Tarot card meanings
Find upright and reversed meanings for all 78 tarot cards. Compare Rider–Waite–Smith and Marseille readings, then explore spreads and free draw tools.
The modern pictorial tradition — a scene on every card.
The older woodcut tradition: two majors swap numbers, and the number cards are read by count, not by scene.
Draw something · free, no account
Random card
One card or three from a real shuffle, reversals in or out.
Yes or no
One card, one answer, from the leaning of the card you draw.
Card of the day
One card at dawn — drawn for the day, read it here.
Birth cards
Your birth date, added up to the Major Arcana cards it holds.
Year card
Your birthday and a year, added up to the card that sets its tone.
What tarot card are you?
Eight quiet questions, and one of the Major Arcana looks back.
Major arcana · 22 cards
The departure
0 — VII · the self sets out
The trial
VIII — XIV · the inner work
The return
XV — XXI · unmaking and renewal
The first septenary
Le Mat · I — VII · the stations of life
The second septenary
VIII — XIV · trial and measure
The third septenary
XV — XXI · the great forces
Minor arcana · 56 cards
No scenes on the pips — every minor is read from its number and its suit.
Spreads · 18 ways to lay the cards
Clock & calendar
Small pulls on a rhythm
For a question
Two to five cards, shaped to it
Guides
Reading tarot with Claude
Connect a real deck to Claude and ask in plain words.Reading tarot with ChatGPT
Prompts that work — and the one thing a prompt can’t do.Reading tarot with Grok
Give Grok a real deck through a custom connector.Reading tarot with Perplexity
Connect a real deck in Perplexity Pro or Max.Reading tarot with Le Chat
What Vibe does without a deck, and how to give it one.Reading tarot with Gemini
Add a real deck as a Gemini custom app.Reading tarot with HuggingChat
A real deck with open models, free.Reading tarot with Muse
Prompts for Meta's agent, and where a real deck stands.Best AI for tarot, honestly
We test the lineup and put ourselves in it.How to read Marseille pips
Number and suit, no scenes — the older way.The Rider–Waite–Smith tarot
The 1909 deck, the scene on every card, all 78 meanings.The Tarot de Marseille
All 22 trumps, the pip method, the Besançon edition.The library
One library · two traditions
The modern pictorial tradition — a scene on every card.
The older woodcut tradition: two majors swap numbers, and the number cards are read by count, not by scene.
The 22 majors
The Fool’s journey
The three septenaries
Act I · 0 — VII
The departure
the self sets out
Act II · VIII — XIV
The trial
the inner work
Act III · XV — XXI
The return
unmaking and renewal
Septenary I · Le Mat · I — VII
The first septenary
the stations of life
Septenary II · VIII — XIV
The second septenary
trial and measure
Septenary III · XV — XXI
The third septenary
the great forces
The 56 minors
Read by scene
Read by count
Wands
Fire · will and work
Cups
Water · feeling and relation
Swords
Air · thought and truth
Pentacles
Earth · matter and means
Courts: Page · Knight · Queen · King
Every minor carries a scene — read the picture first, the number second.
Batons
Bâtons · will and work
Cups
Coupes · feeling and relation
Swords
Épées · thought and conflict
Coins
Deniers · matter and means
Courts: Valet · Cavalier · Queen · King
No scenes on the pips — every minor is read from its number and its suit.
Tarot for beginners
New to tarot? The questions people ask first, answered plainly.
How many cards are in a tarot deck?
A tarot deck has 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana run from The Fool, numbered 0, to The World, 21. The Minor Arcana are four suits of fourteen cards, Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles, each running from Ace to Ten with four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen and King. Marseille decks call the suits Batons, Cups, Swords and Coins.
What are tarot cards?
Picture cards first made in fifteenth-century Italy, where they were used to play a card game. From the 1780s, French writers began to read them as symbols, and that is the use most people know now. Today most readers treat a card as a scene to think with: you hold a question and look at what the picture says about it.
What is the difference between the Major and Minor Arcana?
The 22 Major Arcana are the named cards, such as The Fool, Death and The Star, and readers take them as the large themes of a life. The 56 Minor Arcana are the four suits, which speak to everyday matters: Wands to drive and work, Cups to feelings and relationships, Swords to thought and conflict, and Pentacles to money, the body and home.
How do you read tarot cards as a beginner?
Start with one card a day. Draw it, look at the picture before you read any meaning, and ask where it meets your day. When single cards feel familiar, try three: past, present and future is the classic first spread. The meanings help, but at the start the habit of looking matters more.
Which tarot deck is best for beginners?
Most people start with the Rider–Waite–Smith deck or one drawn after it. Its numbered Minor Arcana show scenes rather than rows of suit symbols, so you can read the picture before you know the meaning, and most books and websites, this one included, use its images.
Do you need to learn all 78 meanings first?
No. Most readers learn the cards by using them. A card a day meets most of the deck within a few months, and each card's page here gives its meaning upright and reversed, in love and at work, whenever you want it.
What does a reversed tarot card mean?
A reversed card is one that comes up upside down. Readers who use reversals take it as the card's energy held back, turned inward or slow to arrive; others read every card upright. Both are common, and many beginners leave reversals out until the upright meanings feel familiar.
Can you read tarot for yourself?
Yes. Most readers learn by reading for themselves, and many never read for anyone else. A question you care about, a few quiet minutes and one card are enough to begin.
Are tarot cards evil?
No card is evil, Death and The Devil included: Death is about endings that clear ground, and The Devil about what has a hold on you. Whether reading tarot sits well with your faith is a question for your own tradition. Some religions discourage any kind of divination, while many people read the cards only for reflection, as this site does.