All 78 Tarot Card Meanings
The tarot deck contains 78 cards divided into two main sections: the 22 Major Arcana cards representing life's spiritual lessons and karmic themes, and the 56 Minor Arcana cards reflecting the trials and tribulations of daily life. Each card carries layers of symbolic meaning that shift depending on its position, surrounding cards, and whether it appears upright or reversed.
Below you'll find every card in the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck, organized by suit. Select any card to explore its full upright and reversed meanings, along with detailed interpretations for love, career, health, and spiritual growth. Whether you're a beginning reader learning the cards or an experienced practitioner deepening your practice, this guide serves as your complete tarot reference.
Major Arcana 22 cards
The 22 Major Arcana cards are the heart and soul of the tarot deck. Numbered 0 through 21, they trace The Fool's Journey — a universal path from innocence through experience to enlightenment. When a Major Arcana card appears in your reading, pay close attention: these cards signal significant life events, deep spiritual lessons, and turning points that shape who you are becoming. They transcend everyday concerns and speak to the forces of destiny, karma, and soul-level growth that guide your path.
Suit of Wands 14 cards
The suit of Wands is associated with the element of Fire and governs creativity, passion, ambition, and spiritual willpower. Wands cards often appear when questions involve career direction, creative projects, personal growth, or the drive to pursue what sets your soul ablaze. From the initial spark of inspiration in the Ace to the heavy burdens of the Ten, the Wands suit traces the full arc of turning vision into reality — with all the courage, conflict, and triumph that journey entails.
Suit of Cups 14 cards
Cups correspond to the element of Water and rule the realm of emotions, relationships, intuition, and the subconscious mind. When Cups cards dominate a reading, the message centers on matters of the heart — love, friendship, grief, joy, and the deep emotional currents that shape our inner world. This suit asks you to listen to your feelings, honor your intuitive knowing, and stay open to the vulnerability that genuine human connection requires.
Suit of Swords 14 cards
The suit of Swords aligns with the element of Air and governs the mind — thought, communication, truth, and conflict. Swords cards cut through illusion to reveal what is real, even when that truth is uncomfortable. They frequently appear during times of difficult decisions, mental clarity breakthroughs, arguments, or periods when honest self-examination is needed. While often challenging, the Swords suit ultimately guides you toward intellectual freedom and the power of a clear, undeceived mind.
Suit of Pentacles 14 cards
Pentacles are connected to the element of Earth and represent the material world — finances, career, health, home, and the physical body. When Pentacles appear, the reading speaks to practical matters: building wealth, nurturing your health, creating stability, and manifesting your goals into tangible form. This suit reminds you that spiritual growth and material prosperity are not opposites but partners, and that patient, grounded effort is the foundation of lasting abundance.
How to Use This Guide
Each card page includes the full upright and reversed meaning, plus specific interpretations for love and relationships, career and finances, health and wellbeing, and spiritual guidance. You'll also find the card's elemental association, ruling planet, keywords, and symbolism notes to deepen your understanding.
For readings involving multiple cards, visit our tarot combinations guide to discover how pairs of cards interact and modify each other's meaning. Understanding card combinations is one of the most powerful skills a tarot reader can develop.
"The cards don't predict your future — they illuminate your present so you can create the future you desire."
Get a Free Reading from LunaTarot Card Meanings -- Complete Guide to All 78 Cards Upright and Reversed
Learning tarot card meanings is one of the most rewarding journeys in spiritual practice -- not because there is a fixed dictionary to memorise, but because each card is a living symbol that speaks differently depending on your question, the surrounding cards, and where you are in your own life right now. This reference covers all 78 cards: the 22 Major Arcana archetypes that map the great turning points of a human life, and the 56 Minor Arcana cards across the four suits of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles that capture the everyday texture of experience.
How to Read Upright and Reversed Tarot Card Meanings
Every tarot card carries two core expressions: upright and reversed. The upright meaning describes the card's energy flowing freely -- its gifts, its invitations, its clearest message. The reversed meaning is not simply the opposite; it is more nuanced. A reversed card often points to an energy that is blocked, internalised, or not yet fully expressed. The Five of Cups reversed is not despair but the beginning of turning away from it. Understanding this distinction deepens every reading enormously.
For beginners, the best approach is to choose three or four cards you feel genuinely drawn to -- perhaps the Major Arcana that have appeared most often in your readings -- and study them deeply before expanding outward. The more personal meaning you build around a card through journaling, meditation, and lived experience, the more useful it becomes as a mirror. Each entry here includes upright and reversed keywords, elemental associations, numerological layers, and links to full in-depth guides for all Major Arcana.
