Tarot Reading What lies in my future
Reading Performed 03/03/2022 at 1:04 PM
Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.
Visual Layout
Card One
Death from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many inconsistencies; for a maiden, failure of marriage prospects.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Death. The method of presentation is almost invariable, and embodies a bourgeois form of symbolism. The scene is the field of life, and amidst ordinary rank vegetation there are living arms and heads protruding from the ground. One of the heads is crowned, and a skeleton with a great scythe is in the act of mowing it. The transparent and unescapable meaning is death, but the alternatives allocated to the symbol are change and transformation. Other heads have been swept from their place previously, but it is, in its current and patent meaning, more especially a card of the death of Kings. In the exotic sense it has been said to signify the ascent of the spirit in the divine spheres, creation and destruction, perpetual movement, and so forth.
Card Description
Death appears here as one of the apocalyptic visions rather than a grim reaper—to show change, transformation, and a passage from lower to higher. In the background lies the whole world of ascent in the spirit. In the foreground, the mysterious horseman moves slowly, bearing a black banner emblazoned with the Mystic Rose, which signifies life. Between two pillars on the horizon shines the sun of immortality. The horseman carries no visible weapon, but king and child and maiden fall before him, while a bishop with clasped hands awaits his end. The natural transition of man to the next stage of his being is one form of his progress. While still in this life, the exotic and almost unknown entrance into the state of mystical death is a change in the form of consciousness. It is the passage into a state to which ordinary death is neither the path nor the gate.
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
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, dangerous games; sometimes gifts, dowry, pension.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An occasion which may be fortunate or otherwise.
Card Description
A man and woman beneath an archway that leads to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs greeting an old man in the foreground. The child's hand rests on one of the dogs.
Card Four
The World from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Inertia, inflexibility, stagnation, permanence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The four living creatures of the Apocalypse and Ezekiel's vision, attributed to the evangelists in Christian symbolism, are grouped about an elliptic garland, as if it were a chain of flowers intended to symbolize all sensible things; within this garland there is the figure of a woman, whom the wind has girt about the loins with a light scarf, and this is all her vesture. She is in the act of dancing, and has a wand in either hand. It is eloquent as an image of the swirl of the sensitive life, of joy attained in the body, of the soul's intoxication in the earthly paradise, but still guarded by the Divine Watchers, as if by the powers and the graces of the Holy Name, Tetragammaton, JVHV--those four ineffable letters which are sometimes attributed to the mystical beasts. Eliphas Levi calls the garland a crown, and reports that the figure represents Truth. Dr. Papus connects it with the Absolute and the realization of the Great Work; for yet others it is a symbol of humanity and the eternal reward of a life that has been spent well. It should be noted that in the four quarters of the garland there are four flowers distinctively marked. According to P. Christian, the garland should be formed of roses, and this is the kind of chain which Eliphas Levi says is less easily broken than a chain of iron. Perhaps by antithesis, but for the same reason, the iron crown of Peter may he more lightly on the heads of sovereign pontiffs than the crown of gold on kings.
Card Description
The four living creatures of the Apocalypse and Ezekiel's vision are grouped around an elliptic garland. They are attributed to the four Gospels in Christian symbolism. Within this garland there is the figure of a woman, whom the wind has clothed with a light scarf, and this is all she wears. She is dancing, with a wand in either hand. It speaks of the swirl of the sensory life, of joy attained in the body, of the soul's intoxication in the earthly paradise. However, she is still guarded by the Divine Watchers. They are the powers and the graces of the Holy Name, Tetragammaton, JVHV. These four ineffable letters are often attributed to the four mystical beasts. This card represents the perfection and end of the Cosmos, the secret within the Cosmos, its rapture when it understands itself in God. This card is further the state of the soul in the awareness of Divine Vision, reflected from the self-aware spirit.
Card Five
Seven of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
This is a card of valor—six are attacking one, but he has the upper hand. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion and debate; in business negotiations, trade wars, barter, competition. It is also a card of success—the combatant is on top and his enemies are unable to reach him.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A dark child.
