The Sun

Joy, warmth, and clear light. The day after the long night.

The picture

A great sun with a face shines at the top of the card, sending out rays both straight and wavy. Below it a naked child rides a white horse, one arm flung out wide, wearing a wreath of flowers with a red feather. The child holds a large red banner. Behind them runs a grey stone wall with sunflowers growing over it.

Upright

The Sun follows the Moon, and after all that uncertain light, everything is plain to see. No shadows, nothing hidden, nothing to guess at.

The child on the horse has no saddle and no reins, and needs neither. That is the feeling of this card: ease, trust, and joy that does not need a reason. When the Sun turns up, things are going well, or are about to. Success, health, warmth between people, a clear head. It is one of the happiest cards in the deck, and I am quite happy to let it be that.

The wall behind the child matters too. The garden is behind you now, and you have ridden out into the open. Whatever you were sheltering from, you no longer need to.

Reversed

Reversed, the Sun is still the Sun. The light is there and it is weakened, like a sunny day behind a thin layer of cloud. I read it most often as blocked: the good thing is present and you cannot quite feel it, because you are tired, or distracted, or waiting for the catch. It can also be too much, the joy turning into showing off, the child riding a little too fast.

To tell which applies, ask whether you are enjoying what is already in front of you. If life is going well and you feel flat, it is blocked, and the card asks you to go outside and stand in the sun for five minutes. It works better than it sounds. If you are shining so hard nobody else can get a word in, it is too much.

When it turns up

What is going well right now that you have not stopped to enjoy?

The Sun has also been a Tarot Card of the Week. Read that post to see the card at work on a real week.

If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.

Related pages
The Sun as a Birth Card · The Twenty Two Paths