The Sun

In a reading

• Inner light, self-confidence, childlike openness, real enjoyment of life, no hang-ups or inner blocks.
• Healing through accepting your true nature, and a state of deep happiness.
• Relationships, love: an open relationship full of warmth, mutual admiration and sincerity. The partners hide nothing from each other, say everything straight out, everything’s fine between them, they understand each other. The card can often point to marriage, starting a family or long-awaited children arriving.
• Career, money: public recognition, success, fame. Reaching your ambitions, high profits. The project brings not just money but huge personal satisfaction. A great time for business and any new venture.

Shadow side

Too much self-confidence, a big head, admiring yourself, arrogance, burnout from doing too much. Trying to look better than you really are.

The card’s advice

Don’t hide your talents, shine bright. Enjoy your moments of success, share your warmth with the people around you and act with a pure intention and a joyful heart.

From the wider tradition

Not Tahmina’s own words: meanings common among other tarot readers, which she has reviewed and approved.

• The naked child on a white horse — pure joy, innocence, no masks at all.
• The sunflowers — life force, turning toward the light, optimism.
• The red banner — vitality, life energy, victory.
• Clarity and the truth coming out; warmth, the south, vacation, rest; success that everyone can see.

Stage of the journey

The Sun is card XIX; it comes after the Moon, XVIII, and before Judgement, XX. This is the next-to-last big stage of the path. After the Moon’s fog, a person finally comes out into clarity.

What a person has already been through. They come to the Sun after the whole path: the Fool — dared to begin; the Magician — realized they can act; the High Priestess — learned to hear themselves; the Empress — created and made things real; the Emperor — built support and boundaries; the Hierophant — formed their values; the Lovers — learned to choose; the Chariot — moved toward what they chose; Strength — learned to handle themselves; the Hermit — looked for answers inside; Wheel of Fortune — accepted change; Justice — faced the consequences of their decisions; the Hanged Man — changed how they see things; Death — let go of the old; Temperance — got their balance back; the Devil — faced their attachments; the Tower — tore down what couldn’t stand up to the truth anymore; the Star — found hope again; the Moon — went through fears, doubts and the unconscious. And after all that comes the Sun.

What happens? After the Moon, a person finally sees clearly. What was foggy before becomes clear. The Sun is clarity; life energy; accepting yourself; openness; joy; being seen; the feeling of “I know who I am”; being able to be yourself without needing to hide. If the Moon asked, “What if it’s not like that? What if I’m wrong?”, the Sun answers, “Now I see.” And the child on the card matters a lot here. He stands for a state where a person no longer has to keep defending their image of themselves. They can be alive, real, open. It’s coming back to yourself, but after everything you’ve lived through.

Where the Sun leads — to Judgement, card XX. And that makes perfect sense. The Sun gives a person clarity: “This is who I am. This is what I’ve understood. This is how I want to live.” And Judgement asks: “So what are you going to do with it now?” It’s waking up and moving to a new level of life.

So you get:

• The Moon — I learn to see through the fog.
• The Sun — I see clearly.
• Judgement — I answer this call and start living by what I’ve understood.

So the Sun isn’t just a “happy card.” On the path it stands for the moment of inner clarity, when a person stops looking for themselves and starts truly being themselves.

The section above is the shadow side of the upright card — every card has one. I don’t read cards upside down — here is why.