Look closely at any tarot card and you will find it alive with detail: a lion resting under a woman’s hand, a key held out in offering, a river winding toward distant mountains. Every one of these details was placed with intention to carry meaning, and learning tarot symbols is how you come to read the deck as the rich picture language it truly is. Once you know what these recurring images represent, you can look at almost any card and sense its message from the picture alone, even before you recall a single memorized definition.
The classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith in 1909, filled every card with deliberate symbolism, weaving a shared visual vocabulary through all seventy-eight cards. That is the reason a snake means something similar whether it appears on the Magician or in a Minor Arcana scene, and why the number three carries its energy across the whole deck. Working with tarot symbols gives you a master key that opens card after card, turning reading from a memory test into a warm conversation with the images in front of you.
In this guide, we will walk you through the symbols you will meet most in the cards, grouped into animals, objects, and nature, along with the meaning of the numbers. We will share where each one shows up in the deck, how symbols combine within a single card, and how to trust your own response to an image. This piece pairs beautifully with our overview of tarot symbolism and our deep dive into tarot color meanings, and together they give you a full working command of the deck’s visual language. By the end, the cards will speak to you in a far richer voice.
Key Takeaways
- Symbols are the deck’s shared language. Learning tarot symbols lets you read almost any card from its imagery, so you lean far less on memorizing every meaning.
- Animals carry instinct and spirit. Creatures like the lion, dog, and snake bring courage, loyalty, and renewal into a reading through their long-held meanings.
- Objects and nature deepen the story. Crowns, keys, water, and mountains each add a clear layer of meaning to the card they appear in.
- Numbers mark a stage in a story. From the fresh spark of an Ace to the fullness of a Ten, a card’s number tells you where in a journey it sits.
- Your own response matters too. Traditional tarot symbols give you a foundation, and the feeling an image stirs in you belongs in the reading.
Why Symbols Are the Heart of Tarot
Before we walk through the images themselves, it helps to understand why symbols carry so much weight, since that makes every meaning easier to hold. The whole tarot deck was built as a picture language, where the figures, colors, and objects all speak together to tell a card’s story. When you learn to read tarot symbols, you move beyond memorized keywords and read the card the way its artist intended, through the images and the feelings they stir.
This is why symbolism is such a freeing skill for a new reader. The same handful of images recurs across the deck, so once you know that a mountain tends to mean a challenge or an aspiration, you can read that meaning wherever a mountain appears. The team at Tarot Master Guide describes this well in a guide to tarot symbolism of shapes and imagery, noting how learning to decode these visual symbols takes you past memorized meanings and into deeper, intuition-led reading.
There is real joy in this way of working, too. As you grow familiar with tarot symbols, a card you have never formally studied becomes readable, because you recognize its animals, objects, and numbers and can weave their meanings into a story. That skill grows more natural every time you sit with the cards, and it turns the whole deck into a friend whose language you understand.
Animal Symbols in Tarot
Animals appear throughout the tarot, and they tend to carry our instincts, strengths, and spiritual qualities. A single creature can add a whole layer of guidance to a card, so learning the most common ones sharpens your readings right away. The detailed collection at UniGuide walks through the animals across the deck if you want to explore even further.
The Lion
The lion stands for courage, raw strength, and passion, along with the instinctual drives we learn to work with through patience and compassion. It appears most famously in the Strength card, where a woman calmly holds the lion’s jaws, showing that true strength blends power with kindness. When a lion shows up, it often speaks to facing a challenge with steady, warm-hearted courage.
Birds and Eagles
Birds fly through many tarot images, offering freedom, perspective, and the movement of thoughts and messages. Eagles carry clear vision and spiritual ambition, while doves bring peace and love. When birds appear, they often invite you to rise above a situation and see the bigger picture from a calmer height.
The Dog
Dogs bring loyalty, companionship, and protection, the faithful friend walking beside us on the path. A small white dog leaps beside the Fool as he steps into his adventure, a picture of trust and joyful company. Dogs also appear in the Major Arcana on the Moon card, where they speak to the tame, familiar side of our instincts.
The Horse
Horses carry movement, drive, and willpower, the forward momentum of a journey underway. A white horse bears the figure of Death, marking a powerful change sweeping through, and a child rides a joyful horse in the Sun card. Horses also carry the four Knights forward, each galloping with the energy of its suit. When a horse appears, it often points to motion, ambition, and the push toward a goal.
The Snake
The snake carries wisdom, healing, and renewal, shedding its skin as a picture of releasing the old and stepping into the new. It coils as an infinity loop around the Magician’s waist, hinting at the endless flow of energy he channels. When a snake appears, it often signals a moment of personal renewal or a call to trust your deeper wisdom.
The Butterfly
The butterfly is one of the clearest symbols of change in the whole deck, moving through its life stages into winged freedom. It appears on the court cards of the Suit of Swords, adding a note of mental change and fresh perspective. When a butterfly shows up, it often speaks to growth, renewal, and a welcome shift underway.
