21 - The World Tarot Card

The World is the 22^nd and last tarot card of the Major Arcana.

Despite the title of the card, the image depicted on The World tarot card is not necessarily of a globe or map of the world. The ideas conveyed by this card are more usually shown in the form of many symbols that, together, represent fertility, creativity, and protection.

Nude female figures are common icons on The World tarot card and are used in, for example the popular Rider-Waite and Robin Wood decks.

The World is an inherently positive, joyful card. It is a gift and a delight whenever it appears in tarot spreads because it is usually interpreted using such expressions as

"the world is your oyster"
"all possibilities are available and open to you"
"success with a project or mission"
"an opportunity to move smoothly into the next cycle of life" and so on.

The World tarot card is sometimes titled 'The Universe', e.g. in the Golden Dawn tarot deck.

Some specific terms associated with The World tarot card include:

Completion
Success
Culmination of awareness
A new beginning
Infinite possibilities
Triumph over difficulties
Triumph over 'all the odds'

Detailed comment about the World tarot card varies according to the deck used because the imagery and symbolism in individual cards varies with the deck and its overall theme. It is also important to consider the position of the card within the spread.

Note: The image of this tarot card shown on the right (above-right) is from an early French tarot deck that has been made available for general use via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This shows a distinctly different style of illustration from that of modern tarot decks but is of historical and artistic interest.

The Gilded Tarot (Book and Tarot Deck Set)

More about the Major Arcana

The cards of the Major Arcana are widely considered to be the most powerful cards in the Tarot Deck. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana tell a complete story when arranged in upright and numerical order (beginning with 0 - The Fool then progressing through the sequence of Major Arcana cards until 21 - The World).
This is a story of personal development and enlightenment that is sometimes referred to as "The Fool's Journey".

Some texts also include meanings for "reversed cards". These are for the situation in which the cards are shuffled in both order and orientation. The theoretical advantage to this is that it effectively doubles the number of possible "cards" in the deck from 78 to 156. However, in terms of the calculation of obtaining results according to chance alone, it is not a simple mathematical doubling because once a card has been drawn it cannot be drawn again in the opposite orientation in the same reading.

Click here for more Major Arcana cards

Tarot

Tarot Reference

Individual Tarot Cards

Minor Arcana

Major Arcana