✦ Arcana

Tarot reading

Spread

Card Guide

All 78 cards of the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot. Click a card to read its upright and reversed meanings.

Your birth chart

Enter your birth details to see your Sun, Moon and Rising signs, your planets, and the tarot cards linked to them. Your readings will then point out when one of your personal cards comes up.

Enter coordinates manually

Your details are saved only in this browser. Searching for a place sends the place name to the free Open-Meteo geocoding service.

How tarot works

The deck

A tarot deck has 78 cards split into two groups:

  • Major Arcana (22 cards), numbered 0 (The Fool) to XXI (The World). They represent big life lessons, turning points and spiritual themes, often read as "The Fool's Journey" through life.
  • Minor Arcana (56 cards), four suits of 14 cards (Ace to Ten, plus Page, Knight, Queen and King). They describe everyday events, feelings and people.

The four suits

Wands · Fire: passion, creativity, ambition, action.
Cups · Water: emotions, love, relationships, intuition.
Swords · Air: thoughts, communication, truth, conflict.
Pentacles · Earth: money, work, health, the material world.

Yes / No questions

If your question can be answered with yes or no ("Will I pass my test tomorrow?"), the app gives an answer at the end of the reading. Each card leans yes, no or maybe: bright cards like The Sun, The Star or the Nine of Cups (the "wish card") are a strong yes, while The Tower, the Three of Swords or the Ten of Swords are a strong no. A reversed card weakens and flips its lean. The cards are weighted by position (the Future and Outcome cards count most) to reach one of five answers: Yes, Likely yes, Unclear, Likely no or No.

Tip: keep reversed cards switched on for yes/no questions. Most upright cards lean yes, so without reversals the answers skew positive.

Other questions

Questions that aren't yes/no get their own kind of answer:

  • When…? uses the cards' astrology. Each numbered card from 2 to 10 rules ten days of the year, each court card and zodiac Major Arcana card a month, and each Ace a season, so the most important timed card in the spread gives a date range. The suits set the pace: Wands are fast, Swords quick, Cups moderate and Pentacles slow.
  • Why…? reads the cards about the past and the foundation of the situation.
  • Who…? looks at court cards, which traditionally stand for people, and the zodiac signs they rule.
  • Where…? uses the elements: Fire (south, lively places), Water (west, near water), Air (east, cities and ideas) and Earth (north, quiet and practical places).
  • What should I do…? / How can I…? gives advice: what to focus on and what to avoid.
  • A or B? works best with the Two Paths spread, which draws one card for each option.
  • Anything else gets an overall outlook.

Astrology and tarot

Tarot and astrology have been linked since the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1888), whose system the Rider–Waite–Smith deck follows:

  • Each zodiac sign has a Major Arcana card: Aries is The Emperor, Taurus The Hierophant, Gemini The Lovers, Cancer The Chariot, Leo Strength, Virgo The Hermit, Libra Justice, Scorpio Death, Sagittarius Temperance, Capricorn The Devil, Aquarius The Star and Pisces The Moon.
  • Each planet has one too: the Sun is The Sun, the Moon The High Priestess, Mercury The Magician, Venus The Empress, Mars The Tower, Jupiter the Wheel of Fortune and Saturn The World.
  • Each sign is split into three decans of 10°, and each decan belongs to a numbered Minor Arcana card (2–10) in the suit of the sign's element. For example, the Two of Wands is Mars in Aries (roughly 21–30 March).
  • The four elements match the suits: Fire is Wands, Water Cups, Air Swords and Earth Pentacles.

The Birth Chart page uses these links to find your personal cards: the cards of your Sun, Moon and Rising signs and their decans, your court card, and your birth and year cards from tarot numerology. When one of them turns up in a reading, the app points it out.

Numbers carry meaning too: Aces are beginnings, Fives are challenges, Tens are completion. Court cards often represent people or personality traits (Pages are students and messengers, Knights are action, Queens are inner mastery, Kings are outer mastery).

Reversed cards

When a card appears upside-down it is reversed. A reversal usually means the card's energy is blocked, delayed, internalized or excessive, and it is not simply "the opposite". Many readers ignore reversals; you can switch them off in the Reading menu.

Doing a reading

  1. Choose a spread. Each position in a spread has its own meaning (for example Past, Present and Future).
  2. Focus on a question. Yes/no, timing ("When…?"), advice ("What should I do…?") and either/or questions all get a direct answer.
  3. Shuffle the deck while thinking about your question, and optionally cut it.
  4. Pick cards from the fanned-out deck, one for each position, in order.
  5. Read each card in the light of its position, then look at the reading as a whole: many Major Arcana, a dominant suit or lots of reversals all tell a story.

Tarot is a tool for reflection and self-exploration. It is not a substitute for medical, legal, financial or psychological advice.