Tarot card names: take a closer look at the inscriptions

The words are part of the image

When we look at a tarot card, the figure often draws our attention before the lettering. A name, number, or small inscription also deserves a moment. Reading what is actually printed gives us a concrete first question: what words are on this card? We can then explore what they bring to mind and keep those associations separate from anything we know about the future.

Start with your own copy. Write out its title as it appears, including spaces and punctuation. If a letter is hard to read, leave it uncertain. An incomplete transcription is more accurate than a guess presented as certain.

Two inscriptions documented by the BnF

The Bibliothèque nationale de France gives two specific examples from Philippe Vachier’s tarot deck. The Two of Coins carries the date 1639. The Two of Cups bears the workshop mark “À l’enseigne des deux rois” (“At the Sign of the Two Kings”). Both details appear in the library’s record for the deck.

A printed date and a workshop mark are physical clues to how cards were made. By themselves, they tell us little about the symbolic intent behind each detail and give us no grounds for divination.

An exercise in close reading

Voyancea offers this as a creative exercise. It does not come from a scientific method or a reconstructed historical practice. Pick a card you already own and look only at its text for a minute. Where does it appear? How much space does it take up? Is it complete, abbreviated, or partly covered by the drawing?

Then write two separate sentences. Use the first to describe something you can show on the card: “The title is printed below the figure.” Use the second for your impression: “This word makes me think of leaving.” You can revise the second sentence freely because it records how you read the image at this moment.

A fictional example

Imagine a card titled “The Passage” with a small door drawn near a figure. The word and the door might suggest a transition to you. Someone else could see a place to stop. Both associations make sense in this fictional example, and neither describes a real event or a hidden message.

If you want to know why the maker chose a title in your deck, consult the catalog or guidebook if one is available. Keep the maker’s explanation separate from your own associations. When there is no explanation, leaving the question open does more justice to the object than inventing an intention.

Read the words alongside the drawing

Reading the names of tarot cards gives you a way into the deck’s design and vocabulary. Sometimes a small printed detail changes the way you see the card. A careful reading helps you identify what the card shows, what a source explains, and what you imagine.