Card Description
A young man on a rocky hill brandishes a staff; six other staves are raised toward him from below.
Card Six
Five of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
News, alliances, affection, affiliation, ancestry, return.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Return of some relative who has not been seen for long.
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 Seven
Wheel of Fortune from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Destiny, fortune, success, advancement, luck, delight.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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 Eight
Nine of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Death, failure, malfunction, delay, deception, disappointment, despair.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An ecclesiastic, a priest; generally, a card of bad omen.
Card Description
A woman sits on her bed, sobbing, with swords on the wall above her. She grieves as if she knows of no sorrow like hers. It is a card of utter desolation.
Card Nine
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 Ten
The Heirophant from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Fellowship, good understanding, consensus, excessive kindness, weakness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The High Priest or Hierophant, called also Spiritual Father, and more commonly and obviously the Pope. It seems even to have been named the Abbot, and then its correspondence, the High Priestess, was the Abbess or Mother of the Convent. Both are arbitrary names. The insignia of the figures are papal, and in such case the High Priestess is and can be only the Church, to whom Pope and priests are married by the spiritual rite of ordination. I think, however, that in its primitive form this card did not represent the Roman Pontiff.
Card Description
He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but not those of the Temple guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a scepter ending with the triple cross. With his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign of esotericism, distinguishing between the surface and concealed parts of doctrine. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs (priestly robes) kneel before him. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing force of the esoteric power.
Card Eleven
Eight of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The decline of a matter; something thought to be important is really of slight consequence—either for good or evil.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Marriage with a fair woman.
Card Description
A dejected-looking man abandons the cups of his celebrations. They symbolize an enterprise, undertaking, or previous concern.
Card Twelve
Six of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The future, renewal, events soon to come.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Inheritance to fall in quickly.
Card Description
Children play in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers. A card of the past and of memories, as if looking back on childhood.
Card Thirteen
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 Fourteen
Queen of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
A dark woman, from your hometown or country; she is friendly, chaste, loving, and honorable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed toward him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. Also, love of money, or certain success in business.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A good harvest, which may be taken in several senses.
Card Description
Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality is dark, charismatic, magnetic.
Card Fifteen
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 Sixteen
The Magician from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Physician, Magus, mental disease, disgrace, anxiety.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Magus, Magician, or juggler, the caster of the dice and mountebank, in the world of vulgar trickery. This is the colportage interpretation, and it has the same correspondence with the real symbolical meaning that the use of the Tarot in fortune-telling has with its mystic construction according to the secret science of symbolism. I should add that many independent students of the subject, following their own lights, have produced individual sequences of meaning in respect of the Trumps Major, and their lights are sometimes suggestive, but they are not the true lights. For example, Eliphas Levi says that the Magus signifies that unity which is the mother of numbers; others say that it is the Divine Unity; and one of the latest French commentators considers that in its general sense it is the will.
Card Description
A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the appearance of divine Apollo, with a smile of confidence and shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position. About his waist is a serpent-sash, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a symbol of eternity, but here it indicates the eternity of attainment in the Spirit. In the Magician's right hand is a wand raised toward heaven, while the left hand is pointing to the earth. This dual sign indicates the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and passed to things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit. On the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot suits, signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like tools before the adept, and he uses them as he wills. Beneath the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley (see Song of Solomon 2:1), changed into garden flowers, depicting the culture of self-improvement. This card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God.
Card Seventeen
Page of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, ruses.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Obstacles of all kinds.
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 Eighteen
Nine of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Goodwill, contentment, physical well-being; also victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Of good augury for military men.
Card Description
A stout man has feasted to his heart's content. An abundant supply of wine is behind him, as if to show that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side of assurance only: it does not reflect the spiritual.
Card Nineteen
Three of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; an easy birth; victory, fulfillment, solace, healing.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Unexpected advancement for a military man.
Card Description
Ladies stand in a garden with cups held high, as if making a promise to one another.
Card Twenty
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 Twenty One
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cause for anxiety regarding money someone wants to borrow.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Impatience, apprehension, suspicion.
