Western Tarot symbolism
The Sun
A child rides a white horse and carries a red standard outside a walled garden. The commentary contrasts the Sun’s direct spiritual consciousness with reflected light. Its divinatory list speaks of happiness and contentment, while the symbolic account gives innocence the quality of wisdom rather than ignorance. The child marks renewal of the person’s relation to natural life.
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In the sources
Principal account
LiteraryA child rides a white horse and carries a red standard outside a walled garden. The commentary contrasts the Sun’s direct spiritual consciousness with reflected light.
Further detail
LiteraryIts divinatory list speaks of happiness and contentment, while the symbolic account gives innocence the quality of wisdom rather than ignorance. The child marks renewal of the person’s relation to natural life.
Context & interpretation
The active library scan carries L. W. de Laurence’s name and reproduces material associated with A. E. Waite’s Tarot exposition. Its symbolic descriptions and divinatory lists are distinct registers, and neither provides a guaranteed prediction.
Original passages
Source 1
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
humanity has become a little child therein—a child in the sense of simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the sealOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Western Tarot symbolism; active reader leaf 79
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0149-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0149-E001-P0079
- Original scan leaf
- 84
- Recorded leaf number
- 84
- Current Reader position
- 79
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 2
The Illustrated Key to the Tarot: The Veil of Divination
of deception and error. 19. The Sun.—Material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment. Reversed: The same in a lesser sense. 20. The Last Judgment.—ChangeOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Western Tarot symbolism; active reader leaf 149
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0149-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0149-E001-P0149
- Original scan leaf
- 155
- Recorded leaf number
- 155
- Current Reader position
- 149
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Continue exploring
Death
A rider whose passage joins mortality with transformation.
Shared source pageJudgment
A trumpet’s summons calls the figures from their tombs.
Shared source pageTemperance
The blending of life’s essences between earth and water.
Shared source pageThe Devil
Material bondage depicted through a horned figure and chained pair.