← Back to Library

Arcana Library

Symbol Glossary

The recurring visual symbols across the 78 archetypes — what they mean and where they appear.

☀️ The Sun

Solar Light

Consciousness, clarity, vitality, masculine energy. The sun illuminates what is hidden and gives life to what it touches.

The SunThe ChariotThe Magician

🌙 The Moon

Lunar Cycles

The subconscious, intuition, illusion, feminine cycles. The moon governs tides, dreams, and the hidden depths of the psyche.

The MoonThe High PriestessThe Hermit

💧 Water

Emotional Currents

Emotion, intuition, the unconscious mind, purification. Water flows, adapts, and always finds its level — as do our feelings.

The StarTemperanceAll Cups

🔥 Fire

Transformative Force

Passion, transformation, energy, inspiration. Fire destroys the old to make way for the new, and warms what it doesn't consume.

The TowerStrengthAll Wands

⛰️ Mountains

The Enduring

Obstacles, achievement, permanence, spiritual heights. Mountains represent both the challenges we must climb and the solid foundation beneath us.

The ChariotThe HermitThe World

🌹 Roses

Beauty & Truth

White roses: purity, clarity, spiritual truth. Red roses: passion, desire, earthly love. Roses always come with thorns — beauty alongside complexity.

The FoolThe MagicianStrengthDeath

🐍 Serpents

Hidden Wisdom

Transformation, hidden knowledge, kundalini energy, cycles of death and rebirth. The serpent sheds its skin — renewal through release.

The MagicianThe LoversThe Devil

⭐ Stars

Divine Guidance

Hope, inspiration, divine connection, navigational truth. Stars are fixed points of light in darkness — symbolic of higher principles we orient by.

The StarThe MoonThe World

🦁 The Lion

Courage & Instinct

Raw courage, primal instincts, Leo energy, the passions that must be tamed not suppressed. True strength works with instinct, not against it.

StrengthThe WorldWheel of Fortune

🗼 Towers

Constructed Realities

Ego-structures, belief systems, man-made constructs. When towers fall, it's always because they were built on unstable foundations — and something truer can emerge.

The TowerThe Moon

🔑 Keys

Access & Mystery

Access to hidden knowledge, opportunities that only open in specific conditions, the power to reveal what is concealed. Keys suggest there is always a way in.

The High PriestessThe HierophantJustice

🌱 Pomegranates

Abundance & Fertility

Fertility, feminine mystery, the unconscious mind, abundance. The pomegranate's many seeds represent the multiplicity of the unconscious and the fecundity of the earth.

The High PriestessThe Empress

⚡ Lightning

Divine Disruption

Sudden revelation, divine intervention, the collapse of false structures. Lightning doesn't destroy what is true — only what was built on illusion.

The Tower

🦅 The Eagle

Higher Vision

Scorpio energy, transcendence, the power to see from great heights, transformation. The eagle soars above what others cannot see.

The WorldWheel of FortuneJustice

🌀 The Wheel

Cycles of Fortune

Karma, fate, the turning of cycles, what goes up must come down. The wheel reminds us that all circumstances are temporary — both suffering and joy.

Wheel of FortuneThe WorldThe Fool

🏛️ Pillars

Duality & Balance

The pillars B (Boaz) and J (Jachin) from the Temple of Solomon represent opposing forces held in creative tension — light/dark, active/passive, mercy/severity.

The High PriestessThe HierophantJusticeThe Moon

🌈 The Veil

What is Hidden

The thin boundary between the conscious and unconscious, the seen and unseen. Veils remind us that not all truth is visible to the waking eye.

The High PriestessThe MoonThe Hierophant

🌿 Laurel Crown

Victory & Achievement

Mastery, accomplishment, recognition of effort. The laurel was awarded to victors — its presence signals genuine achievement earned through perseverance.

The WorldThe EmperorThe Chariot