What do the various tarot card types 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.
In This Article...
What is the meaning of the suit of cups?
- Ace of Cups: Beginnings are always indicated by aces. The ace of cups in this situation denotes an emotional new beginning. It may allude to the arrival of a kid or the start of a serious romantic relationship. Generally speaking, it represents joy and the start of many blessings. A new company, a romance, and success along the way are inevitable.
- Two of Cups: Duality is indicated by two of any suit. Here, it alludes to the joining of two brains and hearts to become a single entity. The young man and woman on the card are seen holding cups in their hands, as if they were giving them to one another. The red lion of courage and power is seen above.
- Three of Cups: Each young lady carrying a cup, the three Graces dance and frolic. It denotes an enjoyable and joyous time.
- Four of Cups: A young man is sitting cross-legged and contemplating beneath a tree, but he is not calm. The three cups that are in front of him don’t seem to satisfy him. A fourth cup is offered to him by a cloud’s hand, but the young man declines. It denotes a time of monotony and drudgery during which nothing seems to be satisfactory.
- Three cups have spilled in front of a hooded man with a bent head in the Five of Cups. Two mugs are uprightly positioned behind the masked figure. Any suit’s 5 can be regarded as challenging. Here, it denotes disappointment at unfulfilled expectations or lamentation over a lost cause. There is yet hope because the hooded figure is still oblivious of the two cups that are still standing behind.
- Six of Cups: Six cups are all around two young people as they play in a yard.
- This card may represent pleasant recollections as well as a nostalgic attachment to the past and how things once were. It can also be a sign that a former acquaintance is sending you an invitation or a present.
- Seven of Cups: A young person experiences visions of seven cups among the clouds. All people’s idealized lovers or partners are on one cup. Another cup depicts wealth, another the subject’s hidden soul about to be disclosed, and yet another castles. Other cups display a snake emerging from one cup as well as a red dragon filled with rage and fury.
- 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 denotes a gentle, patient, sensible, and wise person. He could be a doctor, professor, member of the clergy, counselor, or psychologist. He is serene and reassuring and represents quiet strength.
What does the Tarot’s heart suit represent?
The four suits are Hearts are all about emotions, relationships, family, and home. Clubs stand for promising things that would soon happen.
Court cards stand for what?
She says, “The court cards symbolize the people who affect situations,” implying that, occasionally, these cards might very clearly stand in for individuals in your life like your boss, close family members, or close friends.
The tarot suit of fire is which?
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 does the pentacles suit represent?
What does the pentacle suit symbolize?
What do a Tarot deck’s four suits represent?
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).
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 5 Cups mean?
The Five of Cups represents disappointment and the emotions that arise when events don’t turn out the way you had anticipated. You feel disappointed since a situation hasn’t exactly worked out the way you had hoped. This card seems to indicate that you are stuck in the past and feeling sorry for yourself rather than shifting to a more optimistic outlook. You may have missed an opportunity based on the water that has actually leaked from the cups. It demonstrates that the issue is primarily an emotional one rather than a material or financial one.
This card seems to indicate that you are stuck in the past and feeling sorry for yourself rather than shifting to a more optimistic outlook.
The Five of Cups’ interpretation suggests that you could struggle to let go of things that are in the past. Additionally, it demonstrates your resistance to picking yourself up after past errors. The card frequently represents a person who is utterly incapable of moving on because he is so mired in the past. This implies that he stands a good possibility of missing out on any potential future joys.
Who am I to act, King of Cups?
Pulling the King of Cups upright indicates that you are in touch with your intuition, that you are able to balance your feelings with reason, and that you are generally addressing situations with a steady and level mind. And this King might well be reminding you of exactly what you’re lacking if you feel like you’re not yet living that spirit.