to be trusted, perverse woman, vice, dishonor, depravity.

KNIGHT OF CUPS

Graceful, not warlike, riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to the higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterize this card.

Divinatory Meanings: Arrival, approach—sometimes that of a messenger, advances, proposition, demeanor, invitation, incitement.

Reversed: Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.

PAGE OF CUPS

A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate Page, of studious and intent aspect, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him.

Divinatory Meanings: Fair young man, one impelled to render service and with whom the Querent will be connected, a studious youth, news, message, application, reflection, meditation—also these things directed to business.

Reversed: Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, artifice.

TEN OF CUPS

Appearance of Cups in a rainbow, it is contemplated in wonder and ecstasy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her, his left raised upward as she raises her right arm. The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy, but are happy after their own manner. There is a home scene beyond.

Divinatory Meanings: Contentment, repose of the entire heart—the perfection of that state, if with several picture cards, a person who is taking charge of the Querent’s interests. Also the town, village or country inhabited by the Querent.

Reversed: Repose of the false heart, indignation, violence.

NINE OF CUPS

The goodly personage is feasting to his heart’s content, and abundant refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him.

Divinatory Meanings: Concord, contentment, physical bien-être; also victory, success, advantage, satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the consultation is made.

Reversed: Truth, loyalty, liberty. But the readings vary and include mistakes, imperfections, etc.

EIGHT OF CUPS

A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern.

Divinatory Meanings: The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are entirely antithetical—giving joy, mildness, timidity, honor, modesty.

Reversed: Great joy, happiness, feasting.

SEVEN OF CUPS

Strange chalices of vision.

Divinatory Meanings: Fairy favors, images of reflection, imagination, sentiment, things seen in the glass of contemplation, some attainment in these degrees but nothing permanent or substantial is suggested.

Reversed: Desire, will, determination, project.

SIX OF CUPS

Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.

Divinatory Meanings: A card of memories and of the past. For example, reflecting on childhood, happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past, things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are disporting in a newly-entered precinct.

Reversed: The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.

FIVE OF CUPS

A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups, two others stand upright behind him and a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.

Divinatory Meaning: It is a card of loss, but something remains over, three have been taken, but two are left. It is a card of inheritance, transmission, and patrimony, but not corresponding to expectations. With some it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.

Reversed: News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.

FOUR OF CUPS

A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him, an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment.

Divinatory Meanings: Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations—as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only. Another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered him, but he sees no consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure.

Reversed: Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.

THREE OF CUPS

Maidens in a garden ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another.

Divinatory Meanings: The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment, happy issue, victory, fulfillment, solace, healing.

Reversed: Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end.

TWO OF CUPS

A youth and maiden are pledging one another, and above their cups rises the caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there.

ACE OF CUPS

The waters are beneath, upon which are water lilies. The hand issues from the cloud, holding in its palm the cup, from which four streams are pouring. A dove, bearing in its bill a cross-marked host, descends to place the wafer in the cup—the dew of water is falling on all sides. It is an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana.

Divinatory Meanings: True heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility, holy table, felicity hereof.

Reversed: False heart, mutation, instability, revolution.

KING OF SWORDS

He sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit.

Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment and all its connections—power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices of the crown, and so forth.

Reversed: Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.

QUEEN OF SWORDS

Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair. The left hand is extended, the arm raised, her countenance is severe, chastened, and suggests familiarity with sorrow.

Divinatory Meanings: Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation.

Reversed: Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, deceit.

KNIGHT OF SWORDS

In full course, as if scattering his enemies.

Divinatory Meanings: Skill, bravery, capacity, defense, address, enmity, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin.

Reversed: Imprudence, incapacity, extravagance.

PAGE OF SWORDS

A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of swift walking.

Divinatory Meanings: Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging.

Reversed: More evil side of these qualities, what is unforeseen, an unprepared state, sickness is also intimated.

TEN OF SWORDS

A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card.

Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever is intimated by the design—also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation.

Reversed: Advantage, profit, success, favor, but none of these are permanent. Also power and authority.

NINE OF SWORDS

One seated on her couch in lamentation with the swords over her.

Divinatory Meanings: Death, failure, miscarriage, delay, deception, disappointment, despair.

Reversed: Imprisonment, doubt, suspicion, reasonable fear, shame.

EIGHT OF SWORDS

A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her.

Divinatory Meanings: Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny—also sickness.

Reversed: Disquiet, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery, the unforeseen, fatality.

SEVEN OF SWORDS

A man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly, the two others of the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp close at hand.

