The Priestess
Explanation
The Christian Church has outlawed priestesses, but in other religions like for instance the Celts, women could be priests.
This card signifies a spiritual insight like intuition.
Place in the cycle
This card has the number 2 assigned to it, which is more complex than 1, because it signifies there's a choice to be made.
It is also the first "assignment card" in the deck. The assignment here won't be as difficult as with the next assignment cards, numbers 5 and 8.
Meaning
Positive
Be open to unexplainable events happening around you. Let the universe tell you through your subconscious how to proceed. Take your time to decipher it, and don't be afraid of unexplainable events.
Neutral
When this card is drawn in a reading, it tells you that you're ready to grow and become more aware of yourself, or get a better insight into yourself.
Information will come to you from the subconscious, via sudden insights or dreams or meaningful coincidences.
Negative
Don't turn inward too much, be practical about things.
The Hierophant
Explanation
The Hierophant is another name for The Highpriest.
Where The Emperor is the chief of worldly power, The Hierophant is the head of spiritual matters.
Place in the cycle
The Hierophant carries the number 5. This is the number connected to humans. 5 senses, 5 limbs (including the head), 5 fingers on a hand, 5 toes on a foot.
Research (via known and unknown senses) is part of the number 5, with enthousiasm and in freedom.
Meaning
Positive
Use your mind, analyze the situation. Look at what you'll need to solve the situation and what your weaknesses in this task are.
Then seek help from a specialist and follow their advice. In the end, it's you who has to make the steps.
Neutral
When the card of The Hierophant is drawn, then there is something you want to achieve or solve. You'll be able to do this, because it's not the first problem in your path.
Negative
Go it alone, don't seek help. You can make it on your own. Don't bother others with your problems.
The Hermit
Explanation
The Hermit shuts out the world and retreats into solitude to better understand some spiritual aspect of life. He opens to the cosmos and lets it's wisdom sink in. Hermits are often seen as wise old men who can guide a traveller along a journey.
Place in the cycle
The Hermit carries the number 9. This is the highest base number. After 9 the composed numbers emerge. Therefore the number 9 is the gateway to a higher order. It is also a place to rest before embarking on the next leg of the journey.
Meaning
Positive
Rest, but at the same time prepare for the next leg of your journey. Empty your mind of things past, and wait for inspiration to hit you. Wait for a sign, it'll be there in time.
Neutral
When the card of The Hermit is drawn, it means you can relax a bit and recall the leg of the journey that you have completed. Up to now everything has been guided by your own choices, now it is time to let the universe guide you along the next steps. The card signifies a waiting period.
Negative
Don't be too passive, now is not the time to rest.
The Sun
Explanation
The Sun has been admired as God or the symbol of all life by many cultures. Without the sun there is no warmth, light or life. The Sun is seen as a very positive force.
Place in the cycle
The Sun carries the number 19, a composed value of 1. This is the third composed 1 in the Major Arcana. It's the culmination of the 1's. The third 1 is a reward and a beginning at the same time. It also represents creative energy.
With The Sun the third and final cycle of Tarot is commenced. The first cycle was the upperworld or childphase, a place to start and gain inputs. Here you gained wisdoms, knowledge and ideas. The second cycle was the underworld or adult phase or assignments phase, the hard cycle where you had to really work for gains. This third cycle that starts at The Sun, is the phase of rewards, of enjoyment of results.
Meaning
Positive
Use this period in your life. If you do nothing you end up having a good time but not much else. If you use your strengths and powers of creativity, you will end reaping rewards for a much longer time.
Neutral
You've gone through a difficult time with lots of searching and experimenting, and you've made it on your own. This has lead to a new sense of self-confidence in you, you're ready to take on anything, it seems.
Negative
You're too optimistic and care-free. So much that you lose track of reality somewhat.
The Empress
Explanation
The Empress expresses wordly power, but not without female influences like a sense of spirituality.
Of the four wisdoms that The Magician represents she represents the wisdom of the body and of feelings. She is compared to the love and harvest Godesses.
Place in the cycle
The Empress carries the number 3. This is the number of birth, of plenty, of harvest, of summer, of the first results. The number 3 stands for joy and fun, for creativity and fantasy, for warmth and humor.
The number 3 is a magical number; 1 is a dot, 2 a line but 3 the first number that generates space. The triangle and pyramid have positive and magical qualities. Add the numer 1 (male) to the number 2 (female) and you get 3 : the child. In many old cultures the number 3 was a holy number, generating balance and harmony.
Meaning
Positive
Enjoy your good feelings and make the best of them. Recharge yourself with new energy, do fun things or be pampered by others. You've earned it.
Neutral
When the card of The Empress is drawn, it means you're in tune with yourself, you have a balance between heart and mind, you're content with yourself and feel fine by yourself.
The card indicates a happy period in your life, with strength for what lies ahead.
Because you're content with yourself, you radiate that contentness to others who may pick up on it and find you attractive because of it. The card could even indicate a pregnancy.
Negative
Be careful not to get lazy or to enjoy this time passively. The good influences of the card may pass by without you capitalizing on them.
The Hanged Man
Explanation
Inclusion of The Hanged Man in the Tarot could mean that Tarot has it's origins in Scandinavian mythology.
In the Edda is described how Odin hung himself upside down from the Yggdrasil, the tree of transformation, for nine days and nights, to better understand the runes.
This card can therefore be seen as a link to rune laying, another yet somewhat more mysterious divination tool.
