Featured, Tarot Cards

Learning Tarot Card Meanings!

When confronted with 78 Tarot cards, it can be overwhelming or intimidating.  You might even feel pressured to memorize them all right away!  Take a deep breath and relax.  You got this.  It is possible to learn the cards if you take your time and practice over and over again. Below, you’ll find some guidance on reading and remembering the typical Tarot deck.  I’ll review the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana along some different approaches you can try in learning all the different Minor Arcana Suits.  I recommend trying them all for a bit to see which, if any, come more naturally to you!  Give them a go!

Table of Contents

    Major Arcana

    In a typical Raider-Waite deck, you will find 22 Major Arcana cards that are numbered with Roman Numerals 0 – XXI.  These cards are special because they do not follow specific suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles) and each carry a specific name and meaning.  Take your time getting yourself familiar with each card.  For beginners, it’s oftentimes recommended doing very simple readings that use just 1–3 cards with only the Major Arcana.  That way you don’t get overwhelmed with all of the cards and can get an easier and more relaxed feel for how to practice Tarot readings.  Just for you, I put up a quick chart below that can provide very basic, meanings for each of them.

    Minor Arcana

    It can seem formidable to see all of these Minor Arcana cards.  It’s similar to a standard deck of playing cards with them being numbered 1–10 plus Face Cards.  There are many techniques people use to try to get familiar with, practice with, and start memorizing the meanings of the cards.  Some people start with the Element approach (which worked for my Tarot Student!), some start with focusing on the meaning of the numbers, some are more drawn to the colors that the cards possess, and some merely work with the image’s story as an approach (She does this, too!).  I recommend trying each technique a bit to see what comes more naturally to you.  It’s normal if one style works for you than the other!  At the end of the day, I support whatever method works best for you.

    Element Method

    When my Student started Tarot, she first tried to separate the 4 Suits into their corresponding Element.  For her, that made the process of interpreting the Minor Arcana cards easier, since it gave her a foundation on what to start thinking about when given any Minor Arcana card.  Try giving this a try to see if this works for you!

    Number Method

    Some people focus on the Numbers of the Minor Arcana to start giving a specific meaning of the cards.  While my Student struggled with this approach, I know it to be good for others who have this mindset!  Once you know a number’s general meanings, you can then apply it to the Suit to get a good grasp for what the card means.  Try this approach to see if interpreting the cards comes more naturally to you! 

    Of course, numbers work for the Minor Arcana cards numbered 1–10.  For the Face Cards (Pages, Knights, Queens, and Kings), they can carry their own meanings.  Referencing from earlier, each type of Face Cards carries their own Element.  That may make things easier in regards to remembering their meanings.  Also, if multiples of a specific Face Card appear, that can carry its own meaning in your Spread.  I made a quick chart below that gives you a summary of their corresponding element and what extra meanings could bring to your Reading if multiples appear of a specific type.

    Color Method

    Do the colors stick out to you? Then maybe you will find the colors of the cards as good guidance on the card meanings.  Are there certain colors that pop out to you when looking at the card?  If so, maybe look up what the colors mean to see if the card’s interpretation can work with that!

    Image/Story Method

    Another method my Student’s initial teacher taught her was to view each card as a character that is telling a story that correlates with its meaning.  For example, let’s look at the following card, the 8 of Cups:

    What do you see?  There are 8 Cups in the front of the card.  Yet, they’re positioned in a way so the man is seen clearly between them.  The is a man holding a staff, wearing a cloak, and walking away towards the background.  Since he’s wearing a cloak, maybe he is following the river beside him and is going on a journey towards that large mountain in the distance.  There is also the Sun and Moon combined into one in the sky overhead.  Based on what we see, can we make a guess as to what this card means?  

    Let’s break it down!  If someone is holding a walking staff and a cloak, that usually means they are potentially taking a purposeful trip towards a destination that may require their adventure materials.  So it’s not an accident he’s moving forward.  The 8 Cups are front in center, as if he just left them behind.  Cups, as we briefly covered earlier, carry the Element of Water, which conveys feelings, emotions, and intuition.  Perhaps he is leaving his feelings or emotions behind to aim for something different.  The river also expresses the Element of Water, so the image of the man following the river could express that he’s guided or motivated by his instincts or gut feelings about something.  The mountain up ahead, as you can imagine, can symbolize challenges (climbing a large mountain isn’t easy!) and the upcoming experience may give the man a new, higher view or perspective over something when he reaches the summit.  The Sun (could represent “the mind, thoughts”) and the Moon (could represent “feelings, impulse, intuition”) being combined could reflect a conflict between the two, since they are not normally seen together in the sky, right?  It could also be guiding the man towards his journey.  Ok!  Now that we have analyzed the card, let’s try the last step and give him a story that may help us in figuring out the meaning of this card!

    Story time!  “Something is nagging within this man.  Even though things may be going right, he has the urge to go on a journey for something potentially greater.  He leaves his original emotions behind and follows his intuition towards an upcoming experience that may be challenging.  However, he is pushing forward to reach it, knowing that the outcome could provide great success!”  How was that story?  Interestingly, the 8 of Cups represents change, departure, and emotional intelligence.  It also can show restlessness and that you (or the person you’re doing the Reading for) has emotionally left a situation.  It can show a physical or spiritual journey with potentially good results if the timing is right.

    Do you see how that worked?  Yes, it can take a lot of time and practice to review and come up with stories for every single card in the deck.  However, if you dedicate your efforts and show the proper care for each card in learning their meanings, the future Readings you conduct will move quite smoothly!

    Does the element, number, color, or image method work for you and, if so, which approach do you use?  Do you use a combination of approaches (like my Student using both the Elemental and Story Image methods)?  Or do you use your own different approach?  If so, let me know!  Did none of these methods work for you?  

    Upright vs. Reversed

    When you flip over a card, it will be Upright or Reversed.  When the card is Upright, you read the card just as you would normally.  However, if a card is revealed upside down, it is considered “Reversed.”  This carries its own specific meaning.  The vast majority of the time (with only a few exceptions), when a card is reversed, it is typically read negatively and expresses a “block” or something preventing this card’s image and meaning to being upright.  So does that make sense?  It’s basically “Reversing” the typical card meaning!  Let’s go ahead and take a look at 2 examples so you can get an idea. Here are Reversed Justice and Reversed The Devil:

    When the Justice card is revealed normally, upright, it symbolizes notions such as justice, objectivity, perception, or balance.  However, when Reversed, it shows the Reader that life may be out of balance (such as work life and home life).  Dishonesty or injustice of some kind may be present or take place in the future.  For example, if someone is lying to you about something and the situation stemming from the lie may lead to something being unfair to you.  Alternatively, something or someone may be preventing you to speak your truth.  

    When The Devil card is revealed upright, it represents desire, temptation, or enslavement.  Now, this card may be normally viewed negatively, right?  It typically brings attention to greed, bad influences, temptations, or being controlled.  So if you Reversed The Devil, will it still be negative?  No!  This is one of the few exceptions in the deck where a Reversed reading can be a positive interpretation.  When Reversed, The Devil shows that you may be aware you are trapped and are searching for a better way out.  It shows that the answer you seek is probably simpler than you think.  There is hope and it is the time to make take action (physically or mentally).  

    **TIP!  If you are a beginner at Tarot, I strongly recommend not doing “Reversals” for now.  Just simply flip the card back upright and continue with your Reading.  Otherwise, it can be a bit too overwhelming to juggle regular meanings plus all the Reversals.  So please don’t stress over it!  I know many Tarot professionals and regular practitioners who ignore Reversed cards.  It is completely up to you!  If you feel like you would benefit from learning Reversed cards, there are many resources out there to help you.  I would just encourage you to feel like you have a strong grasp over the upright, typical card readings first to make things easier in the long run.  Use your intuition and trust your gut.  As always, you do what works best and feels right to you!**

    Resources

    (This section will be basically a repeat of what I went over in my Tarot 101 post a few weeks ago, sorry.) I HIGHLY recommend getting “The Ultimate Guide to Tarot” by Liz Dean.  This book has helped many Tarot practitioners!  It goes into even more details than what I covered in regards to card meanings, especially.  I can’t recommend it enough and hope it helps you. Besides that, there are also a lot of books, websites, and other resources out there to help you on your Tarot journey.  Most of the time when you get a Tarot Deck, there will be a booklet that gives you the meanings of every card.   Some even provide unique Spreads that work great with that particular deck!  As a side note, don’t ever feel bad for pulling out a reference guide while doing a Reading for yourself or others! It shows that you’re learning and wanting to learn the correct meanings! Many long-time professionals look back at resources at times to remind themselves of card meanings.

    The Ultimate Guide to Tarot: https://amzn.to/3HAJsrQ

    My Advice

    (1) Keep a Journal.  I recommend beginners to keep a journal so they can record their questions and the cards they draw as answers to them.  I also recommend dating the entries so you can look back and see with a fresh set of eyes on another day to see if your readings were understandable, accurate, or if they were a bit off.  It’ll help you with future readings!

    (2) “Tell a story” or “go with the flow” when doing Readings with multiple cards.  For example, if you do a 3-card spread about your Past, Present, and Future, see any commonalities between them.  Is there a common theme or message between them?  If there seems to be zero connections between them, does that say something about your emotional, spiritual, or mind set at the time of the Reading?  A goal you should have is being able to “tell a story” by flowing between one card to the next and make connections between them.  It helps you see the bigger picture and the important messages and elements the cards present. 

    (3) Trust your intuition and emotions!  I would say most of the time your instinct or your gut is on to something and is oftentimes correct.  Trust yourself as you would trust your cards.  The answer lies within you and the cards are merely there to guide you to self-reflection in finding the answer.  

    (4) Practice, practice, practice!  It takes time and patience to master Tarot.  It may seem too much and impossible at times but hang in there!  Believe in yourself!  If you truly want to become good at reading Tarot cards and put effort into practicing it, I believe you can do it.

    Well, I think that just about covers it!  Please do not feel discouraged or too overwhelmed.  Everyone was a beginner at something in one point in time, right?  You can do this and I believe in you as you should believe in yourself.  I hope you enjoyed some of these tips and words of advice to help you on your Tarot journey, if that is what you choose to pursue.  I wish you the best of luck and know that I’m cheering for you!

    “Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too.” 

    – Mark Twain

    • Image Captions (in order of appearance):
    • Rider Waite Major Arcana cards. Image courtesy of Unsplash user Viva Luna Studios; not for commercial use. Signed property release on file with Unsplash Inc.

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