Tarot Reading What lies in my future?
Reading Performed 09/18/2021 at 2:14 PM
Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.
Visual Layout
Card One
Ace of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The same, but the results are disastrous; also conception, childbirth, development, plurality.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Marriage broken off, for a woman, through her own imprudence.
Card Description
A hand extends from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled by a crown.
Card Two
Ace of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence; also great riches.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A share in the finding of treasure.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud holds up a pentacle.
Card Three
The Moon from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Instability, changeability, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Moon. Some eighteenth-century cards shew the luminary on its waning side; in the debased edition of Etteilla, it is the moon at night in her plenitude, set in a heaven of stars; of recent years the moon is shewn on the side of her increase. In nearly all presentations she is shining brightly and shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops. Beneath there are two towers, between which a path winds to the verge of the horizon. Two dogs, or alternatively a wolf and dog, are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves towards the land.
Card Description
In this card the moon is waxing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays. Drops of dew descend from above. Beneath are two towers, between which a path winds up to the horizon. A wolf and dog are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves toward the land. The card represents life of the imagination, apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is our path into the unknown. The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that mystery, when there is only reflected light to guide it.
Card Four
Three of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Mediocrity, in work and elsewhere; immaturity, pettiness, weakness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Depends on neighbouring cards.
Card Description
This card shows a sculptor working in a monastery. Compare with the Eight of Pentacles: the apprentice or amateur in that card has received his reward and is now at work in earnest.
Card Five
Seven of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Fairy favors, images of reflection, tenderness, imagination, scrying; moderate success, but nothing permanent or substantial.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Fair child; idea, design, resolve, movement.
Card Description
Cups holding strange visions are presented to a figure in the foreground, as if offering a choice.
Card Six
The Empress from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Empress, who is sometimes represented with full face, while her correspondence, the Emperor, is in profile. As there has been some tendency to ascribe a symbolical significance to this distinction, it seems desirable to say that it carries no inner meaning. The Empress has been connected with the ideas of universal fecundity and in a general sense with activity.
Card Description
A stately seated figure, having rich clothing and royal appearance, a daughter of heaven and earth. Her circlet holds twelve stars gathered in a cluster. The symbol of Venus is on the shield, which rests near her. A field of corn is ripening in front of her, and beyond there is a waterfall. The scepter she bears is topped by the globe of this world.
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Card Seven
Ten of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Advantage, profit, success, favor, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Victory and consequent fortune for a soldier in war.
Card Description
A figure lies on the ground, pierced by the swords of the card.
Card Eight
Eight of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity; swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed toward an end that promises certain happiness; generally, things on the move; also the arrows of love.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Domestic disputes for a married person.
Card Description
This card represents motion through the unmoving—a flight of wands through an open countryside. They approach the end of their path. The future they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold.
Card Nine
Five of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Deterioration, destruction, revocation, disgrace, dishonor, loss.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An attack on the fortune of the Querent.
Card Description
A scornful man watches two retreating and dejected figures, whose swords lie on the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder. A third sword in his right hand points to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.
Card Ten
The Magician from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Physician, Magus, mental disease, disgrace, anxiety.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Magus, Magician, or juggler, the caster of the dice and mountebank, in the world of vulgar trickery. This is the colportage interpretation, and it has the same correspondence with the real symbolical meaning that the use of the Tarot in fortune-telling has with its mystic construction according to the secret science of symbolism. I should add that many independent students of the subject, following their own lights, have produced individual sequences of meaning in respect of the Trumps Major, and their lights are sometimes suggestive, but they are not the true lights. For example, Eliphas Levi says that the Magus signifies that unity which is the mother of numbers; others say that it is the Divine Unity; and one of the latest French commentators considers that in its general sense it is the will.
Card Description
A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the appearance of divine Apollo, with a smile of confidence and shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position. About his waist is a serpent-sash, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a symbol of eternity, but here it indicates the eternity of attainment in the Spirit. In the Magician's right hand is a wand raised toward heaven, while the left hand is pointing to the earth. This dual sign indicates the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and passed to things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit. On the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot suits, signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like tools before the adept, and he uses them as he wills. Beneath the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley (see Song of Solomon 2:1), changed into garden flowers, depicting the culture of self-improvement. This card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God.
