Examining the Tarot: The Aces
I’ve thought a lot about my tarot writing this past week. And one of the ideas that came to me was to take an idea I was working on for my YouTube channel and try it as a written experience. Mainly for those who prefer to read rather than watch videos. But it may also serve as a companion piece to the video series or vice versa.
In this first installment, we will look at the Aces from the Minor Arcana. When I first started to think of this idea, I thought about going through each card one at a time. But In my journey to learn the tarot, I found some pretty interesting things when looking at the cards as groups. It made sense since we don’t look at the cards individually anyway. We always see them as a collection of cards.
The impetus for this idea of looking at the cards in this way has to do with the meanings behind the numerology of the cards. You’ll see that I love to talk about numbers if you read my daily tarot readings. It’s because numbers play a crucial role for me. I love numbers, I suck at math, but I love numbers. There’s something about them that speaks to me. And it was the numbers that gave me a way to understand the tarot. But since then, I’ve had some changes of heart regarding the meanings of the numbers. The original list I started with is no longer valid. The meanings have faded, and the cards tell me something different today than when I first started reading. And this was very frustrating to me. To be reading a card I’ve read many times, and suddenly, I don’t see the same meaning anymore. This caused me to go down a strange rabbit hole of trying to understand and find out that nothing is fast. It felt like my world would collapse. And so I went to the cards for help. And examining the cards in the way, we’re about to do helped me figure out some things. If you have a favorite deck struggling to read it, try this exercise and see if it unlocks anything. For this series, I”m going to the classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck I use in my daily readings. This will work for any deck you have. It doesn’t have to be the same one I’m using. However, the symbols and the meanings of the cards might be different than my deck, but the exercise should help you to understand your cards better.
The methodology I’m using is to take all the cards of the same number and put them together logically. This is quickly done with the Minor/Lesser Arcana since they’re suits and numbers. When a card from the major arcana uses the same number, I’ll include that card. In this first installment, we’ll start with the Aces of wands, cups, swords, and pentacles, in that order.
The first thing I notice about these cards is they all have a large white hand protruding from a cloud holding the symbol for the suit they represent. The wands and cups face left, and the swords and pentacles face right. The direction is important, but only in readings where other cards are present. The hand will either be facing away from the next card or toward it. This will have its significance based on the positioning with other cards. For now, that significance is difficult to discuss.
One fact about the direction I find interesting is that regardless of which direction the hand faces, each symbol is held with the right hand. This is often called the power hand or the giving hand. Our left hand is often called the receiving hand. And this sets up a flow of energy in our bodies. Energy comes in from the left hand and goes through the right hand.
Here the cards are giving us an object from the right hand. This is a powerful gesture. The second feature of the cards that I find interesting is the clouds from which the hands spring out. Each one is different. The shadow in the Ace of Wands has two different colors to it. Perhaps this is indicative of motion or action. Wands are connected to action, so this makes sense to me. The clouds in the cups have a lot more lines in them. This gives us a sense of flowing and of flow. The clouds in the Ace of Swords seem puffier than the rest. These are also the darkest of the cards. The pentacles show us a slight colored cloud that isn’t as billowy or puffy as the sword’s card. Each cloud fits a similar style, but they have different qualities. The bottom of each card shows a little scene. There is no fire in the wand’s card, which makes me wonder why that is. But the landscape looks very nice, with a stream in the foreground and a town on a hill. Since we often talk about the wands being associated with fire, it amazes me that this card has no fire. The others seem to show the element to which they are attached. The cups offer water, and the swords have a landscape, but it’s mostly air and sky. And the pentacles show a lush garden scene representing earthly things.
