Contents
What tarot is
A deck of 78 cards
Tarot is a deck of 78 cards split into two unequal parts: 22 Major Arcana — trumps with names of their own, the Fool, the Magician, the Tower — and 56 Minor Arcana, built almost like a playing deck of four suits of fourteen cards. The word "arcanum" is simply Latin for "secret"; it carries no further meaning, it is just the accepted name for a group of cards.
Where it came from
The first decks with trumps appeared in northern Italy in the mid-15th century — tarocchi was a card game for the nobility, not a divination tool. Its fortune-telling use is documented only from the late 18th century, when the French occultist Etteilla issued the first deck made specifically for readings. The Egyptian and Romani origin stories arose at the same time, during the vogue for the East, and are not supported by historical sources.
Waite, Smith and the pictorial pips
Modern tarot grew out of the Rider–Waite deck of 1909: Arthur Waite devised it and the artist Pamela Colman Smith drew it. Its key innovation was a scene on every minor card, which earlier decks lacked — in the old Marseille packs the five of swords was simply five swords. This is why most current meanings of the minor cards trace back to Smith’s drawings rather than to centuries of tradition.
How it works
The honest answer: the cards do not know the future. Something else is at work — a set of 78 legible images that a person tries against their own situation. The card that comes up forces you to put into words what was circling unformed, and often your first reaction to it ("no, that is definitely not about me") says more than the interpretation does. It is a tool for talking to yourself, not a line to destiny.
Why randomness is not a problem here
On this site the cards are dealt by a random number generator, and that does not weaken the reading — it keeps it honest. Meaning arrives at the interpretation step: any of the 78 cards gives you something to think about, because each describes a recognisable human situation. If a card seems "wrong", the useful move is not to redeal but to ask yourself exactly what makes it wrong.
What is not here
There are no paid services here, no love-binding spreads, no "curse diagnostics", and no predictions of death dates, illness or pregnancy. Nor are there advanced traditional techniques — significators, numerical card counting, treating the deck as a personal object. This section gives you the basics: the meanings of all 78 cards upright and reversed, seven spreads, and an explanation of how to use them.
How the deck is built
22 Major Arcana
Large themes and turning states: choice, loss, rupture, growing up. A Major in a spread says the theme is bigger than everyday matters and is unfolding not only through your effort. Numbered from 0 (the Fool) to XXI (the World).
40 pip cards
Ace through ten in four suits. This is the fabric of ordinary life: decisions, money, conversations, fatigue, pace. A spread of Minors alone means the situation is within your control and resolves at an everyday level.
16 court cards
Page, Knight, Queen and King in each suit. They may stand for a person, for your own role in the situation, or for a mode of action — which one is decided by the position in the spread.
The proportion as a hint
There are nearly three times fewer Majors than Minors, so their preponderance in a spread is statistically noticeable and reads as a sign of a large theme. This site counts the ratio automatically and prints it in the "Summary" block.
Reading a spread: seven steps
1.Frame the question
Before the cards are dealt. A good question starts with "what" or "how", concerns something you can influence, and allows a long answer. A bad one demands a yes, names another person, and sets a deadline.
2.Look at the whole spread
The overall tone first: more Majors or more Minors, how many reversals, which suit dominates. That sets the frame inside which the individual cards are read.
3.Read position plus card
The card’s meaning is half the sense; the other half is the position it lies in. The same Tower in "the past" and in "advice" says different things: in the first the break has already happened, in the second you are being invited to make one.
4.Start from the keywords
Take the keyword chips above the interpretation and build a sentence from them for your own question. The written meaning is the general case; your spread is specific, and the chips help you translate one into the other.
5.Connect the cards
A spread is not a list of independent items but a statement. See how neighbours reinforce or cancel each other: the three of swords next to the two of cups reads differently from the three next to the ten of pentacles.
6.Find what snags
The most useful card in a spread is the one you would rather skip or soften. That is usually where the answer you started for is sitting.
7.End with one action
A reading has worked if it produces one step you could take this week. If it produces only a mood, you have read the cards without answering the question.
The Major Arcana: the Fool’s journey
0–VII · Setting out
The Fool, Magician, High Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot. The making of a self: first powers, first supports, the first independent choice and the first push forward.
VIII–XIV · The testing
Strength, the Hermit, the Wheel, Justice, the Hanged Man, Death, Temperance. Meeting what cannot be controlled: chance, reckoning, an enforced pause, an irreversible ending.
XV–XXI · Coming through
The Devil, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, Judgement, the World. Release from dependency and illusion, recovery, clarity and the close of a cycle — after which the Fool sets out again.
