We have to recognize, in a word, that there is no public cannon of authority in the interpretation of Tarot Symbolism. The field is open therefore; it is indeed so open that anyone of my readers is free to produce an entirely new explanation, making no appeal to past experiments; but the adventure will be at his or her own risk and peril as to whether they can make it work and thus produce a harmony of interpretation throughout.
Arthur Waite, Shadows of Life and Thought
This section provides meanings and interpretations for myriad visual language and symbolic images found across the Rider-Waite-Smith cards. Tarot, magic, and ritual are highly symbolic in nature because a symbol speaks directly to the subconscious. A symbol is like shorthand to the human psyche, and like a shot of whiskey, its effect is immediately felt. Words and sentences must be deciphered and understood, even if the process takes only a millisecond. The symbol, in contrast, offers immediate understanding.
It is supremely important to understand that symbol dictionaries (any symbolic dictionary) are a mere starting point. No symbol can be entirely defined by another person or group of people. It is personal, cultural, and experiential associations that give a symbol its power. Your own unique eyes, sensitivities, and personal breadth of experience are the power generator behind any symbolic system. Claim the world of symbols as your own. Anything you look at suddenly becomes like a tarot card, easily decipherable and read. When the world around you becomes a landscape for contemplation, richness, and meaning, your world will transform before you and inside of you. Your experience of life will be deepened. You will never be bored because everything before you offers a message and meaning to be unraveled. Why is symbolic reading so transformative? Because the closer you look at something, the more you will discover, the deeper you will be drawn into the experience of that thing, and mystery upon unraveling mystery will unfold before your eyes.
You could create an individual symbol dictionary in your tarot journal or grimoire. Assign at least one page (if not more) for each symbol. List all the associations, feelings, intuitions, and meanings you have experienced for that symbol. Don’t limit yourself to traditional symbols like suns, moons, and stars. If curling muscular biceps are an image that fills you with excitement, list it. If rosy red summer tomatoes fill you with the heat of summer, list it. If items like books, vinyl records, and watercolor paint sets fill you with cozy feelings, list them. List terrifying, creepy, and uneasy symbols too. Find inspiration in tarot decks, items in your house, and your waking and sleeping dreams.
Symbolic reading is an excellent tool for unlocking the tarot. Symbolic reading is helpful if you are a professional reader and must perform quick party readings for large groups of people. Additionally, you can take the symbolic reading technique out of the tarot and use it to find richness in your life and find signs and meanings in the landscape all around you at any moment.
How to Do a Symbolic Reading
You can create an entire reading, construct a narrative, and derive meaning from a single symbol. The process is simple:
Symbolic Reading Technique
1. Clear your mind.
2. Shuffle the cards.
3. Flip a card.
4. First image that catches your eye? That’s your symbol.
5. Interpret.
Angel—A group of spiritual creatures and heavenly guardians and messengers. The Rider-Waite-Smith features four Christian archangels: Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Michael.
Ankh—Egyptian symbol of life and death.
Apple—A mythological symbol serving many functions across cultures, from immortality to love charms, from magic to sexual bliss. The apple appears in the tarot as a symbol of the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Apron—Important Masonic symbol typically depicting heritage, degree, and the practice of speculative Masonry. In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the apron is a symbol of operative Masonry.
Armor—Protection, experience in battle.
Bag—What you carry with you; past lessons.
Bandage—Healing properties, mending wounds, recent strife.
Banner—Proclamation.
Beach—Threshold and boundary space where the elements converge, particularly earth, air, and water.
Beard—The wisdom acquired by a long and rich life.
Bed—Sacred respite and sleep space.
Bench—Masonic symbol that also indicates an elevated plane and place on which to perform work.
Bind—To harness and contain.
Bird—Symbol of the human and cosmic spirit due to its ability to move between earth (human) and sky (spirit).
Blindfold—Occult initiation. Inner sight. Interior worlds.
Blood—Life force.
Boat—Passage from one reality to another. Also see “Ship.”
Book—Emblem of destiny, wisdom, and scholarship.
Bridge—Place of passage and space linking two worlds or realities.
Bunny—Fertility and life cycles.
Butterfly—Ancient symbol of the life cycle and elemental symbol of air.
Castle—Home, dwelling, safety, family, protection, familiarity.
Cat—Power of transformation and sensual beauty.
Chain—Heavy oppression.
Child—Purity and innocence. Mystic wisdom and openness.
City—Commerce and the urban environment.
Cliff—No going back, potential danger, landmark.
Cloak—Transformation, protection and devotion; a garment often infused with the magical qualities of a magician or with the power to conceal a true identity.
Clouds—Unseen and mysterious forces. Additionally, clouds, like water surfaces, often reflect the nature of the wind, which can be interpreted as the energy of the situation at hand.
Coffin—Death.
Coins—Commerce, money, and wealth.
Communion Wafer—According to the Christian faith, the communion wafer represents the body, or flesh, of Jesus.
