Tarot Card Meanings

A tarot deck has 78 cards, split into the Minor Arcana (56 cards, closer to everyday matters) and the Major Arcana — the 22 cards that form the heart of tarot. Numbered 0 to XXI, the Major Arcana traces a symbolic journey often called the Fool's Journey: from The Fool's first innocent step, through lessons of will, love, upheaval and renewal, to The World's completion. When a Major Arcana card appears in a reading, it points to a significant theme or turning point rather than a passing detail.

Each card carries a core meaning that shifts depending on whether it appears upright or reversed, and on the question and cards around it. Below you'll find every Major Arcana card with its full meaning; click any card to read it in depth.

A card's orientation colours its message. Upright, a card expresses its energy openly and constructively. Reversed, that same energy is blocked, internalised, excessive or in shadow — not simply "bad", but asking for attention. The Sun upright is radiant joy; reversed, it is joy temporarily clouded. Learning to read both is what turns tarot from fortune-telling into a genuine tool for reflection.

Tarot works best as a mirror, not a crystal ball. Ask an open question, draw a card, and read its meaning as a prompt: where does this theme show up in my life right now? A single daily card is the simplest practice — one card, one focus for the day. There's no need to memorise all 78 meanings at once; start with the Major Arcana, notice which cards keep appearing, and let the images speak.

For a reading built around you, Sigastra draws a daily card and interprets it against your own day and chart — turning a general meaning into personal guidance.

The Major Arcana is often read as a single story — the Fool's Journey. It opens with The Fool (0) stepping out in innocence, then meets the archetypes that shape a life: The Magician's will and The High Priestess's intuition; the nurturing Empress and ordering Emperor; the Lovers' choice and the Chariot's drive. Through Strength, the Hermit's solitude and the turning Wheel, the journey deepens into Justice, surrender, and the great transformation of Death.

From there it passes through Temperance's balance, the Devil's chains and the Tower's upheaval, into the healing Star, the mysterious Moon and the radiant Sun — before Judgement's awakening and, finally, the wholeness of The World. Read in order, the 22 cards map the stages every life moves through; read singly, each lends its chapter to the day in front of you.