Tarot Reading Career in the next year
Reading Performed 02/03/2026 at 5:59 PM
Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.
Visual Layout
Card One
King of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Judgement and its associations; power, command, authority, military intelligence, law, offices of the state.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A lawyer, senator, doctor.
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 Two
Knight of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Departure, absence, fleeing, emigration; a dark, friendly young man; change of residence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad card; according to some readings, alienation.
Card Description
A knight rides on a journey, armed with a short wand. Although wearing armor, he is not on a warlike errand. He passes pyramids on the horizon. The rearing of the horse is a hint at the character of its rider, and suggests an expectant mood or things connected with expectation.
Card Three
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Money, business, barter.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Improved position for a lady's future husband.
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 Four
Ten of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Oppression, especially that of fortune, gain, or any kind of success. Success will be mocked if the Nine of Swords follows. If it is a question of a lawsuit, loss is certain.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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 Five
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 Six
Eight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Bad news, terror, crisis, rebuke, powerful obstacles, conflict, slander; also sickness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
For a woman, scandal spread in her respect.
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 Seven
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 Eight
Page of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Stories, announcements, evil news. Also indecision and the instability that accompanies it.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Bad news.
Card Description
A young man stands as if making a proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
Related Posts
Card Nine
The Emperor from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Emperor, by imputation the spouse of the former. He is occasionally represented as wearing, in addition to his personal insignia, the stars or ribbons of some order of chivalry. I mention this to shew that the cards are a medley of old and new emblems. Those who insist upon the evidence of the one may deal, if they can, with the other. No effectual argument for the antiquity of a particular design can be drawn from the fact that it incorporates old material; but there is also none which can be based on sporadic novelties, the intervention of which may signify only the unintelligent hand of an editor or of a late draughtsman.
Card Description
He has a form of the Crux ansata (like an Ankh) for his scepter and a globe in his left hand. He is a crowned monarch—commanding, stately, seated on a throne. The arms of his throne have rams' heads on the front. He is execution and realization, the power of this world, clothed with the highest of its natural attributes. He is the virile power to which the Empress responds, and in this sense, he is the one who seeks to remove the Veil of Isis; yet she remains a virgin.
Card Ten
Two of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Enforced fun, simulated enjoyment, handwriting, composition, payment by check.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Bad omen, ignorance, injustice.
Card Description
A young man dances with a pentacle in either hand. They are joined by an endless cord: the number 8 on its side.
Card Eleven
Six of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
A victor triumphing; also great news, such as might be carried by the King's courier; expectation crowned with its own desire, crowned with hope—in other words, expectation that is its own reward.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Servants may lose the confidence of their masters; a young lady may be betrayed by a friend.
Card Description
A horseman wearing a laurel crown holds a staff adorned with another laurel crown. Footmen with more staves are at his side.
Card Twelve
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 Thirteen
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 Fourteen
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 Fifteen
King of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Man of fair appearance; man of business, law, or divinity; responsible man, amenable to helping the Querent; also fairness, art and science, including those who profess science, law and art; creative intelligence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Beware of ill-will on the part of a man of position, and of hypocrisy pretending to help.
Card Description
He holds a short scepter in his left hand and a cup in his right. His throne is set upon the sea. On one side a ship sails, and on the other a fish leaps.
Card Sixteen
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 Seventeen
Nine of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Signifies strength in opposition—if attacked, the person will meet that attack boldly. Possibly delay, suspension, adjournment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally speaking, a bad card.
Card Description
A man leans upon his staff with an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. His build indicates that he may prove a formidable opponent. Behind are eight other staves—upright, in orderly arrangement, like a fence.
Card Eighteen
Wheel of Fortune from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Growth, abundance, surplus.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Wheel of Fortune. There is a current Manual of Cartomancy which has obtained a considerable vogue in England, and amidst a great scattermeal of curious things to no purpose has intersected a few serious subjects. In its last and largest edition it treats in one section of the Tarot; which--if I interpret the author rightly--it regards from beginning to end as the Wheel of Fortune, this expression being understood in my own sense. I have no objection to such an inclusive though conventional description; it obtains in all the worlds, and I wonder that it has not been adopted previously as the most appropriate name on the side of common fortune-telling. It is also the title of one of the Trumps Major--that indeed of our concern at the moment, as my sub-title shews. Of recent years this has suffered many fantastic presentations and one hypothetical reconstruction which is suggestive in its symbolism. The wheel has seven radii; in the eighteenth century the ascending and descending animals were really of nondescript character, one of them having a human head. At the summit was another monster with the body of an indeterminate beast, wings on shoulders and a crown on head. It carried two wands in its claws. These are replaced in the reconstruction by a Hermanubis rising with the wheel, a Sphinx couchant at the summit and a Typhon on the descending side. Here is another instance of an invention in support of a hypothesis; but if the latter be set aside the grouping is symbolically correct and can pass as such.
Card Description
The four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the corners of the card. The symbols on the disc in the center stand for the perpetual motion of an ever-changing universe and for the flux of human life. The Sphinx is equilibrium within that state of change. The letters of Taro or Rota are inscribed on the wheel, interspersed with the Hebrew letters of the Divine Name—to show that Providence is implied through all existence. However, this is the Divine intention within, and the similar intention on the surface is represented by the four Living Creatures.
Card Nineteen
The Fool from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Negligence, absence, carelessness, apathy, triviality, vanity.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
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 Twenty
Eight of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity; swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed toward an end that promises certain happiness; generally, things on the move; also the arrows of love.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Domestic disputes for a married person.
Card Description
This card represents motion through the unmoving—a flight of wands through an open countryside. They approach the end of their path. The future they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold.
