78 Cards · Major & Minor Arcana
Consult the Cards
Hold a single question in mind. The deck answers the question you actually asked, not the one you said aloud.
Only need a straight answer? Draw a yes or no tarot card →
Choose a Spread
In short
Draw the full 78-card tarot deck across nine spreads — Celtic Cross, Lovers' Mirror, Shadow Work and more — with upright and reversed readings.
- Read the picture before you recall the keyword. Smith's illustrations carry the meaning; the book is a second opinion.
- Do not re-draw for a better answer. Ask a different question instead.
- Reversals are optional. Some readers use them for blocked or internalised energy; others read them as intensity. Pick one and be consistent.
- Write the reading down before events unfold. Accuracy is only measurable in advance.
78
Cards in the deck
22
Major Arcana
1909
Rider–Waite–Smith
9
Spreads offered here
The four suits and what they govern
Element, sphere and pace give you a first reading of any minor card before you look at the number.
| Suit | Element | Sphere | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wands | Fire | Drive, projects, will | Fast, days to weeks |
| Cups | Water | Feeling, bonds, imagination | Tidal, weeks to months |
| Swords | Air | Thought, conflict, truth | Sudden, immediate |
| Pentacles | Earth | Money, body, craft | Slow, months to years |
Tarot begins as a card game. The earliest surviving decks — the hand-painted Visconti-Sforza cards of fifteenth-century Milan — were made for trick-taking play, with the trumps serving as a permanent suit of triumphs. Divinatory use is documented from the eighteenth century, when Antoine Court de Gébelin claimed an Egyptian origin the cards never had.
The deck most people picture was drawn by Pamela Colman Smith in 1909 to Arthur Waite's brief, and its innovation was scenic pip cards: every one of the fifty-six minors got a picture rather than an arrangement of suit symbols. That single decision made the deck readable by eye and is why it still dominates a century later.
Tarot began as a card game. The trionfi decks made for northern Italian courts in the 1440s added a fifth suit of trumps to an ordinary pack, and the game of tarocchi is still played in parts of Europe today. Divination arrived roughly three hundred and fifty years later, with Etteilla in 1780s Paris.
The images most readers picture are younger still: the 1909 deck drawn by Pamela Colman Smith to A. E. Waite's brief, which for the first time gave every minor card a scene instead of a count of suit symbols. That single decision is why a modern reader can read a deck they have never seen before.
Questions Readers Ask
How many cards are in a tarot deck?
Seventy-eight: twenty-two Major Arcana and fifty-six Minor Arcana across four suits of fourteen cards each.
What is the difference between tarot and oracle cards?
Tarot has a fixed seventy-eight-card structure with centuries of shared meaning. Oracle decks have no fixed structure and mean whatever their creator defines.
How often should I read for myself?
Once daily for a single card is sustainable. Full spreads more than weekly on the same question tend to blur rather than clarify.
Can I read for myself?
Yes, with one safeguard: write the reading down before you interpret it. Self-reading fails when you edit the cards to fit the answer you wanted, and the written record makes that editing visible.
How many cards should a spread have?
Three for most questions, ten when you want the full context of a situation. Large spreads do not add accuracy; they add surface area for you to find whatever you already believed.