Card Eleven
The Hermit from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Prudence, caution; also and especially treason, hypocrisy, mischief, corruption.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Hermit, as he is termed in common parlance, stands next on the list; he is also the Capuchin, and in more philosophical language the Sage. He is said to be in search of that Truth which is located far off in the sequence, and of justice which has preceded him on the way. But this is a card of attainment, as we shall see later, rather than a card of quest. It is said also that his lantern contains the Light of Occult Science and that his staff is a Magic Wand. These interpretations are comparable in every respect to the divinatory and fortune-telling meanings with which I shall have to deal in their turn. The diabolism of both is that they are true after their own manner, but that they miss all the high things to which the Greater Arcana should be allocated. It is as if a man who knows in his heart that all roads lead to the heights, and that God is at the great height of all, should choose the way of perdition or the way of folly as the path of his own attainment. Eliphas Levi has allocated this card to Prudence, but in so doing he has been actuated by the wish to fill a gap which would otherwise occur in the symbolism. The four cardinal virtues are necessary to an idealogical sequence like the Trumps Major, but they must not be taken only in that first sense which exists for the use and consolation of him who in these days of halfpenny journalism is called the man in the street. In their proper understanding they are the correlatives of the counsels of perfection when these have been similarly re-expressed, and they read as follows: (a) Transcendental justice, the counter-equilibrium of the scales, when they have been overweighted so that they dip heavily on the side of God. The corresponding counsel is to use loaded dice when you play for high stakes with Diabolus. The axiom is Aut Deus, aut nihil. (b) Divine Ecstacy, as a counterpoise to something called Temperance, the sign of which is, I believe, the extinction of lights in the tavern. The corresponding counsel is to drink only of new wine in the Kingdom of the Father, because God is all in all. The axiom is that man being a reasonable being must get intoxicated with God; the imputed case in point is Spinoza. (c) The state of Royal Fortitude, which is the state of a Tower of Ivory and a House of Gold, but it is God and not the man who has become Turris fortitudinis a facie inimici, and out of that House the enemy has been cast. The corresponding counsel is that a man must not spare himself even in the presence of death, but he must be certain that his sacrifice shall be-of any open course-the best that will ensure his end. The axiom is that the strength which is raised to such a degree that a man dares lose himself shall shew him how God is found, and as to such refuge--dare therefore and learn. (d) Prudence is the economy which follows the line of least resistance, that the soul may get back whence it came. It is a doctrine of divine parsimony and conservation of energy, because of the stress, the terror and the manifest impertinences of this life. The corresponding counsel is that true prudence is concerned with the one thing needful, and the axiom is: Waste not, want not. The conclusion of the whole matter is a business proposition founded on the law of exchange: You cannot help getting what you seek in respect of the things that are Divine: it is the law of supply and demand. I have mentioned these few matters at this point for two simple reasons: (a) because in proportion to the impartiality of the mind it seems sometimes more difficult to determine whether it is vice or vulgarity which lays waste the present world more piteously; (b) because in order to remedy the imperfections of the old notions it is highly needful, on occasion, to empty terms and phrases of their accepted significance, that they may receive a new and more adequate meaning.
Card Description
A star shines in the Hermit's lantern. This is a card of attainment, and to emphasize this idea the figure is seen holding up his beacon on a hill. The Hermit is not a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he particularly an example of experience. His beacon hints that "where I am, you also may be." (see John 14:3)
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Card Twelve
Knight of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Arrival, approach—sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanor, invitation, temptation.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A visit from a friend, who will bring unexpected money to the Querent.
Card Description
A graceful but not warlike figure rides quietly. He wears a winged helmet to symbolize the imagination. He is a dreamer, and the images of sensory things haunt him in his vision.
Card Thirteen
The Devil from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Devil. In the eighteenth century this card seems to have been rather a symbol of merely animal impudicity. Except for a fantastic head-dress, the chief figure is entirely naked; it has bat-like wings, and the hands and feet are represented by the claws of a bird. In the right hand there is a sceptre terminating in a sign which has been thought to represent fire. The figure as a whole is not particularly evil; it has no tail, and the commentators who have said that the claws are those of a harpy have spoken at random. There is no better ground for the alternative suggestion that they are eagle's claws. Attached, by a cord depending from their collars, to the pedestal on which the figure is mounted, are two small demons, presumably male and female. These are tailed, but not winged. Since 1856 the influence of Eliphas Levi and his doctrine of occultism has changed the face of this card, and it now appears as a pseudo-Baphometic figure with the head of a goat and a great torch between the horns; it is seated instead of erect, and in place of the generative organs there is the Hermetic caduceus. In Le Tarot Divinatoire of Papus the small demons are replaced by naked human beings, male and female who are yoked only to each other. The author may be felicitated on this improved symbolism.