Card Twenty One
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.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
King of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Judgement and its associations; power, command, authority, military intelligence, law, offices of the state.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A lawyer, senator, doctor.
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 Two
Knight of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Departure, absence, fleeing, emigration; a dark, friendly young man; change of residence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad card; according to some readings, alienation.
Card Description
A knight rides on a journey, armed with a short wand. Although wearing armor, he is not on a warlike errand. He passes pyramids on the horizon. The rearing of the horse is a hint at the character of its rider, and suggests an expectant mood or things connected with expectation.
Card Three
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Money, business, barter.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Improved position for a lady's future husband.
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 Four
Ten of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Oppression, especially that of fortune, gain, or any kind of success. Success will be mocked if the Nine of Swords follows. If it is a question of a lawsuit, loss is certain.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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 Five
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 Six
Eight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Bad news, terror, crisis, rebuke, powerful obstacles, conflict, slander; also sickness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
For a woman, scandal spread in her respect.
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 Seven
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 Eight
Page of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Stories, announcements, evil news. Also indecision and the instability that accompanies it.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Bad news.
Card Description
A young man stands as if making a proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
Related Posts
Card Nine
The Emperor from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Emperor, by imputation the spouse of the former. He is occasionally represented as wearing, in addition to his personal insignia, the stars or ribbons of some order of chivalry. I mention this to shew that the cards are a medley of old and new emblems. Those who insist upon the evidence of the one may deal, if they can, with the other. No effectual argument for the antiquity of a particular design can be drawn from the fact that it incorporates old material; but there is also none which can be based on sporadic novelties, the intervention of which may signify only the unintelligent hand of an editor or of a late draughtsman.
Card Description
He has a form of the Crux ansata (like an Ankh) for his scepter and a globe in his left hand. He is a crowned monarch—commanding, stately, seated on a throne. The arms of his throne have rams' heads on the front. He is execution and realization, the power of this world, clothed with the highest of its natural attributes. He is the virile power to which the Empress responds, and in this sense, he is the one who seeks to remove the Veil of Isis; yet she remains a virgin.
Card Ten
Two of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Enforced fun, simulated enjoyment, handwriting, composition, payment by check.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Bad omen, ignorance, injustice.
Card Description
A young man dances with a pentacle in either hand. They are joined by an endless cord: the number 8 on its side.
Card Eleven
Six of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
A victor triumphing; also great news, such as might be carried by the King's courier; expectation crowned with its own desire, crowned with hope—in other words, expectation that is its own reward.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Servants may lose the confidence of their masters; a young lady may be betrayed by a friend.
Card Description
A horseman wearing a laurel crown holds a staff adorned with another laurel crown. Footmen with more staves are at his side.
Card Twelve
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 Thirteen
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 Fourteen
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 Fifteen
King of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Man of fair appearance; man of business, law, or divinity; responsible man, amenable to helping the Querent; also fairness, art and science, including those who profess science, law and art; creative intelligence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Beware of ill-will on the part of a man of position, and of hypocrisy pretending to help.
Card Description
He holds a short scepter in his left hand and a cup in his right. His throne is set upon the sea. On one side a ship sails, and on the other a fish leaps.
Card Sixteen
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 Seventeen
Nine of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Signifies strength in opposition—if attacked, the person will meet that attack boldly. Possibly delay, suspension, adjournment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally speaking, a bad card.
Card Description
A man leans upon his staff with an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. His build indicates that he may prove a formidable opponent. Behind are eight other staves—upright, in orderly arrangement, like a fence.
Card Eighteen
Wheel of Fortune from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Growth, abundance, surplus.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Wheel of Fortune. There is a current Manual of Cartomancy which has obtained a considerable vogue in England, and amidst a great scattermeal of curious things to no purpose has intersected a few serious subjects. In its last and largest edition it treats in one section of the Tarot; which--if I interpret the author rightly--it regards from beginning to end as the Wheel of Fortune, this expression being understood in my own sense. I have no objection to such an inclusive though conventional description; it obtains in all the worlds, and I wonder that it has not been adopted previously as the most appropriate name on the side of common fortune-telling. It is also the title of one of the Trumps Major--that indeed of our concern at the moment, as my sub-title shews. Of recent years this has suffered many fantastic presentations and one hypothetical reconstruction which is suggestive in its symbolism. The wheel has seven radii; in the eighteenth century the ascending and descending animals were really of nondescript character, one of them having a human head. At the summit was another monster with the body of an indeterminate beast, wings on shoulders and a crown on head. It carried two wands in its claws. These are replaced in the reconstruction by a Hermanubis rising with the wheel, a Sphinx couchant at the summit and a Typhon on the descending side. Here is another instance of an invention in support of a hypothesis; but if the latter be set aside the grouping is symbolically correct and can pass as such.
Card Description
The four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the corners of the card. The symbols on the disc in the center stand for the perpetual motion of an ever-changing universe and for the flux of human life. The Sphinx is equilibrium within that state of change. The letters of Taro or Rota are inscribed on the wheel, interspersed with the Hebrew letters of the Divine Name—to show that Providence is implied through all existence. However, this is the Divine intention within, and the similar intention on the surface is represented by the four Living Creatures.
Card Nineteen
The Fool from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Negligence, absence, carelessness, apathy, triviality, vanity.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
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 Twenty
Eight of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity; swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed toward an end that promises certain happiness; generally, things on the move; also the arrows of love.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Domestic disputes for a married person.
Card Description
This card represents motion through the unmoving—a flight of wands through an open countryside. They approach the end of their path. The future they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold.
Card Twenty One
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.
