Tarot Reading Will i win the powerball jackpot?
Reading Performed 01/10/2025 at 1:19 PM
Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.
Visual Layout
Card One
King of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, duplicity, evil intention.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad man; also a caution to put an end to a ruinous lawsuit.
Card Description
He sits in judgement, holding the sign of his suit. He recalls the Justice card from the Major Arcana, and he may represent this virtue, but he possesses earthly power over life and death, because he is King.
Card Two
Queen of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Good woman; otherwise, distinguished woman but one not to be trusted; perverse woman; vice, dishonor, depravity.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A rich marriage for a man and a distinguished one for a woman.
Card Description
She is beautiful, fair, and dreamy; as if she sees visions in her cup. This is, however, only one of her sides; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream.
Card Three
Ten of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Advantage, profit, success, favor, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Victory and consequent fortune for a soldier in war.
Card Description
A figure lies on the ground, pierced by the swords of the card.
Card Four
Four of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Wise administration, deliberation, economy, greed, precaution, covenant.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A certain success following wise administration.
Card Description
The corpse of a knight in a position of prayer, laid out upon his tomb.
Card Five
Death from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrification, sleepwalking; hope destroyed.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
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 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
Ace of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest. It is a card of great force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than usual in fortune-telling.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Great prosperity or great misery.
Card Description
A hand extends from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled by a crown.
Card Eight
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 Nine
Two of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Elation and recreation; also news and messages in writing, as obstacles; agitation, trouble, entanglement.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Troubles are more imaginary than real.
Card Description
A young man dances with a pentacle in either hand. They are joined by an endless cord: the number 8 on its side.
Card Ten
The Hermit from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Prudence, caution; also and especially treason, hypocrisy, mischief, corruption.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Hermit, as he is termed in common parlance, stands next on the list; he is also the Capuchin, and in more philosophical language the Sage. He is said to be in search of that Truth which is located far off in the sequence, and of justice which has preceded him on the way. But this is a card of attainment, as we shall see later, rather than a card of quest. It is said also that his lantern contains the Light of Occult Science and that his staff is a Magic Wand. These interpretations are comparable in every respect to the divinatory and fortune-telling meanings with which I shall have to deal in their turn. The diabolism of both is that they are true after their own manner, but that they miss all the high things to which the Greater Arcana should be allocated. It is as if a man who knows in his heart that all roads lead to the heights, and that God is at the great height of all, should choose the way of perdition or the way of folly as the path of his own attainment. Eliphas Levi has allocated this card to Prudence, but in so doing he has been actuated by the wish to fill a gap which would otherwise occur in the symbolism. The four cardinal virtues are necessary to an idealogical sequence like the Trumps Major, but they must not be taken only in that first sense which exists for the use and consolation of him who in these days of halfpenny journalism is called the man in the street. In their proper understanding they are the correlatives of the counsels of perfection when these have been similarly re-expressed, and they read as follows: (a) Transcendental justice, the counter-equilibrium of the scales, when they have been overweighted so that they dip heavily on the side of God. The corresponding counsel is to use loaded dice when you play for high stakes with Diabolus. The axiom is Aut Deus, aut nihil. (b) Divine Ecstacy, as a counterpoise to something called Temperance, the sign of which is, I believe, the extinction of lights in the tavern. The corresponding counsel is to drink only of new wine in the Kingdom of the Father, because God is all in all. The axiom is that man being a reasonable being must get intoxicated with God; the imputed case in point is Spinoza. (c) The state of Royal Fortitude, which is the state of a Tower of Ivory and a House of Gold, but it is God and not the man who has become Turris fortitudinis a facie inimici, and out of that House the enemy has been cast. The corresponding counsel is that a man must not spare himself even in the presence of death, but he must be certain that his sacrifice shall be-of any open course-the best that will ensure his end. The axiom is that the strength which is raised to such a degree that a man dares lose himself shall shew him how God is found, and as to such refuge--dare therefore and learn. (d) Prudence is the economy which follows the line of least resistance, that the soul may get back whence it came. It is a doctrine of divine parsimony and conservation of energy, because of the stress, the terror and the manifest impertinences of this life. The corresponding counsel is that true prudence is concerned with the one thing needful, and the axiom is: Waste not, want not. The conclusion of the whole matter is a business proposition founded on the law of exchange: You cannot help getting what you seek in respect of the things that are Divine: it is the law of supply and demand. I have mentioned these few matters at this point for two simple reasons: (a) because in proportion to the impartiality of the mind it seems sometimes more difficult to determine whether it is vice or vulgarity which lays waste the present world more piteously; (b) because in order to remedy the imperfections of the old notions it is highly needful, on occasion, to empty terms and phrases of their accepted significance, that they may receive a new and more adequate meaning.
