(Note: this is a collection of the meanings attributed to the cards by some occultists in the past centuries. It does not reflect my own study or opinion of the cards. It is only meant as a quick comparative reference as I develop my own take.)
The King of Cups from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) Tarot
Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)
The time period is from the beginning of the last decanate of Gemini to the second decanate of Cancer, June 11 to July 12, combining the rulers hips of Saturn and Uranus, the Moon and Mars. Well Dignified: a man subtle and secretive, crafty, psychic, artistic; of strong, violent desires but calm exterior. He is friendly to the Querent and really wise. Ill Dignified: evil and merciless and likely to be attracted by occult studies promising power or knowledge for the satisfaction of desire and control of others; without purification of character. Usually fair-haired with blue eyes. (From the Oracle of Tarot course)
A. E. Waite
He holds a short sceptre 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, pillage, considerable loss. (From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)
Aleister Crowley
(Note: Crowley and the Golden Dawn swap around King and Knight. This is in part true of Waite as well.) The Knight of Cups represents the fiery part of Water, the swift passionate attack of rain and springs; more intimately, Water’s power of solution. He rules the Heavens from the 21st degree of Aquarius to the 20th degree of Pisces. He is clothed in black armour furnished with bright wings which, together with the leaping attitude of his white charger, indicates that he represents the most active aspect of Water. In his right hand he bears a cup from which issues a crab, the cardinal sign of Water, for aggressiveness. His totem is the peacock, for one of the stigmata of water in its most active form is brilliance. There is here also some reference to the phenomena of fluorescence.
The characteristics of the person signified by this card are nevertheless mostly passive, in accordance with the Zodiacal attribution. He is graceful, dilettante, with the qualities of Venus, or a weak Jupiter. He is amiable in a passive way. He is quick to respond to attraction, and easily becomes enthusiastic under such stimulus; but he is not very enduring. He is exceedingly sensitive to external influence, but with no material depth in his character.
When the card is ill dignified, he is sensual, idle and untruthful. Yet with all this he possesses an innocence and purity which are the essence of his nature. But he is, on the whole, so superficial that it is hard to reach this depth. “His name is writ in water.”
In the Yi King, the fiery part of Water is represented by the 54th Hexagram, Kwei Mei. The commentary is singularly obscure, and somewhat sinister. It deals with the difficulties of rightly mating such opposites as fire and water (compare the Queen of Wands; but in that case Water is the calming and modulating influence, while here it is Fire which creates trouble.) Swiftness and violence ill suit a character naturally placid; it is rare indeed to meet with a person who has succeeded in harmonizing these conflicting elements. He tends to mismanage all his affairs; and unless sheer good fortune attend him, his whole career will be an unbroken record of failure and disaster. Often his mental “civil war” ends in schizophrenia or melancholy madness. The abuse of stimulants and narcotics may precipitate the catastrophe. (from The Book of Thoth)
Creepy-ass AI-generated King of Cups illustration
Golden Dawn’s Book T
A BEAUTIFUL, winged, youthful Warrior with flying hair, riding upon a white horse, which latter is not winged. His general equipment is similar to that of the Knight of Wands, but upon his helmet, cuirass and buskins is a peacock with opened wings. He holds a cup in his hand, bearing the sigil of the scale. Beneath his horse’s feet is the sea. From the cup issues a crab. Graceful, poetic, Venusian, indolent, but enthusiastic if roused. Ill dignified, he is sensual, idle and untruthful. He rules the heavens from above 20 Degree of Aquarius to 20 Degree of Pisces, thus including the greater part of Pegasus. (from Book T)
Etteilla
Blond man Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Blond Man, Honest Man, Probity, Equity, Art, Science. Reversed. Man occupying a good position, Distinguished man, Honest man. – Dishonest man. – Exaction, Concussion, Injustice, Brigand, Thief, Dissimulator. – Vice, Corruption, Scandal.
I read somewhere that pregnancies cannot be predicted because it is impossible to bring someone into the equation who doesn’t yet exist. The cards (or any other method) supposedly cannot talk about inexistent people, and they may only be used to check on pregnancies that have already started.
