* Wands symbolize spiritual experience. Remember that wands correspond to clubs in a playing-card deck, where the three-leaf clover design is sometimes said to represent a holy trinity.
* Cups represents emotional affairs; like hearts in a deck of playing cards, they’re the very pictures of emotion.
* Swords illustrate thought and communication; they correspond to spades, which have a point to make.
* Pentacles embody physical, material, and financial realities; they correspond to diamonds, which are always worth money.
The Fiery Suit of Wands
Wands are the fiery cards of spirit and initiation, which typically refer to the driving forces of work, career, and special interests that inspire passion. In most tarot decks, wands look like freshly cut branches from leafy trees; that’s your cue that wands can be set on fire and burned. You might want to picture each wand as a flaming torch that can be used for light and heat, or enlightenment and inspiration.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire: the wand cards can indicate that sparks are about to fly, that passions may be enflamed, and that an affair is about to heat up. Wand cards may suggest that someone is carrying a torch or burning with desire. Wand cards might even revel that an old issue will be rekindled, or that someone is playing with fire.
The Watery World of Cups
Cups hold the watery affairs of emotional life, and they’re especially well suited to issues of love and relationships. Obviously, a cup can hold water, the essence of life. For that matter, a cup can hold any liquid that has sentimental significance, such as wine or champagne. The connection to emotion is clear: We use cups to toast each other in celebration, to commune with others during religious ceremonies, and sometimes, we use cups to drown our sorrows. Because cup cards correspond to water, they serve as a reminder that the well of human emotion runs deep. Just as the human body is 75% water, the human psyche is driven by an overwhelming emotional combination of wants, needs, drives, and desires.
Don’t let the water metaphor slip through your fingers. Cup cards may indicate that emotions are welling up under the surface, or that still waters run deep. When cups are in play, a situation may be fluid, or on the rocks.
The Airy Suit of Swords
Because a sword moves through the air, the sword cards deal with the airy, heady realm of the intellect. They depict the way we think and communicate our ideas to others. The cards in the suit of swords should be near and dear to any serious writer. After all, swords cut through confusion, and they get straight to the point. They can pierce the veil of obscurity and pin down any concepts that seem unclear. The sword cards also demonstrate that language should be handled as a precision instrument. More often than not, the imagery of the sword cards demonstrate how words can be used as weapons of war. The sword cards also seem to depict the troubles we encounter when our ideas come into conflict with others, as well as the problems we impose on ourselves through negative thinking.
The imagery of the sword cards may suggest someone with a piercing glance, a rapacious wit, a sharp tongue, or a cutting remark. Elementally, swords could represent someone with his or her head in the clouds, an airhead, airy-faerie ideals, or someone who needs to come back to earth.
The Earthly Realm of Pentacles
Pentacle cards embody the tangible realities of physical and material life - the fundamental nature of earthly existence. They often represent money or property, as well as the treasures we hold dear on an emotional and spiritual level. In most tarot decks, pentacles look like coins with star-shaped designs. That pattern is symbolic of humanity’s physical nature: when you stand with your arms extended and your feet apart, someone could trace the shape of a five-pointed star around your body, with one point on the top of your head, and the other four points on your outstretched hands and feet.
The suit of pentacles deals with issues that are serious and real - like real estate. The pentacle cards often refer to people who are earthy and grounded. The cards might even hint at grave concerns that haunt those of us on the physical plane. The pentacle cards also embody the dimensions of time and space; in readings, the pentacle cards may strongly imply that time really is money what should be well spent.
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