10 Tarot Cards That Understand Exactly How You Feel

Tarot is a language of its very own. When you get to know the cards intimately, you realize how deeply human they are. Some experiences are so intrinsic to your humanity that you can all relate to them. Pettiness, grief, and flirtatiousness are ancient and here to stay. The emotions in the cards transcend time, generations, and trends entirely. If you’ve felt it, there’s a card for it.

Familiarity with the tarot results in a visceral feeling of interconnectedness. They bring the reminder that you all have much more in common with one another than you realize. You’re more similar than you are different. By simplifying the complexities of life into the archetypal image of the Fool’s Journey, tarot makes it easy to find yourself in every part of the story. The Fool’s Journey represents the trials and tribulations you all endure throughout life on the path to emotional and spiritual maturity.

Tarot helps you to articulate the complex range of your emotional experiences with more ease. When you can’t find the words, the cards do a pretty great job of summing it up bluntly. The longer you interact with the cards, the deeper you realize that life is simpler than you make it out to be. You tend to overcomplicate things in your mind. Seeing your experiences reflected in imagery allows you to connect the dots with more ease. Read ahead to check out some tarot translations for those tricky situations where it can be hard to find the right words to say.

1. Heartbroken? That’s the 3 of Swords

In the 3 of Swords, we see a bright red heart stabbed by 3 sharp daggers upon an overcast, rainy scene. The pain is glaringly obvious: when you see it, it hurts. This card represents grief, betrayal, heartbreak, and pain. When you’re in the throes of a broken heart, it can be hard to see anything else. The pain is blinding. There’s nothing else in the scene to look at: the sadness consumes the entire image, which is exactly how it feels when your heart gets stomped on. While this card can directly relate to getting dumped unexpectedly, it can speak to much deeper pain too. This is the card you might see after experiencing an incredibly painful death of a loved one, a harsh betrayal in the workplace, or losing your home. If your eyes are blinded by tears and your heart physically hurts, the 3 of Swords is the card that says it all. Don’t worry, though; the 4 of Swords that follows promises much-needed rest and recuperation.

2. Bad Vibes? That’s the High Priestess

The High Priestess represents sharp intuition and coveted knowledge. She knows before everyone else in the room when there’s something off about someone. She might even come off a little rude when it comes to this person at first, because there’s not a ton of concrete evidence to support her theory yet. She just knows. Eventually, the off-putting energy she picked up on starts to reveal itself, and people finally see where she was coming from. She’s learned to be a little more discerning with the impressions she shares, trusting the truth will reveal itself in due time.

3. Unbothered and Thriving? That’s the 9 of Pentacles

The 9 of Pentacles is an independent, unbothered beauty living her best life. She’s enjoying the fruits of her labor from a garden built, sustained, and flourished entirely by her own making. She knows for certain that she can offer herself more than anyone else in the world ever could. She sources her fulfillment from within, and it shows. The 9 of Pentacles in real life looks like the self-employed woman living lavishly in the home she owns independently, eating what she wants to eat, sleeping when she wants to sleep, vacationing when she wants to vacation, and working whenever it’s convenient.

4. Crashing Out? That’s the 9 of Swords

Sleepless nights, ridiculous anxiety, worrying about the future and the past, unable to escape your own mind…that’s the 9 of Swords. This is the energy that takes over when you can’t see a way out of whatever you’re going through. You’re terrified of being rejected, dismissed, or ridiculed. When it all becomes too much, and there’s not much more you can take, the 9 of Swords tells you that you need to rest in order to find solutions. Shame grows in the dark, and sometimes the best thing you can do to free yourself of anguish is to let someone else in.

5. Whatever Happens, Happens? That’s the Wheel of Fortune

The Wheel of Fortune is a lesson in true detachment. It’s this deep trust in the divine unraveling of space and time. Leaning into the Wheel of Fortune looks like letting go of obsession over “good” and “bad” outcomes, knowing that everything has a way of working itself out in the end. Some are born with this chill trait, others spend years maturing into it, and some only ever experience glimmers here and there, but it’s a feeling of true freedom. It means relinquishing control and living fully in the present.

6. Tempted By Your Vices? That’s the Devil

The Devil is your addictions. It’s the choices you make that you know aren’t good for you. Despite the wealth of evidence you have that certain habits make you feel like shit time after time, you pretend like a different result is possible. It’s the illusion that instant gratification can serve you in the ways you desire. The Devil is an energy vampire in an endless void: never satisfied, never full, never truly happy. You convince yourself that you need things outside of yourself to feel at ease, when in reality, the only true source of happiness is within.

7. One-Way Ticket Booked? That’s the 3 of Wands

When someone is ready to fully send it and leave behind everything predictable and safe, we see the 3 of Wands. There’s something on the horizon that’s calling out to you, beckoning you to explore it. A solo journey awaits. You researched, planned, and booked everything. You saved for months on end, sold everything from your apartment, moved the essentials into storage, quit your job, and set forth. With a one-way ticket and a willingness to figure it out as you go, you’re ready. Nothing can stop you now.

8. Caught Cheating? That’s the 7 of Swords

This is the card you see when someone insecure thought they could pull one over on you. Their internal resources weren’t fulfilling enough for them, and they decided to go behind your back and sneak around with someone else. The 7 of Swords is a clear sign to address dishonesty with yourself and others and make necessary changes. Luckily for you, you know your worth and won’t make excuses for a weasel.

9. She Is the Moment? That’s the Empress

The Empress is that woman who radiates elegance and wisdom. Something about her aura makes it obvious this isn’t her first rodeo: her confidence is totally unshakable. She lives in her creative energy and trusts in her own power. She’s the mother archetype, of course, but she’s also more than that. She represents divinity itself. Just being in her presence makes you believe in God. People spend their lives emulating her work and energy. She’s the kind of person you never forget.

10. Finally Moving On? That’s the World

When you’re able to see a situation from beginning to end, connect the dots, own your place in it all, and find forgiveness for yourself, you’re tapping into the energy of The World. The World is lessons completed, cycles closed out, and generational curses broken. You’ve endured an enormous amount of healing. You walked through the mud, the quicksand, and the rubble in the dark and somehow found solid ground at daybreak again. You learned to trust yourself and the universe fully. You moved through loss and found love again. You manifested something you’ve always wanted. Finally, you’ve decided what you’re ready to leave behind, and the future is bright.