I certainly agree that it may not be wise to use divination on health-related issues, especially on such delicate topics, since we diviners are fallible, and should never forget it.
That it *is* possible to use them to this end, though, is confirmed by experience. I believe I even discussed a spread where I predicted that a woman would become pregnant, even though the question wasn’t even about pregnancy.
The idea that the cards cannot talk about people that don’t exist, though, is poppycock. The child may not exist, but the woman’s body certainly does. If we can predict that the woman’s body will betake itself to a job interview, to the mall or to a date, it’s unclear why we shouldn’t be able to predict that an organism will start growing inside of it after a spirited round of nooky.
Some weeks ago I made an experiment. I asked the cards if an item I had ordered would arrive the next day, knowing full well it was a Sunday. The cards’ response was:
Playing Card Reading – Will the Parcel Arrive Tomorrow?
The cards are pissed off: you’re being an idiot (Jack of Spades) tomorrow is rest day (Four of Hearts) negative answer (Eight of Spades).
Well, yesterday (Saturday) I asked the same question just to try the cards, since I was waiting for another parcel. Here’s the answer I got:
Playing Card Reading – WIll the Parcel Arrive Tomorrow?
Obviously, the answer is positive, though I did not stop to think too much about it. I thought the cards had simply given me a wrong answer because I wasn’t being serious.
Yet, today the doorbell rang. It was my neighbor with a parcel for me. It had arrived yesterday in the afternoon and had been delivered to him by mistake.
Looking back at the cards, the Three of Clubs represents intermediation, someone who does things in your stead – in this case, collecting the parcel. The Two of Hearts, which usually just shows imminent things, in this case represented what’s “near the home”, i.e., the neighborhood.
Moral of the story: don’t mess with the cards, they know better.
It’s not just about love. Playing cards (and any other oracle) can be used to identify people, find lost objects and animals and many other things. Unfortunately, this type of reading is extremely complex, and I have a less than stellar track record in this regard (as opposed to the lady who taught me, who was sort of known for finding lost rings and describing thieves)
The reason for the difficulty is that the world’s complexity is almost endless, and we only have a limited number of cards at our disposal, so that there is always a need for combining card meanings in new and clever ways to signify everything. One of the subjects I want to touch on in a next article on the philosophy of divination is exactly the fact that the limits of our imaginations can also be the limits of our ability to make predictions.
Furthermore, the language of the cards is otherworldly, at least as far as making predictions is concerned, so that the oracle will not necessarily answer the question in a linear form that is readily understood. This is why my error rate by people descriptions and by finding lost items tends to be higher than in other readings. Sometimes I can’t so much as make sense of one of the cards, let alone the whole composition.
There is, however, a reading I want to share because of how clear the cards were, which makes this a good case study. A woman had lost her bracelet and, after looking for it everywhere, was beginning to suspect her niece of stealing it, possibly as a game. Here’s the spread:
Playing Card Divination, A Reading about Theft
There is one woman in the spread. She is next to the Ace of Clubs. This is extremely important. The Ace of Clubs represents initiative, and if you ask whether someone will or won’t do something, if their significator comes up next to the Ace of Clubs (or the Five of Clubs, representing action, or, sometimes, even the Two of Clubs, which means taking steps) it shows the person will do it.
In this case, though, we are talking about theft. So this woman took the initiative, i.e., she stole the bracelet. She is next to the Eight of Clubs, which represents work. So this is not the querent’s niece, but a coworker or superior.
Note, though, that she comes up as the Queen of Diamonds, not as the Queen of Spades, so there is no inherent ‘evil’ about her. Furthermore, we have the Three of Diamonds next to the Eight of Clubs. The Three of Diamonds represents all activities that are done part-time. Metaphorically, therefore, the woman is not a ‘full-time’ thief, i.e., she doesn’t have the habit of stealing. She probably just seized the moment to have something that caught her fancy. The Ten of Hearts closing the spread shows the possibility of a happy ending.
