How Fortune Cards Interpretations Are Created

The Tradition We Build On

Our base meanings follow the Rider–Waite–Smith system — the most widely documented tarot tradition, on which the majority of modern decks and schools are built. Where meanings diverge between historical sources, we prefer the readings established in the psychological school of tarot associated with authors such as Hajo Banzhaf, which treats the cards as a language for describing inner states rather than a tool of fatalistic prediction.

The Jungian Layer

We read the 22 Major Arcana as archetypes in the sense introduced by Carl Gustav Jung: recurring figures of the collective unconscious — the Fool as the beginning of the individuation journey, the Shadow behind the Devil and the Tower, the Anima and Animus in the court cards. Combination readings pay particular attention to shadow work: what the pairing of two cards suggests about motives the querent may not be acknowledging.

This approach shapes the structure of every combination page: core dynamics, relationships, career, reversed positions, the shadow side, and a synthesis — the same lens applied consistently across all 3,003 pairings.

Editorial Standards

Every interpretation on this site is written by the Fortune Cards editorial team. We work from the structured meanings described above: a card's element, number and astrological correspondence set the frame, the position or the partner card narrows it, and only then does the text get written — which is why no two readings here repeat one another.

Each text passes review before publication: we check it against the source meanings, remove fatalistic phrasing, and make sure the reading offers something the querent can actually act on. Every page carries its last-updated date, and we revise interpretations as the methodology develops.

Coverage

The library covers all 78 cards of the deck, all 3,003 two-card combinations and 15 spreads — in five languages, with each language written rather than machine-translated. To our knowledge this is the most complete set of combination readings available in any of them.

Questions and Corrections

Found an inaccuracy, or disagree with a reading? Write to us at support@fortune.cards — interpretation questions and corrections are reviewed by the team that maintains this methodology.