The Major Arcana
0- The Fool
A jester figure representing impulse, birth and youth, sometimes shown beginning a journey and accompanied by a dog.
If this card appears in your dreams, it stands for a new start and infinite possibilities. When it appears, you might be about to make a move, not just to a new home, but to a new job or way of thinking. There is more than just change, renewal and a brand new beginning in the Fool; there’s also movement, and a fresh, exciting new time. But the card carries a little bark of warning as well. Stop daydreaming and fantasizing and watch your step, lest you fall and end up looking the fool.
1- The Magician
Sometimes shown as a juggler or illusionist at a fair, sometimes playing with the symbols of the four suits, representing consciousness, a sense of self-control and dexterity. In dreams, this card might be telling you that you will have a vision, an idea or a magical mental image of whatever it is you most want, whether it is the solution to a problem, a successful career or a fulfilling love life.
2- High Priestess
Shown as a female religious leader, representing women’s liberation, wisdom, independence and psychic development. The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinct and the supernatural. She offers secret knowledge, like the moon on a dark night, so that you can find your path in life. She sits between the pillars of dark and light, consciousness and unconsciousness, waxing and waning. All secret knowledge is hers.
3- Empress
Shown as a queen on a throne or as the mother goddess, she represents illumination, intelligence, understanding, maternity and creativity. The Empress is a creator, be it the creation of life, of romance, of art or business. This card tells you that if you want your new romance, career, business or creation to grow into all it can be, you have to pay attention to it, baby it and be willing to let it take those first steps when it is ready. Most of all, like any pregnant mother or good gardener, you have to be patient. All things need time to gestate and sprout.
4- Emperor
Sometimes shown as a king on a throne holding a sphere and scepter, he represents sight, vision, realization, power and strength. In the best of circumstances, he signifies the leader that everyone wants to follow because he rules with intelligence and enthusiasm. But sometimes that throne can also be a trap, a responsibility that has the Emperor feeling restless, bored and discontent.
5- Hierophant or Pope
A religious leader, sometimes shown as the Pope seated on a throne, he represents the link between God and man, and symbolizes spiritual discovery, the father, transcendence, and the teacher. The Hierophant’s only problem is that he can be stubborn. At his best, he is wise and soothing, offering much-needed advice; at his worst, he is an unbending traditionalist.
6- Lovers
Shown as two people surrounded by cupids, flowerbeds, they represent struggle, beauty, sovereignty and, union. Above all, this card is a symbol of choice. Love is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can’t understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. When this card appears in a dream, you are being told to trust your instincts, to choose this career, challenge, person or thing to which or whom you are so strongly drawn, no matter how scary, how difficult, irrational or troublesome.
7- Chariot
Sometimes shown as warriors parading triumphant in chariot or an icon of a hero being paraded around, it represents victory, the domination of humankind over nature, power, war and self-control.
If this card appears in your dream, it suggests that control is required over opposing emotions, wants, needs, people or circumstances; it is urging you to bring them together and give them a single direction, your direction. The card can indicate new motivation or inspiration that gets a stagnant situation moving again.
8- Strength or Lust
Represents love as a source of strength, endurance, will to survive, strong desires and perseverance. In dreams, this card suggests that you can control not only the situation, but also yourself. It is a card about anger and impulse management, about creative answers, leadership and maintaining your integrity. It can also stand for a steadfast friend.
9- Hermit
Often shown as a hermit holding an hourglass, the hermit represents withdrawal, solitude, abandonment of convention via inner conviction and a preoccupation with details,. This is not a time for socializing; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. Nor is it a time for action, discussion or decisions; it is a time to think, organize, ruminate and take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent during this time of withdrawal. But such times lead to enlightenment, illumination and clarity.
10- Wheel of Fortune
Represents karma, reincarnation, the consequences of chance happenings, cycles, optimism and generosity. This card can mean movement, change and evolution, but its primary meaning is that such changes will seem to come out of the blue as a stroke of good, unexpected fortune.