To be more sure, I asked the querent to pick another card for the Queen of Diamonds, and she chose the Four of Clubs. So this is a woman the querent speaks to habitually. Furthermore, even though the Queen is a Diamonds, and should technically be very fair, she is surrounded by Clubs, which represent a dark complexion and/or hair (but not as dark as Spades)
Well, some days after the reading the querent’s coworker, a woman of dark complexion and hair, came forward to her, wracked with guilt, and gave her back the bracelet, which the querent had left on her desktop unattended. The woman said she didn’t know what had possessed her to steal the item.
This is not the first time that I compare divination to language. Divination systems *are* a form of language. Each has its own vocabulary, its syntax and its grammar. However, there is more to languages than just these three things (and possibly more, if you are a linguist)
Languages don’t exist in a vacuum. They are spoken concretely by concrete individuals. Each individual has his or her character, quirks, idiosyncrasies, which hugely influence the way they speak.
The Vera Sibilla is notorious for its chatty nature. She is like that old aunt with no sense of personal space who spends the afternoon drinking coffee with her neighbors and spilling tea on others without much in the way of connecting themes. Playing cards, on the other hands, tend to be more sober and to the point. In a way, I find they are easier to interpret, exactly because they are more predictable. Tarot, I find, is also more to the point, although it is more complex in other respects.
Here is an example of the same question asked by the same querent, but answered with the Sibilla first and with playing cards second.
The querent is a young man in his mid-20s we got to know at a friend’s house. He asked if he would find a job.
Vera Sibilla reading on job
Important note: this reading started as a three card reading. I had to keep adding cards because, as is often the case, the Sibilla kept giving me quirky details instead of the answer. The first three cards did not contain the answer (if I had tried to answer based on the first three cards, it would have been a no, and I would have been wrong.)
As in a recent reading I posted, the spread stards with the reversed Balcony. This time it’s followed by the reversed Falsehood card and by the reversed Peacock. The first three cards hint at the fact that is awaiting an improvement of his career (reversed Falsehood) that is not coming (reversed Balcony). The reversed Peacock shows both the struggle (it is a card of great obstacles) and the fact that he may be taking things very personally whenever something goes wrong.
Then we have the reversed significator and the reversed Love card. This means two things: firstly, that he is gay (which he confirmed on the spot) and secondly, the reversed Love card flaking the significator together with the reversed Peacock confirms my first intuition that he does take things too personally, maybe as though he were expecting employers to huddle together around him and woo him.
Since it is followed by the Merchant, which is the significator for the querent’s job, it shows again that he has emotional troubles connected with his career. Fortunately, it is followed by the reversed Ten of Clubs, which shows a favorable chance. But this card only shows a chance, not that it will be taken, so I asked the querent to pull two additional cards, and this shows that he will receive a good offer (Present of Jewels) of a part-time job (Happiness).
On to the playing card spread
Playing cards reading example on job
This one also started out as a three card reading. And it remained one. Change, Union, Part-time job. There will be a change which will lead to a part-time position.
You may say that since we had already answered the question with the Sibilla, playing cards didn’t need to add much. Maybe, but the Sibilla’s chattiness is indeed more pronounced than that of playing cards.
The Vera Sibilla tradition is steeped in combinations that are handed down in specific order. These combinations are important, but to understand them, you need to keep in mind that, in the olden days, at least in Italy, you would simply sit in front of the fortune teller and he or she would tell you your general future, sometimes covering your whole life. In this context, the traditional combinations are highly effective. Divination is not about numbers, but if I had to put a number to it, I would say that, in a questionless reading, classic combos are around 70 – 80% accurate.
Combinations are also an extremely valid learning tool, as you let your brain wrap itself around the deck and its language, just as it’s useful when you are very little and your parents teach you specific turns of phrases that tend to have always the same meaning. Over the years, however, you learn to create variations on the theme and you develop a more plastic language that is also more adaptable to all circumstances.
