Tarot Reading How to best support my son in his current situation?
Reading Performed 04/19/2025 at 5:12 PM
Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.
Querent
The querent is the card that this user felt represented them or their situation best.
The Tower
Card Meaning When Upright
Misery, distress, extreme poverty, adversity, disasters, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe.
Card Description
A Tower struck by Lightning. It is definitely a card of confusion, and the design can correspond to any well-known catastrophe. It may also depict the House of God, abandoned, and the Veil of the Temple, rent.
Visual Layout
Card One
Six of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Fear, as if a powerful enemy is at the gate; treachery, disloyalty, as if the gates are being opened to the enemy; also extended delay.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Fulfillment of deferred hope.
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 Two
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 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
King of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, duplicity, evil intention.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad man; also a caution to put an end to a ruinous lawsuit.
Card Description
He sits in judgement, holding the sign of his suit. He recalls the Justice card from the Major Arcana, and he may represent this virtue, but he possesses earthly power over life and death, because he is King.
Card Five
Ten of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Opposition, difficulties, conspiracies.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Difficulties and contradictions, if near a good card.
Card Description
A man carries ten staves, burdened down by their weight. It represents the burden of material wealth. It may also represent false-seeming, disguise, corruption, as if the place the man approaches will suffer beatings from the rods he carries.
Card Six
The Chariot from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Chariot. This is represented in some extant codices as being drawn by two sphinxes, and the device is in consonance with the symbolism, but it must not be supposed that such was its original form; the variation was invented to support a particular historical hypothesis. In the eighteenth century white horses were yoked to the car. As regards its usual name, the lesser stands for the greater; it is really the King in his triumph, typifying, however, the victory which creates kingship as its natural consequence and not the vested royalty of the fourth card. M. Court de Gebelin said that it was Osiris Triumphing, the conquering sun in spring-time having vanquished the obstacles of winter. We know now that Osiris rising from the dead is not represented by such obvious symbolism. Other animals than horses have also been used to draw the currus triumphalis, as, for example, a lion and a leopard.
Card Description
An upright and princely figure carrying a wand. On the shoulders of the victorious hero are the Urim and Thummim, symbols of divination—here shown as faces within crescent moons. He has led captivity captive (see Psalm 68:18); he represents conquest on all planes—in the mind, in science, in progress, and in certain trials of initiation. He has replied to the sphinx's riddle; therefore, two sphinxes draw his chariot. He is above all things triumph in the mind.
Card Seven
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 Eight
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 Nine
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 Ten
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.
Card Eleven
Page of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Young man of fair appearance; someone obliged to render service and with whom the Querent will be connected; a studious youth; news, messages; perseverance, reflection, meditation; also these things directed to business.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Good augury; also a young man who is unfortunate in love.
Card Description
A fair, attractive, somewhat effeminate Page, of studious and intent appearance, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form.
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Card Twelve
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 Thirteen
Two of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Deceit, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dealings with rogues.
Card Description
A blindfolded woman balances two swords upon her shoulders.
Card Fourteen
Five of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Material trouble; destitution.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Conquest of fortune by reason.
Card Description
Two beggars in a snowstorm pass a lit stained-glass window.
Card Fifteen
Knight of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Inertia, idleness, inactivity, stagnation; also stillness, discouragement, carelessness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A brave man out of employment.
Card Description
A knight rides a slow, heavy horse, similar in appearance to himself. He displays his symbol, but does not look at it.
Card Sixteen
Five of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Inheritance, patrimony, transmission of wealth, but not corresponding to expectations; marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally favourable; a happy marriage; also patrimony, legacies, gifts, success in enterprise.
Card Description
A dark, cloaked figure looks sideways at three cups lying on the ground. Two others stand upright behind him. A bridge in the background leads to a small keep or holding. This is a card of loss, but something remains at the end; three have been taken, but two are left.
Card Seventeen
The Fool from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, betrayal.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Fool, Mate, or Unwise Man. Court de Gebelin places it at the head of the whole series as the zero or negative which is presupposed by numeration, and as this is a simpler so also it is a better arrangement. It has been abandoned because in later times the cards have been attributed to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and there has been apparently some difficulty about allocating the zero symbol satisfactorily in a sequence of letters all of which signify numbers. In the present reference of the card to the letter Shin, which corresponds to 200, the difficulty or the unreason remains. The truth is that the real arrangement of the cards has never transpired. The Fool carries a wallet; he is looking over his shoulder and does not know that he is on the brink of a precipice; but a dog or other animal--some call it a tiger--is attacking him from behind, and he is hurried to his destruction unawares. Etteilla has given a justifiable variation of this card--as generally understood--in the form of a court jester, with cap, bells and motley garb. The other descriptions say that the wallet contains the bearer's follies and vices, which seems bourgeois and arbitrary.