But these observations can not serve as proof for Scandinavian origins for the Tarot.
Place in the cycle
This card has the number 12 attached to it, the composed value of which is 3 (an output number).
The year has 12 months, and therefore this card can be seen having a reference to the passing of time.
The Hanged Man is the first (composed) 3 in the second major cycle.
First you learned that you're not a plaything of fate, that you can make your own choices. Then you've learned how to fend for yourself and face yourself. Now, at The Hanged Man, you can learn to let go. You no longer have to cling to old values. You've found strength in yourself and by letting go, you allow growth.
This is the reward of the first output number (3) of the second cycle. The numbers 10, 11 and 12 may be seen as the gateway to the underworld. From 13, here, this underworld is truely entered.
Meaning
Positive
Allow things to happen to you, don't resist them. Follow your feelings and discard practical objections for a while. You're on the eve of a major transformation in your life.
Neutral
When this card is drawn, you've reached a point of giving up your resistance to change. You allow fate to take over for a while, and things to happen to you. You've got enough self-confidence to realise you'll make the right choice for yourself in whatever circumstances.
Negative
Keep your feet on the ground and don't jump into any adventure right now.
The Fool
Explanation
Only a fool would stand so close to the cliff's edge.
But the fool is on a high, thinks he can handle anything the world will throw at him. Here in lies both his strength and his weakness. One false step and the tumble down the rock face could be short or long. The fool doesn't even know how long, because he looks to the sky.
Place in the cycle
The fool is the first card in the deck, the new born heading out into the world, facing the different stages of development ahead. One can undergo many cycles during his or her life, the last card in the major arcana ('The World') always followed by The Fool for some new aspect of life to be discovered and experienced.
Meaning
Positive
Don't look at practicability or feasibility for a while. Open up to your desires and dreams, without immediately trying to figure out how to realize them.
Dream all you want and figure out which dreams to realize later.
Neutral
You're probably saturated by the life you now have around you.
It's time for something new, to let the child inside you boss the adult in you around a bit as it discovers these new things to explore.
Negative
Perhaps you're discouraged by your dreams, because your subconscious is telling you you're not happy with current circumstances, while your higher intellect is still OK with this situation.
Strength
Explanation
Strength is the second of the four midieval values. Justice, card 11, is the first, and the third, Temperance, is card 14.
Place in the cycle
In the Rider-Waite deck, the cards for Justice and Strenght have swapped places, because Waite saw links between the cards and the astrological signs Leo and Libra.
This card carries the number 8, and is the third and final assignment number. This assignment is no longer simple like the first two, but is all about standing upright in the real world.
Meaning
Positive
Stand up for yourself and don't bother yourself with others' opinions of you.
Neutral
When the card of Strength falls, you will gradually discover sides of yourself that you didn't know before. First you adjusted, now you've decided to go your own way. You are no longer bothered by the opinions of others. Even if others disapprove, you will go your own way. You stand up for yourself and accept yourself as you are. You don't have to be liked as much as you needed to be.
Negative
This card signifies a long process. When the card is drawn upside down, it usually means you're not going fast enough for real change to happen.
Temperance
Explanation
Temperance is the third of four mideaval values, and the last mideaval value in the Tarot.
According to mideaval understanding this value is about reaching the golden middle ground in a field of opposites. Not too happy, not too angry, not too sad. In everything balance has to be achieved, extremes were not appreciated.
Place in the cycle
Temperance carries the number 14, composed that is 5.
5 is an assignment number, which indicates there's work to be done.
With Death, an important decision made with The Hanged Man was given shape by letting go of the old. Now you're in a transitionary period and this Temperance card is a place of rest during the journey through the underworld.
Meaning
Positive
Experiment, search for what you think will be good for you. Try everything and don't get discouraged when you don't immediately feel some gains. Know that chances don't come around every day and it's up to you to find and shape chances. You have got to work for it.
Neutral
This transitionary period has it's downsides. You may feel you're making progress one moment, then falling back the next. But in the end, you are making progress even though at times you feel you're not. You are more careful and more of an adult when making your choices. You're more flexible, because you know there may be something unexpected just around the corner. You don't fully realize yet how far you've already come.
But be careful you don't end up in an endless quest for compromise. Draw conclusions for your experiments, because otherwise the effort might have been in vain.
Negative
You're looking for compromises a bit too hard.
The Emperor
Explanation
Like The Empress, this card indicates power. But instead of spiritual power, this card indicates materialistic, worldly power. The Emperor is sometimes compared to Mars, God of war and courage.
Place in the cycle
The Emperor has the number 4 attached to it. This is the number of order and structure, the number of matter; with 4 things can be built and organized.
There are 4 seasons, 4 elements, 4 wind directions. The number gives stability and orginanisation and discipline and a steady strength to get done what needs to get done.
The number 1 brings the idea, the number 4 takes it on. This also means that with this number 4 things can be decided one way or another.
While the previous card, The Empress, indicates a time to relax and enjoy, with this card it is time to get things underway and for the work to commence.
Meaning
Positive
Of all the things that are heading your way you must pick just a few or even just one to focus on. Get your goals into focus and stick to your goals. Be careful not to get distracted.
Neutral
This card falls in a time when you're busy and facing challenges. This means there is a lot to do and a large need to organise and structure your activities.
You feel strong and full of energy, you have willpower and selfdiscipline and an ability to close yourself to distractions.
Negative
Don't be too rigid, you can't achieve your goals with just strength, often wisdom and knowledge are needed as well.
