Tarot Reading I want to know is my boyfriend Shcorey Shepard is happy with that me and him are back together I want to know why does he have a hard time following me on instagram and when is me and him are going to see each other in person again since he live in Dallas Texas and I still live in Mason Tennessee
Reading Performed 04/04/2026 at 11:25 PM
Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.
Visual Layout
Card One
Two of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
This card has contradictory meanings: on the one hand, riches, fortune, magnificence; on the other, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification. The design gives a suggestion to resolve the contradiction; here is a lord overlooking his dominion while contemplating a globe. He resembles the sadness and mortification of Alexander, amid the grandeur of this world's wealth.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A young lady may expect trivial disappointments.
Card Description
A tall man looks from a roof with battlements, overlooking sea and shore. He holds a globe in his right hand, and a staff in his left hand rests on the battlement. Another staff is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily appears on the left side.
Card Two
Four of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Novelty, premonition, new learning, new relationships.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Presentiment.
Card Description
A young man sits under a tree, contemplating three cups on the grass before him. An arm extends from a cloud to offer him another cup. His appears discontent, as if the wine of this world had barely satisfied him. Another wine—a fairy gift—is now offered to the vagabond, but he sees no consolation in it, either.
Card Three
The High Priestess from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity, wisdom, science.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The High Priestess, the Pope Joan, or Female Pontiff; early expositors have sought to term this card the Mother, or Pope's Wife, which is opposed to the symbolism. It is sometimes held to represent the Divine Law and the Gnosis, in which case the Priestess corresponds to the idea of the Shekinah. She is the Secret Tradition and the higher sense of the instituted Mysteries.
Card Description
She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned circlet on her head with a globe at its center, and a large solar cross on her chest. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Torah, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law, and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the black and white pillars—labeled B. and J.—of the mystic Temple. The veil of the Temple is behind her, embroidered with palms and pomegranates. Her clothing is flowing and gauzy, and her mantle suggests light—a shimmering radiance. She is the Secret Church, the House of God and man. She is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is the Queen of the borrowed light, which is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Celestial Mother. In a way, she is also the Celestial Mother herself—the bright reflection of the moon. She is the Spiritual Bride of the Just Man. When the Just Man reads the Law (Torah), she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Major Arcana.
Card Four
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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Card Five
Four of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Vigilance, retreat, solitude, isolation, exile, tomb and coffin.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad card, but if reversed a qualified success may be expected by wise administration of affairs.
Card Description
The corpse of a knight in a position of prayer, laid out upon his tomb.
Card Six
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cause for anxiety regarding money someone wants to borrow.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Impatience, apprehension, suspicion.
Card Description
A young man leans on his staff, and looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a plant on his right. It looks as if these were his treasures, and as if his heart were there.
Card Seven
The Moon from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Hidden enemies, danger, slander, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Moon. Some eighteenth-century cards shew the luminary on its waning side; in the debased edition of Etteilla, it is the moon at night in her plenitude, set in a heaven of stars; of recent years the moon is shewn on the side of her increase. In nearly all presentations she is shining brightly and shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops. Beneath there are two towers, between which a path winds to the verge of the horizon. Two dogs, or alternatively a wolf and dog, are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves towards the land.
Card Description
In this card the moon is waxing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays. Drops of dew descend from above. Beneath are two towers, between which a path winds up to the horizon. A wolf and dog are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves toward the land. The card represents life of the imagination, apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is our path into the unknown. The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that mystery, when there is only reflected light to guide it.
Card Eight
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 Nine
Three of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Mental illness, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A meeting with one whom the Querent has compromised; also a nun.
Card Description
Three swords pierce a heart; there are clouds and rain behind.
Card Ten
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.
Card Eleven
Eight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Anxiety, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; surprises; fatality.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Departure of a relative.
Card Description
A woman stands bound and blindfolded, with the swords of the card around her. It is a card of temporary imprisonment rather than permanent bondage.
Card Twelve
The Emperor from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Emperor, by imputation the spouse of the former. He is occasionally represented as wearing, in addition to his personal insignia, the stars or ribbons of some order of chivalry. I mention this to shew that the cards are a medley of old and new emblems. Those who insist upon the evidence of the one may deal, if they can, with the other. No effectual argument for the antiquity of a particular design can be drawn from the fact that it incorporates old material; but there is also none which can be based on sporadic novelties, the intervention of which may signify only the unintelligent hand of an editor or of a late draughtsman.
Card Description
He has a form of the Crux ansata (like an Ankh) for his scepter and a globe in his left hand. He is a crowned monarch—commanding, stately, seated on a throne. The arms of his throne have rams' heads on the front. He is execution and realization, the power of this world, clothed with the highest of its natural attributes. He is the virile power to which the Empress responds, and in this sense, he is the one who seeks to remove the Veil of Isis; yet she remains a virgin.
