Tarot card numbers and what they mean

Tarot card numbers show where a card sits in its sequence, and each number carries a theme: 1 is a beginning, 2 a choice or partnership, 5 a challenge, 10 a completion. The 22 Major Arcana are numbered 0 to 21, and each suit of the Minor Arcana runs Ace (1) to Ten, followed by four unnumbered court cards.

Which tarot cards have numbers?

Three kinds of numbering live in a tarot deck, and only two are printed on the cards.

• Major Arcana, 0 to 21. Usually printed as Roman numerals at the top of the card. The Fool is 0, or unnumbered in Marseille decks. The full sequence is in The Major Arcana in Order.
• Pip cards, Ace to Ten. Each suit has its own count from one to ten. An Ace is a one.
• Court cards. Page, Knight, Queen and King carry a rank and a suit but no printed number.

A fourth numbering, positions 0 to 77, exists only in lists, apps and databases. It is covered further down.

Tarot number meanings from 0 to 10

The same themes run through the Majors and the suits. Each Major with a two-digit number reduces to one of these roots by adding its digits, so 14 (Temperance) becomes 1+4 = 5.

The Major Arcana column uses Rider-Waite-Smith numbering. In Marseille and Destiny Matrix numbering, Justice is 8 and Strength is 11, so the 2 and 8 rows trade those two cards.

How to read two-digit Major Arcana numbers

Readers handle a Major numbered 10 to 21 in two ways, and you can use both.

Reduce it to a root

Add the digits. The Tower is 16, and 1+6 = 7, which links it to The Chariot. Both cards deal with force and momentum: in The Chariot you steer it, and in The Tower it breaks loose. Cards that share a root form a group called a constellation, which Mary K. Greer uses in birth card work. Tarot Constellations and Hidden Factor Cards lists all nine.

Read it as a new round

The 10 marks a turn of the wheel. Cards 10 to 19 can be read as the numbers 0 to 9 replayed at a deeper level, so 11 Justice is a more mature 1, a choice weighed instead of a choice made on impulse. Some readers use only the last digit for this, reading 14 as a 4. It is a less common method, but you’ll see it in some books and websites.

What each number looks like across the four suits

Because the number themes are shared, all four cards with the same number show one idea in four areas of life. Wands bring it to drive and work, Cups to feelings, Swords to thought and conflict, and Pentacles to money and the body.

Take the Fives, the number of friction:

• Five of Wands: competition and clashing egos.
• Five of Cups: grief and regret over a loss.
• Five of Swords: an argument won at a cost.
• Five of Pentacles: hardship and feeling left out in the cold.

Once you know the ten number themes and the four suits, you can make a solid first guess at any of the forty pip cards. Each card’s own page then adds the image and the details.

Do court cards have numbers?

Not on the cards. When people need numbers for them, in card lists or in numerology, the usual convention continues the count from Ten: Page 11, Knight 12, Queen 13, King 14. Some readers then reduce those to 2, 3, 4 and 5 and link each rank to a Major, such as the King to The Hierophant.

Many readers skip numbers for the courts altogether and read them by rank and suit. Tarot Court Cards Explained shows how.

Tarot card positions from 0 to 77

Apps, databases and card-a-day tools number all 78 cards in one list. The 22 Majors take 0 to 21. The Minors follow as positions 22 to 77 in blocks of fourteen: Wands (22 to 35), Cups (36 to 49), Swords (50 to 63) and Pentacles (64 to 77), each running Ace to Ten and then Page, Knight, Queen, King.

To work out any position yourself, take the suit’s first number (22, 36, 50 or 64) and add the card’s rank minus one, counting Page as 11, Knight 12, Queen 13 and King 14. The Queen of Swords is 50 + 12 = 62.

What is the 29th tarot card?

It depends on whether you count from 0 or from 1.

• Card number 29, using the 0 to 77 list, is the Eight of Wands. Wands start at 22 with the Ace, so 29 is the eighth card of the suit.
• The 29th card counted one by one, with The Fool as the first card, is position 28: the Seven of Wands.

Most apps number from 0 so that The Fool keeps its printed number, which makes “card 29” the Eight of Wands. The same logic works for any number. The 50th card counted from 1 is position 49, the King of Cups.

Why card lists put the suits in different orders

The 0 to 77 list is a convention, not something printed in any deck, and you’ll meet variations:

• Suit order. Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles is the most common. Some sources start with Cups or Pentacles, or follow the elements in zodiac order (Fire, Earth, Air, Water), which gives Wands, Pentacles, Swords, Cups.
• Suit names. Pentacles may be Coins or Disks, and Wands may be Rods, Staves or Batons.
• Court names. Thoth-style decks use Princess, Prince, Queen and Knight. Some modern decks use family titles.
• Major order. Marseille decks put Justice at 8 and Strength at 11.

So if an app says “card 40,” check its order. In the common order it’s the Five of Cups, and in a Cups-first list it would be a different card.

Tarot card numbers vs your arcana number

Deck positions and birth-date numerology are separate systems. Your arcana number comes from your birth date: add the digits and reduce while the total is above 22. A total of 29 becomes 2+9 = 11, which is Justice on this site’s card pages and Strength in the Destiny Matrix. It never lands on the Eight of Wands, because arcana numerology uses only the 22 Majors.

You can find yours with the arcana calculator, and How to Calculate Your Arcana Number walks through each step.