The Sun

The Sun (XIX) is the twentieth card of the Major Arcana in Tarot, representing joy, vitality, and radiant clarity. In a reading, it signals a burst of warmth and success · confidence restored, truth illuminated, life celebrated.

The dark night is over.

Not metaphorically. Not eventually. Now. The Sun is the card of morning after the longest night: the moment the sky lightens, the shadows pull back, and everything that was hidden, confusing, and terrifying in the darkness becomes clear, simple, and warm in the light.

This is the most unambiguously positive card in the Tarot, and it arrives exactly where it is needed most: after the Moon's dark night of the soul.

At a Glance

Visual Traditions: Three Decks

The Major Arcana's imagery varies significantly across the three major traditions. Understanding these differences deepens your reading of any deck.

Rider-Waite-Smith (1909) · The image shown above.

Tarot de Marseille (17th-18th century) · The Marseille Soleil often shows two children standing together beneath the sun, suggesting reunion, partnership, or the union of opposites. The image is simpler and warmer: two small figures in a garden, the sun beaming overhead. The emphasis is on shared joy rather than the RWS version's solitary, triumphant child.

Thoth Tarot (1943) · Crowley's Sun shows two winged children dancing on a green mound beneath a radiant sun with twelve rays. The emphasis is on the 'twins' of duality reunited: the conscious and unconscious, male and female, solar and lunar finally integrated. The card radiates absolute, uncomplicated positivity.

Key Imagery and Symbolism

A great golden sun with a face shines radiantly in a bright blue sky. Sunflowers grow tall against a stone wall. A naked child (the divine child, innocence reborn, the purified self) rides a white horse (purified instinct, fully aligned with consciousness), arms spread wide in joy. A red banner streams behind.

The scene is bright, warm, and unambiguous. The child's nakedness echoes the Star's vulnerability but without the Star's fragility: this is the nakedness of someone who has nothing to hide and nothing to fear. The white horse is the same instinctual energy that the Chariot controlled through force and Strength befriended through love: now it carries the child willingly, joyfully.

What The Sun Means

Upright

Joy, success, vitality, clarity, warmth, confidence, abundance, achievement, truth revealed, enlightenment, childlike happiness. Everything is illuminated. The truth shines brightly and cannot be hidden.

The Sun upright is the most positive card in the deck. It appears when everything is going right, when clarity is absolute, when success is well-deserved and fully enjoyed. The Sun says: rejoice. This is real. The light is not an illusion. You have earned this moment of radiance.

Reversed

Temporary depression, lack of clarity, reduced vitality, blocked success, delayed joy, inner child wounded, excessive optimism without grounding. The sun behind clouds: still there, but temporarily obscured.

Reversed, the Sun is one of the least negative reversed cards in the deck. It usually indicates that the joy and clarity are still present but temporarily blocked. Perhaps success is delayed rather than denied. Perhaps the inner child needs healing before it can ride freely. Even reversed, the Sun is fundamentally positive.

How Position and Surrounding Cards Shift the Meaning

Next to the Moon, the Sun represents the dawn after the dark night: confusion dissolves in clarity. Next to Judgement, the Sun's joy expands into cosmic calling. Next to the Fool, the Sun represents innocence reborn at the highest level.

The Sun in any position in any spread is almost always positive. It is one of the few cards that maintains its essential meaning regardless of surrounding cards.

The Archetype: A Jungian Perspective

The Divine Child reborn: not the naive child of the Fool (who had not yet experienced the journey) but the conscious child who has passed through death, darkness, and transformation and emerged radiant. In Jungian terms, this is citrinitas/rubedo: the alchemical yellowing and reddening, the dawn of solar consciousness after the lunar darkness.

The white horse is purified instinct: the lion of Strength now willingly carrying the new self. The Sun is solar consciousness at its purest: clarity, vitality, truth without shadow. The 'child' is born from the union of opposites: the new consciousness that integrates what was previously divided.

The Fool's Journey: The Sun's Place in the Story

The dark night is over. The Fool emerges into full daylight: reborn, joyful, clear, and alive. The Sun teaches: 'You have passed through the darkness and emerged transformed. Rejoice! The truth is clear. The world is beautiful. You are alive in a way you have never been before.' This is the reward for the courage to undertake the entire journey: not a return to naive innocence but a conscious, experienced joy.

Previous: The Moon · Next: Judgement

The Sun in Love, Work, and Health

Love and Relationships

Upright in love, the Sun is one of the most positive cards. It signals joy, warmth, genuine connection, and a relationship that brings out the best in both partners. For those who are single, the Sun suggests that love is approaching with unmistakable clarity. For those in relationships, it points to a period of happiness, celebration, and mutual appreciation.

Reversed in love, the Sun may indicate temporarily diminished joy in a relationship, or a partner whose positivity masks unresolved issues.

Career and Finances

In career readings, the Sun signals success, recognition, achievement, and professional fulfilment. It favours creative work, leadership roles, and any career that allows you to shine. The Sun upright says: your work is being seen and valued.

