Let’s see if we can sum up the tarot major arcana meanings with one word each.
I’ve been trying this myself and it’s surprisingly difficult - some cards feel so layered that choosing just one word feels like leaving out their soul. The Fool keeps coming up as “beginning” for me, but then I wonder if “trust” or “leap” captures it better, and suddenly I’m down a rabbit hole questioning everything I thought I knew about the card.
Would love to see everyone’s takes on this, especially for the trickier cards like The Hanged Man or The Tower, those always seem to defy simple definitions.
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I don’t like limiting the cards (especially the major ones) to one word but if I had to…
0. The Fool - Potential
1. The Magician - Manifestation
2. The High Priestess - Intuition
3. The Empress - Abundance
4. The Emperor - Authority
5. The Hierophant - Tradition
6. The Lovers - Choice
7. The Chariot - Determination
8. Strength - Courage
9. The Hermit - Introspection
10. Wheel of Fortune - Cycles
11. Justice - Balance
12. The Hanged Man - Surrender
13. Death - Transformation
14. Temperance - Moderation
15. The Devil - Bondage
16. The Tower - Upheaval
17. The Star - Hope
18. The Moon - Illusion
19. The Sun - Joy
20. Judgement - Awakening
21. The World - Completion
I wrestled with The Hanged Man (surrender vs. perspective vs. sacrifice) and The Tower (destruction vs. revelation vs. upheaval). For The Fool, I chose “potential” over “beginning” because it feels more expansive.
It’s not just about starting, but about all the infinite possibilities that exist in that moment before the first step.
The hardest part is that each word inevitably loses some nuance, but maybe that’s the point. To find the beating heart beneath all the layers.
The cards suggest our one-word meanings shift with our life seasons. Justice meant ‘fairness’ in my twenties, but now speaks ‘accountability’ in my forties.
I don’t like the idea of reducing the meanings of cards to single words. I think beginners do it because they want it to be easy but it’s sort of like forcing the cards to do a simple yes/no answer when there’s so much more potential there that you’re just ignoring.
Folly - The Fool
Secrets - The High Priestess
Tyranny - The Emperor
Recklessness - The Chariot
Isolation - The Hermit
Punishment - Justice
Endings - Death
Liberation - The Devil
Breakthrough - The Tower
Revelation - The Moon
Stagnation - The World
I think these are the common ones:
- The Fool (Upright: Beginnings, innocence, spontaneity, free spirit | Reversed: Holding back, recklessness, risk-taking)
- The Magician (Upright: Manifestation, resourcefulness, power, inspired action | Reversed: Manipulation, poor planning, untapped talents)
- The High Priestess (Upright: Intuition, sacred knowledge, divine feminine, subconscious | Reversed: Secrets, disconnected from intuition, withdrawal, silence)
- The Empress (Upright: Femininity, beauty, nature, nurturing, abundance | Reversed: Creative block, dependence, smothering)
- The Emperor (Upright: Authority, establishment, structure, father figure | Reversed: Domination, excessive control, inflexibility, lack of discipline)
- The Hierophant (Upright: Spiritual wisdom, religious beliefs, conformity, tradition, institutions | Reversed: Personal beliefs, freedom, challenging the status quo)
- The Lovers (Upright: Love, harmony, relationships, values alignment, choices | Reversed: Disharmony, imbalance, misalignment of values, poor choices)
- The Chariot (Upright: Control, willpower, success, action, determination | Reversed: Self-discipline issues, aggression, lack of direction)
- Strength (Upright: Courage, bravery, influence, compassion, inner strength | Reversed: Self-doubt, weakness, insecurity, low energy)
- The Hermit (Upright: Soul-searching, introspection, inner guidance, solitude | Reversed: Isolation, loneliness, withdrawal)
- Wheel of Fortune (Upright: Good luck, karma, life cycles, destiny, turning points | Reversed: Bad luck, resistance to change, breaking cycles)
- Justice (Upright: Justice, fairness, truth, law, clarity | Reversed: Unfairness, dishonesty, lack of accountability)
- The Hanged Man (Upright: Pause, surrender, letting go, new perspectives | Reversed: Delays, resistance, stalling, indecision)
