♣ Tarot Card Meanings ♣
Overview Major Arcana Wands Cups Swords Pentacles
♣ The Five Suits ♣
Tarot cards have a Minor and Major Arcana. The word arcana is plural for the Latin word arcanum, meaning “secrets” or “mysteries,” and the hidden knowledge therein that only initiates possess. There are five suits, four suits in the minor and one suit in the major. The Minor Arcana suits correspond to the four elements— Fire, Earth, Air, Water. The Major Arcana corresponds to the element of Spirit. Each minor suit is comprised of fourteen cards, one through ten, and then a Page, Knight, Queen, and King.
Noticing the similarities between regular playing cards, Tarot cards are the same, but with the four extra court cards and twenty-two additional cards, also called trumps. The face cards are seen as the royal court of each suit. Pages represent children, Knights are teens and young adults, Queens are mothers, and Kings are fathers. The numbered cards represent numerological-based scenes played out in each suit. The royal court, the trumps, and all of the minor cards will also correspond to astrology and other occult systems.
♣ The Major Arcana ♣
The Major Arcana is very evocative because it represents the universal story that we all live from birth to death. This is why it is ruled by spirit because this suit brings humanity together under one canopy. The Major Arcana begins with The Magician in some decks, The Fool being the twenty-second card, but in the RWS (Rider-Waite-Smith) deck, which this website celebrates, he is numbered as zero, representing the great void, limitless yet limited, bound yet free, etc. The Fool is born, lives his (or her) entire life, learns great lessons, and grows spiritually, psychologically, and physically throughout his life.
He meets many people along this road and comes through many challenges on his journey. He lives carelessly, works arduously, loses himself to the indulgences of materialism, falls pray to the often squanders of greed, has his heart fumbled around like a ball on a game court, excels through practice, and learns rigorously the many lessons that we all must learn in our life time.
The Major Arcana symbolizes the range of what human life is like on the levels of the physical, spiritual, emotional, financial, intellectual, social, philosophical, mental, and much more. It's a suit depicting key archetypes, a narrative story for reference and understanding, nuances that add hidden meaning, and the universal symbolism which we are all connected to understanding. Whereas the Minor Arcana will represent the part in the grand story of our life where we can take action to change or maintain, the Major Arcana will almost always represent that which we cannot change in the story.
Like fate and destiny, destiny will find a way to happen, even if fate takes you down many roads. Eventually, the Major Arcana find a way to appear in your life overall if they appear in a spread.
♣ The Minor Arcana ♣
Swords and Wands, for a long time, have been debated upon as to which one is which element. Is Fire attributed to the mighty sword which has been cast from flame and such fierce heat of the proud, passionate Fire, or is it of the soft, gentle Air as it cuts through it with such elegance and divinity?
Or is Fire attributed to the vigorous wand with its ability to take in so much energy, hold immense power, have such zeal and ability to make things happen, or is it of the gentle air because it is made of soft wood and casts its energy from afar to do its bidding? However you personally see the Sword and Wand, this overview presents what the suits stand for based on the traditional RWS deck and centuries of Tarot knowledge.
Traditionally, this suit represents a person's ability to change the many aspects of our lives. When we are handed a destiny, fate and freewill can sometimes take us down many paths that will always lead us back to a prime phase in our life. Like in Death, we see change, but in a minor card, we see stubbornness to change or proaction to change. Either way, the change will come, regardless of what we do or do not do. It'll happen eventually.
♣ The Wands Suit ♣
Wands deal with Fire. It is our spirituality, eternal flame, passion, zeal, actions, physicality, aggression, and human spirit. Wands is the suit of outward energy, starting this, motivating that, growing, holding out, defending our territory, plotting sharp plans to achieve goals, and personal enterprise. It's also about the risk associated with investments and manifesting one's vision. This suit has a lot of active energy and a need for an outlet of some sort.
There is so much to be done and often little time to do it. Because of their compassion, they sometimes become blind of emotions, fragile situations, and cause heated friction. The wands can be about hot tempers, anger issues, too much aggression, and competition. The wand wants to get out and release as much energy in a day as possible.
A wand can change the world if it had the right tools of patience, balance, and levelheadedness. Wands people are inspirational adventurers who want to follow that which excites them and drives them most. As physical and active as the suit can be, the deck also represents the unstoppable human spirit, the fire within from the soul, and the way we spiritually live our lives. Such physical action can only come from being spiritually equipped with motivating wisdom, knowledge, philosophy, determination, grit, and zeal.
Wands are also called 'clubs,' 'rods,' 'staves,' 'scepters,' or 'spears.'