Card Description
The main figure is entirely naked; he has bat-like wings, and his feet have the claws of a bird. His right hand is upraised and extended, which is the reverse of the blessing given by the Hierophant. In his left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted toward the earth. A reversed pentagram is on his forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are attached to the necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous to The Lovers, like Adam and Eve after the Fall. They represent the chains and fatality of the material life.
Card Fourteen
Queen of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Widowhood, female infertility, absence, sterility, mourning, deprivation, separation.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A widow.
Card Description
Her right hand holds her weapon vertical, and the hilt rests on an arm of her throne. Her left hand is extended, the arm raised. Her expression is stern but humble; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and despite her sword, she is not a symbol of power.
Card Fifteen
Nine of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Truth, loyalty, liberty; good business.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Good business.
Card Description
A stout man has feasted to his heart's content. An abundant supply of wine is behind him, as if to show that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side of assurance only: it does not reflect the spiritual.
Card Sixteen
Strength from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Tyranny, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Fortitude. This is one of the cardinal virtues, of which I shall speak later. The female figure is usually represented as closing the mouth of a lion. In the earlier form which is printed by Court de Gebelin, she is obviously opening it. The first alternative is better symbolically, but either is an instance of strength in its conventional understanding, and conveys the idea of mastery. It has been said that the figure represents organic force, moral force and the principle of all force.
Card Description
A woman, over whose head is the same symbol of life seen in the Magician card, closes the jaws of a lion. Her benevolent strength has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a leash of flowers. Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union. It connects also with untouched innocence, and with the strength that resides in contemplation. These higher meanings are hinted at in a concealed manner by the leash of flowers, which signifies the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing to do with ordinary self-confidence—it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God and have found their refuge in Him. In one sense, the lion signifies the animal passions, and the lady called Strength signifies the higher nature of Man in his liberation. The higher nature of Man has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon (see Psalm 91:13).
Card Seventeen
Six of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
A victor triumphing; also great news, such as might be carried by the King's courier; expectation crowned with its own desire, crowned with hope—in other words, expectation that is its own reward.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Servants may lose the confidence of their masters; a young lady may be betrayed by a friend.
Card Description
A horseman wearing a laurel crown holds a staff adorned with another laurel crown. Footmen with more staves are at his side.
Card Eighteen
Seven of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
This is a card of valor—six are attacking one, but he has the upper hand. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion and debate; in business negotiations, trade wars, barter, competition. It is also a card of success—the combatant is on top and his enemies are unable to reach him.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A dark child.
Card Description
A young man on a rocky hill brandishes a staff; six other staves are raised toward him from below.
Card Nineteen
Ace of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Fall, decay, ruin, condemnation, demise; also a certain clouded joy.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A sign of birth.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club.
Card Twenty
Eight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Anxiety, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; surprises; fatality.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Departure of a relative.
Card Description
A woman stands bound and blindfolded, with the swords of the card around her. It is a card of temporary imprisonment rather than permanent bondage.
Card Twenty One
Judgement from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Weakness, cowardice, simplicity; also deliberation, decision, sentence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Last judgment. I have spoken of this symbol already, the form of which is essentially invariable, even in the Etteilla set. An angel sounds his trumpet per sepulchra regionum, and the dead arise. It matters little that Etteilla omits the angel, or that Dr. Papus substitutes a ridiculous figure, which is, however, in consonance with the general motive of that Tarot set which accompanies his latest work. Before rejecting the transparent interpretation of the symbolism which is conveyed by the name of the card and by the picture which it presents to the eye, we should feel very sure of our ground. On the surface, at least, it is and can be only the resurrection of that triad--father, mother, child-whom we have met with already in the eighth card. M. Bourgeat hazards the suggestion that esoterically it is the symbol of evolution--of which it carries none of the signs. Others say that it signifies renewal, which is obvious enough; that it is the triad of human life; that it is the "generative force of the earth... and eternal life." Court de Gebelin makes himself impossible as usual, and points out that if the grave-stones were removed it could be accepted as a symbol of creation.
Card Description
A great angel is surrounded by clouds. He blows a trumpet with a banner displaying and a cross. Beneath, the dead are rising from their tombs—a woman on the right, a man on the left, and between them their child, whose back is turned. In the background are more dead who are restored. All the figures stand as one in the wonder, adoration, and ecstasy expressed by their postures. This card represents the accomplishment of the great work of transformation, in answer to the summons of the Celestial, heard and answered from within.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
Ace of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The same, but the results are disastrous; also conception, childbirth, development, plurality.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Marriage broken off, for a woman, through her own imprudence.
