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| Major arcana | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Meaning | Symbolism |
| The Fool | Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, bewrayment. | With light step, as if earth and its trammels had little power to restrain him, a young man in gorgeous vestments pauses at the brink of a precipice among the great heights of the world; he surveys the blue distance before him—its expanse of sky rather than the prospect below. His act of eager walking is still indicated, though he is stationary at the given moment; his dog is still bounding. The edge which opens on the depth has no terror; it is as if angels were waiting to uphold him, if it came about that he leaped from the height. His countenance is full of intelligence and expectant dream. He has a rose in one hand and in the other a costly wand, from which depends over his right shoulder a wallet curiously embroidered. |
| The Magician | Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; the Querent, if male. | A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the countenance of divine Apollo, with 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-cincture, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a conventional symbol of eternity, but here it indicates more especially the eternity of attainment in the spirit. In the Magician's right hand is a wand raised towards heaven, while the left hand is pointing to the earth. |
| The High Priestess | Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity; mystery, wisdom, science. | She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head, with a globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her breast. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Tora, 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 white and black pillars—J. and B.—of the mystic Temple and the veil of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with palms and pomegranates. The vestments are flowing and gauzy, and the mantle suggests light—a shimmering radiance. |
| The Empress | Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance. | A stately figure, seated, having rich vestments and royal aspect, as of a daughter of heaven and earth. Her diadem is of twelve stars, gathered in a cluster. The symbol of Venus is on the shield which rests near her. A field of corn is ripening in front of her, and beyond there is a fall of water. The scepter which she bears is surmounted by the globe of this world. |
| The Emperor | Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will. | He has a form of the Crux ansata for his scepter and a globe in his left hand. He is crowned monarch—commanding, stately, seated on a throne, the arms of which are fronted by rams' heads. |
| The Hierophant | Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse | He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a scepter terminating in the triple cross, and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and concealed part of doctrine. It is noticeable in this connection that the High Priestess makes no sign. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs kneel before him. |
| The Lovers | Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome. | The sun shines in the zenith, and beneath is a great winged figure with arms extended, pouring down influences. In the foreground are two human figures, male and female, unveiled before each other, as if Adam and Eve when they first occupied the paradise of the earthly body. Behind the man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman; the serpent is twining round it. |
| The Chariot | Succor, providence; also war, triumph, presumption, vengeance, trouble. | An erect and princely figure carrying a drawn sword and corresponding, broadly speaking, to the traditional description which I have given in the first part. On the shoulders of the victorious hero are supposed to be the Urim and Thummim. |
| Strength | Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honors. | A woman, over whose head there broods the same symbol of life which we have seen in the card of the Hierophant, is closing the jaws of a lion. The only point in which this design differs from the conventional presentations is that her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers. |
| The Hermit | Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption | The variation from the conventional models in this card is only that the lamp is not enveloped partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends the idea of the Ancient of Days with the Light of the World. It is a star which shines in the lantern. |
| Wheel of Fortune | Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity. | In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Eliphas Lévi, who has furnished several variants. It is legitimate—as I have intimated—to use Egyptian symbolism when this serves our purpose, provided that no theory of origin is implied therein. I have, however, presented Typhon in his serpent form. The symbolism is, of course, not exclusively Egyptian, as the four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the angles of the card, and the wheel itself follows other indications of Lévi in respect of Ezekiel's vision, as illustrative of the particular Tarot Key. |
| Justice | Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of the deserving side in law. | As this card follows the traditional symbolism and carries above all its obvious meanings, there is little to say regarding it outside the few considerations collected in the first part, to which the reader is referred. |
| The Hanged Man | Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy. | The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross, while the figure—from the position of the legs—forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus about the head of the seeming martyr. It should be noted (1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon; (2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, but life and not death. |
| Death | End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many contrarieties; for a maid, failure of marriage projects. | The veil or mask of life is perpetuated in change, transformation and passage from lower to higher, and this is more fitly represented in the rectified Tarot by one of the apocalyptic visions than by the crude notion of the reaping skeleton. Behind it lies the whole world of ascent in the spirit. The mysterious horseman moves slowly, bearing a black banner emblazoned with the Mystic Rose, which signifies life. Between two pillars on the verge of the horizon there shines the sun of immortality. The horseman carries no visible weapon, but king and child and maiden fall before him, while a prelate with clasped hands awaits his end. |
| Temperance | Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation. | A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his breast the square and triangle of the septenary. I speak of him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor female. It is held to be pouring the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot upon the earth and one upon waters, thus illustrating the nature of the essences. A direct path goes up to certain heights on the verge of the horizon, and above there is a great light, through which a crown is seen vaguely. |
| The Devil | Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, force, fatality; that which is predestined but is not for this reason evil. | The Horned Goat of Mendes, with wings like those of a bat, is standing on an altar. At the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury. The right hand is upraised and extended, being the reverse of that benediction which is given by the Hierophant in the fifth card. In the left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted towards the earth. A reversed pentagram is on the forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are carried to the necks of two figures, male and female. |