♣ The Cups Suit ♣
Cups are filled with the water of emotionality. They represent true romantic, poetic, deep, subconscious, and heartfelt emotions. Each suit deals with the way we feel, as well as many other aspects of human life, but this suit focuses on love of all types, not just romance. Are we as joyful as the rainbow or as distraught as the aftermath behind the tornado? When we're upset, are the waves crashing lightly or receding for a tsunami? Can you move forward in the face of pain? Will you be moody and bitter? It's very important to have emotions and to be in touch with one's feminine side.
Cups are our feelings, flirting, what weighs heavy on us, what we know as touching our very heart and soul, and the true human emotion at its finest. Cups people are artistic, fair, abstract, poetic, eccentric, internally wealthy, well-rounded, and felicitous. The cups show one how important it is to have love in one's life. The cups are our romances, stormy times, thinking softly on his/her lips, chasing love, and enjoying life in the slow lane where you can focus on hard emotion. It's no wonder the cups are represented by water because of how deep, emotional, wavering, and volatile they can be.
Cups are also called 'hearts,' 'chalices,' 'goblets,' or 'bowls.'
♣ The Swords Suit ♣
Swords represent the mind, intelligence, social interactions, community, voice, conflicts between people, the military, and mental expression. The mind can be a scary place, so the swords often depict more dark scenes of coldness and harsh reality. The sword, although mighty and triumphant, can cut its enemies. The sword wants to be recognized, it wants to be known, and it wants to be listened to. On that notion, this suit is also about gossip, bragging, lying, and backstabbing.
It can cut two ways: in your favor to help you win a battle, or not at all and plummet you defenseless to that which ails you. There must be a sense of self-truth in all you do with the swords. Swords people are dark-oriented, cold, grim, astute, shrewd, cunning, intimidating, and powerful. Logic and reason is valued over feelings and hunches.
Because of the prominence that the sword may have sometimes, anxiety, conflict, worry, and trouble can easily arise. When you let the world weigh on your shoulders, it's not easy juggling friendships, affairs, clients, work, your community, etc. They may often take on many problems, but that doesn't keep a swordsman from solving them at all. Swords are all about solving problems, theorizing, philosophizing, and calculating. The sword is seen as the pen with which you write with, solve your worldly problems, solve others' problems, and use the flight of air to speed things up with efficiency.
Swords are also called 'spades,' 'blades,' 'arrows,' and 'athames.'
♣ The Pentacles Suit ♣
Pentacles are the entirety of the material earth. They deal with wealth, finances, money, materialism, health, luck, and all things physical. The Pentacles represent the finances, which are physical, so it can also represent jobs, ones that speak of money, even though the suit of wands represents jobs and careers. It makes up our home, our work ethic, the things we want in life, luxury, expensive toys, vacations, things only money can buy, and everything that we want and need.
The suit can also represent what we have and what we're going to do to get it. Pentacles can indicate gifts of money as well as indicate the current state of one's quality of life. Are you humble without money? Are you arrogant with it? Do you flaunt your riches, do you even have any, or are you content with life? Pentacles people can be as dark as they can be light, country-oriented or ornate, modest or pompous, flashy or tawdry, stingy or generous, and humble or arrogant. Also practical, disciplined, and ambitious.
The Pentacles are the pragmatic ones who want to secure themselves rather wallow away in love, spend much time thinking about abstract thoughts, or fly off for the next exciting thing. This suit wants something stable, secure, and then, only then, will it behave the way the other suits are. Pentacles is very concerned about how much money is in the bank, how a bill's going to be paid, or who's footing the bill. Although very representative of finances and money, esoterically, the suit represents being able to manifest what one wants and needs in life on a material level, as well as the work required to make it all happen.
Pentacles are also called 'diamonds, 'disks,' 'coins,' or 'deniers.'
♣ A Special Word ♣
Morgan has spent a great deal of time writing, editing, and publishing all of his meanings. As you enjoy reading what he was written on the Tarot, he only asks that you honor his intellectual copyrights, donate if you feel you have truly benefited from these meanings, and make use of this knowledge appropriately.
Readings can be fun, exciting, and healing, but they can also add to distress, create more confusion, or play on one's fears. When walking into a reading, try to have a sense of emotional stability about you. This will help you to better receive the sometimes sobering messages the cards have to reveal. And if you're stuck for whatever reason, try to get a second opinion... and always be aware of when your ego might be trying to cleverly evade or deny a truth because it's unsettling or not what you wanted to hear.
With these things being said, please take care of yourself and enjoy! The Tarot is so enriching and empowering.. motivating and inspiring.. it truly provides great insight.
Warm & Sunny Blessings,
Morgan Crescentborn.