CHOOSE YOUR SPREAD
Each spread is a scaffold for story. The cards will decorate it with image, archetype, and turn. Pick one and let the deck speak.
The 22 Major Arcana ~ the great archetypes that pattern every story.
The Reading
THE 78 CARDS
Click any card to turn it. Click again to study its full meaning, archetype, and role in story.
THE IDEA
MythoCards treats the Tarot as a storytelling engine. The 78-card deck is one of the most sophisticated narrative instruments the West has ever produced: an archetypal vocabulary stretching from the Fool's first step to the World's closed circle, threaded through four suits mapped to the elemental powers of Will, Feeling, Intellect, and Matter.
Use it to draft characters. Use it to scaffold a novel. Use it to learn the cards. Each spread here is a mythic shape waiting to be filled, and each card is a compressed world ready to unfold.
HOW TO USE IT
Set an intention or a question. Pick a spread. Let the cards land. Read the position, then the card, then the dialogue between them. Reshuffle a single position if something feels off โ the oracle is generous with revision. When you find a draw that sings, export it to markdown and carry it into your draft.
SPREAD PHILOSOPHY
Certain spreads lock specific slots to the Major Arcana. The reason is narrative weight. When a position represents a turning point โ a Call, a Death, a Return โ a Major Arcana card carries archetypal gravity that a Minor card cannot. Other slots stay open so the Lesser Arcana can color in the texture of daily life: the quarrels, the journeys, the small griefs and small victories that fill the space between revelations.
Every spread in MythoCards is an opinion about how story works.
Godspeed, fellow traveler.
โ Dylan Orosz โ
THE CODEX
A quick reference for reading the Tarot. The deck is a map of the world in 78 images โ seventy-eight doors into story, symbol, and system. What follows are the keys most worth carrying.
THE FOUR SUITS ~ FOUR ELEMENTS
The Lesser Arcana divides into four suits, each a native language of one element. Together they map the textures of daily life ~ the how of being human.
WANDS
The suit of passion, creativity, and the kindling spark. Wands are what you ignite, pursue, and crusade for.
CUPS
The suit of the heart and the inner tide. Cups carry love, dream, grief, and intuition ~ the liquid life of relationship.
SWORDS
The suit of thought, word, and conflict. Swords cut truth from falsehood and test the mind against its own shadows.
PENTACLES
The suit of the tangible world ~ craft, coin, labor, and the slow miracles of growing things. Pentacles ground vision into form.
THE FOOL'S JOURNEY ~ 22 TRUMPS
The Major Arcana is a single story told in twenty-two gates. Begin at Zero, pass through every turn, and arrive at the World ~ where the Fool begins again.
THE TREE OF LIFE ~ 22 PATHS
Each Major Arcana card walks a path on the Kabbalistic Tree between two Sephiroth. Click a path to study the card at that gate, or a sphere to study the Sephirah.
Hover a path to preview its card; click to open the card. Click a Sephirah to read its lore.
The Lightning Flash ~ the zig-zag of divine emanation descending the Tree. From Kether's hidden crown through Chokmah and Binah, down through Chesed and Geburah, gathering in Tiphareth's golden heart, flowing into Netzach, Hod, and Yesod, and finally settling into Malkuth the Kingdom, it traces the path by which the infinite light of Ein Sof becomes the manifest world. Read upward and the bolt becomes the aspirant's return: the ascent of consciousness back toward its source.
THE SKY AS SIGN
In the RiderโWaiteโSmith deck, Pamela Colman Smith coded meaning into the sky itself. The colour behind the figure often tells you before the figure does.
Gold Sky
Spirit and fulfillment. The realm of the Fool, the Sun, the Emperor, the Hierophant ~ divinity breaking through into day.
Pale Blue Sky
Clarity, intellect, and the open air of thought. Seen in the Swords suit and cards of revelation ~ the Lovers, Judgment, the World.
Grey Sky
Conflict and uncertainty. The thunderheads of the Tower, the clouds behind the Hanged Man ~ pressure gathering, truth withheld.
Night Sky
Mystery, the unconscious, the hidden. The Moon's midnight, the Star's vigil, the Devil's lightless throne.
READING THE PATTERN
A few further keys for reading the deck with care.
Major vs. Lesser
- 22 Major Arcana โ archetypal weight; turning points of the soul.
- 56 Lesser Arcana โ texture of days; the small griefs and small victories.
- Majors heavy โ the draw announces fate.
- Lessers heavy โ the draw describes weather.
Court Cards
- โฆ Page โ the messenger, the student, the news.
- โฆ Knight โ the quest in motion; ambition on horseback.
- โฆ Queen โ interior mastery; the soul of the suit.
- โฆ King โ outward authority; the suit made sovereign.
Pip Numerology
- Ace seed ยท pure element
- 2 balance ยท choice
- 3 growth ยท first fruit
- 4 stability ยท foundation
- 5 crisis ยท disruption
- 6 harmony ยท return
- 7 reflection ยท solitude
- 8 mastery in motion
- 9 fulfillment ยท near-completion
- 10 completion ยท threshold
Upright & Reversed
A reversed card is rarely a pure opposite. Read it as the same current flowing differently:
- ๐ Blocked โ the virtue cannot move.
- ๐ฑ Unripe โ the virtue not yet matured.
- ๐ Inverted โ the virtue turned shadow.
- ๐ Matured โ the virtue held so deeply it goes quiet.
The story-role stays; the key shifts.
Elemental Dignities
- ๐ + ๐ โ Fire & Air amplify.
- ๐ + ๐ โ Water & Earth amplify.
- ๐ + ๐ โ Fire & Water quench.
- ๐ + ๐ โ Air & Earth contradict.
Read the neighbourhood before the card.
The Querent's Question
The pull is only as sharp as the question. Phrase well, and the deck will meet you well.
- ๐ Open โ ask what, how, why. Avoid yes/no for deeper pulls.
- ๐ Present โ root the question in this moment, not distant futures.
- ๐ Owned โ ask after your own current, not someone else's fate.
- ๐ Specific โ a narrow doorway lets a large meaning through.
A good question is half the reading.
Astrological Correspondence
Each Major arcana ties to a planet, sign, or element (Golden Dawn attribution). When a card pulls, its heavenly body is speaking.
โ Seven Planetary Energies
- โSunXIX ยท The Sun
- โฝMoonII ยท High Priestess
- โฟMercuryI ยท The Magician
- โVenusIII ยท The Empress
- โMarsXVI ยท The Tower
- โJupiterX ยท Wheel of Fortune
- โSaturnXXI ยท The World
โ Twelve Zodiac Signs
- โAriesIV ยท The Emperor
- โTaurusV ยท The Hierophant
- โGeminiVI ยท The Lovers
- โCancerVII ยท The Chariot
- โLeoVIII ยท Strength
- โVirgoIX ยท The Hermit
- โLibraXI ยท Justice
- โScorpioXIII ยท Death
- โSagittariusXIV ยท Temperance
- โCapricornXV ยท The Devil
- โAquariusXVII ยท The Star
- โPiscesXVIII ยท The Moon
Three remaining Majors โ 0 The Fool (Air), XII The Hanged Man (Water), XX Judgement (Fire) โ hold the primal elements themselves.