Meaning of all 78 Tarot cards: upright and reversed

The 22 Major Arcana and the 56 Minor Arcana

A full Tarot deck has 78 cards. The 22 Major Arcana are numbered from 0 (The Fool) to 21 (The World) and are usually read as big themes, the turning points of a stretch of life. The 56 Minor Arcana are divided into four suits of 14 cards each: the Ace, the cards from Two to Ten, then four court cards. The Minor Arcana usually speak about everyday situations — a conversation, a decision this week, a feeling passing through. When a spread holds many Major Arcana, readers often take the question to be bigger than it looks.

Four suits and four elements

Each suit of the Minor Arcana is tied to an element, and the keywords of the whole suit reflect it. In Inti Soul's deck:

• Wands — Fire: inspiration, will, action and momentum.
• Cups — Water: feelings, affection and the bonds between people.
• Swords — Air: thoughts, words, truth and hard choices.
• Pentacles — Earth: work, money, skills and what is built over time.

Number cards and court cards

Within each suit, a card's rank carries meaning too. When it prepares a reading, Inti Soul tags each card with a short note following exactly the convention below:

• Ace — beginning: the seed of the element, energy still in its raw form.
• Two to Nine — the stages the story of that suit passes through.
• Ten — cycle complete: something has ripened, or it is time to close.
• Page — learning; Knight — action; Queen — empathy; King — mastery.

How to read a reversed card

In Inti Soul's card-drawing tool, about one card in three comes out reversed — fewer than the half-and-half split that makes readings heavy. A reversed card is not a bad omen. The reversed keywords in the table usually describe the same energy blocked, turned inward, delayed or overdone: The Star upright is hope, faith, renewal; reversed it is despair, disconnection. For a few cards, the reversal is a way out: The Devil reversed is release, reclaiming power. So read the reversed keywords as they are written, and do not assume every reversed card is negative.

How to use this reference

The reference is most useful once you have a question and a specific card.

• Draw first, look up the meaning second — reading keywords before drawing makes it easy to pick cards by wish.
• Read the card's position first: past, present or future in a three-card spread; the message for the day in a one-card spread.
• Pick the keyword closest to your real situation, then ask: what here is a fact, and what is only my interpretation?
• Do not let a card decide for you about health, legal matters or money.

Frequently asked questions