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| Swords - represent basic element |
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| Cups - represent basic element |
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| Disks - represent the basic element |
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| Wands - represent the basic element |
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| The four minor Arcana suites |
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| Swords, Wands, Cups, Disks |
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| Root Force (start, begining), Seasons, Direction |
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| A new spark of energy for a new passion. This usually indicates that the querent has just discovered a new religion, philosophy, cause or career choice. They feel their energy go up, they feel the heat, and they want more of it. They take up the wand and start to walk. |
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West/Fall
Emotions rising up for new love. This usually indicates that the querent is feeling a new welling of emotion or beginning to have some vivid dreams. They're not writing the poetry yet, but they feel the desire to, or they may have caught sight of a figure across a room and felt a tug at their heart. They've lifted the cup and they want to drink from it. |
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Fire
Represents passion. As such, in a reading it usually stands for a querent's ambition, career, creative endeavors, religion and/or philosophy. Anything a person might put their energy and soul into, such as teaching and leadership. This is something you have to do, whether you are recompensed for it or not. It is something that burns inside of you and you need to act on it. |
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Fire
Represents passion. As such, in a reading it usually stands for a querent's ambition, career, creative endeavors, religion and/or philosophy. Anything a person might put their energy and soul into, such as teaching and leadership. This is something you have to do, whether you are recompensed for it or not. It is something that burns inside of you and you need to act on it. |
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| Represents the emotions. Best known for representing the Querent's love life, but it also stands for emotional extremes, such as elation, depression or bliss, and the negatives that come with such emotions, like over-indulgence in food, drink, drugs. Likewise the positives like poetry or music. Also, psychic powers, visions, illusions. These are feelings that you surrender to, that you flow or sink into. |
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| Represents pure mind, thinking, speaking. Best known for representing problems and troubles especially those relating to communications or bad press, but really about anything to do with either words and/or thoughts. Brilliant thoughts as well as nightmares; sharp ideas or a sharp tongue. This is the card of scientists and analysts of thinking things though or thinking/saying too much. Ideas breeze into your mind, words are given breath, written letters and messages fly on the wind. |
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| Represents the body and the physical. Best known for representing health and money, but is also anything to do with work, a job, a task, a craft. Also luck. That which is solid, real. |
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| Ace of Pentacles represents |
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| New luck, health or money for a new "job". There is no desire to burn, or flow or fly; here is a physical need to be grounded, to do solid work, make, create and touch. Like a seed in the ground, there is a desire to sprout roots and just become. The pentacle is taken in hand, and, for now, the querent wants only to have it solidly in his pocket |
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| The twos are related to the High Priestess. As such they indicate duality but, more importantly, they indicate instinctual knowledge. Aces are undirected energy; the twos are, in a sense, the knowledge of what the direction for that energy should take |
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| This card of two people looking into each other's eyes is one of the easiest to read - it is recognition of love, of a friend or soul mate. It predicts that you will find someone who 'knows' you, and you, in turn, will 'know' them. It is a very Romeo & Juliet card. So, there is the direction for that swelling of emotion within you, toward this other person. |
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| This is the infamous blindfolded lady with the crossed swords. Crossed swords suggest a clash of ideas or words. The blindfolded lady, indicating impartiality, cannot uncross the swords, but she keeps them still. This is the knowledge of how to compromise, keep these two sides in balance and at peace. Note that this is a temporary compromise. The Querent may be in the middle, or just forced to accept it. Either way, they must be told that it won't last. The direction of your new brain power here is how to keep these two ideas from fighting, to hold off trouble and make peace. |
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| Standing before the waves of an ocean, a fellow deftly juggles two pentacles. Is the meaning quite clear now? Yes, the instinctive knowledge of how to juggle finances, a check book, or jobs. As with the swords, you can't keep at it forever, but it is a good use to put your money or hard work to until your ship comes in. Which is what the background waves are all about - keep juggling, relief is on its way. |
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| Usually a person choosing one wand over another. Wands are passion, and passion is not something that works when split. It requires a single focus. This card indicates a choice to be made, but the instincts are right, and the choice made, where to put your energy and passion, will be a right one. |
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So at first we had one, indivisible; then it splits into two, mirror images, opposites: two opposing passions, twin emotions, two ideas, two jobs or finances. The next move, of course, is for the two to create a third. Male and female create a child; two corners get a third to form a triangle.