Let’s take this recent reading example. A friend of ours told his parents that he won’t be able to visit for Christmas (they live in Scheswig-Holstein, in Northern Germany, while we live in Rheinland-Pfalz, in the South-West). His mother sounded cheerful on the telephone, but he asked how she had taken the news. These cards came up:
Vera Sibilla Oracle Card Reading Example
If you were to interpret these cards according to traditional combinations, you would say something to the effect of: you need to stay away from your mother (Person card reversed next to the Three of Hearts reversed) because she is a scheming bitch (Seven of Hearts reversed)
But let us take a deeper look at the cards. The Balcony card, when upright, represents the arrival of someone or something. When reversed, often it shows waiting in vain. This implies that the mother was expecting her son to visit.
Next to the mother we have the Scholar reversed. In addition to plotting and scheming, this card also shows plans that don’t come to fruition, so we can say she was planning the Christmas together. But there is more. It is also the card of illusion and a sense of futility and sterility. To choose the appropriate meaning, let us look at the central card, the Queen of Hearts reversed.
The mother could have safely come up as the Queen of Diamonds, the Wife or Married Woman. It is crucial to understand, though, that the Queen of Diamonds is essentially attached to her roles in life, rather than to feelings. This doesn’t mean she is evil or a bad mother, only that she fulfills her role primarily because it’s her role.
The Queen of Hearts, the Girlfriend, on the other hand, is essentially a loving person, one who follows her heart and who has love to give. Coming up reversed, she finds herself frustrated in this aspect.
Knowing this, let us go back to the Scholar. In this case, it must represent futility as well all the other stuff. She feels sterile and futile as a mother.
We also need to consider that we have three out of three Heart cards, all three reversed. This shows that clearly she longs for a connection she doesn’t have. Probably not the most stable person, emotionally speaking, but not the dangerous, scheming woman that you would see in the cards according to usual combinations.
I find this short little spread interesting, because it is a good introduction to how playing cards can communicate with us. Often, especially at the beginning, we tend to expect cards to fall into a specific order that represents the whole situation like a movie. And, indeed, sometimes this is what happens (I have a nice Tarot spread coming on this.)
At other times, though, the cards take another approach and use our words ‘against’ us, as it were. Here’s the reading. I have been on a waiting list to receive a certain instruction book on some esoteric doctrines by someone. Yesterday I asked the cards the following question: “Will he do as he says?”
To answer the question, I pulled three cards, which were:
4♣ – K♥ – 10♦
Anyone can see that the spread is broadly positive, but the interesting thing is how the cards respond in the affirmative. The Four of Clubs is the card of words, and represents everything that we do to express what is inside of ourselves. The King of Hearts and the Ten of Diamonds, though, in addition to representing a rich protector, can also be part of larger combinations showing nobility or great wealth.
Therefore, what the cards are saying is “what he says, his words, are the words of a nobleman,” which means that they are truthful. This answers my question “Will he do as he says?” perfectly. The answer is also a broad judgement on the person’s character: he is, generally speaking, a nobleman at heart.
As with the Sibilla, so with playing cards. This is a typical spread that can be used to get a broad bird-eye view on the querent’s life. Many versions of this spread exist. Here I discuss the one I know. Simply shuffle the cards and have the querent cut, then distribute the cards into seven small stacks of three cards each.
Pack 1 is the querent, Pack 2 is the home, Pack 3 is outside influences or outside the home, Pack 4 is money and career, Pack 5 relationships, Pack 6 possible difficulties, Pack 7 the unexpected.
The spread does not see very far into the future, and it rather reflects the present and at most the next two months, sometimes even just one.
This is a spread I often use for myself rather than for others. The following example is a reading a did for myself about three months ago.
Pack 1 (querent): 4♥ – A♥ – 2♥
The pack shows a generally stable and pleasant state of mind and tranquility in and around the house.
Pack 2 (house): 7♥ – 10♣ – 5♠
I didn’t truly understand this at the time, even though it was obvious, as it shows a sudden journey. The 5♠ simply turned out to be showing that the journey would be a sacrifice. We had to suddenly visit my mother-in-law who had broken a foot.
Pack 3 (outside): A♦ – 6♦ – K♠
Here some news of an administrative or bureaucratic nature is shown, generally unfavorable as the Spade falls last. Our accountant sent us an endless questionnaire to fill out as the government had raised some issues on out paperwork.