Other Animals to Know
A few more creatures are worth recognizing. The bull stands for stability, patience, and steadfast effort, appearing on the Wheel of Fortune and the World. The sphinxes of the Chariot, one white and one black, balance conscious will with instinct as they pull the driver forward. The lobster rising from the water in the Moon card speaks to primal urges and the deep subconscious, and the fish that leaps in the Cups court cards carries emotion and the flow of feeling. Fish also fill the sea behind the King of Cups, a picture of emotions swimming just beneath a calm surface. Noticing which animals recur in your readings is a rewarding part of working with tarot symbols.
Object Symbols in Tarot
Beyond living creatures, the tarot is full of meaningful objects, each carrying its own message. Learning the most common ones adds real depth to a reading, and the table below gathers several you will meet often across the cards.
| Object | Meaning | Often seen in |
|---|---|---|
| Crown | Authority, mastery, higher awareness | Emperor, Kings, Queens |
| Key | Knowledge, hidden truths, opportunity | The Hierophant |
| Rose | Passion, desire, balance | The Magician, the Fool |
| Lily | Purity, clarity of mind | The Magician, Ace of Pentacles |
| Wreath | Victory, success, a cycle complete | The World, Wheel of Fortune |
| Pillars | Balance, duality, a threshold | High Priestess, Justice |
| Scales | Fairness, truth, cause and effect | Justice |
| Infinity symbol | Boundless potential, endless energy | The Magician, Strength |
Each of these objects colors the card it sits in. A crown lifts a card toward mastery and achievement, while a key hints at a truth about to be revealed. The four suit emblems act as objects too, with cups pointing to emotion, swords to thought and truth, wands to passion and action, and pentacles to the material world. The reference at LoveToKnow offers a helpful table of image meanings if you would like a broader list to browse. When you notice an object standing out in a card, let its meaning weave into the story the reading is telling.
Symbols and the Four Suits
Many tarot symbols connect naturally to the four suits and their elements, which adds another layer to a reading. The Suit of Wands carries the fire element, so it often features warm imagery, staffs sprouting fresh leaves, and symbols of passion and growth. The Suit of Cups holds water, so it brims with flowing rivers, fish, and chalices that speak to emotion and love. The Suit of Swords carries air, filled with clouds, birds, and blades that point to thought, truth, and decisions. The Suit of Pentacles holds earth, rich with gardens, coins, and landscapes of the material world. Noticing which suit a symbol belongs to gives you an instant sense of the area of life it touches, and it deepens your feel for tarot symbols across the whole deck.
Nature and Celestial Symbols
The landscapes and skies of the tarot carry their own subtle language, setting the scene and mood of a card. The sun radiates joy, success, and clarity, a warm sign of good things coming to light. The moon speaks to intuition, dreams, and the parts of life we feel before we can name them, along with a touch of illusion to move through with care. Stars carry hope and guidance, shining most clearly in the Star card as a promise of renewal after hardship.
The elements of the land speak too. Water, in rivers, pools, and the sea, points to emotion and the subconscious, with calm or choppy water hinting at the state of feelings. Mountains stand for challenges and aspirations, the climbs we undertake, often rising in the distance as a goal. A winding road or path speaks to the journey ahead and the choices along it, while clouds often carry a divine message, as in the hands that reach from clouds to offer each suit’s gift in the Aces. The overview at KEEN gathers many of these recurring symbols in one place. Reading the setting of a card, alongside its figures and objects, rounds out your command of tarot symbols.
Number Symbols in Tarot
Numbers are a symbol all their own, since every card carries one, and each number marks a stage in a story. This numerology runs through both arcanas, so learning it deepens your read of the numbered Minor Arcana cards and the Major Arcana alike. Here is the arc the numbers trace, from the spark of one to the fullness of ten.
- One (Aces) holds new starts, pure potential, and the first spark of a suit’s energy.
- Two speaks to balance, partnership, and choice.
- Three brings growth, creativity, and early fruits.
- Four carries stability, structure, and a moment of rest.
- Five points to challenge, change, and the tension that helps us grow.
- Six speaks to harmony, healing, and generosity after a hard patch.
- Seven holds reflection, patience, and inner work.
- Eight carries momentum, mastery, and focused power.
- Nine brings near-completion and the wisdom gathered along the way.
- Ten speaks to fullness and the close of a cycle, with the seed of the next one inside.
The Major Arcana carries numbers too, running from the Fool at zero through the World at twenty-one, tracing the soul’s whole journey. When you pair a card’s number with its suit or its imagery, you can make a thoughtful read before you recall a single keyword, which is the everyday magic of working with tarot symbols.