Ruling over the threes is the Empress, of course, whose card is all about creation. The child in the womb, the seed in the ground. So, with the twos, a choice has been made about what use to put this passion, emotion, brainpower, craft. Now we get the first results of that decision, the initial offspring. |
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| A man with two wands, holding a third, looks out to sea, waiting. Sometimes there are boats on the horizon. This is the card of "waiting for the ships to come in". The person has invested their passion in something - a new career, a big move to a new city (remember wands signify travel as well), maybe they've even thrown their hat into a political ring - and now something is coming back. It is a card of progress, of the first hint that the dream can be made real. The tests are coming back, and it looks to be positive. This card also indicates that, like a newly pregnant mother, or a politician hearing that the first round of votes are for him/her |
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| Three maidens with three overflowing cups celebrate. The creation here, springing from the relationship in the two of cups, is happiness, togetherness. Two cups pour into a third and it overflows with love and joy, enough for all. This is a card of parties, weddings, anniversaries, baby showers, birthdays. Any time that families get together and reunite in celebration of something new. |
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Ah, the dreaded three of swords. Three swords pierce a heart. Against the background of a storm, it bleeds.
You were warned that the peace established in the two of swords couldn't last. What sharp words or cutting ideas have created here, not surprisingly, is pain and heartbreak. This card often relates to love-triangles; but remember this is an air sign, so what the Querent believes to be true was likely due to something they heard wrong or were falsely told, a wrong idea they got into their heads. It does not lessen the fact that hurtful words are going to be exchanged.
There is, however, an up side to this card, however bleak. Prior to now, the words and thoughts - possibly poisonous words and thoughts - have been bottled up. They now come out into the open, the cutting truth. I don't like you, or, I didn't say that, or, I'm sorry, but it's your best friend I love (ouch!). So, well, now the Querent knows; no more waiting, obsessing, wondering, worrying. Either blood or poison can drip out, and the Querent can get on with their life. They now know how things stand and can act on that, instead of on false beliefs, gossip and misconceptions. |
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| A craftsman shows off his work of three pentacles in an arch to a pair of potential patrons. This is the craftsman's card and it indicates creating something that brings in patronage. The Querent has created, well, more work for himself. So promising is what the Querent has done with so little, that money, admiration, and more work is coming their way, enough to get them out of the juggling they were doing in the two of pentacles. Health wise, this card can also indicate positive results from a new exercise program or therapy. |
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| Fours are ruled by the Emperor. Like both the Emperor and his throne they signify a kind of stability, a holding pattern if you will. For a moment, everything is still, solid, rooted, established. This can be positive, a solid foundation, or negative, something that refuses to budge or change. |
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| The ships have come in, and the Querent can sit back and enjoy them. This card, with its four wands holding up garlands, implies the foundation of a house, literally and figuratively. Whatever the Querent has been building, they have established it, strong and solid. They can take a moment to admire what they've done, enjoy the first rewards it has brought them, and bask in their initial success. Sometimes this card suggests marriage; once again, laying the foundation for the future. |
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Contrarily, the stillness in the four cups represents stagnation, a status quo in a relationship that brings dissatisfaction and boredom. A man sitting under a tree with three cups is offered a fourth by a hand from a cloud. This is the "grass is greener" card. The relationship, once so fresh and exciting, is no longer moving or changing or growing, and the Querent, depressed and restless, begins to wonder if the grass might not be greener elsewhere.
This card is also about over-indulgence in drink, food, drugs, sex, even internet chat rooms, looking for stimulation. It is all too easy to turn to such things when depressed or bored. In general, this card is a warning. The Querent might be in a stagnant relationship, but day-dreaming of others or over indulging is not the way to solve the problem. Stop looking for ways to escape it, and look, instead, for ways to change it. |
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A young man rests on a pallet, three swords above, one under him. Though this card (in the Rider-Waite deck) makes the young man look dead, it is really only about taking a break. This is the "meditation" card. The card advises the Querent that they need to get away, rest, recuperate. Especially after the Three of Swords!