Divinatory Meanings: Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence—also quarrelling. A plan that may fail, annoyance.

Reversed: Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.

SIX OF SWORDS

A ferryman carrying passengers in his punt to the further shore.

Divinatory Meanings: Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient.

Reversed: Declaration, confession, publicity. One account says that it is a proposal of love.

FIVE OF SWORDS

A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their two swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.

Divinatory Meanings: Degradation, destruction, reversal, infamy, dishonor, loss.

Reversed: The same—burial and obsequies.

FOUR OF SWORDS

The effigy of a Knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon his tomb.

Divinatory Meanings: Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit’s repose, exile, tomb and coffin.

Reversed: Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.

THREE OF SWORDS

Three swords piercing a heart, cloud and rain behind.

Divinatory Meanings: Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and all that the design signifies naturally.

Reversed: Mental alienation, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion.

TWO OF SWORDS

A hoodwinked figure balances two swords upon her shoulders.

Divinatory Meanings: Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests, courage, friendship, affection, concord in a state of arms, intimacy.

Reversed: Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.

ACE OF SWORDS

A hand issues from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled by a crown.

Divinatory Meanings: Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. A card of great force, in love as well as in hatred.

Reversed: The same meanings, but the results are disastrous; another account says—conception, childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity.

KING OF PENTACLES

The figure calls for no special description. The face is rather dark, suggesting also courage, but somewhat lethargic in tendency. The bull’s head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on his throne. The sign of this suit is represented throughout as engraved or blazoned with the pentagram, typifying the correspondence of the four elements in human nature and that by which they may be governed.

Divinatory Meanings: Valor, realizing intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts and attainments of this kind—success in these paths.

Reversed: Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.

QUEEN OF PENTACLES

The face suggests that of a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul. She has also the serious cast of intelligence—she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein.

Divinatory Meanings: Opulence, generosity, security, magnificence, liberty.

Reversed: Evil, fear, suspicion, suspense, mistrust.

KNIGHT OF PENTACLES

He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect corresponds.

Divinatory Meanings: Utility, serviceableness, interest, rectitude, responsibility.

Reversed: Inertia, idleness, repose of that kind, stagnation—also discouragement, carelessness.

PAGE OF PENTACLES

A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle that hovers over his raised hands.

Divinatory Meanings: Application, study scholarship, reflection. Another reading says news, messages and the bringer thereof—also rule, management.

Reversed: Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury, unfavorable news.

TEN OF PENTACLES

A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house and domain.

Divinatory Meanings: Gain, riches, family matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family.

Reversed: Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard; sometimes gift, dowry, pension.

NINE OF PENTACLES

A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grapevines in the garden of a great house.

Divinatory Meanings: Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment.

Reversed: Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.

EIGHT OF PENTACLES

An artist in stone at work.

Divinatory Meanings: Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business.

Reversed: Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury.

SEVEN OF PENTACLES

A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right. One would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there.

Divinatory Meanings: These are exceedingly contradictory, in the main, it is a card of money, business, barter—but one reading gives altercation, quarrel, and another innocence, ingenuity, purgation.

Reversed: Anxiety about money.

SIX OF PENTACLES

One in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed.

Divinatory Meanings: Presents, gifts, gratification. Another account says attention, vigilance, now is the accepted time, present prosperity, etc.

Reversed: Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion.

FIVE OF PENTACLES

Two mendicants in a snowstorm pass a lighted casement.

Divinatory Meanings: It foretells material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated, that is, destitution, or otherwise. For some cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers—wife, husband, friend, mistress— also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be harmonized.

Reversed: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.

FOUR OF PENTACLES

A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet.

Divinatory Meanings: The surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gifts, legacy, inheritance.

Reversed: Suspense, delay, opposition.

THREE OF PENTACLES

A sculptor at his work in a monastery.

Divinatory Meanings: Métier, trade, skilled labor. Usually, however, regarded as a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory.

Reversed: Mediocrity in work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness.

TWO OF PENTACLES

A young man in the act of dancing has a pentacle in either hand, and they are joined by that endless cord which is like the number eight reversed.

Divinatory Meanings: It is represented as a card of gaiety, recreation and its connections, which is the subject of the design. But it is read also as news and messages in writing, such as obstacles, agitation, trouble, embroilment.

Reversed: Enforced gaiety, simulated enjoyment, literal sense, handwriting, composition, letters of exchange.

ACE OF PENTACLES

A hand—issuing, as usual, from a cloud—holds up a pentacle.

Divinatory Meanings: Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy—also speedy intelligence, gold.

Reversed: The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence. Also great riches.