Tarot · The Major Arcana

Tarot Card Meanings

The 22 cards at the heart of the tarot deck, from The Fool to The World, explained in plain words.

How to read a tarot card

A tarot deck has 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana carry the large themes of a life, such as a new start, a hard ending, love, hope or a choice you cannot put off. When one appears in a reading, it usually deserves your attention first.

Start with the picture. Notice what you feel before you read anything, because your first reaction often says something useful. Then look at the way the card fell. Upright gives the plain meaning. Reversed, the same theme is blocked, delayed or turned inward, and a few hard cards get easier. Keep what fits your situation and leave the rest.

The order tells a story too. The Fool sets out with a small bag, the middle of the deck brings tests and losses, and The World marks the end of the road. The paintings on this site follow the layout of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, first published in 1909, with some details of their own. Where a detail differs from the classic card in a way that matters, the page says so.