Tarot Reading How do I fix my relationship with JaCoby
Reading Performed 03/13/2022 at 9:48 PM
Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.
Visual Layout
Card One
Ten of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Indignation, violence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Sorrow; also a serious quarrel.
Card Description
Above are ten cups in a rainbow. This vision is contemplated in wonder and awe by a husband and wife below. His right arm is around her, his left raised upward. She raises her right arm. Two children dancing near them have not observed the miracle, but are happy in their own play. There is a home on the horizon.
Card Two
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, dangerous games; sometimes gifts, dowry, pension.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An occasion which may be fortunate or otherwise.
Card Description
A man and woman beneath an archway that leads to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs greeting an old man in the foreground. The child's hand rests on one of the dogs.
Card Three
Ten of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Violence or backstabbing, as shown by the design; also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. It is not specifically a card of violent death.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Followed by Ace and King, imprisonment; for girl or wife, treason on the part of friends.
Card Description
A figure lies on the ground, pierced by the swords of the card.
Card Four
The Lovers from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Failure, foolish designs, prevented marriage, and opposition of all kinds.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Lovers or Marriage. This symbol has undergone many variations, as might be expected from its subject. In the eighteenth century form, by which it first became known to the world of archaeological research, it is really a card of married life, shewing father and mother, with their child placed between them; and the pagan Cupid above, in the act of flying his shaft, is, of course, a misapplied emblem. The Cupid is of love beginning rather than of love in its fulness, guarding the fruit thereof. The card is said to have been entitled Simulacyum fidei, the symbol of conjugal faith, for which the rainbow as a sign of the covenant would have been a more appropriate concomitant. The figures are also held to have signified Truth, Honour and Love, but I suspect that this was, so to speak, the gloss of a commentator moralizing. It has these, but it has other and higher aspects.
Card Description
The sun shines above, and beneath is a great winged figure with arms extended, pouring down mystical influences. In the foreground are two human figures, male and female. They are naked before each other, like Adam and Eve when they first occupied Paradise. Behind the man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman, with the serpent wrapped around it. The figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence, and love before it is contaminated by gross material desire. This is the card of human love; part of the Way, the Truth and the Life. In a very high sense, the card is a depiction of the Covenant and the Sabbath.
Card Five
Knight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Recklessness, disability, wastefulness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dispute with an imbecile person; for a woman, struggle with a rival, who will be conquered.
Card Description
A knight rides at full speed, as if scattering his enemies. He is the prototypical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart.
Card Six
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 Seven
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 Eight
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.
Related Posts
Card Nine
Three of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Occupation, trade, skilled labor; also nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
If for a man, celebrity for his eldest son.
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 Ten
Judgement from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Change of position, renewal, the outcome.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Card Eleven
The Hanged Man from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Selfishness, the crowd, the citizenship.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Hanged Man. This is the symbol which is supposed to represent Prudence, and Eliphas Levi says, in his most shallow and plausible manner, that it is the adept bound by his engagements. The figure of a man is suspended head-downwards from a gibbet, to which he is attached by a rope about one of his ankles. The arms are bound behind him, and one leg is crossed over the other. According to another, and indeed the prevailing interpretation, he signifies sacrifice, but all current meanings attributed to this card are cartomancists' intuitions, apart from any real value on the symbolical side. The fortune-tellers of the eighteenth century who circulated Tarots, depict a semi-feminine youth in jerkin, poised erect on one foot and loosely attached to a short stake driven into the ground.
Card Description
The figure of a man hangs head down from a gallows, to which he is attached by a rope around one of his ankles. His arms are bound behind him, and one leg is crossed over the other. The gallows from which he hangs forms a Tau cross, while the figure—from the position of the legs--forms a cross. There is a halo around the head of the apparent martyr. It should be noted (1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves on it; (2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, not death.
Card Twelve
King of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An old and vicious man.
Card Description
The face is rather grim, suggesting courage, but is also somewhat lethargic. The bull's head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne.
Card Thirteen
Four of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Novelty, premonition, new learning, new relationships.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Presentiment.
Card Description
A young man sits under a tree, contemplating three cups on the grass before him. An arm extends from a cloud to offer him another cup. His appears discontent, as if the wine of this world had barely satisfied him. Another wine—a fairy gift—is now offered to the vagabond, but he sees no consolation in it, either.
Card Fourteen
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 Fifteen
Queen of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and from it the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Sometimes denotes a woman of equivocal character.
Card Description
She is beautiful, fair, and dreamy; as if she sees visions in her cup. This is, however, only one of her sides; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream.
Card Sixteen
Ace of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Immaculate love, joy, contentment, home, nourishment, abundance, fertility.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Inflexible will, unalterable law.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud bears a cup pouring out four streams. Calm water lies beneath, and on it are waterlilies. A dove bearing in its beak a communion wafer marked with a cross descends to place the wafer in the cup. Dew falls around the cup on all sides.
