Tarot Overview: Cards, Spreads and Time Cards

A tarot deck consists of 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana cards, which show larger life themes and turning points, and 56 Minor Arcana cards in the four suits Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles, which depict everyday life. Cards are not a prediction but an invitation to look at your own situation from a new angle.

This tarot overview gives you some orientation: how the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly card differ, how to place a card you have drawn, and which spread suits which question.

Your tarot overview: topics and spreads at a glance

Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly card at a glance

These four cards don’t contradict each other – they simply look at the same stretch of time from different distances:

Card Time span Function Good question
Daily card 1 day Impulse What accompanies me today?
Weekly card 7 days Undertone Which theme shapes my week?
Monthly card 1 month Direction What wants my attention this month?
Yearly card 1 year Theme of the year Which larger theme accompanies my year?

Interpreting your daily card – quick overview by arcana and suit

You don’t need to know all 78 cards individually to interpret your card of the day in a meaningful way. A good first step is to see which group your card belongs to:

A Major Arcana card

Usually shows a day with greater thematic weight – a lesson, a meaningful moment, a card that points beyond everyday life. Ask yourself: Which larger life theme resonates today, even if the day looks ordinary on the outside?

A Wands card (Fire)

A day for drive, initiative, eagerness to act. Good energy for setting something in motion, seeking out a conversation, taking a first step. With difficult Wands cards (e.g. Ten of Wands): watch out for overload, too many projects at once.

A Cups card (Water)

A day for feeling, relationship, intuition. Good energy for emotional conversations, closeness, creative work. With difficult Cups cards (e.g. Five of Cups): watch out for disappointment or emotional exhaustion that needs attention.

A Swords card (Air)

A day for clarity, decisions, communication – sometimes also for conflict or mental strain. Good energy for conversations that need clarity. With difficult Swords cards (e.g. Nine of Swords): watch out for rumination and worry that take up a lot of mental space.

A Pentacles card (Earth)

A day for practical matters, work, body, material affairs. Good energy for concrete tasks, tidying up, errands. With difficult Pentacles cards (e.g. Five of Pentacles): watch out for worries about security or a feeling of scarcity.

A court card (Page, Knight, Queen, King)

Often shows an attitude or approach that would be helpful today – or sometimes a person who plays a role today. Ask yourself: Which energy of this figure would I need more of today?

A reversed card

Reversed cards are read differently depending on the interpretation system – for example as a blocked, inward-turned, weakened or exaggerated form of the card’s energy. Whichever system you choose, ask yourself: How might this energy show up differently today than in its upright form?

All 78 tarot cards

You’ll find the meaning of each individual card in our card overview: Major Arcana, Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles.