If you pick up any Tarot book, they will cover in detail the meanings of all the cards which will include some interpretation of what they mean. It is important to do this once or twice in order to really get a feel what how the cards work with your feelings before proceeding. In any case, I highly suggest that you do just that before reading any further. Why? Because when I did this each reading helped me get a little bit closer to understanding the bigger picture. It’s not that the words are simply assigned to the cards, but rather, there is a deeper meaning that very few authors write about. Ultimately, most books just try to get you to memorize the meanings and descriptions which always left me with a hollow feeling with regards to why the cards were put together in the order in which they appear in the classic decks.
The part that I felt was missing was the deeper meaning behind the purpose of the card rather than simply its meaning. Thus, I read, studied and then read some more. It wasn’t until after I’d created my own Tarot deck that the higher order of these cards seemed to jump out at me.
This section of the manual is designed specifically so as to share my idea of how these cards are ordered so as to help enrich your Tarot card reading experience.
Rules
The Beginning
The first card, in its simplest form represents the birth of identity. It is one of the key concepts of being human – the feeling of separation, thus the belief that we are independent from what happens around us or to us. It is the ego. It is the part of us that we identify with and, in many cases, the part of us that is believed to represent who you are. This part of us that is the identity becomes the part of use that drives the story of our lives.
The reality is that we are connected to all other life forms through consciousness and our true existence is rooted into the spirit as the Seer. The Seer is that part of us that hears the voice in the head, but is not the voice in the head. It is the part of us that sees and feels. It is not what we identify with (which is the ego), but that which enjoys the experiences in life.
Relating this to the cards, The Fool card represents that part of us that is not fully developed or the malleable parts of the identity. It represents the beginning. It is that state before any real development happens. It is that state of innocence before the results of your action are known.
Divine Laws
The next five cards in the deck are cards of spiritual truths. There are aspects of the human experience that are fundamental to how things unfold for us. They are universal truths of existence that have been passed down through script and oral tradition for centuries. They can be thought of as spiritual laws like karma, the law of attraction, the law of manifestation, natural laws, and so on.
With these cards, they specifically address classes of the laws and how they affect our personal experiences.
For instance, the act of living requires that you make decisions. In every moment of every day, you get to choose what you do. With each one of these decisions, you build your life experience and adjust yourself on the path of life.
The Magician card represents this concept. Our life experiences are the outcomes of a sequence of decisions that we make all along the way.
Thinking of this card from a different angle, The Magician card represents a concept that decisions will always be made and it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad. They will be what they will be and it will develop us has humans.
Thinking of this card as a divine law lets us take it a bit further. There is the Law of Manifestation which is there to represent the idea that when you make a decision about something, you bring the essence of that into your life. The Law of Manifestation requires the first step to be making the decision. Without that first step, nothing can come your way.
After the decision is made, it is simply a matter of time before that experience comes your way.
The High Priestess is a card that comes about because of another fundamental concept. That is the fact that at the root of our human experience is a Seer that is the Being having the experience. It is you; not your ego or identity. It is the essence that feels what is captured by the body’s senses. It is the essence that hears the ego talking in the head. It is where emotions come from. It is where intuition comes from. It is where visions come from. The Seer doesn’t have an ego, thus no second voice in your head. Yet, the Seer is on the receiving side of everything that we perceive during our lifetime.
This concept is expressed in and through The High Priestess card not as the actual Seer, but the fact that there is a standard means of communication from the Seer into the world and from the world back to the Seer. Without this communication, there is no way for the Seer, our Being, what we really are, to interact and experience our lesions.
How does the communication occur? Outwardly, it comes through every word that you speak, everything that you do with your hands (and body), everything that you create and every action that you perform. From the Seer to your ego (or what you identify with), the communication avenue is generally that of emotions and feelings or light and vision. Emotions are generated and then felt. Light is focused and then seen. The High Priestess card is there to remind us that there is a communication path if we so choose to use it.
Remember that the Seer is rooted in consciousness, thus it communicates, instinctively, with all consciousness. The Seer is also energy, thus the ability to focus and convey information in that energetic form.
So when you look at The High Priestess, you can know that it’s all about this fundamental aspect of communication between the Seer and our worldly experience.