Card Thirteen
Temperance from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even a priest who will marry the Querent; also separation, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Temperance. The winged figure of a female--who, in opposition to all doctrine concerning the hierarchy of angels, is usually allocated to this order of ministering spirits--is pouring liquid from one pitcher to another. In his last work on the Tarot, Dr. Papus abandons the traditional form and depicts a woman wearing an Egyptian head-dress. The first thing which seems clear on the surface is that the entire symbol has no especial connexion with Temperance, and the fact that this designation has always obtained for the card offers a very obvious instance of a meaning behind meaning, which is the title in chief to consideration in respect of the Tarot as a whole.
Card Description
A winged angel, with the sign of the sun on its forehead, and on its breast the square and triangle of the septenary (symbolism of the number seven). The androgynous figure pours the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot on the earth and one on water, illustrating the nature of the essences being poured. A direct path leads to heights on the horizon, and above shines a great light, through which a crown can be vaguely seen. Here is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as available to man in this existence.
Card Fourteen
Three of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Occupation, trade, skilled labor; also nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
If for a man, celebrity for his eldest son.
Card Description
This card shows a sculptor working in a monastery. Compare with the Eight of Pentacles: the apprentice or amateur in that card has received his reward and is now at work in earnest.
Card Fifteen
Nine of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Signifies strength in opposition—if attacked, the person will meet that attack boldly. Possibly delay, suspension, adjournment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally speaking, a bad card.
Card Description
A man leans upon his staff with an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. His build indicates that he may prove a formidable opponent. Behind are eight other staves—upright, in orderly arrangement, like a fence.
Card Sixteen
King of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Good, but severe; solemn, yet tolerant.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Advice that should be followed.
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 Seventeen
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.
Card Eighteen
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 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
Five of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, recklessness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Troubles in love.
Card Description
Two beggars in a snowstorm pass a lit stained-glass window.
Card Twenty One
Two of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Conformity and the equilibrium it suggests, courage, friendship, peace in a state of arms; to some extent, harmony: however, swords do not generally symbolize benevolent forces in human affairs.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Gifts for a lady, influential protection for a man in search of help.
Card Description
A blindfolded woman balances two swords upon her shoulders.
The Meanings of these Tarot Cards
Card One
Two of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
This card has contradictory meanings: on the one hand, riches, fortune, magnificence; on the other, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification. The design gives a suggestion to resolve the contradiction; here is a lord overlooking his dominion while contemplating a globe. He resembles the sadness and mortification of Alexander, amid the grandeur of this world's wealth.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A young lady may expect trivial disappointments.
Card Description
A tall man looks from a roof with battlements, overlooking sea and shore. He holds a globe in his right hand, and a staff in his left hand rests on the battlement. Another staff is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily appears on the left side.
Card Two
Four of Cups from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Novelty, premonition, new learning, new relationships.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Presentiment.
Card Description
A young man sits under a tree, contemplating three cups on the grass before him. An arm extends from a cloud to offer him another cup. His appears discontent, as if the wine of this world had barely satisfied him. Another wine—a fairy gift—is now offered to the vagabond, but he sees no consolation in it, either.
Card Three
The High Priestess from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity, wisdom, science.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The High Priestess, the Pope Joan, or Female Pontiff; early expositors have sought to term this card the Mother, or Pope's Wife, which is opposed to the symbolism. It is sometimes held to represent the Divine Law and the Gnosis, in which case the Priestess corresponds to the idea of the Shekinah. She is the Secret Tradition and the higher sense of the instituted Mysteries.
Card Description
She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned circlet on her head with a globe at its center, and a large solar cross on her chest. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Torah, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law, and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the black and white pillars—labeled B. and J.—of the mystic Temple. The veil of the Temple is behind her, embroidered with palms and pomegranates. Her clothing is flowing and gauzy, and her mantle suggests light—a shimmering radiance. She is the Secret Church, the House of God and man. She is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is the Queen of the borrowed light, which is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Celestial Mother. In a way, she is also the Celestial Mother herself—the bright reflection of the moon. She is the Spiritual Bride of the Just Man. When the Just Man reads the Law (Torah), she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Major Arcana.
Card Four
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.
Related Posts
Card Five
Four of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Vigilance, retreat, solitude, isolation, exile, tomb and coffin.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A bad card, but if reversed a qualified success may be expected by wise administration of affairs.
Card Description
The corpse of a knight in a position of prayer, laid out upon his tomb.
Card Six
Seven of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Cause for anxiety regarding money someone wants to borrow.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Impatience, apprehension, suspicion.