11- Justice
Often shown as ‘lady justice’ (blindfolded with scale), representing decision, equilibrium. Justice is about cold, objective balance through reason or natural force. This is the card that tells a person they can’t keep smoking and drinking without consequences to their health. It is the card that advises cutting out waste and insists that you make adjustments, do whatever is necessary to bring things back into balance, physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.
12- Hanged Man
Represents sacrifice, violence, transition. Sometimes you need to sacrifice cherished positions, opening yourself to other truths and other perspectives in order to find solutions. One thing is certain; whether the insight is great or small, spiritual or mundane, once you have been the Hanged Man in your dreams, you never see things in quite the same way again.
13- Death
Often shown as a skeleton or the Grim Reaper, this card represents stagnation and routine, but also fresh starts, a clean slate, liberation and renewal. This is a time of change, a time for something to end, but also a time for something new to begin. You may feel sad, empty or low, but that will help you rise again, like a phoenix from the ashes. Death is not the end. It is only the precursor to resurrection.
14- Temperance
This card represents enthusiasm, moderation, truthfulness, the mixing of opposite ingredients in proper proportion, and working together. Temperance may, at first glance, be a warning to ‘temper’ or modify your behavior, to cut your wine with water. But it may also be a reminder that seemingly irreconcilable opposites may not be irreconcilable at all.
15- The Devil
Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the major Arcana, the Devil is not really ‘Satan’ at all, but Pan, the half-goat nature god, or Dionysus, the god of wine and licentiousness. This card represents superficiality, confusion, ignorance, apathy, limitations, frustrations and sexual problems. These are gods of pleasure and abandonment, of wild behavior and unbridled desires. This card is about ambition, but is also synonymous with temptation and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves to get passionate, messy or wild- or even ambitious.
16- The Tower
Representing spiritual awakening, destiny, often shown as a ‘house of god’ or a ruins, the Tower is a card about war. This war is between the tangled structures of lies and the lightning flash of truth.
If this card appears in your dreams, you can expect to be shaken up or to be blinded by a shocking revelation. It sometimes takes such a shock to make you see a truth that you refuse to confront, or to challenge and destroy beliefs that are well constructed and deeply defended. What is most important to remember is that the tearing down of this structure, however painful, makes room for something new to be built.
17- The Star
Often shown as a woman kneeling on a sea shore, this card suggests clarity of vision and spiritual insight, and represents meditation, inspiration, hope, immortality. Most importantly, it suggests that unexpected help will be coming, but that help is only the first step. The star only reveals the future. It is up to you to find your way to that future.
18- The Moon
A card that is connected with sleep, and so both with dreams and with nightmares, the Moon represents illusion, self-deception, confusion and the growth of intuition. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. It should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition.
If this image appears in your dreams, you may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.
19- The Sun
Just as the moon symbolized inspiration from the unconscious or from dreams, this card symbolizes discoveries made fully conscious whilst wide awake, and represents enlightenment, clarity, understanding, comprehension, wisdom, happiness and splendor. It is a card of intellect, clarity of mind, and feelings of youthful energy, as well as symbolizing science and math, beautifully constructed music and carefully reasoned philosophy.
20- Judgment
Often showing angels blowing trumpets, this card represents awakening to something new and rebirth. There are wounds from the past that may not have healed and Judgment advises you to finally face these, recognize that the past is past, and put them to rest, absolutely and irrevocably. This is also a card of healing, quite literally from an accident or illness, as well as a card signaling great transformation, renewal and change.
21- The World or Universe
Simply put, this card tells you that a successful conclusion to a long-term project is in sight, and that it will be accompanied by well-earned praise, celebration and success. It represents completion, reward, perfection, a unity of positive and negative, and, on a more mundane level, the World card indicates travel. These are not short business trips, but long, fantastic trips. This is a wonderful card of wholeness, perfection, satisfaction and happiness. [1]
If you had a tarot reading in your dream, pay attention to what you were told by the fortune teller - it could be your sleeping mind’s way of sending you an important message from your unconscious. [2]
2. A need or desire for a broad approach to an issue that requires healing (especially if individual tarot symbols are not noted by the dreamer). [3]