Tarot Numbers: From Ace to Ten

In the last lesson, the suit told us the area of life. The second key to any numbered card is its number. The number shows the stage: is the situation just starting or already wrapping up? Once you know the suit and the number, you can read almost any of the 40 numbered cards without looking anything up.

What each number means

• Ace (1) - a beginning: a gift you still have to take.
• Two - a choice or a pair, two paths or two people.
• Three - first results, first growth.
• Four - stability, and sometimes stagnation.
• Five - crisis and the hard middle of the road.
• Six - recovery and balance after the crisis.
• Seven - a test and doubts, time to choose a strategy.
• Eight - movement and work, everything picking up speed.
• Nine - nearly at the top, the result is close.
• Ten - the outcome and the end of a cycle, a new one comes next.

Don't try to memorize it all at once. It's enough to see the general line: from Ace to Five the situation grows and runs into trouble, from Six to Ten it works its way out and comes to an end.

One number across four suits

The best way to see how numbers work is to take one number and look at it in every suit. Take the Fives. They're all about difficulty, just in different areas:

• Five of Wands - arguments and competition at work;
• Five of Cups - grief over what was lost emotionally;
• Five of Swords - a conflict where winning costs too much;
• Five of Pentacles - money trouble, or feeling left out in the cold.

See it? The suit says "where," the number says "what's happening." Put the two together and the meaning appears on its own.

The same goes for the Tens. Ten of Cups is emotional fulfillment, a happy family. Ten of Swords is rock bottom in your thoughts, after which the only way is up. Both are about the end of a cycle, just very different ones.

Aces: special cards

Aces open every suit, and they're worth remembering separately. An Ace is the pure energy of its suit, not yet turned into an event: Ace of Wands is a new idea or project, Ace of Cups is a new feeling. In a spread, an Ace often means an opportunity has already appeared, but it's up to you to take it.

Exercise

Open our tarot card meanings section and pick any number, say the Eights. Read all four cards in a row and find what they have in common. After ten rounds like this (one per number), you'll read numbered cards almost without descriptions.

What's next

Lesson 5 covers the 16 cards that don't follow the numbers: the court cards.