Wands, batons, or rods are used for clubs; cups are used for hearts; swords are used for spades; and coins, pentacles, or disks are used for playing cards (diamonds). Four court cards are in each suit. 10 numbered cards, a king, queen, knight, and jack, as well as The value sequence in each suit is from aces to ten, followed by jacks, knights, queens, and kings (though the ace is sometimes assigned a high value, as in modern playing cards).
In This Article...
What do the various tarot card suits represent?
Despite their vastly different designs, all tarot decks share a few characteristics. Each one has 78 playing cards, divided into the main and minor arcana. The major arcana, which are the deck’s 22 trump cards, generally allude to bigger influences and disclosures when they are revealed during a reading. These cards stand alone without a suit and represent key occasions or people in a person’s life.
In contrast, the minor arcana refer to influences and issues that are more commonplace. Wands, swords, pentacles, and cups make up the four suits that these 56 cards are divided into. (Occasionally, tarot decks will use different terminology, such as “Pentacles for coins, but they are exact equivalents to the four original divisions.) A different aspect of life is represented by each outfit. Wands typically represent imagination and passion, swords intelligence, pentacles work and wealth, and cups emotion. Additionally, each suit is associated with a certain set of astrological signs, such as wands being associated with fire, swords with air, pentacles with earth, and cups with water.
Since we’re beginners, the meanings you’ll most frequently refer to are the functional definitions, albeit these meanings can be used when cards symbolize people and their zodiac signs. For example, a three-card spread with three pentacle cards strongly denotes a financial concern. (More on the various spreads will follow.)
While much of this is up to the deck’s owner and what resonates with them, there are a few conventions that apply to the majority of tarot readings. If you’re reading cards for someone else, you should ask them to provide you with a question or suggest something they’re interested in, and keep that question in mind while you shuffle the deckalso referred to as “removing the effects of earlier research and readings. (An illustration would be, “When will I discover love?” Am I pursuing the correct career? “How can I get through my block?
Then you could query the person you are reading for (also known as “cutting the deck, once more concentrating on the querent. Although some readers will cut the deck for the querent, we prefer this option since it gives the querent a chance to feel linked to the deck personally. In any case, you will draw the necessary number of cards for your spread and, if you’re reading for yourself, place them between you and the querentor directly in front of you.
What do the four tarot cards represent?
The Emperor card has multiple tarot connotations, according to A.E. Waite’s 1910 book Pictorial Key to the Tarot:
4. THE EMPEROR.Stability, power, protection, realization; a great individual; assistance, conviction, reason, as well as authority and will. Benevolence, compassion, and credit are reversed, along with foes’ confusion, resistance, and immaturity.
The planet Mars and the sign of Aries in astrology are linked to the Emperor, as are Saturn and the sign of Capricorn.
What is the meaning of the suit of cups?
- Eight of Cups: There are eight cups lined up in a row. These cups are left behind by a character who appears to be starting a journey. A blas moon casts a downward gaze at the voyager. The traveler is in a favorable circumstance with plenty of opportunity and promise, but he or she choose to venture into the unknown. It denotes a restlessness and wanderlust as well as ignoring the positive things we already have in order to search for something else.
- The “wish” card is represented by the Nine of Cups. A contented, well-fed person sits back with nine cups.
- Ten of Cups: A couple holding hands while gazing up at the rainbow over their home. Two little kids dance. The rainbow contains ten cups.
- Page of Cups: A dreamy young man holds a cup with a fish sticking its head out of it. This denotes a flexible individual with the gift of insight and intuition. The card suggests a young person who enjoys poetry, music, the arts, and may also enjoy dancing a lot. It denotes news of happiness and entertainment as well as ease in one’s business.
- A young man riding a horse and donning a winged helmet gives a cup. The card may represent a sensitive male who is single and seeking a woman’s hand. He has integrity, is passionate, and honest. Additionally, it might point to an emotional issue going on in the asker’s life.
- Queen of Cups: A monarch sitting on a throne by the sea holds a cup while gazing inside. She has internal visions. It denotes a lady with the gift of intuition and the capacity to give wise counsel.
- Monarch of Cups: A king floating on the water is holding a scepter. It suggests someone who is kind, even tempered, balanced and wise. He may be a member of the clergy, or a counselor, professor or psychologist, doctor. He is a sign of peaceful strength and is comforting and reassuring.
What does the swords suit stand for?
The suit of Swords is used in divination to represent masculinity, intelligence, grief, and bad luck. The suit has been linked to the element of air. Etteilla and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers compared the Swords suit to the French pack’s Spades suit.
- The Swords Ace exhibits a capacity for decision. clearing up confusion adopting an extreme stance or choice. the capacity to spot lies and expose them.
- The Swordsmen’s Two The two swords represent uncertainty in judgment. apathy and a sense of helplessness giving rise to fear The Two of Swords can represent impartiality and absence of bias if the other cards in the spread are favorable.
- The Swordsman’s Trio The element of the intellect that is unduly critical, especially of itself, is represented by this card. the irrational need to analyze a situation more thoroughly than is necessary. A bleeding heart is frequently shown being pierced by the three swords. The swords stand in for the mind and the heart, which are invariably the victims of this treatment.
- The Swordsman’s Four The four of swords represents avoiding something. putting issues (the swords on the wall) to one side and pleading for deliverance. This card may also be used to denote submission or, in some instances, pacifism.
- The Swords’ Five This card represents success via betrayal. the void that follows a difficult struggle. the exclusion of others by hostility.