Pack 4 (work): K♣ – 5♦ – A♣
My significator falls here. I believe I have talked about the combination of the 5♦ with an Ace showing a new phase. In this case there is a new something coming up to me. Around a month later I managed to be accepted by a new translation agency.
Pack 5 (love): 5♣ – 9♣ – 3♠
I interpreted this as having lots of things to do that would keep me distant from hubby (the actions create distance, interfering with my love life). Indeed, for two or three weeks afterward it was as if we didn’t live together as we were occupied with our own projects.
Pack 6 (problems): 5♥ – 8♥ – 9♥
Quite frankly, no great problem was on the horizon. If the other cards had been worse I could have judged that the realization of my wish would be compromised, but the spread was relatively tame, so in this case the cards were just saying there was no big issue coming up.
Pack 7 (surprise): 2♦ – 6♥ – Q♥
This was clearly a message bringing a reconciliation with a woman. It turned out that a couple of days later I was contacted by an old college friend I hadn’t spoken to in almost ten years.
Here’s a quick one. A friend of mine asked me if it was a good thing for her to join a certain rather well-known magical order. The order shall remain unnamed, as in case of a defamation lawsuit it wouldn’t be a good sight if I just waved a picture of a card spread under the judge’s nose as evidence.
Should I enter the magical order? A cartomancy spread with the Vera Sibilla oracle
The most obvious thing that caught my eye is the reversed Three of Spades (the Widower). This card represents secret sects, and it never describes them in a positive light. To be clear, a secret group is not in itself a bad thing. Nor is a magical order a bad thing in itself – I have been part of a couple and still am in one. But if the group you are enquiring about is represented by the Widower reversed it is NOT good.
That they perform less than positive acts is shown by the reversed Peacock. The Seven of Clubs indicates that they prey on people’s self-esteem and/or by promising honors. I could have added some cards to see if it also showed that they wanted some of her money – but it doesn’t really matter. The spread is clear: the querent has already had contacts with them and has been offered to join, or something else, like a ritual (I haven’t asked) but the querent would do well to stay away. This is not to say that they are charlatans, as the spread does not concentrate on this, but that they are people that are best kept at a distance.
As I have a mind to start talking about Tarot in the very near future, I wanted to start by sharing the main meanings I apply to the major trumps. These are just basic guidelines, as the majors have almost no bounds, so this list is not exhaustive. The meanings I use are not especially weird, and they tend to be very practical.
The Fool Instability, Untrustworthiness, Freedom, Unpredictability, Lack of ties or bonds, Irresponsibility, Innocence, Lack of foresight, Lack of planning, Doing things on the spur of the emoment, Surprise, Irregularity, Chaos, Things and situations that are not well-defined or that are not clearly settled, Nothing, Nothingness, Mistake, Error, Oversight, Mental issues, Originality, Creativity, Deep feelings in love that could be a flash in the pan because they are unsupported by effort, Unpreparedness, Going on foot, Walking
The Juggler / Conman / Magician Beginning, Child, Son or daughter, New, Small, Initiative, Doing, Action, Work, Job, Play, Game, Playing, Studying, Youth, Competence, Ability, Adroitness, Project, Being aware, Doing by hand, Creativity, Charm, Fascinating, Tricks, A thief or con artist, Charlatan, Lie, Things done with good or evil intent (depending on the other cards) but not by mistake, Things that are planned, Immaturity, Tantrums, A charmer
The Popess / High Priestess A mature woman, A serious woman, precise, knowledgeable, reserved, A wife, A mother, An older sister, A female boss, A female doctor or professional, A woman with a degree, Conscience, Spirituality, Study, Knowledge, Deep understanding, Faith, Someone who knows what to say and what not to say, Silence, Reserve, Secret, with bad cards a superficial floozy, A gossip, Dogmatic, Strict, Ignorant, Inimical
The Empress A younger woman, Active, Creative, Communicative, Unmarried or, if married, still very much in love, Action, Abundance, Love, A younger sister, A young mother, A daughter, A coworker, An employee, A boss that works together with her employees rather than staying shut in her office, Well-being, Sex, Fascination, Beauty, Expansion, Amplification, Increase, Growth, With bad cards can be wastefulness, etc., Spring, The Earth element
The Emperor A younger man, Active, Creative, Dynamic, Unmarried, In love, Son, Young father, Brother (younger), Action, Law, Politics, Durability, Willpower, An active boss, With great directive ability, A coworker, An Employee, Managing, Organizing (in general, he is the male counterpart to the Empress), with negative cards can be tyrannical or a young man in difficulty, etc.