- Death (Upright: Endings, change, transformation, transition | Reversed: Resistance to change, inner transformation, stagnation)
- Temperance (Upright: Balance, moderation, patience, purpose, harmony | Reversed: Imbalance, excess, lack of long-term vision)
- The Devil (Upright: Shadow self, attachment, addiction, restriction, sexuality | Reversed: Releasing limitations, exploring darker thoughts, detachment)
- The Tower (Upright: Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, awakening, revelation | Reversed: Fear of change, avoiding disaster, personal transformation)
- The Star (Upright: Hope, faith, purpose, renewal, spirituality | Reversed: Lack of faith, despair, discouragement, disconnection)
- The Moon (Upright: Illusion, fear, anxiety, subconscious, intuition | Reversed: Release of fear, repressed emotion, confusion, misunderstanding)
- The Sun (Upright: Positivity, fun, warmth, success, vitality | Reversed: Temporary setbacks, pessimism, self-doubt, delayed success)
- Judgement (Upright: Judgement, rebirth, inner calling, absolution | Reversed: Self-doubt, ignoring inner calling, lack of self-awareness, stagnation)
- The World (Upright: Completion, integration, accomplishment, travel, fulfillment | Reversed: Seeking closure, shortcuts, delays, incompletion)
I’ve been sitting with The Hanged Man lately and realized it’s really about ‘crossroads’ (that suspended moment where you’re between paths, seeing everything from a new angle before choosing your direction. Now when I see it in readings, I ask ‘what crossroads are you hanging at?’
The words that feel ‘wrong’ at first often reveal the deepest truths later, like when I wrote ‘stillness’ for Death instead of the obvious ‘ending’ and suddenly understood the card’s quiet transformation aspect. Yesterday, I was working through this exact exercise while watching someone break down each card, and they suggested looking at what energy the card brings to a reading rather than what it literally depicts.
It completely shifted how I approach The Star, instead of ‘hope’ which felt too simple, I landed on ‘renewal’ because that’s the actual energy it pours into every spread. Has anyone else found that the ‘wrong’ words sometimes access the right understanding?
Using only my Rider-Waite for 15 years taught me something: each card’s word changes as you deepen. Temperance started as ‘balance’ but evolved into ‘alchemy’ once I stopped deck-hopping and truly listened.
If this is just a fun exercise then great but please don’t try and read the Tarot this way.
If you’re struggling with one-word meanings for cards like The Hanged Man, then you’re experiencing exactly what A.E. Waite intended, he deliberately kept some card descriptions vague in his foundational texts, almost like he wanted us to sit with the mystery rather than pin it down.
If The Tower defies simple definition, then maybe that resistance IS the definition, ‘upheaval’ works precisely because it refuses to be tamed into something neat and comfortable.
Well, actually, A.E. Waite’s intention was more about leaving space for intuition rather than vagueness. His design invites personal interpretation, which is quite liberating and I think that’s where the actual meaning of a reading comes from. Otherwise you could just pick random words from a book.
A heads-up for beginners: be cautious of over-simplifying (as others have said).
While it’s tempting to memorize one keyword per card (trust me, I’ve been there at parties when everyone wants a quick reading!), tarot is deeply symbolic and multifaceted. Sure, rattling off single words might impress folks at events, but relying solely on one-word meanings can sometimes limit the card’s full message, especially when you pull complex cards like The Devil or The Moon at someone’s birthday gathering.
Those babies need some unpacking.
As others have said, I don’t like breaking the Tarot down to one meaning for any of the cards but especially the Major Arcana.
When I pull those, it’s like the deck is shouting ‘PAY ATTENTION, this is big!’ rather than whispering everyday advice. I’ve noticed these cards resist single words because they’re meant to represent entire life lessons and life-changing experiences, not just simple concepts. Maybe that’s why The Tower feels impossible to capture in one word - it’s not just ‘destruction,’ it’s the whole messy, necessary process of rebuilding your entire worldview.