| The Tower | Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe. | Occult explanations attached to this card are meager and mostly disconcerting. It is idle to indicate that it depicts ruin in all its aspects, because it bears this evidence on the surface. It is said further that it contains the first allusion to a material building, but I do not conceive that the Tower is more or less material than the pillars which we have met with in three previous cases. |
| The Star | Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says—hope and bright prospects. | A great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser stars—also of eight rays. The female figure in the foreground is entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot upon the water. She pours Water of Life from two great ewers, irrigating sea and land. Behind her is rising ground and on the right a shrub or tree, whereon a bird alights |
| The Moon | Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error. | The distinction between this card and some of the conventional types is that the moon is increasing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays. The card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is the issue into the unknown. The dog and the wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it. |
| The Sun | Material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment. | The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard has been mentioned already as the better symbolism connected with this card. |
| Judgement | Change of position, renewal, outcome. Another account specifies total loss through lawsuit. | I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character. The great angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet, and the cross as usual is displayed on the banner. The dead are rising from their tombs—a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned. |
| The World | Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. | As this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged—and indeed unchangeable—in respect of its design, it has been partly described already regarding its deeper sense. |
| Swords | ||
| Name | Meaning | Symbolism |
| Ace of Swords | Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is a card of great force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than comes usually within the sphere of fortune-telling. Great prosperity or great misery. | A hand issues from a cloud, grasping a sword, the point of which is encircled by a crown. |
| Two of Swords | Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests, courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms; another reading gives tenderness, affection, intimacy. The suggestion of harmony and other favorable readings must be considered in a qualified manner, as Swords generally are not symbolical of beneficent forces in human affairs. Gifts for a lady, influential protection for a man in search of help. | A hoodwinked female figure balances two swords upon her shoulders. |
| Three of Swords | Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to call for specific enumeration. For a woman, the flight of her lover. | Three swords piercing a heart; cloud and rain behind. |
| Four of Swords | Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit's repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have suggested the design. A bad card. | The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon his tomb. |
| Five of Swords | Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonor, loss, with the variants and analogues of these. An attack on the fortune of the Querent. | A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field. |
| Six of Swords | Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient. The voyage will be pleasant. | A ferryman carrying passengers in his punt to the further shore. The course is smooth, and seeing that the freight is light, it may be noted that the work is not beyond his strength. |
| Seven of Swords | Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance. The design is uncertain in its import, because the significations are widely at variance with each other. Dark girl; a good card; it promises a country life after a competence has been secured. | A man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly; the two others of the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp, is close at hand. |
| Eight of Swords | Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness. For a woman, scandal spread in her respect. | A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her. Yet it is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable bondage. |
| Nine of Swords | Death, failure, miscarriage, delay, deception, disappointment, despair. An ecclesiastic, a priest; generally, a card of bad omen. | One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of utter desolation. |
| Ten of Swords | Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. It is not especially a card of violent death. Followed by Ace and King, imprisonment; for girl or wife, treason on the part of friends. | A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card. |
| Page of Swords | Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging. An indiscreet person will pry into the Querent's secrets. | A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of swift walking. He is passing over rugged land, and about his way the clouds are collocated wildly. He is alert and lithe, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment. |
| Knight of Swords | Skill, bravery, capacity, defense, address, enmity, wrath, war, destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin. There is therefore a sense in which the card signifies death, but it carries this meaning only in its proximity to other cards of fatality. | He is riding in full course, as if scattering his enemies. In the design he is really a proto-typical hero of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is clean of heart. |
| Queen of Swords | Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation. | Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair; the left hand is extended, the arm raised; her countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and, her sword notwithstanding, she is scarcely a symbol of power. |
| King of Swords | Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment and all its connections—power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices of the crown, and so forth. A lawyer, senator, doctor. | He sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit. He recalls, of course, the conventional Symbol of Justice in the Trumps Major, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of life and death, in virtue of his office. |
| Wands | ||
| Name | Meaning | Symbolism |
| Ace of Wands | Creation, invention, enterprise, the powers which result in these; principle, beginning, source; birth, family, origin, and in a sense the virility which is behind them; the starting point of enterprises; according to another account, money, fortune, inheritance. Calamities of all kinds. | A hand issuing from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club. |