Card Description
A young man leans on his staff, and looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a plant on his right. It looks as if these were his treasures, and as if his heart were there.
Card Seven
The Moon from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Hidden enemies, danger, slander, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Moon. Some eighteenth-century cards shew the luminary on its waning side; in the debased edition of Etteilla, it is the moon at night in her plenitude, set in a heaven of stars; of recent years the moon is shewn on the side of her increase. In nearly all presentations she is shining brightly and shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops. Beneath there are two towers, between which a path winds to the verge of the horizon. Two dogs, or alternatively a wolf and dog, are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves towards the land.
Card Description
In this card the moon is waxing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays. Drops of dew descend from above. Beneath are two towers, between which a path winds up to the horizon. A wolf and dog are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves toward the land. The card represents life of the imagination, apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is our path into the unknown. The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that mystery, when there is only reflected light to guide it.
Card Eight
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 Nine
Three of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Mental illness, error, loss, distraction, disorder, confusion.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
A meeting with one whom the Querent has compromised; also a nun.
Card Description
Three swords pierce a heart; there are clouds and rain behind.
Card Ten
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.
Card Eleven
Eight of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Anxiety, difficulty, opposition, accident, treachery; surprises; fatality.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Departure of a relative.
Card Description
A woman stands bound and blindfolded, with the swords of the card around her. It is a card of temporary imprisonment rather than permanent bondage.
Card Twelve
The Emperor from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The Emperor, by imputation the spouse of the former. He is occasionally represented as wearing, in addition to his personal insignia, the stars or ribbons of some order of chivalry. I mention this to shew that the cards are a medley of old and new emblems. Those who insist upon the evidence of the one may deal, if they can, with the other. No effectual argument for the antiquity of a particular design can be drawn from the fact that it incorporates old material; but there is also none which can be based on sporadic novelties, the intervention of which may signify only the unintelligent hand of an editor or of a late draughtsman.
Card Description
He has a form of the Crux ansata (like an Ankh) for his scepter and a globe in his left hand. He is a crowned monarch—commanding, stately, seated on a throne. The arms of his throne have rams' heads on the front. He is execution and realization, the power of this world, clothed with the highest of its natural attributes. He is the virile power to which the Empress responds, and in this sense, he is the one who seeks to remove the Veil of Isis; yet she remains a virgin.
Card Thirteen
Temperance from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even a priest who will marry the Querent; also separation, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings (When Upright)
Temperance. The winged figure of a female--who, in opposition to all doctrine concerning the hierarchy of angels, is usually allocated to this order of ministering spirits--is pouring liquid from one pitcher to another. In his last work on the Tarot, Dr. Papus abandons the traditional form and depicts a woman wearing an Egyptian head-dress. The first thing which seems clear on the surface is that the entire symbol has no especial connexion with Temperance, and the fact that this designation has always obtained for the card offers a very obvious instance of a meaning behind meaning, which is the title in chief to consideration in respect of the Tarot as a whole.
Card Description
A winged angel, with the sign of the sun on its forehead, and on its breast the square and triangle of the septenary (symbolism of the number seven). The androgynous figure pours the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot on the earth and one on water, illustrating the nature of the essences being poured. A direct path leads to heights on the horizon, and above shines a great light, through which a crown can be vaguely seen. Here is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as available to man in this existence.
Card Fourteen
Three of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Occupation, trade, skilled labor; also nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
If for a man, celebrity for his eldest son.
Card Description
This card shows a sculptor working in a monastery. Compare with the Eight of Pentacles: the apprentice or amateur in that card has received his reward and is now at work in earnest.
Card Fifteen
Nine of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Signifies strength in opposition—if attacked, the person will meet that attack boldly. Possibly delay, suspension, adjournment.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Generally speaking, a bad card.
Card Description
A man leans upon his staff with an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. His build indicates that he may prove a formidable opponent. Behind are eight other staves—upright, in orderly arrangement, like a fence.
Card Sixteen
King of Wands from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Good, but severe; solemn, yet tolerant.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Advice that should be followed.
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 Seventeen
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.
Card Eighteen
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 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
Five of Pentacles from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Reversed
Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, recklessness.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Troubles in love.
Card Description
Two beggars in a snowstorm pass a lit stained-glass window.
Card Twenty One
Two of Swords from the Vivid Waite Smith Tarot Deck
Card Meaning When Upright
Conformity and the equilibrium it suggests, courage, friendship, peace in a state of arms; to some extent, harmony: however, swords do not generally symbolize benevolent forces in human affairs.
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
Gifts for a lady, influential protection for a man in search of help.
Card Description
A blindfolded woman balances two swords upon her shoulders.