- The Swordsman’s Six risky travel. Regarding this card’s alignment, readers frequently disagree. It may portend a fruitless undertaking or, on the other hand, suggest leaving hazardous seas. It also conveys accountability to others.
- The Swords Seven This card symbolizes clandestine actions. the excessive attempt to get away with something that ultimately compromises you. In a positive interpretation, the card can allude to making sacrifices in order to advance. Simplifying. It could also imply that deceptive or manipulative behavior is being used.
- The Swords’ Eight feeling unable to change and being oppressed and trapped by others Although the disease is frequently brought on by oneself, outside factors are often blamed for its origin. The persistent dedication to an ideal is another meaning of this card.
- The Swords Nine The Nine of Swords is undoubtedly the most feared card in the deck, despite the fact that tarot readers traditionally dislike classifying cards as good or bad. However, it can also represent the grieving or letting go process and, when combined with other healing cards like the Queen of Wands, can be very helpful.
- The Swordsman’s Ten The Ten puts a stop to the nightmare from The Nine of Swords. Even if the outcome may not be perfect and there may be tiredness, the ordeal is over and the truth has been revealed. The Ten of Swords can also represent the conclusion of a recurring pattern. Divorce.
- The Swords Page the capacity to closely watch others while hiding one’s own nature. the capacity for secrecy. Maintaining composure in the face of peril. the capacity to withstand suspense.
- The Wrath of the Swords Knight. Impatience. Fanaticism. blind addiction to doing instead than thinking. Possibly also a sign of bravery and innovation.
- The Swords Queen The epitome of independence is represented by this card. strength, wisdom, and strategic thinking. the capacity to quickly and easily identify a solution to an issue. The Queen of Swords’ negative connotations include loneliness, melancholy, and ruthlessness.
- The Swords King Passionate discipline. Strength and wisdom. can represent despotism.
What does the four of wands mean?
According to legend, it symbolizes peace, good vibes, and hard effort that yields positive outcomes. It is rural life, a haven of refuge, a type of domestic harvest-home, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the perfected labor of these, according to Waite.
What does the upright 4 of wands mean?
The Four of Wands generally signifies festivity as well as a peaceful, joyful, and laid-back household setting. The number four represents stability and particularly solid foundations in numerology. These are related to a time of contentment and equilibrium.
The Four of Wands’ symbology suggests that now is the ideal time to get together with loved ones, including friends and relatives. With or without a specific event, this is possible. The card is recognized to frequently reflect a festive season when you spend a lot of time with your friends and family. It might also be advising you to host a wonderful dinner party with a few laughs with your closest friends.
The card is recognized to frequently reflect a festive season when you spend a lot of time with your friends and family.
Additionally, if you have been working on a particular project, this card suggests that you will soon attain a significant milestone. This will give you cause to celebrate, which is something else to take into account. You successfully finished a critical and important part of that job, so you have every right to feel content and proudtwo emotions that the Four of Wands card frequently induces and reflects.
In a love reading, what does the 4 of wands mean?
When the Four of Wands occurs in a love Tarot spread, it’s a good sign that your partnership is going well because it represents a successful family life, stability, security, and establishing roots. As a Minor Arcana card for celebrations, it can also indicate parties, christenings, welcome rituals, and family reunions. If you are planning to get married, it is a very welcome card to see because it is a very strong indicator of a wedding. When the Four of Wands comes, you should be enjoying single life since it is a wonderful omen for single people because it represents festivities, parties, and feeling like you belong. When it occurs, a former love may reappear as it can also symbolize reunion.
What does the wand suit stand for?
The suit of wands is related to the Will’s action and the element of fire in Aleister Crowley’s 1944 book The Book of Thoth. The overall meaning of the suit is centered on readings or ideas related to primordial energy, spirituality, inspiration, willpower, fortitude, intuition, creativity, ambition, expansion, and original thought.
Modern English-language astrologers typically tie the suit to work and accomplishments, or even anything vaguely associated with fruitfulness. Such readings of the suit emphasize the importance of reaping the rewards of hard work.
New beginnings, final endings, and creative destruction are related topics (such as the way controlled usage of fire can be used to clear landin preparation for new crops, or planting).
Tarot readers who also base their interpretations on astrology frequently examine this symbolic link between the suit and fire.
The playing cards in this deck also conjure up youthful hope and the essential drive that propels life.
The Wands Tarot card meanings are concerned with the spiritual plane of consciousness and reflect your deepest values. Your personality, ego, enthusiasm, self-concept, and personal energyboth internal and externalare all addressed.
Illusion, egocentric behavior, impulsivity, a lack of direction or purpose, or a sense of meaninglessness are some of the negative characteristics of the Wands suit.
The Fire signs of Leo, Sagittarius, and Aries are frequently shown on wands cards. A person with a Leo, Sagittarius, or Aries star sign is frequently associated with a wands court card. Wands people tend to be enthusiastic, affable, hospitable, and spiritual.
What stands for the Queen of Cups?
The image on the card shows a mature woman holding a chalice or cup with a lid who has golden hair and a fair complexion. She is praised as a shining example of loving virtue, as having a heart that is purer than others, as a devoted mother, and as a trustworthy friend. The inverted card may alert the inquirer to a dishonest friend or companion who may be hiding something, or to a fake lover who presents as honest but is truly devious and controlling.
What does the Tarot card Ace of Cups mean?
The Ace of Cups in a Tarot reading denotes happiness and inner peace from friends and family. The five streams spilling out of the cup in the RiderWaiteSmith deck stand in for the five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.