Tarot card meaning is what gives power to interpretations and predictions; each card has a significance and a peculiar symbolism attached to it. What we often fail to understand is that the overall spread and the card combinations give the full tarot card meaning to define a certain life aspect. In the Rider Waite tarot, there are seventy-eight cards, and the first step beginners have to take is to learn what each of them means. From the Fool to the Queen and the King, the tarot cards can be studied, analyzed and understood in accordance with the sensible nature of every user.

Tarot card reading has evolved over the years; for people who have a more profound knowledge of the Kabbala or alchemy, the similarity of symbols could be pretty striking. Thus, all sorts of symbols have been added in time so that the present-day form of the decks is a very complex one. We can only imagine the degree of complexity resulting from the adding of customization elements that make tarot card meanings even more subtle. Thus, many amateur philosophers have their own interpretations of the mystic representations in alchemy and the Kabbala and they choose to add them to the cards.

The tarot card meaning changes depending on the reading; thus, a single card can be given different explanations based on the location of the card in the spread and the meaning of the other cards in its vicinity. Very often, based on the reader’s own judgment and common sense, a tarot card meaning can be discarded as irrelevant for the question that is under discussion. The cards in the Major Arcana insist on a distinct symbolism, while those in the Minor Arcana stand for the traditional alchemical elements. Thus, the swords correspond to the air, the cups to the water, the pentagrams/circles to the earth and the wands to fire.

In general lines, tarot card meanings represent a possible choice along one’s life journey: sometimes one can even see whether one is on the right path or has strayed away. This tarot card meaning is obvious for the spreads in the Major Arcana where life aspects have correspondent cards: the fool stands for the beginning of a journey, the magician indicates the way towards wisdom, the high priestess speaks of self-balance, the empress hints at love, wealth and pleasure, while the emperor represents claimed power and authority, and so on and so forth.