Card Description
A hand extends from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled by a crown.
Card Two
Ace of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence; also great riches.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A share in the finding of treasure.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud holds up a pentacle.
Card Three
The Moon from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Instability, changeability, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Moon. Some eighteenth-century cards shew the luminary on its waning side; in the debased edition of Etteilla, it is the moon at night in her plenitude, set in a heaven of stars; of recent years the moon is shewn on the side of her increase. In nearly all presentations she is shining brightly and shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops. Beneath there are two towers, between which a path winds to the verge of the horizon. Two dogs, or alternatively a wolf and dog, are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves towards the land.
Card Description
In this card the moon is waxing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays. Drops of dew descend from above. Beneath are two towers, between which a path winds up to the horizon. A wolf and dog are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves toward the land. The card represents life of the imagination, apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is our path into the unknown. The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that mystery, when there is only reflected light to guide it.
Card Four
Three of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Mediocrity, in work and elsewhere; immaturity, pettiness, weakness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Depends on neighbouring cards.
Card Description
This card shows a sculptor working in a monastery. Compare with the Eight of Pentacles: the apprentice or amateur in that card has received his reward and is now at work in earnest.
Card Five
Seven of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Fairy favors, images of reflection, tenderness, imagination, scrying; moderate success, but nothing permanent or substantial.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Fair child; idea, design, resolve, movement.
Card Description
Cups holding strange visions are presented to a figure in the foreground, as if offering a choice.
Card Six
The Empress from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Empress, who is sometimes represented with full face, while her correspondence, the Emperor, is in profile. As there has been some tendency to ascribe a symbolical significance to this distinction, it seems desirable to say that it carries no inner meaning. The Empress has been connected with the ideas of universal fecundity and in a general sense with activity.
Card Description
A stately seated figure, having rich clothing and royal appearance, a daughter of heaven and earth. Her circlet holds twelve stars gathered in a cluster. The symbol of Venus is on the shield, which rests near her. A field of corn is ripening in front of her, and beyond there is a waterfall. The scepter she bears is topped by the globe of this world.
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Card Seven
Ten of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Advantage, profit, success, favor, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Victory and consequent fortune for a soldier in war.
Card Description
A figure lies on the ground, pierced by the swords of the card.
Card Eight
Eight of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity; swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed toward an end that promises certain happiness; generally, things on the move; also the arrows of love.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Domestic disputes for a married person.
Card Description
This card represents motion through the unmoving—a flight of wands through an open countryside. They approach the end of their path. The future they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold.
Card Nine
Five of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Deterioration, destruction, revocation, disgrace, dishonor, loss.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An attack on the fortune of the Querent.
Card Description
A scornful man watches two retreating and dejected figures, whose swords lie on the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder. A third sword in his right hand points to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.
Card Ten
The Magician from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Physician, Magus, mental disease, disgrace, anxiety.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Magus, Magician, or juggler, the caster of the dice and mountebank, in the world of vulgar trickery. This is the colportage interpretation, and it has the same correspondence with the real symbolical meaning that the use of the Tarot in fortune-telling has with its mystic construction according to the secret science of symbolism. I should add that many independent students of the subject, following their own lights, have produced individual sequences of meaning in respect of the Trumps Major, and their lights are sometimes suggestive, but they are not the true lights. For example, Eliphas Levi says that the Magus signifies that unity which is the mother of numbers; others say that it is the Divine Unity; and one of the latest French commentators considers that in its general sense it is the will.
Card Description
A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the appearance of divine Apollo, with a smile of confidence and shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position. About his waist is a serpent-sash, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a symbol of eternity, but here it indicates the eternity of attainment in the Spirit. In the Magician's right hand is a wand raised toward heaven, while the left hand is pointing to the earth. This dual sign indicates the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and passed to things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit. On the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot suits, signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like tools before the adept, and he uses them as he wills. Beneath the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley (see Song of Solomon 2:1), changed into garden flowers, depicting the culture of self-improvement. This card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God.