Card Seventeen
Four of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Wise administration, deliberation, economy, greed, precaution, covenant.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A certain success following wise administration.
Card Description
The corpse of a knight in a position of prayer, laid out upon his tomb.
Card Eighteen
Queen of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Evil, suspicion, suspense, fear, mistrust.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An illness.
Card Description
A dark woman who seems to display greatness of soul and grave intelligence contemplates her symbol, as if she sees worlds within it.
Card Nineteen
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cause for anxiety regarding money someone wants to borrow.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Impatience, apprehension, suspicion.
Card Description
A young man leans on his staff, and looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a plant on his right. It looks as if these were his treasures, and as if his heart were there.
Card Twenty
Temperance from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Thrift, moderation, frugality, management, settlement.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Temperance. The winged figure of a female--who, in opposition to all doctrine concerning the hierarchy of angels, is usually allocated to this order of ministering spirits--is pouring liquid from one pitcher to another. In his last work on the Tarot, Dr. Papus abandons the traditional form and depicts a woman wearing an Egyptian head-dress. The first thing which seems clear on the surface is that the entire symbol has no especial connexion with Temperance, and the fact that this designation has always obtained for the card offers a very obvious instance of a meaning behind meaning, which is the title in chief to consideration in respect of the Tarot as a whole.
Card Description
A winged angel, with the sign of the sun on its forehead, and on its breast the square and triangle of the septenary (symbolism of the number seven). The androgynous figure pours the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot on the earth and one on water, illustrating the nature of the essences being poured. A direct path leads to heights on the horizon, and above shines a great light, through which a crown can be vaguely seen. Here is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as available to man in this existence.
Card Twenty One
The Heirophant from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Fellowship, good understanding, consensus, excessive kindness, weakness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The High Priest or Hierophant, called also Spiritual Father, and more commonly and obviously the Pope. It seems even to have been named the Abbot, and then its correspondence, the High Priestess, was the Abbess or Mother of the Convent. Both are arbitrary names. The insignia of the figures are papal, and in such case the High Priestess is and can be only the Church, to whom Pope and priests are married by the spiritual rite of ordination. I think, however, that in its primitive form this card did not represent the Roman Pontiff.
Card Description
He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but not those of the Temple guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a scepter ending with the triple cross. With his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign of esotericism, distinguishing between the surface and concealed parts of doctrine. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs (priestly robes) kneel before him. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing force of the esoteric power.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
Ten of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Indignation, violence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Sorrow; also a serious quarrel.
Card Description
Above are ten cups in a rainbow. This vision is contemplated in wonder and awe by a husband and wife below. His right arm is around her, his left raised upward. She raises her right arm. Two children dancing near them have not observed the miracle, but are happy in their own play. There is a home on the horizon.
Card Two
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, dangerous games; sometimes gifts, dowry, pension.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An occasion which may be fortunate or otherwise.
Card Description
A man and woman beneath an archway that leads to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs greeting an old man in the foreground. The child's hand rests on one of the dogs.
Card Three
Ten of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Violence or backstabbing, as shown by the design; also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. It is not specifically a card of violent death.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Followed by Ace and King, imprisonment; for girl or wife, treason on the part of friends.
Card Description
A figure lies on the ground, pierced by the swords of the card.
Card Four
The Lovers from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Failure, foolish designs, prevented marriage, and opposition of all kinds.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Lovers or Marriage. This symbol has undergone many variations, as might be expected from its subject. In the eighteenth century form, by which it first became known to the world of archaeological research, it is really a card of married life, shewing father and mother, with their child placed between them; and the pagan Cupid above, in the act of flying his shaft, is, of course, a misapplied emblem. The Cupid is of love beginning rather than of love in its fulness, guarding the fruit thereof. The card is said to have been entitled Simulacyum fidei, the symbol of conjugal faith, for which the rainbow as a sign of the covenant would have been a more appropriate concomitant. The figures are also held to have signified Truth, Honour and Love, but I suspect that this was, so to speak, the gloss of a commentator moralizing. It has these, but it has other and higher aspects.
Card Description
The sun shines above, and beneath is a great winged figure with arms extended, pouring down mystical influences. In the foreground are two human figures, male and female. They are naked before each other, like Adam and Eve when they first occupied Paradise. Behind the man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman, with the serpent wrapped around it. The figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence, and love before it is contaminated by gross material desire. This is the card of human love; part of the Way, the Truth and the Life. In a very high sense, the card is a depiction of the Covenant and the Sabbath.
Card Five
Knight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Recklessness, disability, wastefulness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dispute with an imbecile person; for a woman, struggle with a rival, who will be conquered.
Card Description
A knight rides at full speed, as if scattering his enemies. He is the prototypical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart.
Card Six
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 Seven
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 Eight
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.