Courtyard—Safety and childhood protection.
Crawfish—Subconscious urges.
Cross—Religion and spirituality, the four elements, axis mundi and celestial pole containing the tension of oppositional polarities and intersection.
Crown—The Hebrew name for the first Sephira on the Tree of Life. Reflects human connection to the Divine.
Crutches—Support and healing.
Cup—Feminine receptivity and the element of water.
Dawn—New beginning. Awakening.
Desert—Landscape used to evoke the element of fire in the wands court cards and reflects all qualities of fire, passion, willpower, courage, spirituality, energy.
Dog—To ancient and primitive religions, dogs were guides and guardians of the underworld. Modern thought assigns loyalty and companionship to the dog.
Dove—Peace, love, compassion. Symbol of Christian Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost. See also “Bird.”
Dragon—Primordial power. Mythological symbol of ancient and modern people combining multiple elemental creatures usually embodying snake or crocodile scales, forelegs and the head of a lion, eagle, or hawk. Often winged and in various animal combinations.
Eclipse—Unique and transitory moment in time.
Family—Home and the people you are related to, including marriage and adoption.
Field, Plowed—The fecund potential of elemental earth.
Fish—Conveys the suit of cups and element of water.
Flames—Fire and all elements associated with passion, instinct, and consummation.
Flowers—Manifestation of elemental earth and quantifiable growth.
Garden Tool—Object used to make work easier and encourage growth.
Garden—A perfected world of cosmic harmony, design, and manifestation.
Gate—Threshold and place of passage from one reality to another.
Globe—The world as seen from a wide point of view. The big picture.
Grape (Vine)—Fruit of earth and one of the oldest symbols of natural fecundity.
Halo (Nimbus)—Symbol of divinity in the form of glowing radiance. Used in Christian iconography dating back to the fifth century and adapted from ancient sun gods.
Hammer—Helpful or hurtful tool.
Hand Gesture—Imparts hidden language and directs the flow of energy.
Heart—The human-life-sustaining organ of tenderness and love.
Horn (Instrument)—A wake-up call.
Horns (Animal)—Symbol of strength, vitality, and masculinity based in ancient religions and cattle herding and hunting societies. Double symbolism revealed when the horn becomes the container and thus imbues the masculine symbol with feminine power, i.e., the sword transforms in the cup. Classic symbol of the Devil in Christian belief.
Horse—Universal symbol of power and mastery, associated with all elements. Death is usually reflected as a black horse, while white horses assume solar power, as seen in the Death and Sun cards. A horse’s gait reflects the energy of a situation at the heart of a tarot reading.
House—Domesticity, comfort, and home.
Iris—Flower connected to the Greek goddess Iris, intermediary of the gods.
Jewels—Riches, treasure, and wealth.
Key—Answers, locking and unlocking.
King—Mature masculinity.
Knight—Adventure, teen energy.
Lantern—Protector of light.
Lemniscate—Symbol of infinity.
Lightning—Illumination, weapon of spiritual transformation.
Lily—Rebirth, motherhood, purity, virtue.
Lily Pads/Lotus Flowers—Regenerative symbol of the soul.
Lion—Symbol of gold, royalty, the sun, strength, and Leo.
Mermaid—Elusive, mercurial water creature carrying the power and potency of the sea. Symbol of the unconscious. Associated with water gods and goddesses.
Monk—Organized religion.
Moon—Occult power, femininity, intuition, and emotion.
Mountain—Meeting place of heaven and earth. The highest any individual can reach toward the infinite; sometimes marks barrier or obstacle.
Nudity—Openness, vulnerability, and freedom. Depicted on Adam and Eve, it reflects the state of primal innocence before their fall.
Ocean—Adventure, emotion, unknown.
Olive Branch—Peace.
Ouroboros—Symbol of a snake or salamander eating its own tail as a symbol of infinity and eternity. The phrase “one is all” often accompanies the image.
Page—Childlike youth, innocence, and curiosity.
Palm Branch—Suffering when in conjunction with the Virgin Mary but also victory and longevity.
Parents—Family.
Path—The road that appears before you.
Pentacle (Pentagram)—Five-pointed star and geometric symbol signifying the four elements and the human soul. It was used as the seal of Jerusalem from 300 to 150 BCE. Masons call the symbol a “flaming star,” and it enjoys a long history of magical and protective use. When one point is up and two points are down, the pentacle is a sign of white magic. Reversed, with one down and two up, it is considered a sign of the Devil, with the two upward points reflecting Devil horns.
Pentagram (Inverted)—A reversed pentacle, with one point down and two up, is considered the sign of the Devil and an inversion of natural things.
Pillar—Support and structure. Used to symbolize the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Two pillars usually reflect the left and right side of the tree, with a human in the middle as the center pillar.
Pitcher—Feminine symbol for the womb and liquid vessel similar to a cup.
