The major arcana

Twenty-two trumps, numbered nought to twenty-one. The readings below are the conventional Rider–Waite–Smith ones, which is to say they are a little over a century old.

№	Card	Upright	Reversed
0	The Fool	Beginnings, open road, cheerful ignorance of the drop	Recklessness, the drop
I	The Magician	Tools to hand, focus, the will to start	Sleight of hand, unused talent
II	The High Priestess	What is known but not said, patience	Secrets kept too long
III	The Empress	Abundance, growth, the fed and tended thing	Smothering, neglect
IV	The Emperor	Structure, boundary, the rule that holds	Rigidity, control for its own sake
V	The Hierophant	Tradition, teaching, the received form	Dogma, the form outliving its use
VI	The Lovers	Choice, alignment, union	Misalignment, avoided decision
VII	The Chariot	Momentum held on course by opposing forces	Drift, wheels spinning
VIII	Strength	Patience over force, the hand on the lion	Force over patience
IX	The Hermit	Withdrawal, the lamp carried alone	Isolation mistaken for wisdom
X	Wheel of Fortune	Turning, luck, the part you do not steer	The turn arriving badly timed
XI	Justice	Consequence, the honest weighing	Imbalance, the thumb on the scale
XII	The Hanged Man	Suspension, the deliberate pause, inverted view	Stalling dressed as reflection
XIII	Death	Ending as prerequisite, the cleared ground	Clinging past the ending
XIV	Temperance	Blending, moderation, the long mix	Excess, mismatched parts
XV	The Devil	Bindings, appetite, chains worn loosely enough to remove	The chains coming off
XVI	The Tower	Sudden structural failure, clarifying	The collapse deferred
XVII	The Star	Hope after damage, quiet replenishment	Faith running thin
XVIII	The Moon	Uncertainty, half-light, the path not fully seen	Fog lifting
XIX	The Sun	Plain daylight, clarity, straightforward good	Glare, overexposure
XX	Judgement	Reckoning, the call answered	The call ignored
XXI	The World	Completion, the circuit closed	The last step unmade