Most people arrive at tarot the same way: they draw a card, do not know what it means, and start searching. Since there are only 22 Major Arcana, the fastest route is to see all of them laid out at once.
This article gives upright and reversed meanings for all 22 cards in a single table, then explains how to learn them without rote memorisation. The 22 cards run from 0, The Fool, to 21, The World, as one continuous story — and once that structure is visible, the meanings stop being a list.
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Major Arcana against Minor Arcana
The 22 Major Arcana represent large themes in a life. The 56 Minor Arcana represent everyday events.
A tarot deck holds 78 cards.
| Cards | What they cover | |
|---|---|---|
| Major Arcana | 22 | Turning points, large themes, forces outside your control |
| Minor Arcana | 56 | Daily events, shifts in feeling, concrete situations |
The Minor Arcana divide into four suits, each covering its own territory.
| Suit | Element | Territory |
|---|---|---|
| Wands | Fire | Action, drive, momentum |
| Cups | Water | Emotion, love, empathy |
| Swords | Air | Thought, decision, words |
| Pentacles | Earth | Money, material life, results |
A Major Arcana card in a spread signals that its theme is present in a way that is not easily deflected. It marks a larger question than a spread made only of Minor Arcana.
All 22 Major Arcana meanings
Upright is the card’s force expressed cleanly. Reversed is that force blocked, overdone, or turned inside out.
| No. | Card | Upright | Reversed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | The Fool | Beginnings, freedom, a leap taken, open possibility | No plan, no direction, recklessness, unable to step out |
| 1 | The Magician | Will, skill, the tools are at hand, making things real | Unprepared, all talk, power aimed at the wrong thing |
| 2 | The High Priestess | Intuition, quiet intelligence, truth not yet spoken | Reactive, assumption mistaken for insight, intuition ignored |
| 3 | The Empress | Abundance, nurture, receiving, beauty | Smothering, dependence, overspending, stagnation |
| 4 | The Emperor | Structure, responsibility, decision, grounded authority | Domineering, rigid, rebellion against authority, abdication |
| 5 | The Hierophant | Tradition, learning, a guide is present, working within convention | Empty ritual, self-righteousness, boxed in by form, refusing counsel |
| 6 | The Lovers | Choice, harmony, mutual attraction, shared values | Hesitation, indecision, mismatch, giving in to temptation |
| 7 | The Chariot | Advance, victory, momentum, pushing through by will | Running out of control, losing direction, spinning wheels, haste |
| 8 | Strength | Inner courage, patience, prevailing through gentleness | Loss of confidence, swamped by emotion, resorting to force |
| 9 | The Hermit | Reflection, solitude, searching, wisdom from experience | Isolation, shutting down, stubbornness, refusing help |
| 10 | Wheel of Fortune | A turning point, timing, the current shifts, opportunity | Mistimed, stalled, working against the current |
| 11 | Justice | Fairness, balance, holding the line, consequences become visible | Unfairness, bias, putting off the judgement |
| 12 | The Hanged Man | Choosing to pause, a change of viewpoint, necessary patience | Pointless endurance, unrewarded effort, genuinely stuck |
| 13 | Death | An ending and a renewal, a clean break, changing by letting go | Unable to end it, holding on, resisting change |
| 14 | Temperance | Harmony, moderation, blending, healing | Too much or too little, poor fit, swinging to extremes |
| 15 | The Devil | Attachment, desire, a bond you cannot leave, instinct | Release from what binds you, seeing the dependency, cutting it off |
| 16 | The Tower | Sudden collapse, shock, a premise breaks, waking up | Collapse deferred, decay running out of sight, avoiding the break |
| 17 | The Star | Hope, the way forward becomes visible, quiet recovery, guidance | Disappointment, no visible path, the ideal out of reach |
| 18 | The Moon | Anxiety, ambiguity, something not yet formed, intuition | Anxiety lifting, a misunderstanding cleared, edges coming into focus |
| 19 | The Sun | Success, joy, clarity, vitality | Forced cheer, optimism unearned, momentum fading |
| 20 | Judgement | Awakening, reassessment, answering a call, revival | Held by the past, avoiding the decision, regret |
| 21 | The World | Completion, integration, arrival, moving to the next stage | Unfinished, one step short, unable to close it out |
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Reversed cards read three ways
Reversed does not mean bad. It means blocked, excessive, or inverted — pick whichever fits.
