Death Card Symbols Skeletal Death, black robes or armor, sometimes with a scythe or a flag featuring a white rose on a black field. There is often a rising sun. Sometimes there are other figures, the most common being a child. Death Tarot Story Having left the tree from where he hung, the Fool moves carefully through a fallow field, . . .

Symbolism A winged, horned devil, a black pedestal, a naked male and female figure, chains, inverted pentagram. Devil Tarot Story The Fool comes to the foot of an enormous black mountain where reigns a creature half goat, half god. At his hooves naked people, linked to the god’s throne by chains, engage in every indulgence imaginable: sex, drugs, food, drink. . . .

Temperance Card Symbols An angel (often female or genderless), a pool or river of water. Two cups or beakers, a fluid flowing between them. Temperance Tarot Story Recovering from feelings of loss at last, the Fool begins to wonder if he will finally find the new spirituality he’s after. It occurs to him that so far, he’s been dealing with . . .

Hermit Card Symbols A robed man or monk carrying a lantern, sometimes in hand, sometimes hanging off a staff. A barren landscape. Hermit Tarot Story After a long and busy lifetime, building, creating, loving, hating, fighting, compromising, failing, succeeding, the Fool feels a profound need to retreat. In a small, rustic home deep in the woods, he hides, reading, cleaning, . . .

Strength Card Symbology A woman in white with a lemniscate hovering over her head, a lion. Strength Tarot Story The Fool, victorious over his enemies, is feeling arrogant, powerful, even vengeful. There are hot passions in him, ones he finds himself unable and unwilling to control. It is in this state that he comes across a maiden struggling with a . . .