Tarot, Explained

Tarot is a deck of 78 illustrated cards. It began in fifteenth-century Italy as a card game, and from the late eighteenth century onward it also became a tool for reading: people lay out cards and use the images and their traditional meanings to think through a question. That second use is what we offer here, as a way to reflect, not to predict.

The deck

Our deck follows the standard 78-card structure, with our own artwork.

The Major Arcana are 22 cards, numbered from The Fool (0) to The World (21). They include some of the best-known images in tarot, such as The Magician, The Lovers, The Hermit and The Star. In readings, they are often taken to describe larger themes: a turning point, a lesson, a shift in perspective.

The Minor Arcana are 56 cards in four suits, each running from Ace to Ten, followed by four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen and King.

Wands are traditionally linked with energy, initiative and creative drive.
Cups with feelings, relationships and intuition.
Swords with thought, words, decisions and conflict.
Pentacles with work, money, the body and everyday practical matters.

The Minor Arcana tend to describe the texture of ordinary days: a conversation, a budget, a project, a mood.

How our daily card works

One free card a day. Each person can draw one free daily card per day. If you are signed in, your day follows your local date in the timezone saved to your account. If you are browsing as a guest, we keep track on a best-effort basis with a first-party token in your browser, so clearing your cookies or switching browsers may let you draw again.
Drawn fairly. Cards are drawn on our server with a cryptographically secure random generator. No one chooses your card, and we never favor difficult or "scary" cards to encourage purchases.
Saved before you see it. Your result is stored before it is revealed, so refreshing the page won't change it.
Upright by default. Cards are drawn upright unless our editors have enabled reversals for a feature.

Three-card spreads

A three-card spread draws three different cards, without replacement, and places them in three positions:

What to notice: something already present in your situation that deserves attention.
What to release: a habit, assumption or pressure you could loosen.
What to practice: a small, repeatable action to try.

Our journal article "How to Read a Three-Card Spread" walks through an example.

How to use a reading

A tarot reading works best as a question, not an answer. A few suggestions:

Look at the image first. Notice what you see before you read the meaning. Your first reaction is often the most useful part.
Connect it to something real. Ask where the card's theme shows up in your day: an unanswered email, a decision you keep postponing, a conversation that needs a calmer tone.
Choose one small action. A reading is most helpful when it ends in something you can do today.
Hold it lightly. If a card doesn't fit, that's fine. Not every reading will land, and none of them is a verdict.

What tarot can't do

Tarot can't tell the future, reveal what another person is thinking or make decisions for you. It isn't a substitute for medical, legal, financial or psychological advice. What it can do is slow you down for a moment and offer a different angle on your own situation, which is often enough.

For more on how we draw cards and prepare readings, see our methodology.