Exploring Tarot: The World

We see a nude woman with a purple scarf wrapped loosely around her body. She appears to dance while surrounded by a wreath with a red ribbon in a figure-eight, or lemniscate, pattern at the top and bottom. She holds a wand in each hand while four physical representations of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth appear in each corner of the card.

The World, the 21st card of the Major Arcana, describes evolution, completion, and reward. We’ve moved in a progressive fashion beginning with the Fool who takes the leap into physical reality in perfect love and perfect trust to manifest a life filled with experiences that are guided by the remaining Major Arcana cards until we reach the end of our life with The World. We’ve remembered who we are as souls and traded the ego’s perception for higher awareness, and now we are ready to begin anew.

The numerology of the card is three which describes the integration of both awareness and experience. We remember our past, present, and future with this card, and we’ve aligned the mind and body with our soul. In that way, The World represents the end of perceived separation and the return to wholeness and unity consciousness.

When The World appears in a reading, it may signal the end of one phase and the beginning of another, or the reward received after an objective or goal is accomplished.