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The Sun

MAJOR ARCANA · XIX

The Sun is card XIX of the major arcana. A great sun shines, and beneath it a naked child on a white horse spreads both arms wide, with sunflowers blooming behind. Upright, it stands for joy, success and vitality; reversed, for energy that misfires and success that comes late.

Name and number

Upright meaning

Keywords: joy, success, vitality, brightness, openness

The night of the Moon gives way to dawn, and everything is lit by daylight. The Sun is one of the brightest cards of the major arcana.

Upright, the Sun stands for things going well and being able to rejoice wholeheartedly: effort paying off, recognition, health and energy. Nothing hidden and no anxiety, free to act like a child. In relationships it points to open, honest company. Whatever the question, it is a card that gives you a push toward "yes."

Reversed meaning

Keywords: misplaced energy, delayed success, overoptimism, self-centeredness

The reversed Sun is read less as bad than as light clouding over a little.

Things that should go well take longer than expected. Energy and confidence misfire and fail to mesh with others. Too much optimism leading to carelessness, or thinking only of yourself and not seeing those around you. Still, the sun has not set. It is a card often read as light returning if you wait a little.

What the picture shows

• The great sun: the source of life and light. In the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, straight and wavy rays alternate.
• The naked child on the white horse: new, unstained life and joy. Riding without reins, the child is also read as moving forward freely, without strain.
• The red banner: in the Rider–Waite–Smith deck the child holds a large red banner, standing for vitality and victory.
• The sunflowers: flowers that turn their faces to the sun, a sign of a heart that trusts the light.
• The low wall: the child is outside it, read as leaving a protected garden and setting out into the world.

History

In the fifteenth-century Italian Visconti–Sforza deck, the Sun was a small child (a putto) flying above the clouds, holding up a red sun with a face. This is thought to be one of the cards added in the later fifteenth century.

In the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Tarot of Marseille, two children stand before a wall beneath a sun with a face, each with a hand on the other's shoulder. These two, who look like twins, were later read as a sign of Gemini, and of friendship and cooperation.

The Rider–Waite–Smith deck made the two children one, set the child on a white horse and had sunflowers bloom behind the wall. From two children inside the wall to one child going out beyond it: the picture changed from a protected children's game to new life stepping out into the light.

Correspondences

Previous and next cards

• Previous: 18 The Moon
• Next: 20 Judgement
• The major arcana

Lucky colors for The Sun