Card Description
A star shines in the Hermit's lantern. This is a card of attainment, and to emphasize this idea the figure is seen holding up his beacon on a hill. The Hermit is not a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he particularly an example of experience. His beacon hints that "where I am, you also may be." (see John 14:3)
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Card Eleven
The Magician from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Skill, diplomacy, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, the traps of enemies; self-confidence, will; the Querent, if male.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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 Twelve
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Gain, riches; family matters, archives, ancestry, the home of a family.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Represents house or dwelling, and derives its value from other cards.
Card Description
A man and woman beneath an archway that leads to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs greeting an old man in the foreground. The child's hand rests on one of the dogs.
Card Thirteen
The High Priestess from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Passion, moral or physical ardor, arrogance, surface knowledge.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The High Priestess, the Pope Joan, or Female Pontiff; early expositors have sought to term this card the Mother, or Pope's Wife, which is opposed to the symbolism. It is sometimes held to represent the Divine Law and the Gnosis, in which case the Priestess corresponds to the idea of the Shekinah. She is the Secret Tradition and the higher sense of the instituted Mysteries.
Card Description
She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned circlet on her head with a globe at its center, and a large solar cross on her chest. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Torah, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law, and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the black and white pillars—labeled B. and J.—of the mystic Temple. The veil of the Temple is behind her, embroidered with palms and pomegranates. Her clothing is flowing and gauzy, and her mantle suggests light—a shimmering radiance. She is the Secret Church, the House of God and man. She is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is the Queen of the borrowed light, which is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Celestial Mother. In a way, she is also the Celestial Mother herself—the bright reflection of the moon. She is the Spiritual Bride of the Just Man. When the Just Man reads the Law (Torah), she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Major Arcana.
Card Fourteen
Knight of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Departure, absence, fleeing, emigration; a dark, friendly young man; change of residence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad card; according to some readings, alienation.
Card Description
A knight rides on a journey, armed with a short wand. Although wearing armor, he is not on a warlike errand. He passes pyramids on the horizon. The rearing of the horse is a hint at the character of its rider, and suggests an expectant mood or things connected with expectation.
Card Fifteen
King of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Dark, friendly man; man from your hometown or country—generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected inheritance to arrive before long.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally favourable may signify a good marriage.
Card Description
The physical and emotional nature of this card is dark, avid, agile, and noble. The King holds a flowering wand, and wears a cap beneath his crown. He is symbolized by the lion engraved on the back of his throne.
Card Sixteen
Six of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Declaration, confession, publicity; a proposal of love.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Unfavourable issue of lawsuit.
Card Description
A ferryman carries passengers in his raft to the far shore. The course is smooth, and the freight is light; the work is not beyond his strength.
Card Seventeen
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.
Card Eighteen
Eight of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Voided ambition, vanity, greed, extortion, loan-sharking; also the possession of skill—the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Querent will be compromised in a matter of money-lending.
Card Description
An artist at his work in stone, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.
Card Nineteen
Seven of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Good advice, probably neglected.
Card Description
A man quickly carries away five swords. Two others remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand.
Card Twenty
Page of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Stories, announcements, evil news. Also indecision and the instability that accompanies it.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Bad news.