The Empress embodies another concept that most take for granted. This is the concept that everything in the world has a natural cycle. It’s more than simply a starting and ending point, but a continuous (infinite) number of stages of development. One example is the seasons. Winter naturally fallows fall. The idea that ‘this is just the way things are’ falls into this category. This concept covers things like gravity, life cycles, water cycles, food cycles, etc. It is the representation that when you plant a wheat seed, you get a wheat plant and that plant will grow through all its stages – in order – to reach the resulting conclusion of more wheat seeds.
Another fundamental law is that of Cause and Effect. For everything that is done, there is a result. As sure as you inhale, there will be an exhale. As sure as you make a decision, there will be a manifestation. If you throw a rock, it will hit something. If you apply fire to dry wood, it will burn. If you touch something hot, you will get burned. The Emperor is there to remind us of that for every action, there is a reaction, and thus we need to choose wisely.
The cards go a step further in showing us that we don’t live our lives in isolation. We live as social Beings. Even if we are as isolated as a monk, the consciousness that exists around us is still subject to how we interact with it. Because of this, philosophers have observed how these interactions play out and they have created ‘spiritual laws’ that help outline how we can all just get along. The Hierophant represents these laws and how they play out in our experience. It represents that there are laws associated with social order that are clear and predictable.
An example is the Golden Rule. Depending on who you talk too, the Golden Rule is either spoken somewhat like “treat others they way you would like to be treated,” or like “treat others the way they treat you.” As you can see, these are two totally different statements. One shows your control over the situation, the other shows that you are just a respondent in the situation.
If you take these basic principles to heart, you’ll find that there is a pretty good fit regarding the traditional meanings of the cards to these principles (or laws). To me, it gives the Tarot Card reader a better understanding regarding why someone would have created the cards the way that they did.
Ways of Being
The way I look at the next two cards is that they represent the principle that we get to choose how we behave. You are no doubt aware of the fact that you can choose to be nice, or you can choose to be naughty. Because nice and naughty are a matter of perspective, the cards show us where the root of the behavior can come from. You can either make choices from the heart, or from the head.
The distinctions between these two Ways of Being really come down to making choices based upon emotions and feelings, or by using the intellect and ego. Either process can be nice or naughty, but the experience if different and distinct.
The Lovers shows us that we can choose the Way of Being that is centered around going with your feelings. The Chariot shows us that we can choose the Way of Being that is centered around going with what we think.
The aspects of both cards show that when you approach life, life will interact with you based upon how you interact with it. It’s a matter of perspective and application. How you choose to behave directly reflects upon what type of experiences you will have.
The Principles
Many different Tarot book talk about the four moral cards and list Strength, The Hermit, Justice and Temperance to that collection. This never felt right to me.
I guess one of the first signs that this didn’t work with me was when I read through my first Tarot book and the author mentioned that there was some controversy regarding the card placements between Justice and Strength. Some books and decks have the cards one way, another switched. With each book I reviewed, the author would state their case for the correct placement and then move on.
The second issue that I had with this was that the moral cards were not grouped. There is order through the rest of the deck, why are these cards separated by others? Why the gaps? Why the disorder?
Here is where my interpretation challenges convention. I have the feeling that there might have been some general understanding lost in translation somewhere along the way. When I look at the cards, I don’t see four moral cards, I see a grouping of six.
What others have called the moral cards, I’ve grouped as the principles. As with morals, these are the principles by which people should live their lives.
When I looked at the more common basic principles, I found that they aligned fairly well with Strength, The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man and Death. Here is my alignment of those principles.
The first principle is that we should do no harm. In all our actions, we must strive to hurt no one, including ourselves. This principle aligns to Strength.
Next, there is the principle of self-rule or self-governance. No one has the right to rule over anyone else, unless they willfully give up that right. This principle aligns to the hermit which also shows the wisdom to know that all good things come in their own time.
The next principle is that we all have free will and we must respect the free will of others. This principle aligns to The Wheel of Fortune, for the definition shows that free will is the opposite of fate.
The next idea is that we must be fair and equitable in our actions and issue no undue burdens on anyone. This is the very concept of Justice, which aligns to the Justice card.