Card Eleven
The Hermit from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Prudence, caution; also and especially treason, hypocrisy, mischief, corruption.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Hermit, as he is termed in common parlance, stands next on the list; he is also the Capuchin, and in more philosophical language the Sage. He is said to be in search of that Truth which is located far off in the sequence, and of justice which has preceded him on the way. But this is a card of attainment, as we shall see later, rather than a card of quest. It is said also that his lantern contains the Light of Occult Science and that his staff is a Magic Wand. These interpretations are comparable in every respect to the divinatory and fortune-telling meanings with which I shall have to deal in their turn. The diabolism of both is that they are true after their own manner, but that they miss all the high things to which the Greater Arcana should be allocated. It is as if a man who knows in his heart that all roads lead to the heights, and that God is at the great height of all, should choose the way of perdition or the way of folly as the path of his own attainment. Eliphas Levi has allocated this card to Prudence, but in so doing he has been actuated by the wish to fill a gap which would otherwise occur in the symbolism. The four cardinal virtues are necessary to an idealogical sequence like the Trumps Major, but they must not be taken only in that first sense which exists for the use and consolation of him who in these days of halfpenny journalism is called the man in the street. In their proper understanding they are the correlatives of the counsels of perfection when these have been similarly re-expressed, and they read as follows: (a) Transcendental justice, the counter-equilibrium of the scales, when they have been overweighted so that they dip heavily on the side of God. The corresponding counsel is to use loaded dice when you play for high stakes with Diabolus. The axiom is Aut Deus, aut nihil. (b) Divine Ecstacy, as a counterpoise to something called Temperance, the sign of which is, I believe, the extinction of lights in the tavern. The corresponding counsel is to drink only of new wine in the Kingdom of the Father, because God is all in all. The axiom is that man being a reasonable being must get intoxicated with God; the imputed case in point is Spinoza. (c) The state of Royal Fortitude, which is the state of a Tower of Ivory and a House of Gold, but it is God and not the man who has become Turris fortitudinis a facie inimici, and out of that House the enemy has been cast. The corresponding counsel is that a man must not spare himself even in the presence of death, but he must be certain that his sacrifice shall be-of any open course-the best that will ensure his end. The axiom is that the strength which is raised to such a degree that a man dares lose himself shall shew him how God is found, and as to such refuge--dare therefore and learn. (d) Prudence is the economy which follows the line of least resistance, that the soul may get back whence it came. It is a doctrine of divine parsimony and conservation of energy, because of the stress, the terror and the manifest impertinences of this life. The corresponding counsel is that true prudence is concerned with the one thing needful, and the axiom is: Waste not, want not. The conclusion of the whole matter is a business proposition founded on the law of exchange: You cannot help getting what you seek in respect of the things that are Divine: it is the law of supply and demand. I have mentioned these few matters at this point for two simple reasons: (a) because in proportion to the impartiality of the mind it seems sometimes more difficult to determine whether it is vice or vulgarity which lays waste the present world more piteously; (b) because in order to remedy the imperfections of the old notions it is highly needful, on occasion, to empty terms and phrases of their accepted significance, that they may receive a new and more adequate meaning.
Card Description
A star shines in the Hermit's lantern. This is a card of attainment, and to emphasize this idea the figure is seen holding up his beacon on a hill. The Hermit is not a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he particularly an example of experience. His beacon hints that "where I am, you also may be." (see John 14:3)
Related Posts
Card Twelve
Knight of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Arrival, approach—sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanor, invitation, temptation.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A visit from a friend, who will bring unexpected money to the Querent.
Card Description
A graceful but not warlike figure rides quietly. He wears a winged helmet to symbolize the imagination. He is a dreamer, and the images of sensory things haunt him in his vision.
Card Thirteen
The Devil from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Devil. In the eighteenth century this card seems to have been rather a symbol of merely animal impudicity. Except for a fantastic head-dress, the chief figure is entirely naked; it has bat-like wings, and the hands and feet are represented by the claws of a bird. In the right hand there is a sceptre terminating in a sign which has been thought to represent fire. The figure as a whole is not particularly evil; it has no tail, and the commentators who have said that the claws are those of a harpy have spoken at random. There is no better ground for the alternative suggestion that they are eagle's claws. Attached, by a cord depending from their collars, to the pedestal on which the figure is mounted, are two small demons, presumably male and female. These are tailed, but not winged. Since 1856 the influence of Eliphas Levi and his doctrine of occultism has changed the face of this card, and it now appears as a pseudo-Baphometic figure with the head of a goat and a great torch between the horns; it is seated instead of erect, and in place of the generative organs there is the Hermetic caduceus. In Le Tarot Divinatoire of Papus the small demons are replaced by naked human beings, male and female who are yoked only to each other. The author may be felicitated on this improved symbolism.