Card Description
A young man stands as if making a proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
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Card Twenty One
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.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
King of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, duplicity, evil intention.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad man; also a caution to put an end to a ruinous lawsuit.
Card Description
He sits in judgement, holding the sign of his suit. He recalls the Justice card from the Major Arcana, and he may represent this virtue, but he possesses earthly power over life and death, because he is King.
Card Two
Queen of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Good woman; otherwise, distinguished woman but one not to be trusted; perverse woman; vice, dishonor, depravity.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A rich marriage for a man and a distinguished one for a woman.
Card Description
She is beautiful, fair, and dreamy; as if she sees visions in her cup. This is, however, only one of her sides; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream.
Card Three
Ten of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Advantage, profit, success, favor, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Victory and consequent fortune for a soldier in war.
Card Description
A figure lies on the ground, pierced by the swords of the card.
Card Four
Four of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Wise administration, deliberation, economy, greed, precaution, covenant.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A certain success following wise administration.
Card Description
The corpse of a knight in a position of prayer, laid out upon his tomb.
Card Five
Death from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrification, sleepwalking; hope destroyed.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
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 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
Ace of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest. It is a card of great force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than usual in fortune-telling.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Great prosperity or great misery.
Card Description
A hand extends from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled by a crown.
Card Eight
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 Nine
Two of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Elation and recreation; also news and messages in writing, as obstacles; agitation, trouble, entanglement.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Troubles are more imaginary than real.
Card Description
A young man dances with a pentacle in either hand. They are joined by an endless cord: the number 8 on its side.
Card Ten
The Hermit from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Prudence, caution; also and especially treason, hypocrisy, mischief, corruption.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Hermit, as he is termed in common parlance, stands next on the list; he is also the Capuchin, and in more philosophical language the Sage. He is said to be in search of that Truth which is located far off in the sequence, and of justice which has preceded him on the way. But this is a card of attainment, as we shall see later, rather than a card of quest. It is said also that his lantern contains the Light of Occult Science and that his staff is a Magic Wand. These interpretations are comparable in every respect to the divinatory and fortune-telling meanings with which I shall have to deal in their turn. The diabolism of both is that they are true after their own manner, but that they miss all the high things to which the Greater Arcana should be allocated. It is as if a man who knows in his heart that all roads lead to the heights, and that God is at the great height of all, should choose the way of perdition or the way of folly as the path of his own attainment. Eliphas Levi has allocated this card to Prudence, but in so doing he has been actuated by the wish to fill a gap which would otherwise occur in the symbolism. The four cardinal virtues are necessary to an idealogical sequence like the Trumps Major, but they must not be taken only in that first sense which exists for the use and consolation of him who in these days of halfpenny journalism is called the man in the street. In their proper understanding they are the correlatives of the counsels of perfection when these have been similarly re-expressed, and they read as follows: (a) Transcendental justice, the counter-equilibrium of the scales, when they have been overweighted so that they dip heavily on the side of God. The corresponding counsel is to use loaded dice when you play for high stakes with Diabolus. The axiom is Aut Deus, aut nihil. (b) Divine Ecstacy, as a counterpoise to something called Temperance, the sign of which is, I believe, the extinction of lights in the tavern. The corresponding counsel is to drink only of new wine in the Kingdom of the Father, because God is all in all. The axiom is that man being a reasonable being must get intoxicated with God; the imputed case in point is Spinoza. (c) The state of Royal Fortitude, which is the state of a Tower of Ivory and a House of Gold, but it is God and not the man who has become Turris fortitudinis a facie inimici, and out of that House the enemy has been cast. The corresponding counsel is that a man must not spare himself even in the presence of death, but he must be certain that his sacrifice shall be-of any open course-the best that will ensure his end. The axiom is that the strength which is raised to such a degree that a man dares lose himself shall shew him how God is found, and as to such refuge--dare therefore and learn. (d) Prudence is the economy which follows the line of least resistance, that the soul may get back whence it came. It is a doctrine of divine parsimony and conservation of energy, because of the stress, the terror and the manifest impertinences of this life. The corresponding counsel is that true prudence is concerned with the one thing needful, and the axiom is: Waste not, want not. The conclusion of the whole matter is a business proposition founded on the law of exchange: You cannot help getting what you seek in respect of the things that are Divine: it is the law of supply and demand. I have mentioned these few matters at this point for two simple reasons: (a) because in proportion to the impartiality of the mind it seems sometimes more difficult to determine whether it is vice or vulgarity which lays waste the present world more piteously; (b) because in order to remedy the imperfections of the old notions it is highly needful, on occasion, to empty terms and phrases of their accepted significance, that they may receive a new and more adequate meaning.
