Tarot Reading what lies ahead for me and my boyfriend tfr
Reading Performed 10/21/2024 at 11:27 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 High Priestess
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.
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.
Visual Layout
Row 1, Card 1
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.
Row 1, Card 2
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.
Row 1, Card 3
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.
Row 1, Card 4
Two of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, consensus, sympathy, the relationship between men and women.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Favourable in things of pleasure and business, as well as love; also wealth and honour.
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.
Row 1, Card 5
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.
Row 1, Card 6
Five of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Imitation, as in a pretend fight, but also the battle of life—strenuous competition and the struggle of the search for riches and fortune. Thus, possibly a card of gold, gain, luxury.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Success in financial speculation.
Card Description
A group of youths brandish staves, as if in sport. They play at mock warfare, and the divinatory meanings match this.
Row 1, Card 7
Queen of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dark woman; presents from a rich relative; rich and happy marriage for a young man.
Card Description
A dark woman who seems to display greatness of soul and grave intelligence contemplates her symbol, as if she sees worlds within it.
Row 1, Card 8
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.
Row 2, Card 1
The Devil from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, force, fatality; matters predestined but not necessarily evil.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Devil. In the eighteenth century this card seems to have been rather a symbol of merely animal impudicity. Except for a fantastic head-dress, the chief figure is entirely naked; it has bat-like wings, and the hands and feet are represented by the claws of a bird. In the right hand there is a sceptre terminating in a sign which has been thought to represent fire. The figure as a whole is not particularly evil; it has no tail, and the commentators who have said that the claws are those of a harpy have spoken at random. There is no better ground for the alternative suggestion that they are eagle's claws. Attached, by a cord depending from their collars, to the pedestal on which the figure is mounted, are two small demons, presumably male and female. These are tailed, but not winged. Since 1856 the influence of Eliphas Levi and his doctrine of occultism has changed the face of this card, and it now appears as a pseudo-Baphometic figure with the head of a goat and a great torch between the horns; it is seated instead of erect, and in place of the generative organs there is the Hermetic caduceus. In Le Tarot Divinatoire of Papus the small demons are replaced by naked human beings, male and female who are yoked only to each other. The author may be felicitated on this improved symbolism.
Card Description
The main figure is entirely naked; he has bat-like wings, and his feet have the claws of a bird. His right hand is upraised and extended, which is the reverse of the blessing given by the Hierophant. In his left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted toward the earth. A reversed pentagram is on his forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are attached to the necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous to The Lovers, like Adam and Eve after the Fall. They represent the chains and fatality of the material life.
Row 2, Card 2
King of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Valor, capable intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts and achievements of this kind; success in these paths.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A rather dark man, a merchant, master, professor.
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.
Row 2, Card 3
Ace of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Perfect contentment, cheerfulness, ecstasy; also quick intelligence; gold.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The most favourable of all cards.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud holds up a pentacle.
Row 2, Card 4
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.
Row 2, Card 5
Page of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Dark young man; a faithful man, a lover, a messenger, a postman. When beside a man, he will bear favorable testimony concerning him. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. He may signify news of family.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Young man of family in search of young lady.
Card Description
A young man stands as if making a proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
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Row 2, Card 6
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.
Row 2, Card 7
The Heirophant from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; also mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Row 2, Card 8
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.
Row 3, Card 1
Ace of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Immaculate love, joy, contentment, home, nourishment, abundance, fertility.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Inflexible will, unalterable law.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud bears a cup pouring out four streams. Calm water lies beneath, and on it are waterlilies. A dove bearing in its beak a communion wafer marked with a cross descends to place the wafer in the cup. Dew falls around the cup on all sides.
Row 3, Card 2
Queen of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Widowhood, female infertility, absence, sterility, mourning, deprivation, separation.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A widow.
Card Description
Her right hand holds her weapon vertical, and the hilt rests on an arm of her throne. Her left hand is extended, the arm raised. Her expression is stern but humble; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and despite her sword, she is not a symbol of power.
Row 3, Card 3
The World from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Assured success, compensation, voyage, travel, emigration, fleeing, change of place.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Row 3, Card 4
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.
Row 3, Card 5
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.
Row 3, Card 6
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.
Row 3, Card 7
The Lovers from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Row 3, Card 8
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.
Row 4, Card 1
Five of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Deterioration, destruction, revocation, disgrace, dishonor, loss.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An attack on the fortune of the Querent.
Card Description
A scornful man watches two retreating and dejected figures, whose swords lie on the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder. A third sword in his right hand points to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.
Row 4, Card 2
Three of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery: those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, at sail.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A very good card; collaboration will favour enterprise.
Card Description
A calm, stately figure looks from a cliff's edge at ships passing over the sea. His back is turned. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.
Row 4, Card 3
Nine of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certainty, discernment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Row 4, Card 4
Six of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Happiness and enjoyment coming from the past; things that have vanished.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Pleasant memories.
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.
Row 4, Card 5
Knight of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Utility, usability, interest, responsibility, decency—all on the surface.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An useful man; useful discoveries.
Card Description
A knight rides a slow, heavy horse, similar in appearance to himself. He displays his symbol, but does not look at it.
Row 4, Card 6
Six of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Presents, gifts, gratification.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The present must not be relied on.
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.
Row 4, Card 7
The Sun from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Material success, fortunate marriage, contentment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Sun. The luminary is distinguished in older cards by chief rays that are waved and salient alternately and by secondary salient rays. It appears to shed its influence on earth not only by light and heat, but--like the moon--by drops of dew. Court de Gebelin termed these tears of gold and of pearl, just as he identified the lunar dew with the tears of Isis. Beneath the dog-star there is a wall suggesting an enclosure-as it might be, a walled garden-wherein are two children, either naked or lightly clothed, facing a water, and gambolling, or running hand in hand. Eliphas Levi says that these are sometimes replaced by a spinner unwinding destinies, and otherwise by a much better symbol-a naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a scarlet standard.
Card Description
A naked child mounted on a white horse displays a red banner. The sun shining above represents consciousness in the Spirit—with direct, as opposed to reflected, light. The archetype of humanity has become a little child beneath its rays—a child in the sense of simplicity, with innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and Art; in that innocence, he signifies the restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the consciousness above the natural mind, that mind is renewed and directs the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.
Row 4, Card 8
Ace of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Creation, invention, enterprise, and the powers producing these; guiding principles, beginning, source; birth, family, origin, and perhaps the virility behind them; the starting point of enterprises; possibly money, fortune, inheritance.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Calamities of all kinds.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club.
End of Life Row, Card 1
The Tower from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Misery, distress, extreme poverty, adversity, disasters, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Tower struck by Lightning. Its alternative titles are: Castle of Plutus, God's House and the Tower of Babel. In the last case, the figures falling therefrom are held to be Nimrod and his minister. It is assuredly a card of confusion, and the design corresponds, broadly speaking, to any of the designations except Maison Dieu, unless we are to understand that the House of God has been abandoned and the veil of the temple rent. It is a little surprising that the device has not so far been allocated to the destruction Of Solomon's Temple, when the lightning would symbolize the fire and sword with which that edifice was visited by the King of the Chaldees.
Card Description
A Tower struck by Lightning. It is definitely a card of confusion, and the design can correspond to any well-known catastrophe. It may also depict the House of God, abandoned, and the Veil of the Temple, rent.
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End of Life Row, Card 2
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.
End of Life Row, Card 3
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.
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End of Life Row, Card 4
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.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Row 1, Card 1
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.
Row 1, Card 2
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.
Row 1, Card 3
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.
Row 1, Card 4
Two of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, consensus, sympathy, the relationship between men and women.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Favourable in things of pleasure and business, as well as love; also wealth and honour.
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.
Row 1, Card 5
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.
Row 1, Card 6
Five of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Imitation, as in a pretend fight, but also the battle of life—strenuous competition and the struggle of the search for riches and fortune. Thus, possibly a card of gold, gain, luxury.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Success in financial speculation.
Card Description
A group of youths brandish staves, as if in sport. They play at mock warfare, and the divinatory meanings match this.
Row 1, Card 7
Queen of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Dark woman; presents from a rich relative; rich and happy marriage for a young man.
Card Description
A dark woman who seems to display greatness of soul and grave intelligence contemplates her symbol, as if she sees worlds within it.
Row 1, Card 8
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.
Row 2, Card 1
The Devil from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, force, fatality; matters predestined but not necessarily evil.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Devil. In the eighteenth century this card seems to have been rather a symbol of merely animal impudicity. Except for a fantastic head-dress, the chief figure is entirely naked; it has bat-like wings, and the hands and feet are represented by the claws of a bird. In the right hand there is a sceptre terminating in a sign which has been thought to represent fire. The figure as a whole is not particularly evil; it has no tail, and the commentators who have said that the claws are those of a harpy have spoken at random. There is no better ground for the alternative suggestion that they are eagle's claws. Attached, by a cord depending from their collars, to the pedestal on which the figure is mounted, are two small demons, presumably male and female. These are tailed, but not winged. Since 1856 the influence of Eliphas Levi and his doctrine of occultism has changed the face of this card, and it now appears as a pseudo-Baphometic figure with the head of a goat and a great torch between the horns; it is seated instead of erect, and in place of the generative organs there is the Hermetic caduceus. In Le Tarot Divinatoire of Papus the small demons are replaced by naked human beings, male and female who are yoked only to each other. The author may be felicitated on this improved symbolism.
Card Description
The main figure is entirely naked; he has bat-like wings, and his feet have the claws of a bird. His right hand is upraised and extended, which is the reverse of the blessing given by the Hierophant. In his left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted toward the earth. A reversed pentagram is on his forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are attached to the necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous to The Lovers, like Adam and Eve after the Fall. They represent the chains and fatality of the material life.
