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Horizontal and Vertical Lines of the Tarot Major Arcana

There are 78 cards in a Tarot deck, 22 of which are the so-called Major Arcana Tarot cards, which denote grand over-arching themes that differentiate Tarot decks from a regular deck of playing cards (the remaining 56 Minor Arcana cards represent the small day-to-day actions that are more within our control). These cards can also be broken down into vertical and horizontal lines for further interpretation and musing points.

Read on for what the horizontal and vertical lines of the Tarot Major Arcana have to show us:

Horizontal Lines of the Tarot Major Arcana

The concept of lines in the Tarot was first introduced by the brilliant, late Rachel Pollack, Tarot scholar who pioneered the psychological Tarot movement and many of the definitions we currently hold for the cards in her famous book 78 Degrees of Wisdom. The lines of the Tarot are ways of conceptualising the story arc of The Fool’s Journey and allows for an extra way to look at the cards.

The horizontal lines are taken with The Fool apart and then broken down into three lines/rows of 7 cards each. They are as follows:

Line 1 of the Major Arcana

This line runs from the Magician to the Chariot and deals with our fundamental values, ego, and foundations. We are born into a new cycle here and have to begin to walk with all that that entails. The full list goes from: Magician - High Priestess - Empress - Emperor - Hierophant - Lovers - Chariot.

In The Magician we encounter our force of will, intention, and energetic sovereignty, then we move within to the High Priestess where we meet our innate wisdom, intuition, inner knowing, and instincts. The knowledge that cannot be described logically in words, only felt subtly through the body. Then we learn how to mother ourselves and the body itself, to come to realise our infinite fertility of creative potential, and natural abundance within and without.

We move on to the counterpart, The Emperor, and come to terms with our sense of agency, autonomy, and power, our ability to lead our lives. In the Hierophant we are confronted with the concept of teacher and student, of balancing our natural wisdom learnt thus far and external teachings. This comes to a complete realisation of the reflection in the other, we meet our counterparts in The Lovers and learn the line of inner vs. outer validation, of the concept of choice, and choosing ourselves first and foremost. And finally, we learn the spirit of perseverance, endurance, and focussing on the journey not the destination, as well as how to check in with when the way we are going about something may be outgrown, rather than the thing itself. We are preparing for a long journey!

Overall, line 1 of the Major Arcana is a rudimentary but essential discovery of self. It reminds me of our formative years in primary and secondary school- but a blip in the overall arch of our lives but at the time encompassing the whole world and seemingly infinite. Here is where we formulate our structure, framework, and the ground on which we will then go on to stand in the subsequent lines.

Line 2 of the Major Arcana

Here we get into the crux of the matter and juice of our story, experiencing trials and tribulations, dark nights of the soul, and profound breakthroughs, realisations, and tests. The full list is from: Strength - Hermit - Wheel of Fortune - Justice - Hanged One - Death - Temperance.

After the foundations of the first line, we begin here by finding our inner strength and learning the true meaning of what it is to be strong, to be open and vulnerable and deal with things with grace and gentleness even when it would be easier not to. We are also reminded of our innate strength and capacity to be brave- we’ll need it as we go on! We then enter the caves of our depths, excavating the gems of truth we find within, journeying into our souls and contemplating the value of solitude and self-exploration.

Then comes our first external experience, the lesson that not everything is in our control or power and that outside forces are always working upon us. It is the importance of understanding that the only constant is change, and to be in flux with the Universe and find our balance within the waves is the most easeful way. Justice comes along to bring the message home that things are constantly balancing and re-balancing themselves in the world, whether we agree with them or not- can we trust and allow things to be as is? And then we have what can be a profoundly uncomfortable spiritual experience, the one with getting comfortable in the quiet in-between spaces, the liminal moments adrift, having patience that we may see things from a different perspective if we wait long enough.

Finally, we are met with an ego death and our first endings and sheddings. We come face-to-face with the importance of death for life, of the sanctity of compost, the knowledge that one cannot exist without the other and not all endings are bad, but some can be and that’s OK. Here we put into practice the surrender we learnt in the Hanged One. We then encounter our first respite and reminder that we are always Divinely guided and supported, that we have the capacity within to temper and balance, to alchemise.

Overall line 2 is our first major life experiences and contemplations, the moment we are thrust into the world as young 20-somethings after the play rehearsal as Uni students, that make-believe in-between space of childhood and adulthood. We encounter the first Big Life Lessons as new adults, grappling with what it means to exist and be a human in this world.

Line 3 of the Major Arcana

In the final line we are faced with our last challenges and culminations points, before finally completing this cycle and integrating the lessons we learnt. It goes from: The Devil - The Tower - The Star - The Moon - The Sun - Judgement - World.

With The Devil as the first card we are immediately confronted with our shadows, this line is no joke! We are experienced enough now and with enough tools under our belt to know when we are being our own worst enemy and what vices are simply not serving us. This can lead us to some profound realisations and shatterings of “truth”- The Tower comes along to blitz away any outdated beliefs, ideals, identities, or modes of being. Like Death, the easiest way to deal with it is to surrender, there’s no fighting an earthquake and we will be offered the opportunity to build something sturdier and truer from the rubble afterwards.