| Two of Wands | Between the alternative readings there is no marriage possible; on the one hand, riches, fortune, magnificence; on the other, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification. The design gives one suggestion; here is a lord overlooking his dominion and alternately contemplating a globe; it looks like the malady, the mortification, the sadness of Alexander amidst the grandeur of this world's wealth. A young lady may expect trivial disappointments. | A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds a globe in his right hand, while a staff in his left rests on the battlement; another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily should be noticed on the left side. |
| Three of Wands | He symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea. The card also signifies able co-operation in business, as if the successful merchant prince were looking from his side towards yours with a view to help you. | A calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff's edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them. |
| Four of Wands | They are for once almost on the surface—country life, haven of refuge, a species of domestic harvest-home, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the perfected work of these. Unexpected good fortune. | From the four great staves planted in the foreground there is a great garland suspended; two female figures uplift nosegays; at their side is a bridge over a moat, leading to an old manorial house. |
| Five of Wands | Imitation, as, for example, sham fight, but also the strenuous competition and struggle of the search after riches and fortune. In this sense it connects with the battle of life. Hence some attributions say that it is a card of gold, gain, opulence. Success in financial speculation. | A posse of youths, who are brandishing staves, as if in sport or strife. It is mimic warfare, and hereto correspond the |
| Six of Wands | The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King's courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth. Servants may lose the confidence of their masters; a young lady may be betrayed by a friend. | A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side. |
| Seven of Wands | It is a card of valor, for, on the surface, six are attacking one, who has, however, the vantage position. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion, wordy strife; in business—negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for the combatant is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him. A dark child. | A young man on a craggy eminence brandishing a staff; six other staves are raised towards him from below. |
| Eight of Wands | Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity, swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed towards an end which promises assured felicity; generally, that which is on the move; also the arrows of love. Domestic disputes for a married person. | The card represents motion through the immovable—a flight of wands through an open country; but they draw to the term of their course. That which they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold. |
| Nine of Wands | The card signifies strength in opposition. If attacked, the person will meet an onslaught boldly; and his build shows that he may prove a formidable antagonist. With this main significance there are all its possible adjuncts—delay, suspension, adjournment. Generally speaking, a bad card. | The figure leans upon his staff and has an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. Behind are eight other staves—erect, in orderly disposition, like a palisade. |
| Ten of Wands | A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honor and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss. Difficulties and contradictions, if near a good card. | A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying. |
| Page of Wands | Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favorable testimony concerning him. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities of his suit. He may signify family intelligence. Young man of family in search of young lady. | In a scene similar to the former, a young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange. |
| Knight of Wands | Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence. A bad card; according to some readings, alienation. | He is shown as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, and suggests the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith. |
| Queen of Wands | A dark woman, country-woman, friendly, chaste, loving, honorable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. Also, love of money, or a certain success in business. A good harvest, which may be taken in several senses. | The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King, but is more magnetic. |
| King of Wands | Dark man, friendly, countryman, generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected heritage to fall in before very long. Generally favorable; may signify a good marriage. | The physical and emotional nature to which this card is attributed is dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble. The King uplifts a flowering wand, and wears, like his three correspondences in the remaining suits, what is called a cap of maintenance beneath his crown. He connects with the symbol of the lion, which is emblazoned on the back of his throne. |
| Cups | ||
| Name | Meaning | Symbolism |
| Ace of Cups | House of the true heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility; Holy Table, felicity hereof. Inflexible will, unalterable law. | The waters are beneath, and thereon are water-lilies; the hand issues from the cloud, holding in its palm the cup, from which four streams are pouring; a dove, bearing in its bill a cross-marked Host, descends to place the Wafer in the Cup; the dew of water is falling on all sides. It is an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana. |
| Two of Cups | Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the inter-relation of the sexes, and—as a suggestion apart from all offices of divination—that desire which is not in Nature, but by which Nature is sanctified. Favorable in things of pleasure and business, as well as in love; also wealth and honor. | A youth and maiden are pledging one another, and above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there appears a lion's head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in a few old examples of this card. Some curious emblematical meanings are attached to it, but they do not concern us in this place. |
| Three of Cups | The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing. Unexpected advancement for a military man. | Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another. |
| Four of Cups | Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only; another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but he sees no consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure. Contrarieties. | A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment. |
| Five of Cups | It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration. Generally favorable; a happy marriage; also patrimony, legacies, gifts, success in enterprise. | A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups; two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding. |
| Six of Cups | A card of the past and of memories, looking back, as—for example—on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past; things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct. | Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers. |
| Seven of Cups | Fairy favors, images of reflection, sentiment, imagination, things seen in the glass of contemplation; some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent or substantial is suggested. Fair child; idea, design, resolve, movement. | Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit. |