The four suits
🜂 Wands · Fire
The fire suit: ideas, ventures, drive, competition, the wish to act. Wands answer "do I want this and is there fuel", not "is it profitable". A preponderance of Wands marks a period with more energy than structure.
The suit asks: What do I actually want right now?
🜄 Cups · Water
The water suit: attachment, love, friendship, hurt, forgiveness, imagination. Cups speak of what happens inside you and between you and others. Many Cups mean the conversation is about relationships, even if the question was about work.
The suit asks: What do I really feel, and who is it addressed to?
🜁 Swords · Air
The air suit: decisions, agreements, arguments, anxiety, clarity and its absence. Swords count as the hard suit, but their hardness is the price of truth: they show what is already known and not yet said aloud.
The suit asks: What do I know and keep unsaid?
🜃 Pentacles · Earth
The earth suit: work, income, health, home, property, craft and everything that takes time. Pentacles rarely promise fast change — they show what is accumulating and warn when the wrong thing is.
The suit asks: What is this being invested in, and what will grow from it?
Numbers from ace to ten
- Ace
- The suit’s pure potential: a spark, an offer, a new opening. Nothing has been done yet, but the material is there.
- Two
- Choice, a pair, two forces in balance. The point where potential has to be given a direction.
- Three
- The first result and the first involvement of others. What was an intention has become visible.
- Four
- Stability, accumulation, a pause. Useful in work and risky in relationships: the same thing for too long.
- Five
- Balance breaks: loss, dispute, shortage. In every suit the five is the least comfortable card of the number run.
- Six
- Recovery after the five: help, exchange, moving on. The situation levels out.
- Seven
- A test of endurance taken alone: assessment, patience, the temptation to cut a corner.
- Eight
- Movement and labour: speed, craft, leaving — or, conversely, going deeper in.
- Nine
- Almost the outcome, carried alone: sufficiency, anxiety, endurance. The most private card of the run.
- Ten
- The suit taken to its limit: full embodiment or too much of it. Beyond it there is only a new cycle from the ace.
The court cards
Page — the learner
A beginning, curiosity, news, inexperience. Often a message, or a person just entering the subject and therefore asking naive but accurate questions.
Knight — the action
Speed, drive, one-sidedness. A Knight does one thing and overdoes it: rushing, arguing, falling in love, working. Useful as an impulse, harmful as a way of life.
Queen — mastery from within
A mature handling of the suit’s theme: understanding, proportion, care. A Queen does not prove her competence, she uses it.
King — mastery outward
Responsibility, decision, representation. A King answers to others for the result and therefore sets limits — sometimes harder ones than needed.
Reversed cards
What a reversal means
Usually not the opposite but a fault in how the card’s energy is delivered: the theme is present but blocked, exaggerated, turned inward or delayed. Reversed Strength is not weakness but strength spent on self-suppression.
You may leave them out
Many readers use upright cards only and take the shading from neighbours and positions. That is a legitimate approach: on this site reversals are switched on by a checkbox, and beginners often find it easier to start without them.
How many are in the spread
The share of reversals is a signal in itself. One or two among ten cards refine the picture; more than half usually means the question is aimed at the wrong thing, or that the situation simply is not moving right now.
How to ask a question
Questions worth asking
- What should I understand about this job before deciding?
- How am I taking part in this conflict repeating?
- What will moving give me, and what does it cost?
- What am I turning a blind eye to in this relationship?
Questions that lead nowhere
- Does he love me?
- When will I get married?
- Will they hire me?
- What does my boss think of me?
Choosing a spread
One card
Card of the day and yes/no. Good for a quick check and for daily practice: one card in the morning, and in the evening a look at where it showed up.
Three cards
Past–present–future, or situation–obstacle–advice. The main working size: enough to see movement, few enough not to get lost.
Five cards
For choices and relationships: positions for "what hinders" and "what helps" are added. Use it when the decision is ripe but the arguments are tangled.
The Celtic cross
Ten cards, the fullest spread here. Not a beginner’s first spread: it is easy to drown in detail, so read it in blocks rather than card by card.
Common mistakes
Redealing until you like it
The commonest mistake. Repeating the same question on the same day does not refine the answer, it erases it: you are simply hunting for a card that agrees with you. If you dislike the spread, that is the information.
Reading a card apart from its position
A book meaning is a blank. Sense appears only where card, position and your question intersect; otherwise the reading is a retelling of the book.
Fearing the "bad" cards
Death means an ending and a passage, the Tower the collapse of an outworn structure, the Devil a dependency you can now see. None of them means physical death or catastrophe, and an experienced reader welcomes them more than smooth Cups.