▼The three readings
① Blocked: the upright force cannot come out. The Fool reversed = unable to step forward
② Excessive: the upright force overshoots. The Chariot reversed = out of control
③ Inverted: the meaning flips. The Devil reversed = released from what bound you
Because of the third reading, the heaviest cards become favourable when reversed. The Devil, The Tower and The Moon reversed are usually read as “you get out of it” or “it dissolves.” Do not treat reversals as uniformly negative.
Which reading applies is decided by the question asked and the other cards on the table. A single card does not mechanically dictate one of the three.
Learn the order, not the list
The Fool sets out at 0 and arrives at The World at 21. Read as a story, neighbouring cards hold each other in place.
This is the traditional reading known as the Fool’s Journey. Splitting the 22 into three stages shows the structure.
▼Three stages
▶ 0–7: meeting the outside world — departure, tools, intuition, mother, father, society, choice, advance
▶ 8–14: facing inward — courage, solitude, fate, fairness, pause, ending, harmony
▶ 15–21: passing through larger forces — attachment, collapse, hope, doubt, joy, awakening, completion
Learning by pairs
Adjacent cards usually form contrasting pairs. Learning the contrast sticks better than learning 22 separate entries.
| Pair | Relationship |
|---|---|
| 2 High Priestess ↔ 3 Empress | Intelligence that receives ↔ abundance that creates |
| 3 Empress ↔ 4 Emperor | The nurturing mother ↔ the ordering father |
| 12 Hanged Man ↔ 13 Death | Stopping ↔ ending |
| 15 Devil ↔ 16 Tower | Being bound ↔ the binding broken |
| 17 Star ↔ 18 Moon | The path visible ↔ the edges unclear |
| 18 Moon ↔ 19 Sun | Anxiety at night ↔ clarity in daylight |
The Devil sitting immediately before The Tower is the most telling arrangement in the deck. An attachment you cannot escape (15) is followed by the shock that breaks it from outside (16). And after the Tower comes hope (17). Learning just that run of three changes how you read the heavy cards.
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Drawing for yourself
Reading meanings does not teach reading. Draw against a real question of your own and work out the combination on the spot — that is the fastest practice there is.
This blog publishes a free tarot reading tool. It uses an original 78-card deck, 22 Major plus 56 Minor Arcana, with no sign-up or install.
▼What it offers
▶ Card of the day: fixed by the date, so reloading does not change it
▶ One, three or four card spreads, chosen by how deep the question runs
▶ Readings by area: love, work, money, general
▶ Reversals included, or switch them off and read upright only
▶ Saved history, copy to clipboard, and sharing
Start with one-card draws. Three-card spreads exist to show a flow — past, present, future, or situation, obstacle, advice — and cannot be assembled until the individual meanings are in place.
Keep the table above open while you draw, checking upright and reversed as cards come up. Ten sessions is usually enough to have the main cards fixed in memory.
Related reading
▶ When does your daisakkai fall? A Rokusei Senjutsu reference table — a divination system read by date of birth rather than by drawing
▶ Tarot reading tool — free readings with an original 78-card deck
Summary
There are only 22 Major Arcana. Seeing them in one table and learning them in story order is the reliable route.
▼Key points
① Major Arcana carry large life themes; Minor Arcana carry everyday events
② Reversed is not simply bad — read it as blocked, excessive or inverted
③ The 22 form one story from The Fool at 0 to The World at 21, with adjacent cards in contrast
④ Learning the Devil → Tower → Star sequence changes how the heavy cards read
More than memorising meanings, asking each time how this particular card describes your particular situation is what builds skill. Treat the table as a starting point for thinking, not as an answer key.
Card numbering follows the Rider-Waite tradition, with 8 as Strength and 11 as Justice. Other traditions, including Marseille, swap those two. Interpretations vary between schools.
