Card Readings

Card Readings: Dissecting Your Self-Made Tarot Card Readings

Securing a talented Tarot reader to help you on your spiritual journey can sometimes be tough. There may not be the type of reader you wanted, or perhaps you feel it’s better to facilitate your own Tarot readings. Regardless of the issue, sometimes just doing it yourself is the way to go. However, those little information booklets Tarot decks come with may not always be in-depth enough for you to analyse your readings fully. That’s why we’ve put together a guide detailing the meaning of the Major Arcana cards you may encounter in a Tarot reading. Your card readings are about to become stress-free!

Major Arcana

The Major Arcana in a Tarot deck are essentially in their own 22-card set within the wider deck. They each feature their own unique personality and perspective. The numbering shown correlates to the cards’ numerological placement within the deck.

The Fool
– Upright: freedom, originality, idealism, spontaneity, new beginnings, innocence, adventure
– Reversed: recklessness, naivety, foolishness, carelessness, gullible, distracted

I. The Magician
– Upright: willpower, skill, concentration, resourcefulness
– Reversed: cunning, wasted talent, deception, illusion, manipulation

II. The High Priestess
– Upright: intuition, spirituality, inner voice, mystery, higher power
– Reversed: repressed intuition, confusion, hidden motives, superficiality

III. The Empress
– Upright: sensuality, fertility, creativity, abundance, nature, femininity, nurturing, beauty
– Reversed: insecurity, negligence, lack of progress, overbearing, smothering

IV. The Emperor
– Upright: structure, stability, protection, authority, control, focus, discipline
– Reversed: tyrant, rigid, recklessness, domineering, lack of discipline, stubborn

V. The Hierophant
– Upright: tradition, conformity, knowledge, beliefs, conventionality, education
– Reversed: unconventionality, non-conformity, ignorance, rebellion, new methods

VI. The Lovers
– Upright: love, partnerships, choices, romance, unity, relationships, balance
– Reversed: disharmony, conflict, detachment, indecision, imbalance, bad choices

VII. The Chariot
– Upright: success, determination, control, focus, ambition, willpower, self-discipline
– Reversed: forceful, no control, aggression, no direction, powerless, obstacles

VIII. Strength
– Upright: courage, confidence, inner power, bravery, compassion
– Reversed: self-doubt, low confidence, cowardice, weakness, inadequacy

IX. The Hermit
– Upright: self-reflection, contemplation, solitude , introspection, withdrawal
– Reversed: loneliness, recluse, rejection, isolation, being anti-social

X. Wheel of Fortune
– Upright: change, fate, luck, unexpected events, cycles, decisive moments, fortune
– Reversed: bad luck, clinging to control, delays, lack of control, unwelcome changes

XI. Justice
– Upright: karma, consequence, accountability, law, truth, honesty, integrity
– Reversed: injustice, dishonesty, unfairness, no accountability, retribution, corruption

XII. The Hanged Man
– Upright: sacrifice, uncertainty, perspective, waiting, lack of direction, contemplation
– Reversed: stalling, stagnation, apathy, disinterest, avoiding sacrifice, standstill

XIII. Death
– Upright: transformation, change, letting go, endings, transition, release
– Reversed: fearing change, resisting change, decay, repeat negative patterns, stagnancy

XIV. Temperance
– Upright: balance, patience, calm, tranquillity, serenity, peace, moderation, harmony
– Reversed: imbalance, extremes, recklessness, hastiness, excess, discord

XV. The Devil
– Upright: addiction, dependency, powerlessness, limitations, obsession, excess
– Reversed: independence, revelation, reclaiming control, freedom, release

XVI. The Tower
– Upright: disaster, upheaval, sudden change, chaos, destruction, trauma
– Reversed: averting disaster, resisting change, delaying the inevitable

XVII. The Star
– Upright: hope, positivity, renewal, rejuvenation, inspiration, faith, healing
– Reversed: hopelessness, negativity, despondent, despair, lack of faith

XVIII. The Moon
– Upright: illusion, uncertainty, complexity, unconscious, intuition, confusion, secrets
– Reversed: fear, anxiety, misinterpretation, clarity, deception, misunderstanding

XIX. The Sun
– Upright: happiness, optimism, joy, happiness, truth, success, vitality, confidence
– Reversed: blocked happiness, pessimism, conceitedness, unrealistic expectations

XX. Judgment
– Upright: self-evaluation, renewal, reflection, reckoning, awakening, purpose
– Reversed: self-doubt, self-loathing, lack of self-awareness, failure to learn lessons

XXI. The World
– Upright: completion, fulfilment, wholeness, achievement, belonging, harmony
– Reversed: lack of closure, feeling incomplete, lack of achievement, emptiness

We hope this masterclass in deciphering Major Arcana cards has made your self-reading journey that much easier! Get hold of your own deck to begin your spiritual journey into card readings.