Tarot Reading Will I keep my salary for a few more years and will I meet and marry my soul mate/twin flame this year?
Reading Performed 10/21/2025 at 9:17 AM
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 Empress
Card Meaning When Upright
Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.
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.
Visual Layout
Card One
Queen of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Good woman; otherwise, distinguished woman but one not to be trusted; perverse woman; vice, dishonor, depravity.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A rich marriage for a man and a distinguished one for a woman.
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 Two
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.
Related Posts
Card Three
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 Four
Four of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Vigilance, retreat, solitude, isolation, exile, tomb and coffin.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad card, but if reversed a qualified success may be expected by wise administration of affairs.
Card Description
The corpse of a knight in a position of prayer, laid out upon his tomb.
Card Five
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Gain, riches; family matters, archives, ancestry, the home of a family.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Represents house or dwelling, and derives its value from other cards.
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 Six
The Star from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Loss, theft, deprivation, abandonment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Star, Dog-Star, or Sirius, also called fantastically the Star of the Magi. Grouped about it are seven minor luminaries, and beneath it is a naked female figure, with her left knee upon the earth and her right foot upon the water. She is in the act of pouring fluids from two vessels. A bird is perched on a tree near her; for this a butterfly on a rose has been substituted in some later cards. So also the Star has been called that of Hope. This is one of the cards which Court de Gebelin describes as wholly Egyptian-that is to say, in his own reverie.
Card Description
A large, radiant star of eight points, surrounded by seven lesser stars—also of eight points. The female figure in the foreground is entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot on the water. She pours the Water of Life from two great pitchers, irrigating sea and land. Behind her is rising ground, and on the right a shrub on which a bird perches. The figure expresses eternal youth and beauty. The star is l'etoile flamboyante, a symbol of Freemasonry. The figure communicates to the earth around her the substance of the heavens and the elements.
Card Seven
Knight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Skill, bravery, capacity, defense; hostility, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin. This may sometimes signify death, but it carries this meaning only when near other cards of fatality.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A soldier, man of arms, satellite, stipendiary; heroic action predicted for soldier.
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 Eight
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 Nine
Five of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, recklessness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Troubles in love.
Card Description
Two beggars in a snowstorm pass a lit stained-glass window.
Card Ten
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 Eleven
Two of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Passion.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Passion.
Card Description
A young man and woman pledge themselves to one another. Above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes, with a lion's head between its spread wings. It represents our desire to find a soul mate, by which desire Nature is sanctified.
Card Twelve
Three of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Removal, absence, delay, division, separation, dispersion, and all that the design naturally signifies.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
For a woman, the flight of her lover.
Card Description
Three swords pierce a heart; there are clouds and rain behind.
Card Thirteen
Eight of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Great joy, happiness, feasting.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Perfect satisfaction.
Card Description
A dejected-looking man abandons the cups of his celebrations. They symbolize an enterprise, undertaking, or previous concern.
Card Fourteen
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.
Card Fifteen
Eight of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Voided ambition, vanity, greed, extortion, loan-sharking; also the possession of skill—the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Querent will be compromised in a matter of money-lending.
Card Description
An artist at his work in stone, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.
Card Sixteen
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 Seventeen
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 Eighteen
Six of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Journey by water, route, travel, messenger, assistance.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The voyage will be pleasant.
Card Description
A ferryman carries passengers in his raft to the far shore. The course is smooth, and the freight is light; the work is not beyond his strength.
Card Nineteen
Six of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Desire, greed, envy, jealousy, illusion.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A check on the Querent's ambition.
Card Description
A merchant weighs money in a pair of scales, and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.
Card Twenty
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 Twenty One
Two of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Conformity and the equilibrium it suggests, courage, friendship, peace in a state of arms; to some extent, harmony: however, swords do not generally symbolize benevolent forces in human affairs.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Gifts for a lady, influential protection for a man in search of help.
Card Description
A blindfolded woman balances two swords upon her shoulders.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
Queen of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Good woman; otherwise, distinguished woman but one not to be trusted; perverse woman; vice, dishonor, depravity.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A rich marriage for a man and a distinguished one for a woman.
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 Two
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.
Related Posts
Card Three
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 Four
Four of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Vigilance, retreat, solitude, isolation, exile, tomb and coffin.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad card, but if reversed a qualified success may be expected by wise administration of affairs.
Card Description
The corpse of a knight in a position of prayer, laid out upon his tomb.
Card Five
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Gain, riches; family matters, archives, ancestry, the home of a family.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Represents house or dwelling, and derives its value from other cards.
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 Six
The Star from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Loss, theft, deprivation, abandonment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Star, Dog-Star, or Sirius, also called fantastically the Star of the Magi. Grouped about it are seven minor luminaries, and beneath it is a naked female figure, with her left knee upon the earth and her right foot upon the water. She is in the act of pouring fluids from two vessels. A bird is perched on a tree near her; for this a butterfly on a rose has been substituted in some later cards. So also the Star has been called that of Hope. This is one of the cards which Court de Gebelin describes as wholly Egyptian-that is to say, in his own reverie.
Card Description
A large, radiant star of eight points, surrounded by seven lesser stars—also of eight points. The female figure in the foreground is entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot on the water. She pours the Water of Life from two great pitchers, irrigating sea and land. Behind her is rising ground, and on the right a shrub on which a bird perches. The figure expresses eternal youth and beauty. The star is l'etoile flamboyante, a symbol of Freemasonry. The figure communicates to the earth around her the substance of the heavens and the elements.
Card Seven
Knight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Skill, bravery, capacity, defense; hostility, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin. This may sometimes signify death, but it carries this meaning only when near other cards of fatality.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A soldier, man of arms, satellite, stipendiary; heroic action predicted for soldier.
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 Eight
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 Nine
Five of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, recklessness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Troubles in love.
Card Description
Two beggars in a snowstorm pass a lit stained-glass window.
Card Ten
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 Eleven
Two of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Passion.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Passion.
Card Description
A young man and woman pledge themselves to one another. Above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes, with a lion's head between its spread wings. It represents our desire to find a soul mate, by which desire Nature is sanctified.
Card Twelve
Three of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Removal, absence, delay, division, separation, dispersion, and all that the design naturally signifies.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
For a woman, the flight of her lover.
Card Description
Three swords pierce a heart; there are clouds and rain behind.
Card Thirteen
Eight of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Great joy, happiness, feasting.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Perfect satisfaction.
Card Description
A dejected-looking man abandons the cups of his celebrations. They symbolize an enterprise, undertaking, or previous concern.
Card Fourteen
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.
Card Fifteen
Eight of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Voided ambition, vanity, greed, extortion, loan-sharking; also the possession of skill—the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Querent will be compromised in a matter of money-lending.
Card Description
An artist at his work in stone, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.
Card Sixteen
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 Seventeen
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 Eighteen
Six of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Journey by water, route, travel, messenger, assistance.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The voyage will be pleasant.
Card Description
A ferryman carries passengers in his raft to the far shore. The course is smooth, and the freight is light; the work is not beyond his strength.
Card Nineteen
Six of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Desire, greed, envy, jealousy, illusion.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A check on the Querent's ambition.
Card Description
A merchant weighs money in a pair of scales, and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.
Card Twenty
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 Twenty One
Two of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Conformity and the equilibrium it suggests, courage, friendship, peace in a state of arms; to some extent, harmony: however, swords do not generally symbolize benevolent forces in human affairs.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Gifts for a lady, influential protection for a man in search of help.
Card Description
A blindfolded woman balances two swords upon her shoulders.