Card Description
A young man leans on his staff, and looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a plant on his right. It looks as if these were his treasures, and as if his heart were there.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
Death from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many inconsistencies; for a maiden, failure of marriage prospects.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Death. The method of presentation is almost invariable, and embodies a bourgeois form of symbolism. The scene is the field of life, and amidst ordinary rank vegetation there are living arms and heads protruding from the ground. One of the heads is crowned, and a skeleton with a great scythe is in the act of mowing it. The transparent and unescapable meaning is death, but the alternatives allocated to the symbol are change and transformation. Other heads have been swept from their place previously, but it is, in its current and patent meaning, more especially a card of the death of Kings. In the exotic sense it has been said to signify the ascent of the spirit in the divine spheres, creation and destruction, perpetual movement, and so forth.
Card Description
Death appears here as one of the apocalyptic visions rather than a grim reaper—to show change, transformation, and a passage from lower to higher. In the background lies the whole world of ascent in the spirit. In the foreground, the mysterious horseman moves slowly, bearing a black banner emblazoned with the Mystic Rose, which signifies life. Between two pillars on the horizon shines the sun of immortality. The horseman carries no visible weapon, but king and child and maiden fall before him, while a bishop with clasped hands awaits his end. The natural transition of man to the next stage of his being is one form of his progress. While still in this life, the exotic and almost unknown entrance into the state of mystical death is a change in the form of consciousness. It is the passage into a state to which ordinary death is neither the path nor the gate.
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
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, dangerous games; sometimes gifts, dowry, pension.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An occasion which may be fortunate or otherwise.
Card Description
A man and woman beneath an archway that leads to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs greeting an old man in the foreground. The child's hand rests on one of the dogs.
Card Four
The World from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Inertia, inflexibility, stagnation, permanence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The four living creatures of the Apocalypse and Ezekiel's vision, attributed to the evangelists in Christian symbolism, are grouped about an elliptic garland, as if it were a chain of flowers intended to symbolize all sensible things; within this garland there is the figure of a woman, whom the wind has girt about the loins with a light scarf, and this is all her vesture. She is in the act of dancing, and has a wand in either hand. It is eloquent as an image of the swirl of the sensitive life, of joy attained in the body, of the soul's intoxication in the earthly paradise, but still guarded by the Divine Watchers, as if by the powers and the graces of the Holy Name, Tetragammaton, JVHV--those four ineffable letters which are sometimes attributed to the mystical beasts. Eliphas Levi calls the garland a crown, and reports that the figure represents Truth. Dr. Papus connects it with the Absolute and the realization of the Great Work; for yet others it is a symbol of humanity and the eternal reward of a life that has been spent well. It should be noted that in the four quarters of the garland there are four flowers distinctively marked. According to P. Christian, the garland should be formed of roses, and this is the kind of chain which Eliphas Levi says is less easily broken than a chain of iron. Perhaps by antithesis, but for the same reason, the iron crown of Peter may he more lightly on the heads of sovereign pontiffs than the crown of gold on kings.
Card Description
The four living creatures of the Apocalypse and Ezekiel's vision are grouped around an elliptic garland. They are attributed to the four Gospels in Christian symbolism. Within this garland there is the figure of a woman, whom the wind has clothed with a light scarf, and this is all she wears. She is dancing, with a wand in either hand. It speaks of the swirl of the sensory life, of joy attained in the body, of the soul's intoxication in the earthly paradise. However, she is still guarded by the Divine Watchers. They are the powers and the graces of the Holy Name, Tetragammaton, JVHV. These four ineffable letters are often attributed to the four mystical beasts. This card represents the perfection and end of the Cosmos, the secret within the Cosmos, its rapture when it understands itself in God. This card is further the state of the soul in the awareness of Divine Vision, reflected from the self-aware spirit.
Card Five
Seven of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
This is a card of valor—six are attacking one, but he has the upper hand. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion and debate; in business negotiations, trade wars, barter, competition. It is also a card of success—the combatant is on top and his enemies are unable to reach him.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A dark child.
Card Description
A young man on a rocky hill brandishes a staff; six other staves are raised toward him from below.
