Major Arcana Flashcards
The Fool (0)
A leap of faith at the beginning and ending of our journey.
The Fool archetype is about curiosity and open-mindedness, going with the flow of life, and managing our way through the unknown.
Optimism, a journey without a destination, a new beginning, curiosity, and potential.
The Fool - reversed
Foolishness, gullibility, and ignorance.
The Magician (1)
Choices and creative problem-solving, a connection between imagination and reality. Magician archetype is the first encounter for the fool, indicating that we all must make crucial decisions.
Choices, problem-solving, diverse knowledge, solutions, and cleverness.
The Magician - reversed
Deception, conning, mistakes, something broken beyond repair, and failure.
The High Priestess (2)
Knowledge and enlightenment that we attain by overcoming difficulties. Second encounter for the Fool, indicating that we must learn how to trust our intuition, and when to seek guidance from others.
Divination, wisdom from experience, insight, and counseling.
The High Priestess - reversed
Gossip, bad advice, incomplete knowledge, and misrepresentation.
The Empress (3)
Feminine divine, the essence of beauty, abundance, and nourishment. Third encounter for the Fool, teaching you about the natural world, how to care for the world, how to nurture yourself, and how to care for others.
Nurturing, abundance, the feminine divine, and sovereignty over the natural order.
The Empress - reversed
Hardships, scarcity, bareness, and neediness.
The Emperor (4)
Masculine divine, the essense of command, order, and power. Teaches how to establish order from chaos, how to shape the natural world to our needs, and how to build civilization.
Authority, the rule maker, order, stability, and sovereignty over society and civilization.
The Emperor - reversed
Abuse of power, cruelty, dictatorship, and narcissism.
The Hierophant (5)
Wisdom attained through scholarship exploring the world, the knowledge and potential wisdom we attain in our effort to make sense of life. Indicating we need to go beyond intuition and emotion, and use intellect and experience to solve some problems.
Wisdom, authority, knowledge, doctrine, and advice.
The Hierophant - reversed
Arrogance, elitism, hypocrisy, and charlatanism.
The Lovers (6)
Partnership, especially a profound connection with someone that is both intimate and romantic. Indicating that we cannot fully experience life until we connect with someone intimately and deeply.
Commitment, status through union, connection, and soul mate.
The Lovers - reversed
Jealousy, unfaithfulness, conflict, and separation or divorce.
The Chariot (7)
Willpower and drive; the intense focus we need to establish our identities and stand out in important and useful ways. Teaching us how important it is to have conviction and intensity in our lives.
Victory, willpower, intensity, drive, and control.
The Chariot - reversed
Anger, delay, indecision, and interference.
Strength (8)
Our fortitude to live life, overcome struggles and persevere; the journey through life will require strength to live fully and completely. Showing us that life is a marathon and not a sprint. We must find the strength within that will help us survive and thrive.
Power, courage, compassion, and gentle strength.
Strength - reversed
Weakness, anger, abuse of power, and threat.
The Hermit (9)
Individual persuit for personal truth in a world of competing truths. Teaching us that sometimes we must detach from the flow of life to discover ourselves, and bring what we learn in isolation back to the world of social connections.
Introspection, discovery, wisdom, truth-seeking, and taking time away from society.
The Hermit - reversed
Loneliness, escapism, depression, and being cast out.
Wheel of Fortune (10)
Experiences and circumstances outside our control. Indicating that we exist in a dance between fate and free will. Teaches the lesson of Fate, the external world, and how others with more power can force us to react.
What is inevitable, destiny, and the passage of time.
Wheel of Fortune - reversed
Misfortune, powerlessness, and unpleasant circumstances.
Justice (11)
Detached decision-making, logic, and the power of knowledge outside emotions. Showing us the importance of objectivity and analysis for determining outcomes and making important decisions. Life can be fair if we act with integrity.
Detached decision-making, responsibility, consequences, cause and effect, and logic.
Justice - reversed
Injustice, missing information, indecision, and bureaucracy.
The Hanged Man ( 12)
Knowing sacrifice, when we realize we must accept a short-term difficult for a long-term gain. Shows the importance of devotion, surrender, and sacrifice as ways forward.
Knowing sacrifice, change in perspective, and patience.
The Hanged Man - reversed
Helplessness, impatience, confusion, and selfishness.
Death (13)
Endings in the cyle of life, and the power of regeneration. Reminding us that life is finite. Helps us appreciate how well we are doing in our pursuit of life experience and soul growth.
Death/rebirth, transformation, inevitability, and cycles.
Death - reversed
Arrogance, depression, hopelessness, and severe grief.
Temperance (14)
Balance and equilibrium that has the chance to develop with greater life experience. Indicating that we all need to step back occasionally and assess where we are and determine if we are in balance.
Calm, health, well-being, balance, common ground, and harmonious action.
Temperance - reversed
Imbalance, disruption, anxiety, frustration, and pettiness.
The Devil (15)
Consequences we face as our choices become more and more significant the farther into life we travel. Teaching us that we are responsible for our lives and choices. If we make selfish choices that harm others, we will not like the outcomes.
Self-interest, temptation, consequences, and choice.
The Devil - reversed
Unwise choices, lust, wanton abandon, and manipulation.
The Tower (16)
Sudden, unexpected change that takes something we have built over time and rather quickly forces us to start over or reset. Teaching the lesson that life is a construct and, at any time, it can be “blown up”, forcing us to make unexpected adjustments.
The Tower - reversed
Unexpected change, sudden catastrophe, and traditions failing.
The Star (17)
Hope and vision for the future. What do we see as our life purpose, and how do we get to it? Indicating that we all need hope and optimism about the future. We need to have dreams to enjoy life.
Hope, inspiration, promise, purpose, and faith.
The Star - reversed
Doubts, confusion, delusion, and despair.
The Moon (18)
Feelings we need to explore and express. Illuminates our deepest feelings so we can understand the emotional framework that gets reinforced, suppressed, and shaped by our family and close relationships.
Dreams, positive emotions, intuition, and soul purpose.
The Moon - reversed
Delusion, nightmares, negative emotions, and despair.
The Sun (19)
Revelation and the light of truth. Showing us the lesson of honest revelation and how we deal with clear truths in our lives. What do you learn when you see a situation or a person for what they really are?
Revelation, greatness, vitality and truth.
The Sun - reversed
Excessive pride, arrogance, blocked actions, and lies.
Judgement (20)
Significant and life-changing decisions, as well as the judgements from the world around us. Teaching us the need to use all we have learned from others and the lessons we need to make the most important choices in life.
Deciding for others, being judged, consequences, and closure.
Judgement - reversed
Prejudging, stereotyping, lazy thinking, and abuse of power.
The World (21)
Ending of a cycle to prepare for a new repeating journey. Showing us that life is constantly changing and we are meant to build on our experiences. In this ending is another beginning.
Fulfillment, completion, conclusion, the sum of your efforts, and success.
The World - reversed
Stagnation, failure, and final obstacle.