Related Posts
Card Nine
Three of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Occupation, trade, skilled labor; also nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
If for a man, celebrity for his eldest son.
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 Ten
Judgement from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Change of position, renewal, the outcome.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Card Eleven
The Hanged Man from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Selfishness, the crowd, the citizenship.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Hanged Man. This is the symbol which is supposed to represent Prudence, and Eliphas Levi says, in his most shallow and plausible manner, that it is the adept bound by his engagements. The figure of a man is suspended head-downwards from a gibbet, to which he is attached by a rope about one of his ankles. The arms are bound behind him, and one leg is crossed over the other. According to another, and indeed the prevailing interpretation, he signifies sacrifice, but all current meanings attributed to this card are cartomancists' intuitions, apart from any real value on the symbolical side. The fortune-tellers of the eighteenth century who circulated Tarots, depict a semi-feminine youth in jerkin, poised erect on one foot and loosely attached to a short stake driven into the ground.
Card Description
The figure of a man hangs head down from a gallows, to which he is attached by a rope around one of his ankles. His arms are bound behind him, and one leg is crossed over the other. The gallows from which he hangs forms a Tau cross, while the figure—from the position of the legs--forms a cross. There is a halo around the head of the apparent martyr. It should be noted (1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves on it; (2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, not death.
Card Twelve
King of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An old and vicious man.
Card Description
The face is rather grim, suggesting courage, but is also somewhat lethargic. The bull's head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne.
Card Thirteen
Four of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Novelty, premonition, new learning, new relationships.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Presentiment.
Card Description
A young man sits under a tree, contemplating three cups on the grass before him. An arm extends from a cloud to offer him another cup. His appears discontent, as if the wine of this world had barely satisfied him. Another wine—a fairy gift—is now offered to the vagabond, but he sees no consolation in it, either.
Card Fourteen
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 Fifteen
Queen of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and from it the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Sometimes denotes a woman of equivocal character.
Card Description
She is beautiful, fair, and dreamy; as if she sees visions in her cup. This is, however, only one of her sides; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream.
Card Sixteen
Ace of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Immaculate love, joy, contentment, home, nourishment, abundance, fertility.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Inflexible will, unalterable law.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud bears a cup pouring out four streams. Calm water lies beneath, and on it are waterlilies. A dove bearing in its beak a communion wafer marked with a cross descends to place the wafer in the cup. Dew falls around the cup on all sides.
Card Seventeen
Four of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Wise administration, deliberation, economy, greed, precaution, covenant.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A certain success following wise administration.
Card Description
The corpse of a knight in a position of prayer, laid out upon his tomb.
Card Eighteen
Queen of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Evil, suspicion, suspense, fear, mistrust.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An illness.
Card Description
A dark woman who seems to display greatness of soul and grave intelligence contemplates her symbol, as if she sees worlds within it.
Card Nineteen
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cause for anxiety regarding money someone wants to borrow.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Impatience, apprehension, suspicion.
Card Description
A young man leans on his staff, and looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a plant on his right. It looks as if these were his treasures, and as if his heart were there.
Card Twenty
Temperance from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Thrift, moderation, frugality, management, settlement.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Temperance. The winged figure of a female--who, in opposition to all doctrine concerning the hierarchy of angels, is usually allocated to this order of ministering spirits--is pouring liquid from one pitcher to another. In his last work on the Tarot, Dr. Papus abandons the traditional form and depicts a woman wearing an Egyptian head-dress. The first thing which seems clear on the surface is that the entire symbol has no especial connexion with Temperance, and the fact that this designation has always obtained for the card offers a very obvious instance of a meaning behind meaning, which is the title in chief to consideration in respect of the Tarot as a whole.
Card Description
A winged angel, with the sign of the sun on its forehead, and on its breast the square and triangle of the septenary (symbolism of the number seven). The androgynous figure pours the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot on the earth and one on water, illustrating the nature of the essences being poured. A direct path leads to heights on the horizon, and above shines a great light, through which a crown can be vaguely seen. Here is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as available to man in this existence.
Card Twenty One
The Heirophant from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Fellowship, good understanding, consensus, excessive kindness, weakness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The High Priest or Hierophant, called also Spiritual Father, and more commonly and obviously the Pope. It seems even to have been named the Abbot, and then its correspondence, the High Priestess, was the Abbess or Mother of the Convent. Both are arbitrary names. The insignia of the figures are papal, and in such case the High Priestess is and can be only the Church, to whom Pope and priests are married by the spiritual rite of ordination. I think, however, that in its primitive form this card did not represent the Roman Pontiff.
Card Description
He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but not those of the Temple guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a scepter ending with the triple cross. With his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign of esotericism, distinguishing between the surface and concealed parts of doctrine. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs (priestly robes) kneel before him. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing force of the esoteric power.