We must also strive for the betterment of others. We are all interconnected, thus when you help someone, you help yourself. Likewise, when you harm someone, you harm yourself. This social interaction aligns well with The Hanged Man.
Finally, there is the principle of non-permanence. Change happens. Without change, there is no growth. This principle embraces the idea that change is a fundamental concept of life. As the sun sets, night begins. Jobs come and go. People are born and die. It is certain that things will change. This principle aligns well with the card Death.
It is my understanding that these six cards are here to help us better understand where to apply energy in order to help improve the quality of our lives. They represent fundamental principles that, if applied diligently, will help build a stronger character and allow you to build respect and appreciation from others.
Actions
At this point, the Major Arcana seem to take on a different focus or feeling. The first 14 cards seem to point out the way that it is and the way you should act – as if you have no awareness of your actions. Yet, the next 8 cards seem to realize that you are aware of your actions and they present concepts that show your understanding of this, or your awareness in the concepts.
There are four different groups of item presented in this awareness section of the deck.
A key idea behind this next collection of cards is that the cards seem to point out that there are conscious actions being performed rather than unconscious ones. You are willfully making the choice and you are aware of it. It is the concept of practicing an art until you become good at it or move on. This is the section of willfully choosing what you do.
Let’s look at these groups.
Practices
The first three cards in the awareness group are what I think of as the Practices. These tree cards represent what we are currently practicing or how we are channeling our energies. We have Temperance, The Devil and The Tower.
The three cards represent the three different power centers for experiences; the heart space, the physical space and the mental space. Each area develops different skills and brings radically different experiences.
The heart space is about learning about the flow of emotional energy. It is the practice of controlling, using and experimenting with that energy. It is the act of doing. It is the practice that involves activities of the heart. As an example, this area is where we learn about love & hate, or caring & being careless. It is where we go to the extremes to practice in order to gain the skills needed to be able to stay in balance. This is where we learn the difference between emotions and feelings. It is where one learns to use their emotions in order to provide conscious reactions or feelings in others or yourself.
The space of the physical body includes the senses and animalistic impulses of the flesh. It is all about practice of controlling, using and experimenting with that energy. As with the heart space, it is the act of experiencing what it is like to succumb too or overcome the issues of the flesh. It is the practice and refinement of your own skill set in order to give you command over the body and all it stands for. It can be the realm of our fears and accomplishments, but ultimately, it’s about taming the beast within and finding a balanced use of this energy.
The mind space is all about the ego and man’s dominion over the earth. It is the realm of ‘I think’ and because of that ‘I am’. This is the space where we get to practice controlling, using and experimenting with the energy of our thoughts and rationality. The ego feels separate from the divine and leads to experiences where we think we know what we’re doing, but we don’t. It is our attempt at being God, and failing. These experiences are generally centered around the ego and help us find a balance between what we think, what is and what should be felt. Ultimately, it’s about learning to be balanced with regards to the experiences of the ego.
Power
In order to really get into this next section, I’m going to make a couple assumptions. I’m going to assume that you are already aware that you are an Energy Being. I’m assuming that you already know that light is a form of energy and that energy is everywhere around you always. I’m also going to assume that you already know that consciousness directs energy and that you do this all the time without even knowing that you’re doing it.
If you are not aligned with these assumptions, you’ll want to ask yourself questions like: how does the body move? Why does every cell in the body of a person that dies all quit functioning at the exact same instant? Where does energy come from? What is energy? If you seek answers to these types of questions, you will revisit the questions that have puzzled the greatest philosophers.
Looking back at the cards, The Star, The Moon and The Sun are the three cards that represent energy, or power, that is available for us. They represent what fuels our adventures. In each case, consciousness directs energy. Energy is the substance that allows for visions, movement, thought and physical matter. Imagine if you will, that consciousness works similar to a TV in that the visible light energy frequencies could be gathered by the consciousness and directed towards the retina in the eyes (or some other direct link to the nervous system where vision is processed) and we see some vision. So, with each card in this group, the card represents a source of energy that is available to us.
The Star represents the light that is ever present within and around us. It is the cosmic energy and the energy of the individual. It is your inner light. It is the light that you derive from digestion. It is the battery that gets recharged when you sleep. If all other light sources disappeared, leaving you in complete utter black space, you would glow brightly. This light is light that is uniquely you and always present around you. It is the light that helps you identify as being your own unique candle.
