Tag Archives: tarot

We have covered four layers of tarot symbolism so far: numerology, color, direction and body language, and clouds and weather. Each one adds a different kind of depth to a reading. Today we are turning our attention to the animals that appear throughout the Rider-Waite deck, because there are more of them than most people realize, and not one of them is there by accident.

Tarot Symbolism 105: What the Animals in Your Cards Are Saying

Animals in tarot carry both instinctive and symbolic meaning. They represent aspects of human nature that exist below the level of rational thought: drives, fears, loyalties, and appetites that do not show up cleanly in the human figures. When an animal appears in a card, it is almost always pointing to something primal, something that operates outside of what the conscious mind controls. Learning to read them gives you a direct line into the deeper layers of what a card is communicating.

Why Animals Matter in a Reading

The human figures in a tarot card represent the conscious actors in a situation: the choices being made, the roles being played, the intentions at work. Animals represent everything underneath that. A dog in the corner of a card is not just decorative. It is telling you something about loyalty, instinct, or the presence of a faithful companion, depending on the context. A serpent coiled around a figure is not just visual interest. It is carrying centuries of symbolic weight about wisdom, temptation, and transformation all at once.

I always tell my clients to notice animals the same way they notice people in a card. Ask what the animal is doing, not just what it is. A horse standing still carries different energy from a horse mid-gallop. A dog sitting calmly at its owner’s feet carries different energy from a dog barking at the edge of a cliff. The animal’s posture and position matter just as much as its species.

Animals Reference

Here is a quick reference for the animals most commonly found in Rider-Waite tarot cards and what each one generally brings to a reading.

Animal	Core Energy	General Meaning
Dog	Loyalty	Faithfulness, protection, companionship, and instinctive trust
Cat	Independence	Self-sufficiency, mystery, and quiet observation
Horse	Power	Freedom, momentum, raw energy, and the drive to move forward
Bull / Ox	Endurance	Strength, stubbornness, fertility, and connection to the earth
Lion	Courage	Strength, nobility, passion, and the force of will over instinct
Eagle	Vision	Higher perspective, spiritual authority, and the ability to see clearly from above
Dove	Peace	Hope, purity, divine blessing, and the arrival of calm after difficulty
Raven / Crow	Omen	Hidden knowledge, the unconscious, transformation, and messages from unseen places
Ibis	Wisdom	Esoteric knowledge, communication with the divine, and the written record of truth
Butterfly	Transformation	Change, rebirth, the soul in transition, and beauty emerging from struggle
Serpent / Snake	Duality	Wisdom and temptation, healing and danger, cycles of death and renewal
Crayfish / Lobster	The unconscious	Primitive instinct, things rising from the depths, and fears surfacing from below
Fish	Abundance	Fertility, the unconscious mind, spiritual nourishment, and emotional depth
Ram / Goat	Determination	Ambition, headstrong energy, the push through obstacles, and Aries energy
Elephant	Memory	Ancient wisdom, patience, and the weight of accumulated experience
Wolf	Instinct	Raw nature, the untamed self, and the call of primal forces
Sphinx	Mystery	Ancient riddles, the threshold between the known and unknown, and timeless wisdom

Quick Examples

The Fool has a small white dog at his heels. People debate whether the dog is warning him or celebrating with him, and that ambiguity is the point. The dog represents loyal instinct, the part of us that travels alongside our choices without judgment. It is not stopping The Fool. It is simply there, which says something about the nature of the leap he is taking.

Strength shows a woman gently closing the mouth of a lion with her bare hands. The lion is raw passion, anger, and physical force. The woman is not fighting it or fleeing from it. She is meeting it with calm and quiet confidence. The entire meaning of the card lives in that relationship between the human figure and the animal. Without the lion, there is no Strength card. It is the thing being worked with, not overcome.

The Moon card places a crayfish at the edge of a pool, beginning to climb out of the water. The crayfish represents the most primitive layer of the unconscious: the fears and instincts that live so deep we barely know they are there until they surface. Its emergence from the water is not comfortable. It is the moment when something that has been hidden below finally begins to come up, whether we are ready for it or not.

The Chariot shows two sphinxes, one black and one white, harnessed to the vehicle but pulling in opposite directions. They represent opposing forces that the charioteer has not fully tamed but has learned to direct. The card is not about domination. It is about holding competing energies in enough tension to move forward anyway. The sphinxes make that meaning specific in a way that no amount of text could.

How to Use This When You Read

When an animal appears in a card, slow down and give it a moment before moving on:

•  What animal is it, and what does it carry symbolically?

•  What is the animal doing? Is it still, moving, threatening, or at ease?

•  How is it positioned relative to the human figures in the card?

•  Is the same animal appearing in more than one card in your spread?

That last question is worth paying attention to. When the same animal shows up across multiple cards in a spread, it is usually pointing to a theme that runs through the entire reading. Multiple cards featuring dogs, for example, might be pointing to questions of loyalty or trust running through the situation as a whole. Let the animal symbolism work across the spread, not just within each individual card.

Animals are meant to add instinctive depth to a reading, not replace the card’s traditional meaning. Keep the question, the position in the spread, and your own intuition in the mix. The animals are speaking. It is worth listening to what they have to say.