Reversed in career, the Sun suggests delayed recognition, a project that has not yet reached its moment of triumph, or the need to reconnect with the joy in your work.

For students exploring the Major Arcana in depth, Linda Marson's course TarotNav: A GPS for Life devotes a full lesson to each Major Arcana card, exploring its symbolism, reading techniques, and personal significance.

Health and Wellbeing

The Sun is the most positive health card in the deck. It signals vitality, recovery, and robust wellbeing. It connects to the heart, the spine, and overall life force. Upright, it suggests excellent health or a strong recovery from illness.

Reversed, it may indicate temporarily reduced vitality, vitamin D deficiency, or the need for more sunlight, outdoor activity, and joy in one's health routine.

Esoteric Correspondences

Kabbalah

The Sun corresponds to Resh, the head: the face, the countenance, consciousness itself. On the Tree of Life, the Sun walks Path 30, connecting Hod (Splendour/Intellect) to Yesod (Foundation). This is the path from intellectual understanding to the psychic foundation: illumination reaching down to the roots.

For more on the paths of the Tree of Life and their Tarot correspondences, see the complete Kabbalah paths guide.

Astrology

The Sun: consciousness, vitality, identity, will, the Self, the centre, the source of light and life. The Sun in astrology represents the core identity: who you are when all masks are removed. The Sun card expresses this as radiant, uncomplicated truth: the Self shining without interference.

Numerology

Nineteen: 1+9=10=1, linking the Sun back to the Magician (conscious creative will) at the highest octave. Will that has been purified by the entire journey. Also 10 (Wheel of Fortune) in its most positive expression: fortune at its absolute peak.

Element

Fire (solar): the fire of consciousness, warmth, light, vitality. The Sun's fire is not the Mars fire of the Tower (destructive) or the Sagittarius fire of Temperance (aspirational) but pure solar radiance: the fire that sustains all life, the light that makes everything visible.

Card Pairings and Relationships

Every Major Arcana card takes on different dimensions depending on its neighbours. These pairings are not fixed rules but starting points for interpretation.

• The Sun + The Moon (night and day): The fundamental polarity. The Moon's dark confusion dissolved by the Sun's radiant clarity. The last test overcome.

• The Sun + The Fool (innocence reborn): The Fool's naive innocence transformed into the Sun's conscious innocence. The same joy, but earned through experience.

• The Sun + Judgement (illumination and calling): The Sun's clarity expands into Judgement's cosmic summons. Seeing clearly (Sun) followed by hearing the call (Judgement).

• The Sun + The World (joy and completion): The Sun's radiance integrated into the World's dancing wholeness. Individual illumination becoming cosmic harmony.

• The Sun + The Star (two lights): Starlight and sunlight. Quiet, interior healing and radiant, exterior joy. Together they cover the full spectrum of hope.

• The Sun + Strength (courage and joy): The patience that Strength required is rewarded by the Sun's joy. The lion tamed (8) becomes the horse ridden (19).

• The Sun + Death (death and rebirth): The most dramatic transformation arc. The darkest card (Death) and the brightest card (Sun). Caterpillar and butterfly.

• The Sun + The Magician (will perfected): Numerological siblings (19: 1+9=10=1). The Magician's initial creative will, refined by the entire journey, becomes the Sun's radiant mastery.

Related Cards

Row 3: Superconscious / Cosmic Forces · the Sun's place in the cosmic drama:
- The Moon · XVIII · The darkness that the Sun dissolves
- Judgement · XX · The awakening that the Sun's clarity makes possible

Numerological column (5-12-19) · cards sharing the Sun's vertical correspondence:
- The Hierophant · V · Teaching tradition illuminated by direct experience
- The Hanged Man · XII · The sacrifice whose reward is the Sun's radiance

Cards of joy and vitality · cards sharing the Sun's radiant positivity:
- The Empress · III · Natural abundance and the joy of creation
- The Star · XVII · Quiet hope that precedes the Sun's full radiance

Explore the Major Arcana Further

The Sun is one of 22 archetypal encounters in the Major Arcana · and its meaning deepens when read alongside the cards that surround it. If you are drawn to the Tarot's psychological and spiritual dimensions, these courses offer a guided path from first reading to archetypal mastery.

Recommended courses:

• A Jungian Approach to the Tarot · Archetypal analysis and psychological depth through the Tarot · Taught by Mary K. Greer
• Major Arcana Only Readings · Reading techniques using only the 22 Trumps · Taught by Rachel Pollack
• Archetypal Tarot: Birth and Year Cards · Personal card calculations and life-path analysis based on your birth date · Taught by Mary K. Greer

For the complete guide to all 22 Major Arcana cards, visit The Major Arcana: Complete Guide to the 22 Trumps.

For a comprehensive introduction to reading all 78 Tarot cards, see How to Read Tarot Cards: A Complete Guide.

← The Moon · XVIII | Judgement · XX →