Card Six
Five of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
News, alliances, affection, affiliation, ancestry, return.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Return of some relative who has not been seen for long.
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 Seven
Wheel of Fortune from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Destiny, fortune, success, advancement, luck, delight.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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 Eight
Nine of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Death, failure, malfunction, delay, deception, disappointment, despair.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An ecclesiastic, a priest; generally, a card of bad omen.
Card Description
A woman sits on her bed, sobbing, with swords on the wall above her. She grieves as if she knows of no sorrow like hers. It is a card of utter desolation.
Card Nine
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 Ten
The Heirophant from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Fellowship, good understanding, consensus, excessive kindness, weakness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The High Priest or Hierophant, called also Spiritual Father, and more commonly and obviously the Pope. It seems even to have been named the Abbot, and then its correspondence, the High Priestess, was the Abbess or Mother of the Convent. Both are arbitrary names. The insignia of the figures are papal, and in such case the High Priestess is and can be only the Church, to whom Pope and priests are married by the spiritual rite of ordination. I think, however, that in its primitive form this card did not represent the Roman Pontiff.
Card Description
He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but not those of the Temple guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a scepter ending with the triple cross. With his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign of esotericism, distinguishing between the surface and concealed parts of doctrine. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs (priestly robes) kneel before him. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing force of the esoteric power.
Card Eleven
Eight of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The decline of a matter; something thought to be important is really of slight consequence—either for good or evil.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Marriage with a fair woman.
Card Description
A dejected-looking man abandons the cups of his celebrations. They symbolize an enterprise, undertaking, or previous concern.
Card Twelve
Six of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
The future, renewal, events soon to come.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Inheritance to fall in quickly.
Card Description
Children play in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers. A card of the past and of memories, as if looking back on childhood.
Card Thirteen
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 Fourteen
Queen of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
A dark woman, from your hometown or country; she is friendly, chaste, loving, and honorable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed toward him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. Also, love of money, or certain success in business.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A good harvest, which may be taken in several senses.
Card Description
Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality is dark, charismatic, magnetic.
Card Fifteen
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 Sixteen
The Magician from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Physician, Magus, mental disease, disgrace, anxiety.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The Magus, Magician, or juggler, the caster of the dice and mountebank, in the world of vulgar trickery. This is the colportage interpretation, and it has the same correspondence with the real symbolical meaning that the use of the Tarot in fortune-telling has with its mystic construction according to the secret science of symbolism. I should add that many independent students of the subject, following their own lights, have produced individual sequences of meaning in respect of the Trumps Major, and their lights are sometimes suggestive, but they are not the true lights. For example, Eliphas Levi says that the Magus signifies that unity which is the mother of numbers; others say that it is the Divine Unity; and one of the latest French commentators considers that in its general sense it is the will.
Card Description
A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the appearance of divine Apollo, with a smile of confidence and shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position. About his waist is a serpent-sash, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a symbol of eternity, but here it indicates the eternity of attainment in the Spirit. In the Magician's right hand is a wand raised toward heaven, while the left hand is pointing to the earth. This dual sign indicates the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and passed to things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit. On the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot suits, signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like tools before the adept, and he uses them as he wills. Beneath the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley (see Song of Solomon 2:1), changed into garden flowers, depicting the culture of self-improvement. This card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God.
Card Seventeen
Page of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, ruses.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Obstacles of all kinds.
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 Eighteen
Nine of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Goodwill, contentment, physical well-being; also victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Of good augury for military men.
Card Description
A stout man has feasted to his heart's content. An abundant supply of wine is behind him, as if to show that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side of assurance only: it does not reflect the spiritual.
Card Nineteen
Three of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; an easy birth; victory, fulfillment, solace, healing.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Unexpected advancement for a military man.
Card Description
Ladies stand in a garden with cups held high, as if making a promise to one another.
Card Twenty
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 Twenty One
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cause for anxiety regarding money someone wants to borrow.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Impatience, apprehension, suspicion.
Card Description
A young man leans on his staff, and looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a plant on his right. It looks as if these were his treasures, and as if his heart were there.
