With almost every difficult card, the seeker asks if it is something bad. With The Sun in tarot, the question is different. He looks at the child, the white "horse", the sunflowers, and already wants to know when the good thing arrives.
This is the problem with arcana card XIX. It scares no one, so almost everyone overreads it. The Sun is not a signed check for the future. It describes a state: clarity, vitality, truth appearing, joy that does not need to justify itself.
This guide brings the profile of the arcana card, the reading symbol by symbol, and the little-told history of the card. It also shows the reversed card in both schools and the side that no one comments on: when The Sun is not good news.
Does the card The Sun guarantee success?
No. No card guarantees anything, and with this one, caution needs to be greater, precisely because it is easy to sell as a promise.
What The Sun indicates is that the fog has passed. If The Moon is the reflected light that leaves everything ambiguous, The Sun is the direct light that shows the outline of things. The question that was confused becomes legible. What was hidden appears.
This changes the game, but it does not dispense with the journey. The card describes the moment of the person asking, it does not sentence the result. Whoever promises marriage, a job, or a cure based on an arcana card is selling something else, not tarot reading.
The Sun does not deliver the ready result. It delivers the clarity for you to see what you were doing in the dark.
Profile of Arcana Card XIX
| Field | The Sun |
|---|---|
| Number | XIX (19) |
| Other names | Le Soleil (Marselha), Il Sole (Italian decks), The Sun (Rider-Waite-Smith) |
| Correspondence | the Sun star; some schools also link the card to Leo |
| Element | Fire |
| Position in the sequence | after The Moon (XVIII), before Judgement (XX) |
| Upright keywords | clarity, joy, vitality, revealed truth, authenticity |
| Reversed keywords | blocked light, delayed recognition, euphoria without a base |
| Yes or no | one of the clearest "sins" in the deck |
A distinction worth noting: much material links arcana card XIX to the sign of Leo. In the Golden Dawn correspondence table, however, Leo belongs to Strength, and arcana card XIX corresponds to the Sun star. Both readings circulate, and the important thing is to know which school you are starting from. If you want the complete list of 22, it is in the guide of the major arcana of the tarot.
Symbol by symbol: what the image tells
In the Rider-Waite-Smith, designed by Pamela Colman Smith in 1909, each element has a function. Arthur Edward Waite describes the scene in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, now in the public domain.
- The naked child on the white "horse": joy without self-consciousness, without pose and without mounted defense.
- The horse without saddle and without reins: confidence, not control. The child does not lead, she accompanies.
- The red banner: vital force, the red of life in motion.
- The sunflowers: they turn to follow the sun. They are the image of alignment with that which gives light.
- The gray stone wall: Waite calls the space behind it the walled garden of sensitive life. The detail matters: the child is leaving from there.
- The Sun with a face and alternating rays: straight and wavy rays alternate, the active and the passive in the same source.
The set does not speak of luck. It speaks of consented exposure: someone who left the enclosure without armor and is just fine.
From the mask of Helios to the child on horseback
The scene you know is recent. In older decks, the arcana card XIX was something else.
- Visconti-Sforza, around 1475: a small angel crosses the sky holding the mask of Helios. There are no children playing.
- Ferrara deck, 15th century: Alexander the Great and the philosopher Diogenes appear in the scene where Diogenes asks the conqueror to move out of the way of the sun.
- Bologna tradition: a woman seated with a spinning wheel and spindle, linked to the image of the spinner.
Only at the beginning of the 17th century, with the Marseille pattern, the scene of the two children under the wall became fixed. And only in 1909 did Waite and Pamela Colman Smith replace the two children with just one, on a horse, crossing out of the enclosure.
| Element | Marseille (Le Soleil) | Rider-Waite-Smith (1909) |
|---|---|---|
| Figures | two children side by side, one welcoming the other | a single child, mounted on a white horse |
| Relationship with the wall | the children are inside the enclosure | the child leaves the walled garden |
| Vegetation | no sunflowers | sunflowers over the wall |
| Detail from above | drops between the sun and the earth, alchemical reading | straight and wavy rays, sun with a face |
| Tone of the scene | encounter and shared joy | autonomy and exit to the world |
This has a practical effect on the table. Someone reading in Marseille tends to see connection with the other. Someone reading in Rider-Waite tends to see personal achievement. In a love question, it is not the same answer.
The Sun in the reading: love, work and combinations
In love, the card speaks of an open relationship. No middle ground, no secrets. For someone who is alone, it indicates a moment to show oneself without rehearsal. For someone who is in a relationship, it points to frankness and lightness. It is worth crossing with the method you use in love tarot.