Row 2, Card 2
King of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Valor, capable intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts and achievements of this kind; success in these paths.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A rather dark man, a merchant, master, professor.
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.
Row 2, Card 3
Ace of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Perfect contentment, cheerfulness, ecstasy; also quick intelligence; gold.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The most favourable of all cards.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud holds up a pentacle.
Row 2, Card 4
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.
Row 2, Card 5
Page of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Dark young man; a faithful man, a lover, a messenger, a postman. When beside a man, he will bear favorable testimony concerning him. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. He may signify news of family.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Young man of family in search of young lady.
Card Description
A young man stands as if making a proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
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Row 2, Card 6
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.
Row 2, Card 7
The Heirophant from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; also mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Row 2, Card 8
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.
Row 3, Card 1
Ace of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Immaculate love, joy, contentment, home, nourishment, abundance, fertility.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Inflexible will, unalterable law.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud bears a cup pouring out four streams. Calm water lies beneath, and on it are waterlilies. A dove bearing in its beak a communion wafer marked with a cross descends to place the wafer in the cup. Dew falls around the cup on all sides.
Row 3, Card 2
Queen of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Widowhood, female infertility, absence, sterility, mourning, deprivation, separation.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A widow.
Card Description
Her right hand holds her weapon vertical, and the hilt rests on an arm of her throne. Her left hand is extended, the arm raised. Her expression is stern but humble; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and despite her sword, she is not a symbol of power.
Row 3, Card 3
The World from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Assured success, compensation, voyage, travel, emigration, fleeing, change of place.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Row 3, Card 4
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.
Row 3, Card 5
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.
Row 3, Card 6
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.
Row 3, Card 7
The Lovers from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Row 3, Card 8
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.
Row 4, Card 1
Five of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Deterioration, destruction, revocation, disgrace, dishonor, loss.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An attack on the fortune of the Querent.
Card Description
A scornful man watches two retreating and dejected figures, whose swords lie on the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder. A third sword in his right hand points to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.
Row 4, Card 2
Three of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery: those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, at sail.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A very good card; collaboration will favour enterprise.
Card Description
A calm, stately figure looks from a cliff's edge at ships passing over the sea. His back is turned. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.
Row 4, Card 3
Nine of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certainty, discernment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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.
Row 4, Card 4
Six of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Happiness and enjoyment coming from the past; things that have vanished.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Pleasant memories.
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.
Row 4, Card 5
Knight of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Utility, usability, interest, responsibility, decency—all on the surface.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
An useful man; useful discoveries.
Card Description
A knight rides a slow, heavy horse, similar in appearance to himself. He displays his symbol, but does not look at it.
Row 4, Card 6
Six of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Presents, gifts, gratification.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The present must not be relied on.
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.
Row 4, Card 7
The Sun from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Material success, fortunate marriage, contentment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Sun. The luminary is distinguished in older cards by chief rays that are waved and salient alternately and by secondary salient rays. It appears to shed its influence on earth not only by light and heat, but--like the moon--by drops of dew. Court de Gebelin termed these tears of gold and of pearl, just as he identified the lunar dew with the tears of Isis. Beneath the dog-star there is a wall suggesting an enclosure-as it might be, a walled garden-wherein are two children, either naked or lightly clothed, facing a water, and gambolling, or running hand in hand. Eliphas Levi says that these are sometimes replaced by a spinner unwinding destinies, and otherwise by a much better symbol-a naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a scarlet standard.
Card Description
A naked child mounted on a white horse displays a red banner. The sun shining above represents consciousness in the Spirit—with direct, as opposed to reflected, light. The archetype of humanity has become a little child beneath its rays—a child in the sense of simplicity, with innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and Art; in that innocence, he signifies the restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the consciousness above the natural mind, that mind is renewed and directs the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.
Row 4, Card 8
Ace of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Creation, invention, enterprise, and the powers producing these; guiding principles, beginning, source; birth, family, origin, and perhaps the virility behind them; the starting point of enterprises; possibly money, fortune, inheritance.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Calamities of all kinds.
Card Description
A hand extending from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club.
End of Life Row, Card 1
The Tower from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Misery, distress, extreme poverty, adversity, disasters, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Tower struck by Lightning. Its alternative titles are: Castle of Plutus, God's House and the Tower of Babel. In the last case, the figures falling therefrom are held to be Nimrod and his minister. It is assuredly a card of confusion, and the design corresponds, broadly speaking, to any of the designations except Maison Dieu, unless we are to understand that the House of God has been abandoned and the veil of the temple rent. It is a little surprising that the device has not so far been allocated to the destruction Of Solomon's Temple, when the lightning would symbolize the fire and sword with which that edifice was visited by the King of the Chaldees.
Card Description
A Tower struck by Lightning. It is definitely a card of confusion, and the design can correspond to any well-known catastrophe. It may also depict the House of God, abandoned, and the Veil of the Temple, rent.
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End of Life Row, Card 2
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.
End of Life Row, Card 3
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.
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End of Life Row, Card 4
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.
