Start Today with Guidance and a Glimpse of Possibilities

The card of Judgement is always of particular importance when it appears in a reading. In the traditional Ride-Waite depiction of the trump, we see an angel blowing a trumpet: in response, figures below rise up from their graves, arms outstretched to welcome their newly gifted life. The card carries a sense of both joy and purpose, and the strong intimation that the angel’s call cannot be denied.

In this card we see a figure who wields all the suits of the Major Arcana with confidence: in his raised hand he holds a Wand, while on the table (or altar) before him lies a Pentacle, a Cup, and a Sword. They await his will. And herein lies the key to understanding this powerful card: The Magician is intention. He is the focused assertion of the will and the paths that open before us as a result.

Three of Swords is usually easy to understand even for those who are completely new to the tarot. In this image we see three Swords pierce a heart that is suspended in a grey sky from which rain slants down. And yet, not all is as it seems, for this card is as concerned with hope, just as much as it is with emotional pain.

In the Two of Wands, we see a man standing, alone, atop a walled fortress, holding the world in one of his hands. In the other, he holds one of the Wands of the card, while the second Wand has been fastened to the ramparts on his right. Like this bound Wand the figure here has been hemmed in by his success, and we can imagine him pondering on what, exactly, it has brought him.

As a suit, Swords are linked to Air, which is the element of the intellect and the mind. In the Ace of Swords, we see a hand emerging from a cloud holding the emblem of the suit; a crown surmounts the Sword - a symbol of triumph and victory in the material world.

Life is like a wheel and, sometimes, we need to accept that it will turn, this is the fundamental message of this card. Just as the snake depicted on the card follows the downward slide of the wheel, so the fox ascends with the very same turn. The sphinx that sits on top of the wheel in the Rider Waite version of the card symbolizes both mystery and Horus, the Egyptian God of resurrection. Whereas The Chariot depicted the sphinxes pulling the carriage, facilitating its passage, in this card the sphinx’s position at the top of the wheel, above its relentless cycle, suggests that there are things beyond the turning wheel of life that we can only dimly comprehend but that infuse our existence nonetheless.