Card Description
The main figure is entirely naked; he has bat-like wings, and his feet have the claws of a bird. His right hand is upraised and extended, which is the reverse of the blessing given by the Hierophant. In his left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted toward the earth. A reversed pentagram is on his forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are attached to the necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous to The Lovers, like Adam and Eve after the Fall. They represent the chains and fatality of the material life.
Card Fourteen
Queen of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Widowhood, female infertility, absence, sterility, mourning, deprivation, separation.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A widow.
Card Description
Her right hand holds her weapon vertical, and the hilt rests on an arm of her throne. Her left hand is extended, the arm raised. Her expression is stern but humble; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and despite her sword, she is not a symbol of power.
Card Fifteen
Nine of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Truth, loyalty, liberty; good business.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Good business.
Card Description
A stout man has feasted to his heart's content. An abundant supply of wine is behind him, as if to show that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side of assurance only: it does not reflect the spiritual.
Card Sixteen
Strength from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Tyranny, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Fortitude. This is one of the cardinal virtues, of which I shall speak later. The female figure is usually represented as closing the mouth of a lion. In the earlier form which is printed by Court de Gebelin, she is obviously opening it. The first alternative is better symbolically, but either is an instance of strength in its conventional understanding, and conveys the idea of mastery. It has been said that the figure represents organic force, moral force and the principle of all force.
Card Description
A woman, over whose head is the same symbol of life seen in the Magician card, closes the jaws of a lion. Her benevolent strength has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a leash of flowers. Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union. It connects also with untouched innocence, and with the strength that resides in contemplation. These higher meanings are hinted at in a concealed manner by the leash of flowers, which signifies the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing to do with ordinary self-confidence—it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God and have found their refuge in Him. In one sense, the lion signifies the animal passions, and the lady called Strength signifies the higher nature of Man in his liberation. The higher nature of Man has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon (see Psalm 91:13).
Card Seventeen
Six of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
A victor triumphing; also great news, such as might be carried by the King's courier; expectation crowned with its own desire, crowned with hope—in other words, expectation that is its own reward.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Servants may lose the confidence of their masters; a young lady may be betrayed by a friend.
Card Description
A horseman wearing a laurel crown holds a staff adorned with another laurel crown. Footmen with more staves are at his side.
Card Eighteen
Seven of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
This is a card of valor—six are attacking one, but he has the upper hand. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion and debate; in business negotiations, trade wars, barter, competition. It is also a card of success—the combatant is on top and his enemies are unable to reach him.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A dark child.
Card Description
A young man on a rocky hill brandishes a staff; six other staves are raised toward him from below.
Card Nineteen
Ace of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Fall, decay, ruin, condemnation, demise; also a certain clouded joy.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A sign of birth.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club.
Card Twenty
Eight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Anxiety, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; surprises; fatality.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Departure of a relative.
Card Description
A woman stands bound and blindfolded, with the swords of the card around her. It is a card of temporary imprisonment rather than permanent bondage.
Card Twenty One
Judgement from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Weakness, cowardice, simplicity; also deliberation, decision, sentence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Last judgment. I have spoken of this symbol already, the form of which is essentially invariable, even in the Etteilla set. An angel sounds his trumpet per sepulchra regionum, and the dead arise. It matters little that Etteilla omits the angel, or that Dr. Papus substitutes a ridiculous figure, which is, however, in consonance with the general motive of that Tarot set which accompanies his latest work. Before rejecting the transparent interpretation of the symbolism which is conveyed by the name of the card and by the picture which it presents to the eye, we should feel very sure of our ground. On the surface, at least, it is and can be only the resurrection of that triad--father, mother, child-whom we have met with already in the eighth card. M. Bourgeat hazards the suggestion that esoterically it is the symbol of evolution--of which it carries none of the signs. Others say that it signifies renewal, which is obvious enough; that it is the triad of human life; that it is the "generative force of the earth... and eternal life." Court de Gebelin makes himself impossible as usual, and points out that if the grave-stones were removed it could be accepted as a symbol of creation.
Card Description
A great angel is surrounded by clouds. He blows a trumpet with a banner displaying and a cross. Beneath, the dead are rising from their tombs—a woman on the right, a man on the left, and between them their child, whose back is turned. In the background are more dead who are restored. All the figures stand as one in the wonder, adoration, and ecstasy expressed by their postures. This card represents the accomplishment of the great work of transformation, in answer to the summons of the Celestial, heard and answered from within.
