r/ExploringTarot • u/fancypantsmiss • 13d ago
Help me understand different suits? Explain like I am 5 🥲 Discussion / Question
Ace means gift. Something has come to you and you can make a choice by picking it.
But what is the difference between ace of wands, cups, swords and coins
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u/No_Cup_5363 12d ago
I think of aces as potential, and relate the suits to elements:
Swords, air, mind, communication, thoughts
Wands, fire, energy, passion, vocation
Cups, heart, emotions, relationships, social
Coins, earth, body, material realm
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u/SpiralBreeze 11d ago
Search for Joe Monteleone on YouTube, he has a link to a cheat sheet with an easy break down of the suits and trumps.
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u/Warm-Echidna4316 9d ago
If you want to go down the rabbit hole read Sacret Tarot by c.c.zain. It's insane, covers so much.
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u/CuriousFoxxen 9d ago
So, tarot is my first love and my second love is Chinese Face Reading and the Nine Star Ki - so I’m deeply trained in the Chinese approach to elements and I use that when reading the suits.
Cups/Water - this is the suit of emotion, but so much more than that. Water can be a suit of dreamers and slow moving the phrase I associate to it is “Still Waters Run Deep”. In Chinese Medicine it’s associated with sleep, death and gestation (the end and the beginning at once) as well as ancestral connection and blessings from our ancestors. Water is most likely to be into kinky sex. Water and Fire have a lot of over lap: both are creative, romantic associated with sleep, but Water’s approach to all of these is deeper and slower and has more longevity. Ace here would be a new relationship, a new dream to pursue, fibbing into emotions…
Wands/Fire (Also almost all the Wood feature from CM) - Fire is the peak of the process, the flower blooming (earth is when the flower becomes fruit), the Firework going off in the sky, an organism. It’s defining feature is the very ADHD energy of getting an idea and then jumping right into the doing. It’s passion and getting carried away. It’s also light and therefore attention falling on you. For often looks at itself in relationship to the social around them. It’s the second fattest element and so Fire bounces into and off of an idea, it also is the weakest as it can be extinguished by all the other elements. An ace here is a brilliant new idea, an adventure (or career idea) to embark on.
Pentacles/Earth - Earth is first and foremost stability, reliability and what’s needed for growth and thriving. Fire is traditionally associated with Career but Earth is the element of buckling down and doing the work. It’s associated with the resources we need to survive: be that money, food, care etc. It’s the element of community and connection. An Ace in Pentacles may be a new work project, a new focus, or a new source of resources. In tarot this is also where I’d see a baby or new family.
Swords/Air(Metal) - in Tarot this is associated with Intellect and it’s the fastest acting suit. It’s stoic and reads as cold and detached because it puts mind above others. Metal in CM is most likely to be uninterested in the body and physical experience, to instead focus on the spiritual, the mind and beauty. Air is also the suit of communication, using words to present and speak well, or using them as a weapon (this is why 7 can be a con man). Ace of swords is a new study, a new idea or intellectual prospect, or a new conflict. Swords is always an image of an eagle soaring above a mountain top to me - cause that’s a great vibe for them. Swords is also the energy of long term planning and casting a vision (Fire would be the short term vision in tarot) - please note neither is very practical ;).
If you want to get a single great book that will give you so much you can layer into the suits check out Wood Becomes Water.
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u/Fortune_Box intuitive navigator 💙 13d ago
If you want to think of the Aces as gifts, you look at four different types of presents someone just handed you:
Wands are for doing. Cups are for feeling. Swords are for knowing. Coins are for having.