Tarot card meanings

Here are all 78 tarot cards in Rider-Waite order: the 22 major arcana from The Fool to The World, with Strength at 8 and Justice at 11, then the four suits of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles, 14 cards each from the Ace to the King. Open a card for its meaning upright and reversed, in love and in work, and for its answer to a yes or no question: yes, no or wait.

Each major arcana card also has a deep page: the card as feelings and as a person, for career and money, as advice and as an outcome, its spiritual meaning, the imagery Pamela Colman Smith drew, its astrology, number and Hebrew letter in the Golden Dawn system, and how it reads beside other cards. Every meaning was written by hand in English, in the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, and read again by a second reader, and each deep page names its sources, from Waite's Pictorial Key to the Golden Dawn correspondences.

How many cards are in a tarot deck?

A tarot deck has 78 cards: 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana. The minor arcana fall into four suits of 14 cards each, from the Ace to the Ten and then the Page, Knight, Queen and King.

What is the difference between the major and minor arcana?

The major arcana are the great turns of a life, the journey from The Fool at 0 to The World at 21. The minor arcana speak of the days themselves: Wands are fire, will and work; Cups are water, love and feeling; Swords are air, thought and conflict; Pentacles are earth, money and the body.

What does a reversed tarot card mean?

A reversed card carries the same force turned against its own course: held back, resisted, overdone or turned inward. Reversed, The Fool is a step taken blind or never taken, and Death is an ending held past its time.

Which tarot cards mean yes?

Every card here gives its own answer to a yes or no question: yes, no or wait. The Sun, The Star and The World say yes, Death and The Tower say no, and The Hanged Man asks you to wait.

Why is Strength 8 and Justice 11?

Arthur Edward Waite followed the Golden Dawn order, which places Leo before Libra, so the Rider-Waite deck numbers Strength VIII and Justice XI. The older Marseille deck has them the other way round, with Justice at VIII and Strength at XI.

Does the Death card mean someone will die?

No. Death is an ending and a renewal, a chapter that closes completely so another can open, and it is never read as anyone's physical death. In a yes or no reading it answers no, because the matter has reached its end.