Pomegranate—Fertility.
Pool—The wellspring of psychic life and symbol of human consciousness.
Pumpkin—Manifestation and harvest.
Pyramids—Suggests the immortality of the Egyptian pharaohs who lie within, also temples to the sun.
Queen—Mature feminine energy.
Rainbow—A celestial bridge linking spirit and earth.
Ram—Solar, hot-headed, bullish energy. Symbol of Aries.
Red Feather—Red is the energy of the spirit, and a feather is the link between world and spirit, therefore the red feather is soaring spiritual energy.
River—Rivers reflect the natural state of energetic flow. Passage of time. High Priestess energy running through the deck.
Salamander—An emblem of the element of fire and all that fire represents. The fire association is likely due to the ancient Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, who claimed that a salamander could quench a fire with its body, and by the fact that salamanders often took refuge under logs and wood. The wood was brought in for a fire, and the salamanders would appear from the flames.
Scale—Divine judgment, law and order, and the sign of Libra. It represents the point when the sun crosses the equator southward.
Scepter—An ornate symbol of power and authority often taking on spiritual connotations.
Scroll—Secret information, prophecy, and ancient wisdom.
Sea Monster—Adversary, myth, deep-seated fears in the unconscious.
Shell—Feminine symbol of water, beauty, and eroticism.
Ship—Feminine symbol of security, as the ship’s interior acts as a womb. Messages, commerce, quest, adventure, passage. Intentions set forth into the world.
Skeleton—Death of the flesh.
Skull—Symbol of mortality but also spirit and energy because the skull is the most resistant part of the human body to decay.
Snail—A typical symbol of slowness and ease. Ancient cultures associated the snail with the moon because it shows and hides its horns like the moon slowly reveals itself. The spiral shell evokes the Golden Spiral and infinity.
Snake—Ancient and complex animal symbol associated with fertility, the penis, the umbilical cord, gyration of birth, and the primeval life force. The snake suggests earth, water, darkness, and the underworld. Regenerative and self-sustaining properties are reflected in the shedding of its own skin. Duality of strength and danger as seen in the latent spiritual power suggested in the coiled yogic Kundalini snake said to reside at the base of the spine.
Snow—Crystalline form of water suggesting moments of intense transformation.
Soldier—Authority and law.
Sphinx—An eternal enigma who is the source of ancient wisdom containing the power to unlock the future. Guardians of the mystery. Originally a human-headed lion in Egypt offering sun god qualities, the symbol was romanticized by occultists.
Staff (Crook)—A male symbol of supreme power and authority often held by wizards, kings, and wise men.
Stained Glass Window—Christian spirituality and parables are depicted inside the glass.
Star—Stars in the sky, embedded on royal crowns or on fabric reflect heavenly bodies and the celestial realm.
Sun—A universal symbol of life force and creative energy as the center of our solar system and the source of all life and manifestation.
Sunflower—All solar qualities, radiance, joy, and expansion can be applied to the sunflower, who echoes the sun in its bright yellow petals and warm face.
Sword—Symbolizing element of air.
Tav—Hebrew letter meaning “mark.”
Tent—Temporality because the tent is portable and usually assembled and disassembled.
Tetramorph—Tarot’s tetramorph is based on the four biblical tetramorphs found in the first chapter of Ezekiel who have the heads of a man, lion, ox, and eagle.
Threshold—Space marking the boundary between realities.
Throne—Seat marking power, authority, and stability.
Tower—Ambition, aspiration, watchfulness, and strength. Link between sky and earth.
Tree—Universal symbol of life, interconnectedness, and bridge to other realms.
Veil—Separation and protection. The skein or caul marking the division between the unseen metaphysical world and the seen manifest world. What separates the material from the spiritual world.
Wall—Boundary line and a symbol of separation.
Wand (Ceremonial or Magic Wand)—Wand held in hand to be used in a ceremony, not the organic wand used to symbolize the suit of wands. Connection to the Divine. An object used to direct will and intention.
Wand—Symbol of the suit of wands, representing fire.
Water—Element represented by the suit of cups. Universal symbol of life suggesting the fluidity of emotion, dreams, creativity, and love.
Waterfall—Space of energy, creativity, and positive ions.
Waves—Symbol reflecting quality of air in a tarot card but also a sign of tides, lunar power, and forces of fate and the ups and downs of life.
Wheat—Fertility, sustainability, and new life as the regular cultivation of grain in a grain-based culture represented continued life and assured sustenance for all.
Wheel—Symbol of cosmic, karmic, and ceaseless momentum. Time, cycles, life and death.
Wings—Speed, ascension, and inspiration. Linked with the element of air and often found on intermediaries between human and gods. Angels depicted with wings began in sixth century CE art.
Wolf—Humanity’s animal nature and fear of letting it show.
Wreath—Celestial symbol of perfection. In life, a symbol of domination and victory; in death, it is a symbol of resurrection.