What Is Tarot?
Tarot is a deck of 78 cards — some representing big-picture archetypes and life themes, others representing more everyday situations and choices — used for insight, reflection, or divination. Tarot dates back to fifteenth-century Italy, but today’s classic Tarot imagery is rooted largely in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, first published in 1909. A deck contains both the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana, the latter divided into four suits, much like a modern deck of playing cards. We’ll get into that distinction shortly.
Tarot readings are a way of using these cards to explore a question, situation, or feeling. While the cards have centuries-old meanings and traditions behind them, the meanings can change based on the situation, the position, the reader or the querent (the person receiving the reading). Interpretation, therefore, is as much intuition and experience as it is knowledge or anything else. It’s a tool to help us understand ourselves, our lives, and what’s going on around us.
How Does a Tarot Reading Work?
A Tarot reading has a reader and a querent (the person for whom the reading is done), which will be the same if you’re reading for yourself. The reader focuses on a question or a situation, shuffles (any shuffle is fine!) and selects the cards for the reading. There are various ways to do this — some use cards that fly out as they’re shuffling. Some cut the deck and draw from the top, and some spread them out and select them one at a time. And of course, with an online Tarot reading generator, they will select for you or walk you through the process.
Then the reader will interpret the cards as they see fit. Experienced readers will have their own method, and if you need some help with your readings, look below under “How to Read Tarot Cards.” The cards all have traditional meanings attached to them, but of course, it varies widely between decks, situations, frameworks, and readers.
This is all to say, a Tarot reading works many different ways, and every reader finds their own way of doing things. Learning to read Tarot is a journey, not a destination. In our experience, it’s a journey of learning to put your ego and your analytic mind aside and listening to the quietest parts of yourself and learning to trust.
We won’t speculate on the reason why Tarot works (or doesn’t), or what’s at play here. Everyone has their own ideas, and we invite you to find your own. We love an explanation a Tarot reader gave on the account Humans of New York:
“I have no ability to predict the future. I told everyone that beforehand. There’s no invisible hand moving the cards. There’s no spirit whispering secrets in my ear. But I do believe in the cards. I believe in them like you’d believe in a poem… When you arranged them [the cards] on the table, they would speak to each other. They’d relate to each other. They became metaphors. I’d merely ask each person to look at the cards and describe what they’re seeing. Everyone brought their own lives to the table. Their own memories. Some people left thinking they’d gotten a prediction. Some left thinking they’d gotten advice. Some left with specific ideas: the title of a song, the conclusion of a novel, I never knew. Because everyone brought their own needs to the cards. Just as we bring them to every encounter. Just as we’d bring them to a poem.”
Understanding the 78 Tarot Cards
There are 78 Tarot cards in a deck, and those are divided into 22 Major Arcana, and 56 Minor Arcana. Beyond that, the Minor Arcana are divided into four suits.
Let’s get into it.
Major Arcana
The Major Arcana consists of 22 cards, ranging from The Fool, with a number of zero, to The World, with a number of 21. These cards tend to deal with larger themes and turning points in one’s life, such as transformations, challenges, coming-of-age periods, growth, choices, perspective shifts and so on. The Major Arcana cards are often given more weight in a reading, particularly when several appear together, but don’t get too swept up in this. They aren’t more important than the Minor Arcana, they just tend to represent larger themes in one’s life, whereas often the Minor Arcana can be more specific about the things happening in your day-to-day.
Minor Arcana
The Minor Arcana consists of 56 cards divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Each of those suits is divided into numbers and court cards. The numbers go from one, or “ace,” to ten, and then there are four court cards for each suit: Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings. Sometimes these court cards are labeled differently, but the symbolism remains. The Minor Arcana tend to be more specific than the Major Arcana, but the message can be just as potent. The Devil is in the details, as they say.
The Four Suits of the Tarot
Each suit represents a different realm of life or consciousness. Here’s a quick breakdown:
Wands embody passion, excitement, creativity, and inspiration. The reason we do anything in this world, really. It’s personal and it ignites that spark within you. Wands are associated with the element of fire.
Cups embody your feelings, intuition and relationships. While we like to think we are logical beings, we have rich emotional lives that rule every aspect of our lives. This suit represents that inner emotional landscape. Cups are associated with water.
Swords embody your logic, thoughts, conflict, decisions and calculated action. Swords represent all the ways we use our minds to understand and navigate the world. This suit is associated with air.
Pentacles embody everything in your material world: wealth, possessions, professions, tasks, and health. Pentacles, sometimes called “coins” or “discs,” represent the practical, physical aspects of everyday life. This suit is associated with the element of earth.