When I first strayed to learn the tarot, my first instant was to treat these cards as if they held the same meaning as the number 1. However, after working with them for a while, I find that that doesn’t always work. They aren’t the ones. They are aces. And as such is a little bit different than the ones. A one in numerological settings often means new beginnings or something new. But often, it doesn’t just mean the start of something. It can represent the idea of the beginning, like a seed. It’s not a plant yet. It’s the potential for a plant. It’s the idea of the thing without being the thing. Although with time, water, and sunlight, it will become a plant. And much in the same way, Ones represent the thing that is about to exist in the world. The journey about to be taken. It’s the idea of the thing that becomes what it becomes.
To me, and this is just my opinion, the Aces are their own thing. In blackjack, an ace is either a one or an eleven based on what you need it to be. The same is true in other card games. Sometimes it can represent one, but sometimes not. And as such, I feel these cards are unique because of their ability to be different at different times.
My most straightforward approach to the Aces leads me down a path that says each of these cards is the fundamental of their suit. The Aces of wands is everything the wands represent. It is the wand of all wands! The granddaddy of them all! It is THE WAND! I hope you’ll forgive all caps there, but that’s what this card feels like to me. Nad the other feels the same. This card demands action and creativity. The wand is sprouting, indicating that something is growing. And since this is the big wand, it’s got a lot of action. A lot is growing from this wand. This spark also sets us up for action and creativity, but it’s not new. It’s not the beginning of the creation. Or the start of some action. It is the seed from which the action or creativity sprouts. But it’s more than that because it’s being given to us from the divine, the: universe, god, a higher power. Whatever you choose to call it, it’s a gift from something greater than ourselves.
The Ace of cups shows us a cup overflowing with water. The proverbial “My cup runneth over” idea. A bird brings a wafer with a cross to drop into the cup. An unmistakable symbol of Christianity with the idea of communion. That’s the most likely place you might see a cup like this. Water is a symbol of emotions and intuition. When this card comes up, it’s like saying that our emotions and ability to feel and parse our emotions are gifts. This card can signal an emotional time. Or it can mean that things are overwhelming, so much so that the cup can’t contain it. Or that you might be having a tough time keeping it all in.
The Ace of swords is connected to the air element and represents the intellect. Where the cups were all about our emotional mind, the swords are about our thinking mind — that part of the brain we actively control. The crown at the top of the sword is a great head symbol. This ace tells us that our thoughts are a gift from the universe. To pay attention to them, to listen to our mind as we go through our day. It’s a giant sword, so it can also represent big ideas. Big thoughts. Thoughts greater than ourselves. This card is the proverbial “Mind over matter” card.
The Ace of pentacles shows us a giant pentacle; again, this is the pentacle of all pentacles — another gift from a powerful force. We are indicating that our earthly things come as a gift of our life here on earth. The work we do and the life we lead here on earth hold some reward from the universe. I call this card the “no good deed goes unpunished” card. It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but everything we do, good or bad, has consequences. Or to say that the universe will provide what you need for this life. You have to tap into that, and it will come to you. Again it’s another gift.
So as you can see, the aces for me are more about gifts than about beginnings or something new starting. You can read it that way as well. I don’t write all this to tell you what you see in the cards. Only you can determine for yourself what the cards tell you. And that might be the most frustrating part of the tarot. It’s absolutely why I didn’t start reading when I was 18 and waited 30 years to try it again. The cards can mean different things at different times and based on what spread is used, the meanings of each placement, the reader, the querent, the person, place, thing, or event being read. It’s all fluid, and anytime can change.
I leave you with this thought. Please take what you’ve read here, but don’t accept it as fact. Pull out the aces in your deck and look at them. Move them around. See how they feel when they’re in the order described above. Then move them to put the cups next to the pentacles and see if it changes anything for you. Look at them reversed or even sideways to see if you see anything different. Whatever you come away with, write about it in a journal so you can return to it later. Who knows, your idea of it may change, or you might solidify your thoughts and feelings about the cards.
As with anything in tarot, take what resonates with you and leave what doesn’t for others to pick up. If you enjoyed this, leave me a comment below. I will work on the next installment of this series but do let me know if this interests you. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
####
