Luna
One deck, two halves
The deck splits unevenly. The 22 Major Arcana, from the Magician to the Fool, carry the large storylines: choice, turning point, ending, a road opening. The 56 Minor Arcana - four suits of fourteen - cover the texture of ordinary days: work, feelings, conversations, money.
For centuries only the first half had pictures worth describing. The minors were pips - four cups, seven swords - arranged like the numbers on a modern playing card, and readers worked from the suit and the number rather than from a scene. The illustrated minor, one drawn scene per card, arrives with the Rider–Waite–Smith deck in 1909, and that is when a card-by-card dictionary of all 78 becomes possible at all.
The 22 Major Arcana
Every card below links to its own page - meaning in love, at work, and as advice. One note on numbering: tradition gives the Fool the number 0; here it closes the list at 22, the same numbering the destiny matrix uses, so the two systems always agree.
| Card | What it speaks of |
|---|---|
| 1 · The Magician | will and a first step |
| 2 · The High Priestess | quiet inner knowing |
| 3 · The Empress | abundance and care |
| 4 · The Emperor | structure and responsibility |
| 5 · The Hierophant | tradition and guidance |
| 6 · The Lovers | a choice of the heart |
| 7 · The Chariot | drive and direction |
| 8 · Strength | patience and gentle power |
| 9 · The Hermit | solitude and searching |
| 10 · Wheel of Fortune | change and chance |
| 11 · Justice | balance, cause and effect |
| 12 · The Hanged Man | a new angle of view |
| 13 · Death | an ending that renews |
| 14 · Temperance | measure and blending |
| 15 · The Devil | attachments and desire |
| 16 · The Tower | breakthrough, clearing the ground |
| 17 · The Star | hope and inspiration |
| 18 · The Moon | intuition and fog |
| 19 · The Sun | joy and clarity |
| 20 · Judgement | awakening and second chances |
| 21 · The World | completion and wholeness |
| 22 · The Fool | a light-hearted beginning |
The Minor Arcana: four suits
The minors fall into four suits, each with its own ground. Wands - energy, work, the fire to get things moving. Cups - feelings and bonds. Swords - thoughts, words, decisions. Pentacles - money, the body, everyday ground. Each suit runs from ace to ten and adds four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen and King.
Fourteen, incidentally, is one card more than an ordinary pack gives a suit. Where the extra rank came from, and what the illustrated pip changed about reading it, is the story on the Minor Arcana page.
How a meaning actually works
Knowing where the dictionary came from tells you how much weight it can take. Those entries are a record of how readers have talked about the pictures since the pictures existed - useful, widely agreed, and nobody's law. Different schools still print different lists for the same 78 cards, which would be impossible if a meaning were a fact about the card.
So an entry is a starting point. The Hermit in a career question speaks of stepping back to rethink; in a question about love, of needing room to breathe; in the position of advice it says take your time before answering. Question first, then the shape of the spread, and the meanings last - even the short yes-or-no format runs on the sense of the card that falls rather than a lookup table of yes-cards and no-cards.
Frequently asked questions
Do reversed cards have to be read?
No - reversals are one tradition among several, not a requirement of the deck. Plenty of readers use upright positions only and take the shading from the position and the neighbouring cards instead. The app does the same: every card comes out upright, by design rather than for simplicity.
Why does one card mean different things in different spreads?
Because the entry describes an image, and an image on its own is not about anything yet. The position supplies the angle and the question supplies the territory; the card contributes the picture. Two of those three change between spreads, so the answer changes with them.
What if a frightening card comes up?
The names are older than the readings attached to them, and several were unsettling before anyone read fortunes at all. The thirteenth arcana speaks of a cycle completing and renewal, the sixteenth of a breakthrough that clears away what no longer holds, the eighteenth of fog and intuition. Nothing in the deck passes sentence.
Where do I look up a single card?
Each of the 22 majors has its own page, with meaning in love and at work, advice and combinations. Those pages carry the accumulated reading rather than a rule, same as this table does. The full list of arcana is where to start.
The content is for entertainment and self-reflection. It is not a substitute for professional advice.
Get a real reading
A list can only ever describe pictures. In the app each picture gets a position and a question to answer, and Luna reads the cards together, aloud, in her own voice.
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