The sun brings light and life to our whole planet. It’s the source of seemingly endless energy, without which we couldn’t exist. The Sun card of the Tarot shows this splendid star of ours, and the abundance it brings. So, it’s certainly a fortunate Tarot card, if not the very card of fortune as such. The image on the Tarot Sun card suggests the sun at its triumphant return at the vernal equinox. Maybe it also hints at the sun’s zenith in the middle of the summer. The vernal equinox was in the past regarded as the start of the new year, because of how the expanding daylight of spring rejuvenates all of nature. That’s implied by the child greeting us with open arms, as it rides towards us on the white horse. The proud sunflowers and the sun’s central position, with its strong rays in every direction, suggest summer, too. Midsummer, with the longest day and the shortest night of all the year. The sun at the peak of its power. The sun is the great nourisher. That’s confirmed by the image of the Tarot Sun card. But its force can be terrible if not respected. The sun is pure power, beyond any intent of good or bad. It just is, and all of us reached by its light prosper from it. The sun is a resource that’s not spent, no matter how much it’s used. Yet, it is an indifferent one, so it allows itself to be used for whatever purpose. That’s not without risk. Of course, a resource of that magnitude is hazardous. It should be used with some moderation, or its power might be destructive. But if received humbly and gratefully, the power symbolized by the Tarot Sun card brings joy and well-being…
First Appearance Ducal courts of northern Italy (c. 1440)
First Publisher ○
Appearance List Sola Busca (1490s) — earliest surviving deck [Open Culture] [WaiteSmith.org]; Monde primitif… (Vol. 8: “Du Jeu des Tarots”) (1781) by Antoine Court de Gébelin; Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées Tarots (1783–1785) by Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette); Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (1856) by Éliphas Lévi; The Tarot: Its Occult Signification, Use in Fortune-Telling, and Method of Play (1888) by S. L. MacGregor Mathers; Le Tarot des Bohémiens (1889) by Papus (Gérard Encausse); Rider Waite Tarot (1909) by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith [WaiteSmith.org]; The Tarot of the Bohemians (1910) by A. P Morton [Internet Archive]; The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911, 1959) by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith; Le tarot des imagiers du moyen âge (1926) by Oswald Wirth; The Book of Thoth: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians (1944) by Aleister Crowley; Le Tarot de Marseille (1949) by Paul Marteau; The Tarot Revealed (1960) by Eden Gray; Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling (1970) by Stuart R. Kaplan; The Encyclopedia of Tarot (Vol. 1) (1978) by Stuart R. Kaplan.
Sample Read The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911, 1959) by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith [Internet Archive]
Description The sun brings light and life to our whole planet. It’s the source of seemingly endless energy, without which we couldn’t exist. The Sun card of the Tarot shows this splendid star of ours, and the abundance it brings. So, it’s certainly a fortunate Tarot card, if not the very card of fortune as such. The image on the Tarot Sun card suggests the sun at its triumphant return at the vernal equinox. Maybe it also hints at the sun’s zenith in the middle of the summer. The vernal equinox was in the past regarded as the start of the new year, because of how the expanding daylight of spring rejuvenates all of nature. That’s implied by the child greeting us with open arms, as it rides towards us on the white horse. The proud sunflowers and the sun’s central position, with its strong rays in every direction, suggest summer, too. Midsummer, with the longest day and the shortest night of all the year. The sun at the peak of its power. The sun is the great nourisher. That’s confirmed by the image of the Tarot Sun card. But its force can be terrible if not respected. The sun is pure power, beyond any intent of good or bad. It just is, and all of us reached by its light prosper from it. The sun is a resource that’s not spent, no matter how much it’s used. Yet, it is an indifferent one, so it allows itself to be used for whatever purpose. That’s not without risk. Of course, a resource of that magnitude is hazardous. It should be used with some moderation, or its power might be destructive. But if received humbly and gratefully, the power symbolized by the Tarot Sun card brings joy and well-being…
