The Sun is card nineteen of the Major Arcana, and about as close to unambiguously good news as the deck gets. After the second-guessing of The Moon, the fog clears and the lights come up: joy, success, vitality and warmth. This is a complete guide to The Sun tarot card: its meaning upright and reversed, in love and career, and its astrology, crystals and symbolism. Read it as a mirror for reflection, not a fixed prediction.
Read your spread, interactively
Lay your cards in our free Tarot Reading Helper and it reads each position back to you, card by card.
Open the reading helperThe Sun at a Glance
| Trait | The Sun |
|---|---|
| Number | 19 |
| Arcana | Major |
| Upright keywords | Joy, success, positivity, vitality, warmth |
| Reversed keywords | Temporary gloom, blocked joy, over-optimism, low energy |
| Element | Fire |
| Planet | The Sun |
| Yes or no | Yes |
The Sun Upright Meaning
In the Rider-Waite-Smith image, a radiant sun beams over a walled garden where a child rides a white horse, arms flung open, a red banner streaming behind. Sunflowers turn to follow the light. Everything is open, bright and alive. It is the simplest and most cheerful picture in the deck, and it is not trying to be subtle about it: innocence and warmth under a generous sky.
Upright, The Sun is the card of joy, success and vitality. No mixed messages here: happiness, good health, achievement, confidence, and the clarity of being fully yourself in the light. It promises good things and the energy to actually enjoy them. When it turns up, take the hint. Let yourself shine, and trust that this is a bright, easy stretch.
"The sun is that of consciousness in the spirit."A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
The Sun Reversed Meaning
Reversed, The Sun rarely goes properly dark. Usually it just means the light is temporarily dimmed: a cloud drifting over your joy, a delay in success, low energy, or a happiness that has not quite landed yet. It can also flag over-optimism, or a brave face that does not match how you actually feel. Either way, the reassurance holds: the sun is still up there, even with a cloud passing over it. For more, see our guide to reversed tarot card meanings.
The Sun in Love
In love, the upright Sun is one of the nicest cards you can draw: warmth, happiness, and a relationship full of light, whether that is a flourishing partnership, a joyful new romance, or simply real ease and delight in each other. Reversed, it can point to a passing cloud, a happiness sitting just out of reach, or a cheerful front covering something underneath that needs attention.
The Sun in Career and Money
In work and money, The Sun upright is a glowing sign of success and abundance: achievement, recognition, a project that is thriving, a genuinely prosperous phase. Reversed, it can flag a delayed win, a temporary dip in confidence, or expectations that have drifted a touch too rosy.
The Sun and Astrology
Every Major Arcana card carries an astrological correspondence, and The Sun is ruled, with no great surprise, by the Sun itself, the centre of the chart and the source of vitality, identity and life. The Sun is who you are at your brightest, your essential self switched fully on, which is exactly the confidence this card runs on. You can explore the whole system in our guide to the planets in astrology.
The Sun and Crystals
If you want to carry the Sun's bright, vital energy around with you, a few crystals make fitting companions. Citrine is the stone of sunshine, joy and abundance, carnelian fuels warmth and vitality, and tiger's eye radiates confidence and optimism. These are traditional associations, not proven properties. Our guide to crystals for every zodiac sign pairs a stone with each sign and its ruling planet.
The Sun: Yes or No?
In a yes or no reading, The Sun leans Yes. It is the brightest card of joy, success and vitality in the deck, so tradition reads it as one of the strongest yes answers going.
The Sun as Feelings
Upright, the Sun reflects real warmth, happiness and openness: someone feeling alive, confident and glad to be seen, with emotions clear and unguarded. Reversed, the light is only dimmed: a passing low mood, blocked joy, or happiness that has not quite arrived.
The Sun as Advice
Enjoy this brightness and share it openly rather than holding back. If the joy feels delayed, trust that the cloud is only passing.
Is Tarot Real?
Honestly, tarot is a language of symbols and a tool for reflection, not a way to read a fixed future. The Sun cannot hand you endless happiness, and it would be lying to say otherwise. What it can do is point at the brightness you already have and tell you to actually enjoy it. Read it that way, keep what rings true and leave the rest. To keep going, explore the rest of the Major Arcana or find your tarot birth card. For a daily practice, pull a tarot card of the day.
Frequently asked questions
Upright, The Sun means joy, success and vitality. As card nineteen of the Major Arcana it is the brightest, most positive card in the deck, promising happiness, good health, achievement and the warm confidence of being fully yourself.
Reversed, The Sun rarely turns dark. It usually means the light is temporarily dimmed: a passing cloud over your joy, a delay in success, or low energy. It can also hint at over-optimism or a brave face that does not match how you feel.
The Sun is one of the strongest yes cards in the deck. It is overwhelmingly positive, a sign of success, joy and good fortune, so the answer is a confident and warm yes.
In love, The Sun upright is warmth, happiness and a relationship full of light: a flourishing partnership or a joyful new romance. Reversed, it can point to a temporary cloud or a cheerful front over something that needs care.
The Sun is numbered nineteen in the Major Arcana. In astrology it is ruled, fittingly, by the Sun itself, the centre of the chart and the source of vitality, identity and life.
The Sun represents joy, success and vitality: the radiant child on the white horse beneath an open sky. It is innocence, warmth and confidence, the simplest and happiest image of light in the deck.
