The Sun
Bright, radiant success and joy fill this card from edge to edge. With nothing to hide, it's a great time to step forward with confidence and let yourself be seen.
Your happiness may dim for a short while, or healthy confidence could tip into overconfidence.
The card's advice: Share today's good news with someone close.
The Sun: reading the picture
The sun is grinning, its round-cheeked face squinting as wavy rays spill in every direction. Below, sunflowers have grown taller than the stone wall, every head lifted. In front of the wall a white horse carries a child in hanbok, Korea's traditional clothing, with a crown of flowers and a red banner held high. Older decks show the child unclothed; here the open mouth and crescent-moon eyes say "nothing to hide" just as well. Notice the direction. Horse and rider have their backs to the walled garden and are heading into the open, the banner snapping as if the wind is behind them. Almost nothing is in shade.
The Sun in love, work and money
- Love and relationships
Feelings come into the open, and you can enjoy a cheerful, honest connection. If you've been hiding how you feel, express it brightly, and make more time to laugh together with your partner.
- Work and study
Your effort produces visible results, and recognition from those around you comes easily. Speak up confidently and take the lead, but make sure the people who worked alongside you get their share.
- Money
You may feel more relaxed about money, yet a good mood tends to loosen the purse strings. Share the good times, but set aside a portion for your future self so the joy lasts.
Learning to swim at 58
A 58-year-old retired mail carrier had quietly taken adult swim lessons all year, embarrassed that she'd never learned as a kid. In August she finished her first open-water mile at a lake event and told almost no one. Her grown son found out from a photo the organizers posted. Before Sunday dinner she drew The Sun, and the child on the horse, grinning without a thought for who was watching, stayed with her. She brought the finisher medal to the table. Her granddaughter asked if they could sign up for the next one together.
Questions to ask yourself after drawing The Sun
- What good thing are you keeping behind the garden wall because it feels too early, too small or too silly to show?
- Who would be glad to hear about this if you stopped waiting for the right moment to tell them?
- Now that things are bright, what is the light revealing that you'd rather handle openly than keep tucked away?
The Sun as a yes or no
Yes As the card of bright success and joy, it gives a sunny yes to most questions.
Easy to confuse with Ten of Cups
Both are happy cards, but the joy differs. The Ten of Cups shows a family laughing together beneath a rainbow of cups, with peace at home at the center. The Sun puts one child on a horse under a blazing sky, stressing personal vitality and visible success. Joy that belongs to "us" leans Ten of Cups; joy that belongs to "me" leans Sun.
A common misreading of The Sun
It's easy to treat The Sun as a promise that everything will work out by itself. The card does show a bright result, but sunlight also exposes whatever it touches. Things you'd rather hide surface more easily too, so the card favors whatever can stand being seen.
Symbols in The Sun
The smiling sun is joy and life force that shines openly on everything, and the sunflowers beyond the stone wall are growth reaching toward the light. The child on the white horse shows unguarded innocence and freedom, and the red banner carries a vigorous, forward-moving energy.
How we drew The Sun
- Kept from the 1909 card
the smiling sun, sunflowers beyond the stone wall, the child on a white horse, the red banner
- What we changed
Instead of an unclothed child, a child in hanbok wears a crown of flowers.