Coming Up Next

Next we move from animals to the plant world and look at the flowers, vines, trees, and vegetation that appear throughout the Rider-Waite deck. Plants carry their own rich symbolic language, and some of the most quietly important symbolism in the deck lives in the details of what is growing in the background. After plants and flowers, the series continues through the four elements, celestial symbols, clothing, objects, landscapes and buildings, and repeated symbols.

Have you started noticing the animals in your cards? If so, what are your thoughts?

Tarot readings are intended for adults age 18 and older and are provided for entertainment and personal reflection. Tarot should not replace professional medical, legal, mental health, or financial advice.

© 2026 Kim’s Esoteric Tarot Journals. All rights reserved.

Tarot Symbolism 102: Reading Color in the Cards

Tarot Symbolism 102: Reading Color in the Cards

Last time, we looked at numerology and how the number on a card tells you where a situation sits in its natural cycle. Today we are moving into the next layer of tarot symbolism: color. Color is one of the first things your eye lands on when you pull a card, and it is doing a lot of quiet work before you even start thinking about the card’s traditional meaning.

You have probably already felt this without realizing it. A card dominated by dark grays and blacks reads differently than one filled with gold and white, even before your brain processes the image. The artists behind the Rider-Waite deck did not choose colors at random. Every shade in those illustrations carries meaning, and once you know what to look for, color becomes one of the fastest ways to get an immediate emotional read on a card before you consult any other reference.

What Color Adds to a Reading

Traditional card meanings tell you what a card is about. Color tells you how it feels. A card with warm reds and oranges has a different energy than the same type of card rendered in cool blues and grays, even if the structural meaning is the same. Color speaks directly to the emotional temperature of a situation.

When you are reading a spread, notice whether the cards are dominated by warm tones, cool tones, or a mix. A reading full of warm reds and yellows often signals action, urgency, or passion. A reading heavy in blues and purples tends to point toward inner work, spirituality, or a situation that calls for calm reflection. A mix of dark and light throughout the spread can indicate tension between what is known and what remains unresolved.

Color Chart

Here is a quick reference for the colors most commonly found in Rider-Waite tarot cards and what each one generally brings to a reading.

Color	Core Energy	General Meaning
Red	Passion	Action, desire, courage, and raw energy
Orange	Drive	Ambition, creativity, and enthusiasm
Yellow	Clarity	Optimism, intellect, and mental energy
Green	Growth	Abundance, healing, and connection to nature
Blue	Truth	Calm, communication, intuition, and spiritual awareness
Purple / Violet	Wisdom	Mysticism, higher knowledge, and spiritual depth
White	Purity	Clarity, innocence, spiritual protection, and new beginnings
Black	Mystery	The unknown, transition, endings, and the subconscious
Gray	Neutrality	Uncertainty, ambiguity, and situations not yet resolved
Brown	Grounding	Practicality, stability, and connection to the earth
Gold	Radiance	Divine energy, success, spiritual illumination, and high achievement

Quick Examples

The Fool is surrounded by white and yellow. The white sun behind him signals purity and divine protection. The yellow background reinforces optimism and the open, unguarded energy of someone stepping into something entirely new. Even before you think about the cliff or the little dog, the color palette alone tells you this is a card of bright, unfiltered possibility.

The High Priestess is almost entirely blue. Her robes, the curtain behind her, and the water at her feet all carry that cool, still, inward quality. Blue here is not melancholy. It is the color of deep knowing, intuition held quietly rather than spoken aloud. The card feels calm because it is meant to. That stillness is the point.

Compare that to The Tower. The dark sky, the gray stone, and the burst of orange and red flames tell the story before you read a single word. The warm tones of fire against the cold structure signal sudden disruption. Nothing about that color palette is comfortable, and it is not supposed to be.

The Star brings a shift back to blues and soft neutrals, with a single figure pouring water under a clear sky full of stars. After the chaos of The Tower, the color palette alone signals relief and renewal. Even without knowing anything else about the card, it reads as calmer and more hopeful than what came before it.

How to Use This When You Read

When a card comes up in a spread, try asking a few quick questions about its color:

•  What is the dominant color on this card?

•  Does the color feel warm, cool, or neutral?

•  Does the color match or contrast with the card’s traditional meaning?

•  Is this color repeated anywhere else in the spread?

That last question is worth sitting with. When the same color appears across multiple cards in a spread, it is rarely a coincidence. A spread with blue showing up in three or four cards is pointing toward a theme of intuition, communication, or spiritual awareness, even before you read the individual cards in detail. Color repetition strengthens a message the same way number repetition does.

Color is meant to add depth to a reading, not replace the card’s traditional meaning. Keep the question, the position in the spread, and your intuition in the mix.

Coming Up Next

Color is just one more layer of the symbolic language running through every tarot card. In the next blog, we will look at direction and body language: what a figure’s gaze, posture, and position on the card reveal about the energy at play. From there, the series continues through clouds and weather, animals, plants and flowers, the four elements, celestial symbols, clothing, objects, landscapes and buildings, and repeated symbols.

Have you started noticing color in your readings? If so, what are your thoughts?

Tarot readings are intended for adults aged 18 and older and are provided for entertainment and personal reflection. Tarot should not replace professional medical, legal, mental health, or financial advice.

© 2026 Kim’s Esoteric Tarot Journals. All rights reserved.