Classic meanings: Death, failure, miscarriage, delay, deception, disappointment, despair.

The meaning for love is clarified by specific arcanum: A man cannot recover from such devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not, he does not.

Original description of the card by the author – Arthur Edward Waite: One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of utter desolation.

Classic meanings: Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty.

The signifficance for love is explained by specific arcanum: Several times you had been very close to it, but it just never quite happened. What you should know is that you have to break walls before you build love.

Original description of the card by the author – Arthur Edward Waite: The face suggests that of a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul, she has also the serious cast of intelligence, she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein.

Classic meanings: Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy.

The meaning for love is clarified by specific arcanum: You are an acquired taste.

Original description of the card by the author – Arthur Edward Waite: The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross, while the figure—from the position of the legs—forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus about the head of the seeming martyr. It should be noted (1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon, (2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering, (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, but life and not death. It is a card of profound significance, but all the significance is veiled. One of his editors suggests that Eliphas Lévi did not know the meaning, which is unquestionable—nor did the editor himself. It has been called falsely a card of martyrdom, a card of prudence, a card of the Great Work, a card of duty, but we may exhaust all published interpretations and find only vanity. I will say very simply on my own part that it expresses the relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and the Universe.

He who can understand that the story of his higher nature is imbedded in this symbolism will receive intimations concerning a great awakening that is possible, and will know that after the sacred Mystery Of Death there is a glorious Mystery Of Resurrection.

Classic meanings: Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny, also sickness.

In this tarot spread the card has complementary explanation: He didn’t deserve compassion. He deserved worse, far worse than he had ever been given.

Original description of the card by the author – Arthur Edward Waite: A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her. Yet it is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable bondage.

Classic meanings: The card foretells material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated—that is, destitution—or otherwise. For some cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers—wife, husband, friend, mistress, also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be harmonized.

Concerning love, this card is clarified by: If I fall deeply and madly in love with you, you would have the blood of my love-sickness on your hands.

Original description of the card by the author – Arthur Edward Waite: Two mendicants in a snowstorm pass a lighted casement.