Card Description
With light step, as if earth and its obstacles had little power to restrain him, a young man in gorgeous clothing pauses at the brink of a precipice among the great heights of the world; he surveys the blue distance before him—its expanse of sky rather than the landscape below. He seems to still be walking, though he is stationary at the given moment; his dog is still bounding. The edge that opens on the depth holds no terror for him, as if angels were waiting to uphold him, should he leap from that height. His face is full of intelligence and expectant wonder. He has a rose in one hand and in the other an expensive cane, which hangs over his right shoulder, dangling a curiously embroidered pouch. He is a prince of the other world, traveling through this one—all in the glory of the crisp morning air. The sun, which shines behind him, knows where he came from, where he is going, and how he will return: by another path, after many days. He is the Spirit in search of experience.
Card Eighteen
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 Nineteen
The High Priestess from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity, wisdom, science.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The High Priestess, the Pope Joan, or Female Pontiff; early expositors have sought to term this card the Mother, or Pope's Wife, which is opposed to the symbolism. It is sometimes held to represent the Divine Law and the Gnosis, in which case the Priestess corresponds to the idea of the Shekinah. She is the Secret Tradition and the higher sense of the instituted Mysteries.
Card Description
She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned circlet on her head with a globe at its center, and a large solar cross on her chest. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Torah, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law, and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the black and white pillars—labeled B. and J.—of the mystic Temple. The veil of the Temple is behind her, embroidered with palms and pomegranates. Her clothing is flowing and gauzy, and her mantle suggests light—a shimmering radiance. She is the Secret Church, the House of God and man. She is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is the Queen of the borrowed light, which is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Celestial Mother. In a way, she is also the Celestial Mother herself—the bright reflection of the moon. She is the Spiritual Bride of the Just Man. When the Just Man reads the Law (Torah), she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Major Arcana.
Card Twenty
Page of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The more evil side of these qualities; surprises, being an unprepared state; sickness is also hinted at.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Astonishing news.
Card Description
An agile, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands. He walks swiftly over rugged land, and around him the clouds are moving wildly. He is alert and watchful, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment.
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Card Twenty One
Nine of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Mischief, deception, failed project, bad faith.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Prompt fulfillment of what is presaged by neighbouring cards. Reversed:Vain hopes.
Card Description
A woman with a bird on her wrist stands among an abundance of grapevines in the garden of a mansion. Behind her is a wide landscape, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly, the land is her own possession, and testifies to material well-being.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
Six of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Fear, as if a powerful enemy is at the gate; treachery, disloyalty, as if the gates are being opened to the enemy; also extended delay.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Fulfillment of deferred hope.
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 Two
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 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
King of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, duplicity, evil intention.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad man; also a caution to put an end to a ruinous lawsuit.
Card Description
He sits in judgement, holding the sign of his suit. He recalls the Justice card from the Major Arcana, and he may represent this virtue, but he possesses earthly power over life and death, because he is King.
Card Five
Ten of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Opposition, difficulties, conspiracies.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Difficulties and contradictions, if near a good card.
Card Description
A man carries ten staves, burdened down by their weight. It represents the burden of material wealth. It may also represent false-seeming, disguise, corruption, as if the place the man approaches will suffer beatings from the rods he carries.
Card Six
The Chariot from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Chariot. This is represented in some extant codices as being drawn by two sphinxes, and the device is in consonance with the symbolism, but it must not be supposed that such was its original form; the variation was invented to support a particular historical hypothesis. In the eighteenth century white horses were yoked to the car. As regards its usual name, the lesser stands for the greater; it is really the King in his triumph, typifying, however, the victory which creates kingship as its natural consequence and not the vested royalty of the fourth card. M. Court de Gebelin said that it was Osiris Triumphing, the conquering sun in spring-time having vanquished the obstacles of winter. We know now that Osiris rising from the dead is not represented by such obvious symbolism. Other animals than horses have also been used to draw the currus triumphalis, as, for example, a lion and a leopard.
Card Description
An upright and princely figure carrying a wand. On the shoulders of the victorious hero are the Urim and Thummim, symbols of divination—here shown as faces within crescent moons. He has led captivity captive (see Psalm 68:18); he represents conquest on all planes—in the mind, in science, in progress, and in certain trials of initiation. He has replied to the sphinx's riddle; therefore, two sphinxes draw his chariot. He is above all things triumph in the mind.
Card Seven
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 Eight
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 Nine
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 Ten
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.