For instance, if you have a business plan you’re trying to get underway, wands would represent the initial idea, plus any further inspiration down the path. Cups would represent your feelings about this business. Maybe you want to make connections, or raise money for a cause, or you merely want the freedom to enjoy your own family. Swords represent putting your plan into action: writing your business plan, making important decisions, problem solving issues, your communication about your launch. Pentacles are the physical fruits of your labor: the money you bring in, the people you now have in your life, the tangible things and opportunities you have manifested for yourself and others..
The important thing to notice here is that no suit is more important than the other. You can’t have a business plan succeed long-term without all of the aspects the four suits represent.
Numbered Cards
The cards go from Ace, or one, up to ten, and each number has a general meaning that spans across the four suits.
Aces — Beginnings: The first opportunity, potential, or spark arising. A seed to be planted.
Twos — Duality: Partnership, choices, tension, and finding equilibrium between two forces after a seed is planted.
Threes — Growth: Expansion, collaboration, creativity, and the first results of something set in motion.
Fours — Stability: Structure, security, foundations, and sometimes the comfort—or stagnation—that comes with them.
Fives — Disruption: Conflict, loss, or a challenge that breaks the stability. The necessary friction that forces change or reveals what’s not working.
Sixes — Progress: Moving forward, recovery, improvement, and finding a way through what came before.
Sevens — Assessment: Reflection, testing, strategy, and taking stock of where things stand.
Eights — Movement: Progress, effort, momentum, discipline, and the consequences of sustained action and clear intentions.
Nines — Culmination: Nearing completion, fulfillment, independence, and the experience of what has been built so far. But not yet complete.
Tens — Completion: The end of a cycle, its culmination or consequences, and the beginning of whatever comes next.
Court Cards
Traditionally, court cards were interpreted as actual people, even down to physical characteristics. However, modern interpretations look at them a little more liberally. We at The Open Tarot think the Court cards represent the various ways we or other people interact with the world around us.
So while the numbered cards describe a situation, movement, or experience, Court cards describe a way of engaging with that experience.
Pages are about learning. The energy is being discovered. The page is curious, has a beginner’s mind, and is eager but green.
Knights are about doing. The energy is being put in motion. The knight is committed, impulsive, and intense. He brings the idea to the world.
Queens are about inward mastery. The energy has been integrated and understood from within. A queen knows the suit’s energy intimately and embodies it through her own way of being, whether that means feeling, creating, thinking, or doing.
Kings are about outward mastery. The energy is expressed and directed outward. A king understands the suit’s energy and uses it to lead, make decisions, take action, or create structure in the world.
All the court cards represent people or qualities of people interacting with the world around them. Sometimes a page will show up in a reading and you realize it represents the daughter you’re having challenges with. Other times, it might be a suggestion to be like the page, implementing a little “beginners mind” with a persistent problem at work.
How to Ask a Good Tarot Question
When you set up to do a reading you want to take a moment to center yourself. You can take a deep breath, close your eyes, or even do a deeper meditation if you like. Then, before you pull the cards, focus on the situation or question you want more information about.
Remember, the best Tarot questions focus on you (or the querent) and give the cards something to work with. For instance, instead of asking “Will I get this job?” ask:
- What is the energy surrounding me and this job opportunity?
- What can I understand about this job interview?
- What is the best way to direct my energy right now as I’m waiting to hear back?
Try to refrain from using Tarot to validate you or a situation, or using it to tell you what will happen. Trust us: It won’t work. You can’t force the Tarot to work this way. What you can do is find ways to understand the situation and direct your own energy in a beneficial way.
Once you have a question you want to ask, simply hold it in your mind, or you can state it out loud or write it down if that feels good to you. Alternatively, maybe you don’t have a question at all. Maybe you just want to focus on where you are in this moment. The important thing is that you’re present while you pull and read the cards.
How to Read Tarot Cards
So you pull a single card, either through our one card reading generator, another, or using your own deck. There’s a meaning there. Isn’t that enough?
No. Sorry. (Not sorry.)
I mean, look, if that’s all you want and need out of Tarot, then go for it. We have our card meanings, but not only are those (purposefully) incomplete, they also leave out all the fun. The fun is in finding the cards within you, within your own life. And while I love our card interpretations for giving a focused, real-life explanation, you might find that it doesn’t resonate with you at all. Or is different from what you felt while looking at it. So yes, use our descriptions or any others, but invite yourself to really take part. That’s where the creativity comes in, the big “Ah ha’s!”