How to Read Symbols Together in a Card
Learning each symbol on its own is wonderful, and the real artistry comes from reading them together within a single card. A card’s animals, objects, numbers, and setting all speak at once, so weaving them into one impression is where a rich reading is born. Just as words gather meaning from the sentence around them, tarot symbols speak most clearly when you read them in relationship to one another.
Take the Strength card as a small example. You see a lion, which brings raw courage and instinct, a woman holding its jaws with a calm hand, which shows steady compassion, and an infinity symbol above her head, which speaks to boundless inner power. Read together, these symbols tell one warm story: that true strength comes from meeting our wildest feelings with patience and love. This is how symbol reading works across the whole deck, each image adding a thread until a full, meaningful picture emerges. You can practice this in any layout from our tarot spreads collection, letting the symbols in each position speak to one another.
Trust Your Own Response to a Symbol
As meaningful as these traditional meanings are, your personal response to a symbol carries real wisdom too, and honoring both is what makes your readings your own. If a dog in a card brings up the memory of a beloved pet and a feeling of comfort, that association belongs in your reading, even when a book might point elsewhere. The image on the card and the feeling it stirs in you both matter.
As you work with the cards, notice the traditional tarot symbols you have learned, and also notice the very first feeling or memory an image brings up. Over time, you will build a personal library of symbol meanings shaped by your own life, sitting alongside the shared ones. Holding both together is where symbol reading becomes an art, and where the cards start to speak in a voice that is unmistakably yours. Trusting that inner response is one of the most rewarding parts of growing as a reader.
Common Questions About Tarot Symbols
A few questions come up again and again from readers learning to work with imagery, so let’s answer them warmly.
Do I need to memorize every tarot symbol?
Not at all. Start with a handful of the most common symbols, like the lion, the dog, water, and mountains, and the rest will settle in as you read. Your own sense of each image fills in over time, so let the learning happen at an easy pace, one card at a time.
Are tarot symbols the same in every deck?
The core meanings tend to carry across decks built on the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, which most modern decks are. Some artists rework the imagery or add their own symbols, so a quick look at a deck’s guidebook shows you where it follows tradition and where it goes its own way.
What if a card has many symbols?
Most cards hold several symbols at once, which is part of their richness. Notice the one that draws your eye first, then read the others as supporting notes, weaving them into a single story. Reading the symbols together, as one connected story, is where the card’s full message lives.
Can a symbol mean something personal to me?
Absolutely, and your own associations are welcome in a reading. If an image stirs a specific memory or feeling, hold that alongside the traditional meaning and let both inform your read. Your personal response often adds the very detail that makes a reading click.
Which tarot symbols should I learn first?
Start with a few that appear most often, like the lion, the dog, water, mountains, and the four suit emblems. These recur across many cards, so learning them gives you a strong foundation fast. The rest of the tarot symbols settle in naturally as you keep reading, one card at a time.
Do reversed cards change a symbol’s meaning?
A reversed card, what we fondly call the Wandering Fool, tends to soften a symbol’s energy or turn it inward, offering a blocked or more internal version of the same meaning. Trust the image and the feeling, and let the reversal add a tender layer to what the symbol already carries.
Conclusion: Let the Images Speak
The tarot is a picture language, and learning its symbols is how you come to read it with ease and depth. We have walked through the animals that carry instinct and courage, the objects that add authority and meaning, the landscapes and skies that set the scene, and the numbers that mark each stage of a story. We also saw how these symbols combine within a single card, and how your own response to an image belongs right alongside the traditional meanings.
The thread through all of it is connection. Once you know the shared language of the cards, every card becomes readable, and your intuition has a rich foundation to stand on. Working with tarot symbols turns the deck from a puzzle into a familiar friend, one that speaks to you through image after image every time you lay the cards.
So here is our challenge for you this week. On your next pull, before reaching for any meaning, name three symbols you see in the card: an animal, an object, and a number or a piece of the landscape. Sit with what each one tells you, then weave them into a small reading of your own. We would love to hear what you find, so tell us in the comments which symbols spoke to you and what they revealed, and let’s keep learning the language of the cards together.
Get Our Free Tarot Monthly Card Tracker
Keep a detailed record of your Tarot readings with our Tarot Monthly Card Tracker, designed to help you spot patterns and deepen your intuition!
Pin it for later! ⤵️
What Will You Get?
- Monthly Tarot Card Tracker – Perfect for tracking your daily pulls and spotting recurring themes.
- Separate Pages for Major & Minor Arcana – Keep your readings organized with dedicated tracking sheets for both the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana.
- Beautiful & Functional Layout – Easy-to-use design for both beginners and experienced readers.
- Printable & Digital-Friendly – Print and add to your Tarot Journal, or use digitally with your favorite notetaking app!
Improve your Tarot practice with this beautifully designed Tarot Monthly Card Tracker! Whether you’re looking to uncover patterns in your readings or deepen your connection with the cards, this tracker makes it easy to document and reflect on your journey.
No responses yet