Seated on his throne, the Pope symbolises the male understanding of the spiritual workings of the world and traditional values. Two monks flank him on either side.

Upright Meaning:

Tradition, custom, light, truth, marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude, mercy, inspiration, understanding, spiritual awareness.

A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.

Upright Meaning:

Fortune, gain, success, false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The rods that he carries may be bad news to the place he brings them. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows.

The face suggests that of a dark, intelligent woman, who has the quality of greatness. She contemplates her pentacle, using it as a tool of skrying and divination.

Upright Meaning:

Opulence, generosity, magnificence, liberty, meditation, divination, intelligence, dignity, potence, grand, important, majestic.

A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. He moves slowly, unaware of his surroundings.

Upright Meaning:

Application, study, scholarship, reflection, news, messages, rule, management, school, learning, craft apprenticeship, training, preparation, research.

A youth and maiden are pledging the love of one another, and above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there appears a lion's head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in a few old examples of this card.

Reversed Meaning:

Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes, and – as a suggestion apart from all offices of divination – that desire by which Nature is sanctified.