In work, it indicates recognition and clarity of direction. What you do becomes visible to those who decide. It is a good card for a project that was stuck and starts moving again.
In health, it appears linked to vitality and spirit. Here is the usual caveat: tarot is not a diagnosis and does not replace a doctor or therapist.
In yes or no, The Sun tends toward yes, and it is one of the firmest in the deck. The complete criteria are in yes or no tarot.
In the most searched combinations:
- With The Moon (XVIII): the natural pair. The mist dissipates and doubt turns into reading.
- With The Tower (XVI): what remains standing is exposed to the light. Relief after the shock, without erasing the shock.
- With Death (XIII): end of a cycle that opens space for something lighter.
- With The Devil (XV): the light falls on attachment, and the pattern loses its disguise.
- With The Star (XVII): The Star promises, The Sun delivers.
The Sun reversed: the two readings
This is where the most interesting divergence of the card lives, and almost no one records it.
The contemporary reading, more widespread in Brazil, treats the reversed Sun as blocked light: stuck optimism, delayed recognition, baseless euphoria, and overconfidence.
Waite, in 1911, wrote something else. In his divinatory meanings, the upright card is material happiness and contentment, and the reversed is "the same in a lesser sense." That is: the same meaning, to a lesser degree. It is not the opposite, it is a lower volume.
Both readings work, and neither is wrong. What does not work is alternating between them depending on the card that appears. Choose one criterion and keep it for the entire spread. The methods for reading reversed cards are detailed in reversed cards in tarot.
When the Sun is not good news
A good card also has a shadow, and the arcana card XIX has four.
- Exposure: the sun illuminates everything, including what you would prefer to keep reserved. Clarity and privacy do not coexist well.
- Ingenuity: the child has neither reins nor saddle. It is trust, but it is also a lack of guard.
- Euphoria: optimism that does not check risk is the most cited reversed reading, and it sometimes appears with the card upright.
- Pressure to be well: when the Sun falls on a question about mourning or a difficult phase, reading it as "so everything is resolved" is violence toward the person who asked. The card points out what still has life, not an obrigação to smile.
A necessary note: The Sun in the tarot is not an orixá (orisha). It does not correspond to Xangô (Shango), Oxum (Oshun), or Oxalá (Obatala). Tarot and Afro-Brazilian religions are distinct systems, and the Brazilian tarot of the Orixás has its own structure, which does not mix with the European deck.
Frequently asked questions
What does the card The Sun mean in tarot?
It indicates clarity, joy, and truth appearing. It is the moment when doubt dissolves and the situation becomes legible. It usually points to vitality and recognition, without promising a result. The card describes the state of the person asking, not the outcome.
What does The Sun reversed mean?
It depends on the school. In contemporary reading, it is blocked light: delayed recognition, optimism without a base, excess of confidence. In Waite's original reading, it has the same meaning as the upright card, only to a lesser degree. Choose a criterion and maintain it throughout the entire spread.
Is The Sun in the tarot a yes or no?
It tends toward yes, and it is one of the clearest in the deck. Even so, the answer does not come from an isolated card. It depends on the question asked, the surrounding cards, and the method adopted before the spread.
What is the difference between The Sun and The Star?
The Star (XVII) is hope and faith in the middle of the path, when nothing has materialized yet. The Sun (XIX) is the same light already in visible result. The Star sustains the crossing, The Sun shows the arrival on solid ground.
What is the zodiac sign of the card The Sun?
The main correspondence is the sun itself, not a sign. Some sources associate the card with Leo, due to thematic affinity. In the Golden Dawn table, however, Leo belongs to Strength. It is worth checking which school your material follows before deciding.
Where to buy tarot decks and items
At Joia Mística Laroyê, you find what you need to study and practice:
- Tarot decks: Rider-Waite, Marseille, and Brazilian editions
- Reading towels: to set the table before the reading
- White and yellow candles: the most used in ritual work for clarity
- Incense and smudge sticks: to clear the environment and the deck
- Crystals and pouches: to accommodate and protect the cards
Visit our shop in Extrema, Minas Gerais or call on WhatsApp with delivery to all of Brazil. We also do tarot readings with Joice.
To check the card's iconography and correspondences, see the “The Sun (tarot card)” entry on Wikipedia, and the history of the arcana card in the Tarot Heritage collection.
References
- Arthur Edward Waite: symbolic description of The Sun in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
- Arthur Edward Waite: divinatory meanings of The Sun, including the reversed reading
- Wikipedia: entry about the card The Sun in the tarot
- Tarot Heritage: history of the arcana card, from Il Sole to Le Soleil and The Sun