Asking about someone else’s life
Spreads on "what is he thinking" or "what will happen to him" give you not facts about a person but your projection onto them. No one benefits from that answer, neither you nor they.
Reading on one topic daily
A daily check on a painful question is anxiety, not practice. Give the situation at least a week, or you are reading the swings of your own mood.
Deciding by the cards alone
Cards are good for laying out arguments, but a person makes the choice — weighing money, deadlines, obligations and other living people. A spread that overrides common sense has been used wrongly.
Limits and common sense
Health
Tarot does not diagnose and does not replace a doctor. If a spread is about health, the only useful answer is "book an appointment", and that needs no cards.
Money and law
Deals, lawsuits, loans and inheritance are settled by documents and professionals. Cards can unpack your own motives and fears around the situation, not its outcome.
Other people’s consent
Reading for someone who has not asked is like reading their messages, only less informative. Ask about your own share of the relationship.
A crisis
In a real emergency — danger to life, violence, severe depression — you need people, not cards: someone close, a doctor, a crisis line. This is not a polite disclaimer but a direct instruction.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need my own deck, and may I buy it myself?
The rule that a deck must be a gift is a 20th-century superstition with no historical or other basis. Buy the one whose images make sense to you: you will be in conversation with this deck, and its pictures have to speak to you.
Does an on-screen reading work like physical cards?
For the reading itself, yes: meaning appears at the interpretation step, not while shuffling. Physical cards give you something else — a pause, touch, and a ritual that helps you focus. That is a difference in experience, not in "power".
How often can I read?
On new questions, as often as you like. On the same one, not before something in the situation itself has changed — usually a week or a month. Card of the day is a separate practice and works daily.
Can the cards bring misfortune?
No. A card is a picture on cardboard, not an event. Fear of a "bad" spread is more dangerous than the spread: it can turn into a self-fulfilling expectation, which is why alarming cards should be read to the end rather than abandoned midway.
What if the same card keeps coming up?
With random dealing this is quite likely and means nothing by itself. Still, a repeat is a good reason to reread that card carefully: apparently its theme is the one you keep skipping.
Do I have to learn all 78 meanings?
No. Four suits, ten numbers and four court ranks are enough — any minor card is assembled from them. The Majors memorise themselves if you read them as a sequence rather than as separate pictures.
Can I do yes/no readings?
You can, and the section has such a spread, but remember its limit: one card does not know your context. The answer is useful as a nudge — notice whether it pleased or disappointed you. That is the real answer.
How is tarot different from oracles and Lenormand?
Tarot has a rigid structure — 78 cards, suits, numbers, ranks — and that structure holds the reading together. Oracle decks are arbitrary in composition and lean on the captions under the pictures. Lenormand is 36 cards of everyday images, read in combinations and with shorter meanings.
The spread is clearly about me though the cards are random. How?
It is recognition at work: 78 cards cover nearly the whole range of human situations, and any of them will find a hook in a real biography. The effect is well known and does not devalue the practice — but it explains why an accurate spread is no proof of predictive power.
Are my readings saved on this site?
No. A spread exists while the page is open; the question you type is neither sent nor stored anywhere. Reloading the page erases everything.
Glossary
- Arcanum
- A tarot card; from Latin arcanum, "secret". There are 22 Majors and 56 Minors.
- Major Arcana
- The twenty-two named cards from the Fool (0) to the World (XXI); large themes and turning points.
- Minor Arcana
- Fifty-six cards in four suits: ace through ten plus four court ranks.
- Pip cards
- The forty cards from ace to ten — the everyday fabric of events.
- Court cards
- Page, Knight, Queen and King of each suit: people, roles and modes of action.
- Suit
- Wands, Cups, Swords or Pentacles — four areas of life tied to the elements.
- Spread
- A layout of positions, each with its own question; a card is read together with its position.
- Position
- A slot in the spread with an assigned meaning: "the past", "advice", "outcome".
- Reversed card
- A card that falls upside down: its theme is blocked, exaggerated or turned inward.
- Significator
- A card chosen in advance to stand for the querent or the question. Not used in the spreads here.
- Querent
- The person asking the question; in solo practice, you.
- Celtic cross
- The classic ten-card spread described by Waite; the fullest one in this section.
- Rider–Waite
- The 1909 deck by Waite and Pamela Colman Smith that set the modern standard of meanings.
- Tarot de Marseille
- The oldest mass tradition of decks; its minor cards carry no scenes.
- Tarocchi
- The 15th-century Italian card game from which the tarot deck grew.
- Oracle deck
- A deck of arbitrary composition with no suits or number structure; not tarot.