Reading a Single Tarot Card
Here’s one way to approach a Tarot card, either on its own or in a reading with others. Start by thinking about your question or situation, and then, before looking up anything:
- Look at the card. What do you notice?
- How does the card make you feel?
- Does it remind you of anything you’re experiencing in relation to your question or situation?
- What imagery do you notice? Colors? Shapes? Symbolism? How does that sit with your question?
- Is the card Major or Minor Arcana? If it’s Major, what archetype or theme does it remind you of? If it’s Minor, does this look like anything in your own life?
- What number and suit is the card (if it’s Minor Arcana)? What does that mean if we put together the general numerical meaning with the general suit meaning?
- Look up the meaning of the card. Look it up on this site, with a Tarot booklet, online. Use as many resources as you can or want to.
- Does the traditional meaning of the card match what you felt about it? If not, which meaning do you think resonates with the question better?
- Check your own bias and ego. The cards are never positive or negative. Try to remove what you want to be true from what is, and from using the cards to validate you or not.
- Put it all together. Or don’t. If it’s overwhelming, put it aside and come back to it later.
We sincerely think the most important meaning is the one that resonates with you. This isn’t to say you should ignore the traditional meaning, but use it as a guidepost, not a commandment. This is a tool for you, and it is only meant to shed light on your life.
How to Read Multiple Cards in a Reading
If you have a multi-card spread, you can start with each card on its own or you can start with the cards as a group. Or you can go back and forth. Use the prompts above, as applicable.
What do you notice?
- Do you see mostly people, things, landscapes, or ideas in the pictures?
- If you see people, are they in similar positions? Facing you or away? Men, women, children, or something else?
- Are there shapes that recur? Colors?
- Do you see a progression?
- Do you see a structure? Sometimes there is a card in the middle with two on either side. Do they conflict with each other? Complement each other?
- If the cards were to talk to each other, what would they say?
- Are there repeating numbers? What does that mean?
- Does one suit or arcana dominate? Does that resonate with your question?
Sometimes you also might want to look up something with the card groupings. For instance, if you get a queen and king of the same suit, what does that mean? Two Queens? Three Knights? Maybe the suit is all wands and Major Arcana.
In any case, I urge you to always contemplate it before looking it up. A personal Tarot Lexicon is best built through personal understanding first.
What About Reversed Cards?
Ah, the reversed cards. Okay. Here’s our advice: If you’re just starting out reading Tarot cards, do not use reversals. If you happen to get a reversed card, read it as upright. Sometimes it helps to state this before you do your reading. For instance, “Give me the outlook on my financial situation. All reversed cards will be read as upright.”
You might look up a card and the upright meaning and think, “Oh, great!” only to realize it was actually reversed and the meaning now, according to this source, is the complete opposite. So instead of “financial success” it’s now, “financial ruin.” What? Which is it?
Here is our understanding and treatment of reversed cards at The Open Tarot: Reversed cards are another layer of meaning upon the meaning of the upright card. They are never simply the complete opposite.
What is that layer of meaning? Reversed cards are the energy of the card showing up in a diminished or incomplete form. That means it is in transition (coming into focus or moving out of focus), blocked, forced, or internalized. Sometimes this might align with the opposite meaning, but it’s also showing you that you can upright that card and the situation (if needed). It makes the meaning less fatalistic and more action– and reflection-oriented.
We will write more on reversals, but until then, feel more than free to ignore them completely. This is why on our reversal meanings, we offer the upright meanings as well.
Try a Tarot Card Reading on Yourself
There is no better way to learn the Tarot cards than through experience, so jump right on in. We here a The Open Tarot offer free one card and three card readings, and we will be adding more as we build the site. We suggest starting with a simple daily draw. Draw one card in the morning, and see what resonates.
Then either later that day or the following morning, consider that card. Did it fit in your day? How? Often we find it describes the day in ways we never would have thought. And now, you are building your own Tarot vocabulary in a much more meaningful way.
If you’re feeling adventurous, try a “Main and Supporting” reading on our three card reading page. This is the type of reading we personally do on ourselves. It’s really an expanded one card spread, with a main card, supported by two more cards for further context. We also have Past/Present/Future reading, and Situation/Obstacle/Next Step reading, both excellent tools to hone in on specific aspects of a situation. It’s also fun to try to interpret cards in different positions. Like, if the Sun is in the obstacle position, that means it’s working against you. How is that showing up?
Have Fun with Tarot
At the end of the day, Tarot is really just you understanding you. Or, if you’re reading for someone else, you reading into someone else’s situation so they can understand themselves. I had a friend who called it “therapy with props.”
Jump on in!