Card Description
A star shines in the Hermit's lantern. This is a card of attainment, and to emphasize this idea the figure is seen holding up his beacon on a hill. The Hermit is not a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he particularly an example of experience. His beacon hints that "where I am, you also may be." (see John 14:3)
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Card Eleven
The Magician from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Skill, diplomacy, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, the traps of enemies; self-confidence, will; the Querent, if male.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
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 Twelve
Ten of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Gain, riches; family matters, archives, ancestry, the home of a family.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Represents house or dwelling, and derives its value from other cards.
Card Description
A man and woman beneath an archway that leads to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs greeting an old man in the foreground. The child's hand rests on one of the dogs.
Card Thirteen
The High Priestess from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Passion, moral or physical ardor, arrogance, surface knowledge.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
The High Priestess, the Pope Joan, or Female Pontiff; early expositors have sought to term this card the Mother, or Pope's Wife, which is opposed to the symbolism. It is sometimes held to represent the Divine Law and the Gnosis, in which case the Priestess corresponds to the idea of the Shekinah. She is the Secret Tradition and the higher sense of the instituted Mysteries.
Card Description
She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned circlet on her head with a globe at its center, and a large solar cross on her chest. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Torah, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law, and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the black and white pillars—labeled B. and J.—of the mystic Temple. The veil of the Temple is behind her, embroidered with palms and pomegranates. Her clothing is flowing and gauzy, and her mantle suggests light—a shimmering radiance. She is the Secret Church, the House of God and man. She is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is the Queen of the borrowed light, which is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Celestial Mother. In a way, she is also the Celestial Mother herself—the bright reflection of the moon. She is the Spiritual Bride of the Just Man. When the Just Man reads the Law (Torah), she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Major Arcana.
Card Fourteen
Knight of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Departure, absence, fleeing, emigration; a dark, friendly young man; change of residence.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad card; according to some readings, alienation.
Card Description
A knight rides on a journey, armed with a short wand. Although wearing armor, he is not on a warlike errand. He passes pyramids on the horizon. The rearing of the horse is a hint at the character of its rider, and suggests an expectant mood or things connected with expectation.
Card Fifteen
King of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Dark, friendly man; man from your hometown or country—generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected inheritance to arrive before long.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally favourable may signify a good marriage.
Card Description
The physical and emotional nature of this card is dark, avid, agile, and noble. The King holds a flowering wand, and wears a cap beneath his crown. He is symbolized by the lion engraved on the back of his throne.
Card Sixteen
Six of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Declaration, confession, publicity; a proposal of love.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Unfavourable issue of lawsuit.
Card Description
A ferryman carries passengers in his raft to the far shore. The course is smooth, and the freight is light; the work is not beyond his strength.
Card Seventeen
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.
Card Eighteen
Eight of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Voided ambition, vanity, greed, extortion, loan-sharking; also the possession of skill—the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Querent will be compromised in a matter of money-lending.
Card Description
An artist at his work in stone, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.
Card Nineteen
Seven of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Good advice, probably neglected.
Card Description
A man quickly carries away five swords. Two others remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand.
Card Twenty
Page of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Stories, announcements, evil news. Also indecision and the instability that accompanies it.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Bad news.
Card Description
A young man stands as if making a proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
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Card Twenty One
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.