This comes in the form of the gentle sweetness of The Star, a nourishing card of rest and respite, of hope and the importance of believing. After we have sufficiently filled up our cups, we are met with a final test of confusion- is what we know to be true really true? How do we know so? The Moon brings us a revisitation of our instincts, intuition, and the harmonisation with what we thought we knew, but things will not be clear while we are still in the dark. Luckily, The Sun rises to shine a light on all we have achieved and accomplished, allowing us a moment to bask in its glory and celebrate our wins. If things are unclear under the ink of The Moon, here they are glaringly bright! We may not always like what we see as Judgement invites us to take an honest, open look at our paths thus far and discern with impartial judgement all that has gone to pass. A final rite-of-passage.

In the end, we encounter the last stage of lessons learnt and integrated, our personal culmination point and momentous endings. We can appreciate the bittersweetness of this moment, embracing all the highs and lows, and resting in this space before rushing off to begin anew in The Fool. Here we learn the importance of endings.

Overall in this line we mature fully into adulthood, we become parents and teachers ourselves, mentors, and have lived long enough to look back on life and all that that entails. We are also reminded that after all this, we simply start back again at square one.

Vertical Lines of the Major Arcana

Again, The Fool, numbered 0, stands apart here and we take the same 3 horizontal lines as listed above, put them one under the other, and read them vertically as columns. Thus we are able to break down the 21 Major Arcana cards into 7 lines of three cards each, almost like a three card spread, to interpret them as so:

Line 1: Magician - Strength - Devil. This is an interesting line to contemplate because it tells a common tale of our hero discovering their power, then encountering their enduring strength, and finally their demise if taken too far. Magician - Strength - Devil to me is a reminder that while yes we are innately powerful and capable of achieving great feats of strength, we are still but human and that is OK. In befriending our “devil” we still have a great many lessons to learn that can then feed back into our manifestations (Magician).
Line 2: High Priestess - Hermit - Tower. This arc speaks to me of the profound realisations and “a-ha” moments that can literally rock your world. While we can all know intellectually that each of us possesses intuition and instinct, it is often only after we have truly spent time with ourselves in quite dedication, discipline, and discernment that we can glean our concrete guiding light. This can then lead to some earth-shattering moments! It may feel literally like the ground is breaking beneath us, but luckily we know ourselves well enough here to know that there is always a quiet after the storm.
Line 3: Empress - Wheel of Fortune - Star. I love this line as the endless ebb and flow of the Universe. In the Empress we are met with our inner richness, fecundity, and abundance, we allow ourselves to be nourished, supported, generative, and taken care of; and can then better meet the ups and downs of the ever-turning Wheel from this place. Within the discombobulation of the Wheel, we are reminded that while there are ups and downs, the ups are often sweeter after we have been down. The balm of The Star is sweet indeed!
Line 4: Emperor - Justice - Moon. I also love this line as a reminder that nothing is rarely just black and white, but shades of nighttime grey. In the Emperor we gain our footing and ability to stand on our own two feet, in Justice we are confronted with what does it truly mean to be a good leader? Inevitably what’s fair is not always equal, an older child needs more food than a baby. While we are wrestling with the concepts of right and wrong and trusting in that things are always working out to a level of homeostasis eventually, we need to learn to trust this level-footing more than ever in The Moon. To trust that the ground we are standing on truly is firm.
Line 5: Hierophant - Hanged Man - Sun. Here we have a spiritual path of external teachings met with the inner liminality, of allowing the proper time for things to digest- as much as we may like we cannot "spiritual retreat” our way to a decade of growth in a weekend away. Things take time and are murky, patience is required. If we can find the balance between our lineages and teachers, and holding space for a multitude of perspectives, truths, and worldviews, we can eventually reach more light and visibility.
Line 6: Lovers - Death - Judgement. This is another interesting one in that people can be our biggest teachers. Through the other we can experience ego death, to be in relationship requires compromise and sacrifice, and in choosing one thing we must naturally let go of another. Once we have formed the foundation of ourselves and met ourself in the other, seeing the world as a reflection, we can shed old layers of self. And then, we can come to the profound realisation that it takes two to tango, in everything that happens we always have a choice.
Line 7: Chariot - Temperance - World. This final line speaks to me of the never-ending perseverance and endurance along our path in life, there is no getting off the ride until the end. While we first begin to encounter our capacities for carrying on, we may perhaps shed a layer or change a way of doing things, and in this come to a greater place of ease and balance. In understanding that “this too shall pass” and that patience and everything in moderation can make many things easier, we also have a reminder that we are continuously guided in some way or another along our journey.

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Those are some of the ways to interpret the horizontal and vertical lines of the Tarot Major Arcana, I hope they’re insightful for you! Let me know in the comments section below if you have anything else to add or any questions.

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