List of Meanings of the 22 Major Arcana Tarot Cards | Upright and Reversed Positions

The Major Arcana form a single narrative known as 'The Fool's Journey'.

When arranged in order from The Fool (0) to The World (21), the Major Arcana can be read as a single story: a naive Fool sets out on a journey, gains various experiences, and finally reaches a state of completion.

For this reason, lower-numbered cards tend to represent beginnings or immaturity, while higher-numbered ones indicate maturity or completion.

Basic Meanings of the 22 Cards

As a basic rule, upright positions represent straightforward meanings, while reversed positions indicate deficiency, excess, or delay.

• 0 The Fool — Departure, freedom / Unplanned, recklessness
• 1 The Magician — Creation, beginning / Immature, all talk
• 2 The High Priestess — Intuition, intellect / Stubbornness, coldness
• 3 The Empress — Abundance, motherhood / Dependency, laziness
• 4 The Emperor — Dominance, responsibility / Self-righteousness, stubbornness
• 5 The Hierophant — Guidance, norms / Formalism, restraint
• 6 The Lovers — Choice, connection / Indecision, infidelity
• 7 The Chariot — Progress, victory / Recklessness, wasted effort
• 8 Strength — Patience, inner strength / Timidity, impulsiveness
• 9 The Hermit — Introspection, exploration / Isolation, withdrawal
• 10 Wheel of Fortune — Turning point, good opportunity / Bad timing
• 11 Justice — Fairness, balance / Bias, dishonesty
• 12 The Hanged Man — Acceptance, trial / Pointless endurance
• 13 Death — End and rebirth / Stagnation, lingering attachment
• 14 Temperance — Harmony, circulation / Wastefulness, instability
• 15 The Devil — Obsession, bondage / Signs of liberation
• 16 The Tower — Collapse, shock / Averted crisis
• 17 The Star — Hope, healing / Disappointment, unfulfilled ideals
• 18 The Moon — Anxiety, ambiguity / Fog lifting
• 19 The Sun — Success, joy / Forced cheer, delay
• 20 Judgement — Resurrection, decision / Lingering attachment, procrastination
• 21 The World — Completion, achievement / Incompleteness, stagnation

Read cards in sequence, not one by one

Beginners often try to memorize the meaning of each card individually and apply them rigidly. However, in actual readings, the relationship between adjacent cards is more important.

For example, if The Tower is followed by The Star, it can be read as a flow where hope comes after collapse. Even harsh cards can change meaning depending on their sequence.

Whether to use reversed positions is up to you.

Many readers choose not to use reversed positions. They read only upright cards and judge their intensity based on surrounding cards.

For beginners, it is best to start with upright positions only. Add reversed positions later once you are comfortable, to avoid confusion.

How to Interpret Readings with Many Major Arcana Cards

When you lay out a spread, checking the proportion of Major Arcana cards will reveal the nature of the issue in question.

If there are many Major Arcana cards, it indicates the issue is part of a larger trend that is difficult to change through your own will alone. In such cases, you may need to wait for the right timing or go with the flow.

Conversely, if the spread is mostly Minor Arcana, the issue is at a stage where it can be adequately addressed with everyday adjustments. You can decide whether to tell the client, 'This is not due to a lack of effort on your part, but a matter of timing,' or 'You can change this with how you act from now on.' Being able to make this distinction changes what you can convey to the client.

How to Communicate When Harsh Cards Appear

Cards like The Tower, Death, and The Devil have strong visual impressions and can unsettle the person who drew them. However, these cards do not necessarily represent bad news.

The Tower indicates the collapse of something that was being maintained forcibly. If you read into what remains after the collapse, you will often find that the collapse was necessary. Death represents both endings and rebirth, while The Devil prompts awareness of one's obsessions.

The key is not to stop at the card's visual impression. You need to read the relationship with surrounding cards and indicate what actions can be taken afterward. Only when you do this does Tarot become a tool for judgment.

Practical Methods for Memorizing the Major Arcana

Trying to memorize all 22 cards from a book usually leads to giving up halfway. A more reliable method is to draw one card a day and check its meaning against your day's events in the evening.

Draw one card in the morning and go about your day without looking up its meaning. In the evening, recall the day's events and check the meaning of the card you drew. Over time, you will accumulate experiences of realizing, 'So that's what this card was referring to.'

With this method, you can go through all the Major Arcana in about three weeks. Meanings tied to your own experiences are far more useful in actual readings than those memorized from a book.

Recording five items is sufficient: date, card name, upright/reversed status, morning impression, and evening events. If you keep this up for three months, you will create your own personal Tarot dictionary.

The Option of Reading Only Upright Positions

Many readers choose not to use reversed positions. This is because using both upright and reversed positions for all 78 cards results in 156 possible interpretations, which is too overwhelming for beginners.

When reading only upright positions, you judge the intensity of a card's meaning based on surrounding cards. For example, The Tower surrounded by positive cards indicates a minor collapse, while The Tower surrounded by heavy cards indicates a major turning point.

Readings work perfectly well with this method. In fact, it has the advantage of helping you develop the ability to read relationships between cards, since you do not rely on reversed positions. Adding reversed positions later once you are familiar with the cards will minimize confusion.