Card Eleven
Page of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Young man of fair appearance; someone obliged to render service and with whom the Querent will be connected; a studious youth; news, messages; perseverance, reflection, meditation; also these things directed to business.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Good augury; also a young man who is unfortunate in love.
Card Description
A fair, attractive, somewhat effeminate Page, of studious and intent appearance, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form.
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Card Twelve
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 Thirteen
Two of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Deceit, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dealings with rogues.
Card Description
A blindfolded woman balances two swords upon her shoulders.
Card Fourteen
Five of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Material trouble; destitution.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Conquest of fortune by reason.
Card Description
Two beggars in a snowstorm pass a lit stained-glass window.
Card Fifteen
Knight of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Inertia, idleness, inactivity, stagnation; also stillness, discouragement, carelessness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A brave man out of employment.
Card Description
A knight rides a slow, heavy horse, similar in appearance to himself. He displays his symbol, but does not look at it.
Card Sixteen
Five of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Inheritance, patrimony, transmission of wealth, but not corresponding to expectations; marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally favourable; a happy marriage; also patrimony, legacies, gifts, success in enterprise.
Card Description
A dark, cloaked figure looks sideways at three cups lying on the ground. Two others stand upright behind him. A bridge in the background leads to a small keep or holding. This is a card of loss, but something remains at the end; three have been taken, but two are left.
Card Seventeen
The Fool from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, betrayal.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Fool, Mate, or Unwise Man. Court de Gebelin places it at the head of the whole series as the zero or negative which is presupposed by numeration, and as this is a simpler so also it is a better arrangement. It has been abandoned because in later times the cards have been attributed to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and there has been apparently some difficulty about allocating the zero symbol satisfactorily in a sequence of letters all of which signify numbers. In the present reference of the card to the letter Shin, which corresponds to 200, the difficulty or the unreason remains. The truth is that the real arrangement of the cards has never transpired. The Fool carries a wallet; he is looking over his shoulder and does not know that he is on the brink of a precipice; but a dog or other animal--some call it a tiger--is attacking him from behind, and he is hurried to his destruction unawares. Etteilla has given a justifiable variation of this card--as generally understood--in the form of a court jester, with cap, bells and motley garb. The other descriptions say that the wallet contains the bearer's follies and vices, which seems bourgeois and arbitrary.
Card Description
With light step, as if earth and its obstacles had little power to restrain him, a young man in gorgeous clothing pauses at the brink of a precipice among the great heights of the world; he surveys the blue distance before him—its expanse of sky rather than the landscape below. He seems to still be walking, though he is stationary at the given moment; his dog is still bounding. The edge that opens on the depth holds no terror for him, as if angels were waiting to uphold him, should he leap from that height. His face is full of intelligence and expectant wonder. He has a rose in one hand and in the other an expensive cane, which hangs over his right shoulder, dangling a curiously embroidered pouch. He is a prince of the other world, traveling through this one—all in the glory of the crisp morning air. The sun, which shines behind him, knows where he came from, where he is going, and how he will return: by another path, after many days. He is the Spirit in search of experience.
Card Eighteen
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 Nineteen
The High Priestess from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity, wisdom, science.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The High Priestess, the Pope Joan, or Female Pontiff; early expositors have sought to term this card the Mother, or Pope's Wife, which is opposed to the symbolism. It is sometimes held to represent the Divine Law and the Gnosis, in which case the Priestess corresponds to the idea of the Shekinah. She is the Secret Tradition and the higher sense of the instituted Mysteries.
Card Description
She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned circlet on her head with a globe at its center, and a large solar cross on her chest. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Torah, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law, and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the black and white pillars—labeled B. and J.—of the mystic Temple. The veil of the Temple is behind her, embroidered with palms and pomegranates. Her clothing is flowing and gauzy, and her mantle suggests light—a shimmering radiance. She is the Secret Church, the House of God and man. She is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is the Queen of the borrowed light, which is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Celestial Mother. In a way, she is also the Celestial Mother herself—the bright reflection of the moon. She is the Spiritual Bride of the Just Man. When the Just Man reads the Law (Torah), she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Major Arcana.
Card Twenty
Page of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The more evil side of these qualities; surprises, being an unprepared state; sickness is also hinted at.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Astonishing news.
Card Description
An agile, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands. He walks swiftly over rugged land, and around him the clouds are moving wildly. He is alert and watchful, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment.
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Card Twenty One
Nine of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Mischief, deception, failed project, bad faith.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Prompt fulfillment of what is presaged by neighbouring cards. Reversed:Vain hopes.
Card Description
A woman with a bird on her wrist stands among an abundance of grapevines in the garden of a mansion. Behind her is a wide landscape, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly, the land is her own possession, and testifies to material well-being.