| Eight of Cups | The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are entirely antithetical—giving joy, mildness, timidity, honor, modesty. In practice, it is usually found that the card shows the decline of a matter, or that a matter which has been thought to be important is really of slight consequence—either for good or evil. Marriage with a fair woman. | A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern. |
| Nine of Cups | Concord, contentment, physical bien-être; also victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the consultation is made. Of good augury for military men. | A goodly personage has feasted to his heart's content, and abundant refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him, seeming to indicate that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side only, but there are other aspects. |
| Ten of Cups | Contentment, repose of the entire heart; the perfection of that state; also perfection of human love and friendship; if with several picture-cards, a person who is taking charge of the Querent's interests; also the town, village or country inhabited by the Querent. For a male Querent, a good marriage and one beyond his expectations. | Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstasy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her; his left is raised upward; she raises her right arm. The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy but are happy after their own manner. There is a home-scene beyond. |
| Page of Cups | Fair young man, one impelled to render service and with whom the Querent will be connected; a studious youth; news, message; application, reflection, meditation; also these things directed to business. Good augury; also a young man who is unfortunate in love. | A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate page, of studious and intent aspect, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form. |
| Knight of Cups | Arrival, approach—sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanor, invitation, incitement. A visit from a friend, who will bring unexpected money to the Querent. | Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterize this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision. |
| Queen of Cups | Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and hence the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother. Sometimes denotes a woman of equivocal character. | Beautiful, fair, dreamy—as one who sees visions in a cup. This is, however, only one of her aspects; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream. |
| King of Cups | Fair man, man of business, law, or divinity; responsible, disposed to oblige the Querent; also equity, art and science, including those who profess science, law and art; creative intelligence. Beware of ill-will on the part of a man of position, and of hypocrisy pretending to help. | He holds a short scepter in his left hand and a great cup in his right; his throne is set upon the sea; on one side a ship is riding and on the other a dolphin is leaping. The implicit is that the Sign of the Cup naturally refers to water, which appears in all the court cards. |
| Pentacles | ||
| Name | Meaning | Symbolism |
| Ace of Pentacles | Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also speedy intelligence; gold. The most favorable of all cards. | A hand—issuing, as usual, from a cloud—holds up a pentacle. |
| Two of Pentacles | On the one hand it is represented as a card of gaiety, recreation and its connections, which is the subject of the design; but it is read also as news and messages in writing, as obstacles, agitation, trouble, embroilment. Troubles are more imaginary than real. | A young man, in the act of dancing, has a pentacle in either hand, and they are joined by that endless cord which is like the number 8 reversed. |
| Three of Pentacles | Métier, trade, skilled labor; usually, however, regarded as a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory. If for a man, celebrity for his eldest son. | A sculptor at his work in a monastery. Compare the design which illustrates the Eight of Pentacles. The apprentice or amateur therein has received his reward and is now at work in earnest. |
| Four of Pentacles | The surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance. For a bachelor, pleasant news from a lady. | A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He holds to that which he has. |
| Five of Pentacles | The card foretells material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated—that is, destitution—or otherwise. For some cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers—wife, husband, friend, mistress; also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be harmonized. Conquest of fortune by reason. | Two mendicants in a snowstorm pass a lighted casement. |
| Six of Pentacles | Presents, gifts, gratification; another account says attention, vigilance; now is the accepted time, present prosperity, etc. The present must not be relied on. | A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as his goodness of heart. |
| Seven of Pentacles | These are exceedingly contradictory; in the main, it is a card of money, business, barter; but one reading gives altercation, quarrel—and another innocence, ingenuity, purgation. Improved position for a lady's future husband. | A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there. |
| Eight of Pentacles | Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory stage. A young man in business who has relations with the Querent; a dark girl. | An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies. |
| Nine of Pentacles | Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment. Prompt fulfilment of what is presaged by neighboring cards. | A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grape-vines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and testifies to material well-being. |
| Ten of Pentacles | Gain, riches; family matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family. Represents house or dwelling, and derives its value from other cards. | A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs accosting an ancient personage seated in the foreground. The child's hand is on one of them. |
| Page of Pentacles | Application, study, scholarship, reflection; another reading says news, messages and the bringer thereof; also rule, management. A dark youth; a young officer or soldier; a child. | A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. He moves slowly, insensible of that which is about him. |
| Knight of Pentacles | Utility, serviceableness, interest, responsibility, rectitude—all on the normal and external plane. A useful man; useful discoveries. | He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect corresponds. He exhibits his symbol, but does not look therein. |
| Queen of Pentacles | Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty. Dark woman; presents from a rich relative; rich and happy marriage for a young man. | The face suggests that of a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein. |
| King of Pentacles | Valor, intelligence, business, mathematical gifts, and success in these paths. A rather dark man, a merchant, master, professor. | The face of this figure is dark, suggesting courage, and the bull's head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this suit is represented throughout as engraved with the pentigram, typifying the correspondence of the four elements in human nature and that by which they may be governed. In old Tarot packs this suit represented money. The consensus of divinatory meanings is on the side of change, as the cards do not deal especially with questions of money. |