It can be thought of as your energy. It represents the idea that if all other lights were to go away, you would still exist. It fosters optimism and hope.
The Moon represents the concept of reflected light. It is directly related to our vision and interpretation of the vision. Reflected light is soft and cool. Form a perception point of view, everything that we see is but from a very narrow energy spectrum known as visible light. We can’t see infrared or ultraviolet energy.
Again, this reflected light is everywhere around us all the time. Yet this energy is amplified when the moon is full and visible. The thing to really observe with this light is that it is a narrow band of energy; it’s not the full spectrum. Because of this, reflected light has a mysterious aspect to it as if it’s not showing the full essence of the item that is being observed. It’s more like a glow around the object that shows its presence, but doesn’t give away its essence.
When it comes to the energy provided by The Sun, we find that it directly relates to the direct full spectrum energy provided by a single source. Every wavelength of energy that we need for all of our humanly functions can be derived from this source. This light source is direct, non-reflective light. It is the type of energy that you can feel and the body will react to it. This energy fuels our experiences right down to the photons that are stored in sugar (and other molecules).
The Sun represents this direct form of energy and it can be interpreted as being a bright card. It illuminates that which is around us. It refuels our batteries. It brings clarity to our adventures. It warms our hearts and fulfills our spirit. It is a symbol of growth and abundance. It is raw power.
So each one of these cards shows a slightly different aspect of the power that is in and around us always. Without power and the full spectrum of light, we have no fire, nothing for consciousness to direct and there is no experience.
Accountability
The next card in the deck is a wild card. It is the card that holds in check the laws embodied in all other cards. It is the card that calls out the consequences of our actions. It represents the fact that at any point, for any reason, we will be held accountable for what we do. All conscious, or unconscious, activity has ramifications and those ramifications must be experienced or realized. It is the cosmic law that completes our experiences.
Judgment is unavoidable. Judgment is inevitable.
Conclusion
The last card is the opposite of the first card. It is total awareness. It is the completion of the journey that brings wisdom and understanding. It is the knowing that for every desire, there are processes to make that desire manifest and there are consequences for living out that desire. It shows that you are aware that you may break or uphold sacred rules and laws, but in the end – it was a conscious choice.
The World symbolizes that there is some form of mastery of your conscious actions in play. It is that feeling you have when you know that when you choose to behave a particular way, there will be a reaction that occurs which you fully expect and intend to happen.
Overall
There is a clear and present progression that happens through these 22 Major Arcana cards. On the starting extreme we have complete unconscious understanding and no control over the adventure of life mirrored by the other extreme where you consciously know and use the energies in order to get a desired outcome.
All the middle cards are grouped in order to bring your awareness to what you do and how you do it. The lower numbers represent concepts that must be followed regardless of your state of mind or intention. The higher cards show the growth of conscious control and the ability to create or enhance your experiences based upon conscious control.
Upright & Reversed
When playing the cards, it is common knowledge that there is an upright and reserved meaning to each card. When you read any standard book, this doubles the amount of work that you have to do or items that you have to memorize as you are just starting out.
If you study the concepts expressed above, you will note that the characteristics of the principle reversed will generally match the well known standard meanings.
The way I look at the Major Arcana is that the upright position is the harmonious alignment to the main principle and the reversed position is the inharmonious opposite. In other words, if Strength is played upright, the card is in harmony with the concept of doing no harm. If the card is reversed, a dissident reading would occur where the card is expressing that harm is being done or this concept is not being followed.
Looking at this differently, there is the concept of positive and negative, or good versus bad, or right versus wrong for how you look at each card. Who is to say that practicing the actions of mastering the energies of the body is bad? Generally, good and bad is a perception of the actions that are defined by cultural influences. Yet, the action is what it is and the effect will be what it is too. With this in mind, when the card is dealt reversed, we get to see the struggles or unexpected consequences of the action or practice. Generally, the negative aspects are being expressed. Thus, I like to think of it as dissidence, thus the card reading would expose the inharmonic actions that are occurring that hinder or slow the process to mastery.
This harmonic or inharmonic alignment holds for each one of the cards in the Major Arcana.