The Pope / Hierophant / High Priest Broadly the male counterpart to the Popess: Older man, Father, Boss, Older brother, Religion, An interpreter, A communicator, An intermediary, Wisdom, Faithfulness, A teacher, A guide, Responsible, Knowledgeable, Trustworthy, A ritual of some kind (religious, magical, etc.), A man with a degree, A man wearing a uniform or serving some official function, An agency
Love / The Lover / The Lovers Love, Attraction, Harmony, Desire, Preference, Being attracted to one thing, one person, one option, etc. A deal, A handshake, Compromise, Commitment, Getting along, Affinity, Vocation, Inspiration, The family, A group of people, A meeting, appointment, date, etc. The public, Sociability, The social aspect of life, A partnership, Something done with other people, Beauty, Esthetics, etc.
The Chariot Movement, Activity, Advancement toward a goal, Journey, Travel, Car, Means of transport, Going, Being determined, Going in one particular direction, Career, A public uniform, Audacity, Overcoming obstacles, Moving beyond difficulties, Attacking or tackling and, with positive cards, Winning, Victory, Recognition, Ambition, Self-discipline, Doing, Acting, Enterprise, Knowing where you want to go and going, Enthusiasm, Quickness, Velocity (for good or ill)
Justice Justice, Fairness, Equilibrium, Stability, Contract, Union, Marriage or living together as an established family, Legal and bureaucratic issues, Buying and selling, The law, Tests, Evaluations, Documents, Papers, The middle way, Half, Halving, Cutting in half, Evaluating the pros and cons, Developing contacts, Creating ties with others, with negative cards it can show separations, injustice, etc.
The Hermit One, Lonely, Unique, Old, Past, A long time, Slow, An older person (60+), Difficulties, Slowing down, Lack of communication, Secret, Moving behind the scenes, away from the public eye, Serious, A master or teacher, Weakening, becoming old, weak, extinguished, Spirituality, High culture, Study, Research, Not kidding around, No sense of humor, Being dependable, Taking very small steps, Deep reflection and thought, A premeditator, Cold places, Places of retreat, Solitude, Not wanting contact, Stinginess, Marginalized, With negative cards can show not being self-reliant, and by extension also being hooked on drugs or alcohol, Inability to communicate, Winter
The Wheel of Fortune Transition, Change, The regular flow of life, Luck, Opportunity, Success, Money, Gambling, Winning, A trip, Travel, Change of place, Situations that resurface at intervals, On and off, The unblocking of a stagnant situation for better or worse, Protection from above, Fatality, Changeability, Instability, Small animals, Changing route, Opening of avenues, Partial, Sometimes, Part-time, etc.
Strength / Fortitude Strength, Power, Influence, Intelligence, Being capable of steering the situation, Overcoming, Willpower, Stability, Strengthening, Manipulation, Savoir faire, Control, A situation that is strongly desired, Self-control, Discipline, Sport, Physical movement, Materialization, The signing of papers (materializing their effect), Knowing how to resist temptation, Intelligence, Rationality, Wild animals, with negative cards it can show impotence, anger, etc.
