Colors, Elements, and Objects

The Rider-Waite deck uses a consistent visual vocabulary — colors, elements, and objects that carry the same meaning from card to card. Once you learn this vocabulary, you can read any card in the deck with greater depth, even cards you have never studied before.

This is not a complete dictionary. It is a practical guide to the most important recurring symbols and what they tend to mean.

Colors

Pamela Colman Smith used color deliberately and consistently. While individual cards may have specific color choices for compositional reasons, these general associations hold across the deck:

Red

Action, passion, desire, vital energy, physical life. Red clothing on a figure suggests someone driven by passion or will. Red roses point to desire and love. An abundance of red in a card usually means strong emotions or intense activity.

Blue

Intuition, the inner world, calm, depth, spiritual knowledge. Blue robes often appear on figures connected to wisdom or the unconscious — the High Priestess, the Hermit. Water, which appears blue, reinforces this connection to emotion and depth.

Yellow / Gold

Intellect, consciousness, optimism, clarity, divine light. Yellow skies are common in positive cards. Gold suggests material or spiritual wealth. The Sun card is drenched in yellow for a reason — it represents full conscious awareness.

White

Purity, potential, spiritual clarity, truth. White flowers (particularly lilies) appear throughout the deck. White clothing suggests innocence or transcendence. White light suggests revelation.

Black

The unknown, the unconscious, endings, hidden forces. Black is not inherently negative in Tarot — it often simply means “what cannot yet be seen.” The night sky in the Moon card, the dark background of Death — these are invitations to look deeper, not warnings of evil.

Gray

Ambiguity, neutrality, transition, wisdom through experience. Gray often appears in clouds, stone, and armor. It suggests a space between extremes — neither fully light nor fully dark.

Green

Growth, fertility, nature, health, abundance. Green landscapes suggest a thriving period. Green clothing connects a figure to the natural world and to renewal.

Purple / Violet

Spiritual authority, power, higher knowledge, royalty. Purple appears on figures of authority and spiritual depth — The Hierophant, Justice, The Emperor (in some depictions).

The four elements

The four elements — Fire, Water, Air, and Earth — form the backbone of Tarot’s symbolic system. Each corresponds to a suit and a domain of human experience:

Fire (Wands)

Energy, will, creativity, ambition, action, transformation. Fire is the element of doing — of starting things, pushing forward, and burning through obstacles. In the visual language of the cards, fire appears as wands budding with leaves (life force), as bright backgrounds, and as dynamic postures.

When fire energy is strong, there is passion and movement. When it is excessive, there is burnout or aggression. When it is absent, there is lethargy or lack of direction.

Water (Cups)

Emotion, intuition, relationships, the unconscious, flow. Water is the element of feeling — of love, grief, joy, and connection. On the cards, water appears literally (oceans, rivers, pools) and symbolically (flowing garments, reflective surfaces, fish, and the moon’s influence).

When water energy is strong, there is emotional depth and connection. When excessive, there is overwhelm or emotional flooding. When absent, there is emotional numbness or disconnection.

Air (Swords)

Intellect, thought, communication, truth, conflict. Air is the element of the mind — of analysis, decision-making, and the double-edged nature of clear thinking. Swords cut through confusion but can also wound. On the cards, air manifests as clouds, wind, birds in flight, and the prominence of sky.

When air energy is strong, there is clarity and honest communication. When excessive, there is overthinking, anxiety, or cruelty. When absent, there is confusion or avoidance of truth.

Earth (Pentacles)

Material reality, body, resources, work, stability. Earth is the element of the tangible — of money, health, craft, and the physical world. On the cards, earth appears as gardens, coins, solid ground, and figures engaged in practical work.

When earth energy is strong, there is security and groundedness. When excessive, there is materialism or rigidity. When absent, there is instability or impracticality.

Recurring objects

Certain objects appear across multiple cards and carry consistent meaning:

Crown

Authority, achievement, mastery over a domain. The type of crown matters — a laurel wreath suggests victory through merit, a gold crown suggests formal power, a flower crown suggests natural or creative authority.

Pillar(s)

Duality, threshold, structure. Two pillars (as in the High Priestess and Justice) represent the space between opposites — known and unknown, mercy and severity, conscious and unconscious. Passing between pillars means entering a new state.

Mountain

Challenge, achievement, aspiration, or obstacle. Behind a figure, mountains represent what has been overcome. Ahead of a figure, they represent what lies ahead. Snow-capped peaks suggest particularly high or spiritual goals.

River

Flow of emotion, passage of time, boundary. Rivers often separate one part of a card’s scene from another, suggesting a transition or a barrier between states.

Path / Road

Journey, progress, direction. A winding path suggests an uncertain or complex journey. A straight road suggests clarity of purpose. Where the path leads — toward mountains, toward a city, into darkness — tells you about the destination.

Sun / Moon / Stars

Consciousness (Sun), the unconscious and cycles (Moon), hope and guidance (Stars). These celestial bodies often appear in the backgrounds of Major Arcana cards and set the cosmic context for the scene.

Angel / Wings

Higher guidance, spiritual message, transcendence. Angels appear in Temperance, Judgement, and The Lovers, always bringing a message from beyond ordinary consciousness.

Infinity symbol (lemniscate)

Endless potential, the connection between the spiritual and material. Appears above The Magician and on Strength, linking these cards as expressions of infinite resourcefulness.

Building your own vocabulary

The lists above are starting points, not final answers. As you work with the cards, you will develop your own relationship with these symbols. A color that means one thing in a textbook may evoke something completely different in your personal experience — and your personal response is always worth listening to.

The best approach is to learn the traditional associations, then hold them lightly. Let the cards speak to you through what you see, not just through what you have been told to see.

In Practice

Choose any five cards from your deck. For each card, identify:

The dominant color and what it suggests
Which element (fire, water, air, earth) feels most present
One object that appears and what it might mean

Compare your observations with the associations listed above. Where they match, the traditional vocabulary is working for you. Where they differ, you are developing your own — and both are valid.