Tarot predictions and interpretation heavily rely on tarot card meaning without which they would not be possible; each card has a significance and a peculiar symbolism attached to it. What we often fail to understand is that the full card meaning comes from the spread or the combined explanations of the cards for the question of the life issue you expect to learn more about. In the Rider Waite tarot, there are seventy-eight cards, and the first step beginners have to take is to learn what each of them means. From the Fool to the Queen and the King, the tarot cards can be studied, analyzed and understood depending on the every user's sensibility.

Tarot card meaning has evolved over the years; for people who have a more profound knowledge of the Kabbalah or alchemy, the similarity of symbols could be pretty striking. Thus, all sorts of symbols have been added in time so that the present-day form of the decks is a very complex one. It is also common practice to complicate things even further by personalizing the cards and adding other subtle interpretations to the tarot decks. Thus, many amateur philosophers choose to give their personal explanations to certain aspects from alchemy or the Kabbalah.

A tarot card meaning greatly varies depending on the interpretation; thus, a single card receives different explanations based on the location of the card in the spread and the meaning of the other tarot cards in its vicinity. Very often, based on the reader's own judgment and common sense, a card meaning can be discarded as irrelevant for the question that is under discussion. The cards in the Major Arcana insist on a distinct symbolism, while those in the Minor Arcana stand for the traditional alchemical elements. Thus, the swords correspond to the air, the cups to the water, the pentagrams/circles to the earth and the wands to fire.

In general a tarot card meaning represents a possible choice along one's life journey: is one on the right path or has one strayed away? This tarot card meaning normally results from the spreads in the Major Arcana where each card matches a certain life aspect: the fool represents the beginning of a journey, the magician indicates the path towards wisdom, the high priestess indicates the level of self-balance, the empress hints at pleasure, wealth and love, while the emperor is the expression of power and authority, and so on and so forth.