Card Meanings and Combinations

Card Meanings

	General Meaning
	New Beginnings	Increase in possessions	New endeavor	New love (could be romance or birth of a child)	Knowledge gained. Obstacles revealed.
	Opposition or balance Choice to be made	Practical choices to be made	Intuition helps in decisions	Romance in the air	Torn between two choices, stalemate
	Creativity, Communication	Reward for job well done, applied creativity	Helpful people and events	Cause for celebration or festivities	Three's a crowd. Infidelities.
	Foundation	Home established	Personal values set	Love and support brings security	Rest and retreat. Decisions made in calm.
	Changes, Restlessness	Change of scenery, financial struggles	Petty arguments	Sorrow, relationship breakdown.	Change of opinion. Victory achieved at a cost.
	Harmony, Adaptation	Help given at opportune time	Successful outcome	Holding on to the past memories.Renewing an old friendship.	Sorrows pass. Journey away from difficulties.
	Surprises	Consistent effort eventually pays off	Competition,fending off one's adversaries.	Daydreaming,unrealistic expectations.	Stealth in dealings.Betrayal by someone you trust. Minor theft.
	Karma	Skill or craft becomes profitable. Lost inheritance.	Fortune is communicated (letter, fax, telephone, email)	Love letter	Fear of leaving a bad situation. Imprisonment military life
	Fortune	Inheritance received. Material well-being achieved.	Much is held in reserve, including strong will. Stubbornness.	Wish may come true, especially about love. Could overindulge in food and drink.	Losses and worries (money, health, sleep)
	Completion	New or improved home, letter or document to come	Burdens from work take their toll. Setbacks and losses.	Happiness achieved at home.	Weakened health, chronic illness (real and imagined)
	Youth (Male or Female)	Ambition without focus, sporty, lively youth.	Sporty, non-academic, lucky and charming	Impractical, immature, kind, but unrealistic	Immature, cold, bossy, delinquent or gang leader
	Mature Female	Organized, efficient woman, practical and ambitious	Ambitious, good head for business, self interests come first	Love and home oriented, supportive, not ambitious for self	Calculating, disciplined, logical, craves power
	Mature Male	Businessman, authoritative type, good protector and provider	Entrepreneur, good instincts, spiritual later in life	"Don Juan," sincere, loving philosophical later in life	Authoritarian, cold, logical, stubborn, possibly ruthless

The Joker

The Joker is the only card remaining from the Tarot trumps. He corresponds to The Fool in the Tarot deck and has some of the same meanings in the regular deck of playing cards. His number is zero and he is truly a “wild card.�?When the Joker appears in a reading, it means that something unexpected and uncontrolled can occur. If there are two Jokers with your deck of cards, and you choose to use the Joker in your readings, you need to add only one.

Card Combinations

One significant difference between reading the Tarot and reading playing cards is the strong emphasis put on card combinations when reading playing cards. Although the concept applies to the Tarot and is certainly used, the card spreads used and the addition of the Trumps (Major Arcana) makes large numbers of multiples less likely. There are some combinations shared by both decks, especially relating to the occurrence of multiple court cards.

The following chart shows interpretation of multiples of the same card of different suits in the same spread.

	Multiples of Two	Multiples of Three	Multiples of Four
	Partnerships or reunions (Clubs & Hearts - marriage Spades & Diamonds -difficult union)	Good News, Lucky Break	Triumph
	Parting of ways	Direction reversed	Reaching a crossroads
	Choices	Stability	Hope
	Shaky foundation	Foundation weakened	Secure foundation
	Personal challenges	Disappointments	Personal desires realized
	Contradictions	Hard work	Unexpected challenges
	Light-hearted fun (Two red sevens - love and pleasure)	Lowered vitality  (brief illnesses)	Conspiracy
	Indiscretion, brief affair causes regret (Two red eights - new clothes)	Not good to make long term commitments now	Worries and burdens prove too much to handle
	Minor gains	Good Health	Wishes come true
	Circumstances improve (Two red tens - wedding)	Plans get upset	Guaranteed Success
	Disagreements	False friends Quarrels	High Spirits, Parties, Battles
	Meeting with female friend Idle chat, gossip, curiosity	Visits Betrayal of Confidence	Social Events Scandals
	Business partnership, good advice	Good Support	Rewards, Success

Other Combinations

There are many combinations of cards which various readers may find significant. Here is a brief list of some of the more common combinations:

Ace of Diamonds/Ten of Hearts - romance leading to marriage
Ace of Diamonds/Ten of Diamonds - marriage for money
Ace of Diamonds/Six of Hearts - invitation
Ace of Diamonds/Six of Spades - news of failure
Ace of Diamonds/Seven of Hearts - news of rivalry
Ace of Diamonds/Nine of Hearts - love letter
Ace of Clubs among Diamonds - success in money matters, business deal
Several Court cards - a social gathering
King, Queen or Jack between two cards of same number - support for person
King or Queen between two Jacks - protection from enemies
Queen of Spades between a King and a Queen - relationship break-up
Jack next to either King or Queen - protection
Jack among several Diamonds - message about money
Seven, Ten and Three of Diamonds - a secret wish will come true
Seven and Eight of Diamonds - do not give cause for or spread gossip, will come back to you
Eight of Diamonds and several Court cards of any suit - a social gathering
Eight and Nine of Spades (or Nine and Ten of Spades) - health problems
Nine and Ten of Diamonds - journey by sea
Nine of Diamonds/Eight of Hearts - journey for pleasure
Ten of Diamonds/Ten of Clubs - windfall
Ten of Diamonds/Eight of Clubs - meaningful journey
Ten of Hearts/King & Queen of Hearts - possible wedding
Ten of Diamonds/Seven of Spades - delays
Five and Eight of Spades - jealous rival, be careful
Four of Diamonds and Four of Spades - a decision against one's will