Tarot timing chart for every card

A tarot timing chart links each card to a window of time, using one of three systems: the suit’s season and time unit, the zodiac dates of a Major Arcana card, or the ten-day decan of a numbered Minor Arcana card. For example, Wands point to spring and to days, the Emperor points to Aries season (about March 21 to April 19), and the Three of Cups points to roughly July 2 to 11. None of these gives a guaranteed date. They give you a window to watch, and the charts below cover all 78 cards.

To try a timing question now, draw a free three-card tarot reading and look up the cards here.

Set a time frame before you ask

Timing answers work best when you decide the range first. Many readers keep “when” questions within the next six to eight weeks, and stretch to six months at most for questions about love or work. The further out you ask, the looser the answer gets.

So instead of “When will I get a new job?” try “Will I get a job offer in the next two months, and what window should I watch?” Then use one of the three systems below, chosen before you shuffle. Two readers can give different timing for the same card because they use different systems. Try one for a few months, log your results and see which matches your experience.

Suits as seasons and time units

The simplest system uses the card’s suit.

The seasons come from the sign that opens each season. Aries, a fire sign, starts spring, so Wands are spring. Cancer (water) starts summer, Libra (air) starts autumn and Capricorn (earth) starts winter. Readers south of the equator often flip the seasons to match their own.

The time units follow how fast each element moves: fire fastest, earth slowest. You’ll see Cups and Swords swapped in some books, so treat that column as a habit you can adjust.

Adding the card number

Many readers combine the time unit with the card number. The Three of Wands becomes “about three days” and the Six of Pentacles “about six months.” Aces count as one and usually mean soon. Court cards follow their suit, and some readers count Pages as 11, Knights as 12, Queens as 13 and Kings as 14.

Major Arcana timing by zodiac sign

Twelve Major Arcana cards belong to zodiac signs. When one of them answers a “when” question, read it as “while the Sun is in that sign.” The full system behind these pairs is in zodiac signs and tarot cards.

Beyond the dates, Major Arcana cards tend to describe slower, bigger chapters than Minor Arcana cards. If a Major appears for a short-range question, the answer may take longer than you hoped.

Planet cards and days of the week

Seven Major Arcana belong to the classical planets, and each planet has a traditional day. Readers who want a short-range answer use these days.

Cards with no fixed date

The three element cards, the Fool (air), the Hanged Man (water) and Judgement (fire), have no season of their own. Readers take them as “when you’re ready” or “the timing isn’t set yet.” The Fool often adds “sooner than you think,” and the Hanged Man “after a pause.”

Decan dates for every Minor Arcana card from 2 to 10

The Golden Dawn split each zodiac sign into three decans of ten degrees, about ten days each, and gave one numbered card to each decan. That covers all 36 cards from 2 to 10 across the four suits, and the whole year. In each suit, the 2, 3 and 4 sit in the cardinal sign, the 5, 6 and 7 in the fixed sign, and the 8, 9 and 10 in the mutable sign. The planet that rules each decan is in brackets.

Wands (fire signs)

Cups (water signs)

Swords (air signs)

Pentacles (earth signs)

Decans are measured along the Sun’s path, so the calendar dates move by a day or so from year to year, and other sources may round them slightly differently. For exact boundaries in a given year, check an ephemeris.

The decan date tells you when, not how long. The Ten of Cups points to mid-March, but it doesn’t mean the good news only lasts ten days.

Aces and court cards

Aces have no decan. The Golden Dawn treated them as the roots of their elements, so an Ace usually marks the start of its suit’s season, such as the spring equinox for the Ace of Wands. Kings, Queens and Knights were given thirty-degree spans that run from the last decan of one sign into the next. The Knight of Wands, for instance, covers roughly November 12 to December 12. Pages cover a quarter of the sky, not a set of dates, so most readers time them by their suit. The court cards guide explains the titles behind this.

How to answer a “when” question, step by step

1. Choose your system before you shuffle, just as you would decide on reversed cards.
2. Set a time frame, such as “in the next three months.”
3. Ask one clear question, for example “When is a good window to launch this?”
4. Draw one card. A pip from 2 to 10 gives its decan. A zodiac Major gives its sign’s dates. An Ace or court card gives its suit’s season. An element card means the timing isn’t fixed yet.
5. Check it against your time frame. If the window falls outside your range, read it as “not within this period.”
6. Note it in a diary and compare it with what happens.

Say you ask in early June whether a new client will sign this summer, and you draw the Three of Cups. Its decan runs roughly July 2 to 11, so you’d watch for news in early July. If you’d drawn the Two of Wands instead, its window (late March) has already passed, which reads as “not this summer.”

Timing with a spread or a yearly forecast

For longer ranges, many readers use a whole spread instead of one card. A month-by-month layout gives each card a month of the year, so the card in each position describes that month’s theme. The year ahead spread works this way, and the month ahead spread does the same week by week. For a quick next-step answer, a past, present and future spread shows whether the situation is still building or already on its way.

Year and month cards for long-range timing

For yearly and monthly themes, many readers prefer calculated cards to drawn ones, because they don’t change with each shuffle. Your tarot year card gives a theme for each calendar year, and the tarot month card calculator breaks it into months. The personal year calculator gives the numerology version, and the Destiny Matrix adds an age-based system of its own. To put a drawn card on the chart right away, start a three-card tarot reading.