MAJOR ARCANA
The World Tarot Meanings
We’ve reached the end of the major arcana cycle and we are greeted by our final card, The World. The World Tarot card is a good sign that we have reached the end of a cycle. We can close out this specific chapter and start writing a new one.
In the four corners, we once again have the four fixed astrological signs as we did in Wheel of Fortune. These are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.
The fixed astrological signs are the doers of the zodiac and represent our ability to actively learn, create and dedicate the self to growth.
These signs perfectly illustrate The World’s Tarot meanings of completion, ascension and closure. It’s like reaching the end of a degree and finally graduating, diploma in hand.
The World Upright Meanings
In the upright position, The World is a Tarot card of completion, it is the precipice of a new beginning and a new chance to learn further lessons and advance yourself. The main upright meanings of The World are:
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Completion
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New Beginning
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Success
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Travel
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End of cycle
The World is the card of Saturn and ruled by the element of Earth. It’s all about finding your feet and feeling ready to take a new leap into a new unknown. Often The World comes with a feeling of catharsis and relaxation, a feeling like you can finally take a breather.
The World Reversed Meanings
In the reversed position, The World shows us stalling, unable to fully make it to this next level of being. It’s like floating but being tied down by a weight that we have no control over.
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Stuck
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Setbacks
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Undeserving
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Lack of effort
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Comfort zone
Ascending into something new is a scary prospect, so there’s a lot that can crop up to prevent us from doing so. The World in reverse shows us when we have the opportunity to rise up, but hints that there is one string left to cut before we can fully move into this next cycle.
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Reading The World in a Tarot Spread
When The World Tarot card appears, the end is near (not in a doomsday kind of way!).
It’s always a welcome sight, especially when we’ve been struggling through a cycle, or if it’s been a rough time.
With The World, it’s always best to approach it from the perspective of something coming to a close and a cycle being completed. From there, you can decide what that cycle is and what may be standing in your way of moving on, based on the other cards in the spread.
It’s important to note that this card feels more like the closing of a book, rather than the closing of a chapter. Although you may be led onto a cycle that feels similar, this narrative is in fact over.
The World as An Invitation
As an invitation, The World Tarot card comes to us to ask that we embrace the new beginning that is on offer. It is inviting us to ascend and to think about what the next cycle may look like.
For The World, this invitation could be the following:
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An invitation to look at all you’ve learned and achieved over this cycle
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An invitation to embrace the new beginning on offer
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An invitation to see if there’s anything that may stop you from being able to finally close out this cycle
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An invitation to travel or explore new places, this could be internally or literal travel
The World as Sage Advice
The World is one of the wisest cards in the tarot because it has been through a full rotation and learned everything there is to learn in this cycle. Therefore, we can be confident that what it has to say will be worth hearing.
Some advice The World may offer is:
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Accept closure, even if it seems scary
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Always take time to think about how far you’ve come, never take the baby steps it took to get to where you are for granted
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Your comfort zone is a great place to be, but if you want more from life, you should always be challenging it
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Reaching your goals isn’t always easy and there may be setbacks, but that’s all they are. Have patience and trust that you’ll get to where you want to be in time
The World as a Lesson
Although The World suggests that all lessons have been learned for this cycle, there are still lessons we can pick out from this card. Mainly, these lessons revolve around acceptance, curiosity about the unknown and knowing when it’s time to move on.
Some lessons that The World may offer you are:
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To learn when it’s time to close the door on something and move on to the next thing
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To learn how to trust divine timing and allow things to open and close organically
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To learn about our own comfort zone and how and when to challenge it
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To learn about self-appreciation and being able to see our journey from an objective POV
The World as a Redirection
As a redirection, The World often symbolises that there is only up from here. It may be that we are focusing too much on what was and that is causing us to stay where we are, unable to take that final leap forwards.
As a redirection, The World could symbolise a need to:
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Let go and allow yourself to grow into the next stage of being
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Welcome to a new beginning
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To not allow setbacks to make you give up striving for completion
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To look at what could come next and not what came before
The World - Number 21
Much like the other numbers in the 20s, the number 21 – The World’s number – has meaning defined by its individual digits. We have the number two, a number of duality and balance, alongside the number of one, the spark of creation.
Together these two give us 21, a number that shows how everything in equilibrium can create space for something new and exciting to emerge. This is the same for The World. We come to the end of our Major Arcana journey, all our ducks are in a row, all the lessons have been learned and now we can ascend to a new level of creation, ready to start something new.
The World - Saturn
If you’ve never heard of a Saturn Return I highly recommend diving into it. The World’s astrological sign is Saturn, the keeper of time. It determines our discipline, responsibility and all of our limitations. When faced with The World, we look down on all of those things with a crystal clear birds eye view, often most prominent during our Saturn Return.
It’s very similar to the feeling of clarity that comes with retrospect. We finally find ourselves far enough away from everything that has come before to fully make sense of it.
The World - Explorer
I couldn’t decide whether to place The World within the archetype of the hero or the explorer. In many ways it straddles both, similarly to The Fool. However, I’ve gone with Explorer for now, mostly because there’s so much freedom that comes with completion and that’s the core of The World Tarot card.
The freedom we receive with The World is similar to what we get at the end of a marathon or a particularly challenging task. It’s a release of everything that’s been building and the sense of complete freedom that comes with that.
