The Sun
Secret whisperRide bareback into the light; nothing here needs hiding.
Upright meaning
Upright keywordsjoy, success, vitality, warmth
Joy, warmth and success. One of the brightest cards in the deck — enjoy life, be fully yourself and share your energy with the people around you.
Reversed meaning
Reversed keywordspassing gloom, overconfidence, delayed success, the inner child
Your light is dimmed by a passing cloud, or you are forcing happiness too hard. Return to simple pleasures; the sun is still there.
Major Arcana
The twenty-two trumps describe the great passages of a life, the Fool’s journey from innocence to wholeness. When they appear, the matter at hand is larger than daily events.
In Waite’s own words (1910)
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, public domain. Original English text.
Divinatory meaning: Material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment.
Reversed: The same in a lesser sense.
The picture
The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard has been mentioned already as the better symbolism connected with this card. It is the destiny of the Supernatural East and the great and holy light which goes before the endless procession of humanity, coming out from the walled garden of the sensitive life and passing on the journey home. The card signifies, therefore, the transit from the manifest light of this world, represented by the glorious sun of earth, to the light of the world to come, which goes before aspiration and is typified by the heart of a child. But the last allusion is again the key to a different form or aspect of the symbolism. The sun is that of consciousness in the spirit - the direct as the antithesis of the reflected light. The characteristic type of humanity has become a little child therein--a child in the sense of simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and of Art; in that innocence, he signifies the restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the consciousness above the natural mind, that mind in its renewal leads forth the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.
