The Sun
The Sun is radiant joy and clarity, the card of success, vitality, and the uncomplicated happiness of a child in full daylight.
Major Arcana XIX
Upright keywords
- joy
- success
- vitality
- clarity
- optimism
- warmth
Meaning when upright
The Sun shines down on a naked child riding a white horse in front of a garden wall lined with sunflowers, a picture of innocence, freedom, and abundant life. It is among the most positive cards in the deck, promising success, vitality, and clarity after the Moon's confusion. Waite gives it material happiness, fortunate marriage, and contentment. Things are out in the open now, and you can enjoy what you have achieved.
On the card
- radiant sun with a human face
- Consciousness, vitality, and the source of life; Waite's sun of consciousness in the spirit, the direct rather than the reflected light.
- alternating straight and wavy rays
- Light and energy radiating in balanced, complementary forms.
- naked child riding a white horse
- Innocence, freedom, and the renewed self; Waite's child in the sense of simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom.
- large red banner
- Waite's red standard: vitality, action, and victory carried joyfully forward.
- sunflowers above a gray wall
- Growth toward the light; the wall recalls Waite's walled garden of the sensitive life, which the child has come out from.
- wreath of flowers and a red feather on the child's head
- Flourishing life, and the same feather the Fool wears: the spirit's journey arriving in joy.
- child riding bareback with arms outstretched
- Complete trust and openness, with no need for reins or control.
In Waite’s words
The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard has been mentioned already as the better symbolism connected with this card. It is the destiny of the Supernatural East and the great and holy light which goes before the endless procession of humanity, coming out from the walled garden of the sensitive life and passing on the journey home. The card signifies, therefore, the transit from the manifest light of this world, represented by the glorious sun of earth, to the light of the world to come, which goes before aspiration and is typified by the heart of a child.
But the last allusion is again the key to a different form or aspect of the symbolism. The sun is that of consciousness in the spirit—the direct as the antithesis of the reflected light. The characteristic type of humanity has become a little child therein—a child in the sense of simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and of Art; in that innocence, he signifies the restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the consciousness above the natural mind, that mind in its renewal leads forth the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.
- Divinatory meaning
Material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment.
- Reversed
The same in a lesser sense.
Correspondences
- Element
- Fire
- Astrology
- Sun
- Hebrew letter
- Resh (ר)
- Path on the Tree of Life
- Path 30: Hod – Yesod
- Number
- Nineteen (1 + 9 = 10, and 1 + 0 = 1) completes a cycle and returns to one: the Magician's will now shines as pure, joyful being.
To reflect on
- What brings me simple, uncomplicated joy?
- What success can I let myself fully enjoy?
- Where can I be more openly myself?
In your readings
Hasn’t appeared in your readings yet.
Ask about this card
Marguerite, the traditionalist, answers from Waite’s text, what is drawn on the card and its correspondences. You can choose another reader in settings.