The card indicates that the Querent has been facing mental or emotional stress, arguments, misunderstandings or verbal abuse, or that they're ill or injured. A healing retreat is needed, time to clear the head, heart and soul, or just fix a damaged body. In this case, the stillness of the "4" is healing and positive. A quiet, unchanging scene is needed. |
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A man holds tight to his four pentacles in this card. And in this case, the refusal to budge may be damaging. This is the miser card. Remember how the Querent got more work, money, luck, health in the last card, the Three of Pentacles? Well, he's holding on tight to what he's got, not sharing it with anyone, not investing it in the future, just holding onto it, trying to keep it still and unchanging. When this card appears it tells the Querent that they're in a position of status, health, money, even comfort. Solid, and unchanging. But the Querent is too afraid of losing all this.
The card reminds them to throw their bread upon the waters. Share the wealth, be generous with good luck and good fortune. A miser lives always in fear, never able to take delight in what they have, or create from it those things worth having like friends, family, a good name. Relax a little, be less worried about loss of what you have - it's not going anywhere. Focus, instead, on how to make the best of what you've got while you're around to enjoy it. |
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When trying to read the Fives, think of the Hierophant. The Hierophant represents a teacher, counselor, or priest, someone who advises people when they're in trouble. Likewise, the Fives are unique cards in that each one seems to pose both a problem and an answer. After four fairly smooth cards of growth and development, the fives represent the fly in the ointment. Instability; the changes that make one humble and allow for growth.
Of the question asked of the Hierophant by a troubled supplicant, the problem is real world. The answer, however, appropriate to the Hierophant, is usually spiritual or at least pragmatic. Understand that all Fives temper the Querent - you go through the fire, the low points, the hard times, in order to come out stronger. |
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Five similar young men with five wands battle among themselves. When energy is put into a project, it can usually develop and grow easily in the early stages. Like a small company just started, or someone who runs for mayor of a small town. But when that company gets big enough, or the little mayor wants to be a state representative or senator... now things are not so easy. There is competition, others with just as much clout, similar ideas, equal energy and focus and drive and ambition.
This is a card predicting conflict and power struggles, smooth sailing meeting choppy waters. Inner doubts and fears will arise, leading to confusion and panic. And the question it asks is "How can I stand out?" The answer is, ultimately, that one learns to stand out by entering the fray and sizing up the competition. Only by doing this can the Querent learn how to change, what to cut away or keep, in order to be unique and succeed. If you fear competition and run from it, you will never succeed at anything. |
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A very well known card; a young man looks down in despair at three spilled cups of wine, never seeing the two still standing. This is the card of spilled milk, one of the easiest to read. The Querent is obsessing over what is lost, rather than being glad for what they still have. The Querent might be feeling disappointed in someone for not living up to their expectations, making them blind to the person's good qualities. Or the Querent themselves did something they now regret, and they just can't get past it.
The problem, "How do I get past this?" The answer, "Your own blindness is what keeps you from getting past it. Open your eyes, look around, stop staring at what is wrong and bad and see what is right and good!" A simple but important answer! |
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| A smirking young man gathers up swords won in battle from two losers. In arguments and battles of ideas there are going to be times when one just loses or has to surrender. The worst of these is when the winner is an awful person, a bully, braggart, a cheat, someone who used an unfair advantage to win. But it happens. The problem: "How can I win in an argument with this person?" The answer/prediction: "You can't. All you can do is not argue." This is the closest to a win one can come to in this situation. But if the Querent feels they must argue, then they need to be prepared to learn from it, not allow feelings of failure, anger or blame to overcome them. |
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| Another famous card. Two poor folk sit outside a church with five pentacles on its stained glass window. This is a card that predicts loss, financial loss, bad luck, a set-back in health. It is a difficult time, as all fives are. "How can I deal with this loss?" asks the Querent. And the answer is, "By realizing that it is no real loss at all." The Querent must understand that while they may have lost material things, the spiritual is still with them. Where there is life, there is hope. They should also be advised that this too will pass. Though it may seem like there is no end in sight, there is. We all go through lean and lonely times. Things will get better. |
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