The Hanged Man Suffering, Blockage, Stillstand, Sacrifice, Confinement, Prison, Hospital, Not acting, Being still, A bond of some kind, with good cards it can show a positive bond (e.g., being committed to someone or something), Down, South, Below, Digging, Falling, Broken, Rotten, Suffering, Impotence, Inability
Death Death, Sharp change, Mortality, Ending, A short trip, Elimination, Unavoidability, Something that cannot be walked back, Point of no return, Destruction, Fatality, Danger, Discouragement, Gloomy thoughts, Sadness, Inability to accept change, Corruption, Alteration, Sharp instruments
Temperance Temperance, Moderation, Patience, Waiting, Tolerance, Adaptability, Giving and receiving, Avoiding extremes, Meeting halfway, Purity, Clean, Cleaning, Honesty, Angels, Spirituality, Protection, Gentleness, Respect, Consideration, Sincerity, Truthfulness, Male and female together, Mixing, Two in one, Duality, Education, Health, Healing, Conciliation, Inaction, Lack of activity, Indolence, Unemployment, Autumn
The Devil Evil, Antagonist, Opposition, Obstacle, Force, Energy, Great power, Magic, Strategy, Cunning, Being in chains, Strong chemistry, Fatal attraction, Great business, Big corporations, Stress, Enmity, Being very worried, Being forced to do something, Dictatorship, Subjugation, Vice, Sin, Addiction, Excess, Darkness, Dark, Blood, Illegality, Crime, Swindle, Jealousy, Possessiveness, Sexual attraction, Sex, Betrayal, Cheating
The Tower A place, A home, A building of some kind, Explosions, Explosive energies, Fire, Crumbling down, Ending, Closure, Departure from the old, Destruction, Crisis, Loss of name, Fragility, Things that suddenly don’t seem as strong as they used to be, Boldness, Anger, Sudden onrush,
The Star / The Stars Hope, Future, Serenity, Things clearing up, Truthfulness, Honesty, Purity, Art, Beauty, Gift, The Air element, Wind, Sky, Above, Over, Up, High-mindedness, Idealism, Promises, Guidance, Inspiration, Meditation, Harmony, Solution, Positive ending close at hand, Fulfillment of wishes, Pregnancy, Generosity, Shooting for the stars, Optimism, The soul, An investment, Influx of money, Getting back dividends or money you loaned, etc.
The Moon The night, Darkness, Silence, Not talking, Disappearing, Secret, Falsehood, Lies, Keeping in the dark, Water, Lake, Sea, Ocean, Dampness, Fantasy, Intuition, Mother, Mom, Maternity, Femininity, Clairvoyance, Influence on the world or on people, Worry, Preoccupation, Sadness, Disappointment, Depression, Gloominess, Refusal, Saying no, Negativity, Changeability, Inconsistency, The realm of shadows and of the dead, Mary mother of God and other lunar entities
The Sun The day, Light, Clarity, Visibility, Intelligence, Father, Fatherhood, Manly energy, Twins, Clarity, Truth, Discovering, Discovery, Finding, Clarifying, Explaining, Reaching the truth of the matter, Rationality, Logic, Experts, Knowledgeable people, News, Novelty, Renewal, Beginning, Gold, Money, Wealth, Success, Heat, Warmth, Love, Feelings, Happiness, Faithfulness, Sincerity, Glory, Visibility, Success, Self-confidence, Summer, Summery or hot places (beaches, etc.), Poetry, Literature, The realm of the living, Life, Jesus and other solar entities
Judgement / The Angel Information, News, Letters, Calls, Communication, Emails, Sociability, Social contacts, Contacts in general, Announcements, Inspiration, Feeling called, Leaving the old life behind, Coming out of the old, Renewal, Return, Reconciliation (but with negative cards definitive ending), Healing (but with negative cards it can signal death), A definitive turning point, Family members, Music, Hearing
The World Everything, All, Total, Full, Filled, Full-time, Fat, Obese, The Whole, Complete, Large, Big, God, Totality, The Soul of the World, Paradise, A situation that is complete in itself, such as a full family, a marriage or stable partnership (usually one that already exists), A company or firm, Glory, A wreath, A ring, Completion of a project, Completion of a journey (e.g., graduating, tying the knot, etc.), The querent’s country, A country in general (with some other cards a foreign country and foreign lands in general), A city or the querent’s city, The world out there, A perfect picture, A picture or image in general, The population, Masses, Crowds
