Ace (tarot)
An Ace is the first numbered card of each of the four Minor Arcana suits, four Aces in a 78-card deck. It carries the number 1: the pure seed of its element, potential not yet unfolded. Ace of Wands the creative spark (Fire), Ace of Cups the source of feeling (Water), Ace of Swords the cutting idea (Air), Ace of Pentacles the material seed (Earth). It is the raw gift of the suit.
The beginning of each suit
When an Ace appears in your spread, welcome it as a door swinging open. Nothing is done yet, but everything is offered: a fresh energy, proper to its element, waiting for you to take hold. In Rider-Waite-Smith imagery a hand often emerges from a cloud holding out the symbol, like a gift life sets in your palm.
Reading an Ace with what follows
An Ace finds its sense in what surrounds it. Alone, it announces potential; followed by a Two or Three of its suit, it shows where the surge wants to go. Ask what seed it sets down and in which area: a heart opening, an idea breaking through, a project starting, a resource appearing.
Sources
- , The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911)
- , Tarot for Your Self (1984)