The Sun

Quick answer

The core meaning of The Sun is Radiant vitality. Upright, it usually points to Success, joy, vitality, clarity. Symbolizes pure delight and life force; every s; reversed, it may suggest Temporary clouds, pessimism, overconfidence, delayed success. May indicate that .

Card imagery

A huge sun fills most of the sky, blazing with light. Before a garden wall, a naked child rides a white horse, waving a red banner, crowned with flowers and a feather.

Upright meaning

Success, joy, vitality, clarity. Symbolizes pure delight and life force; every shadow is dispelled and events move in the most positive direction.

Reversed meaning

Temporary clouds, pessimism, overconfidence, delayed success. May indicate that while the overall direction is good, small shadows linger within, or the joy feels less bright than expected.

Love, Career, Money and Growth

Love

In love, The Sun points to Radiant vitality. Read it back against how the relationship actually behaves and what you are both choosing.

Career

In career matters, The Sun points to Radiant vitality. Start by working out which resources you control and what your next move is.

Money

In money matters, The Sun points to Radiant vitality. Do not treat a symbolic reading as an investment conclusion — go by facts, budget and your own risk tolerance.

Personal growth

For personal growth, The Sun points to Radiant vitality. Write down the question it raises, then turn that into an action you can actually check.

Yes or No

Upright

Yes

Reversed

Undecided

This is our own quick read, based on which way the card’s meaning leans. Traditions disagree about individual cards, and an "Undecided" needs to be weighed against the position in the spread and your actual situation rather than taken as a one-word answer.

Waite’s Original Text (1911)

Inner Symbolism (original)

The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard has been mentioned already as the better symbolism connected with this card. It is the destiny of the Supernatural East and the great and holy light which goes before the endless procession of humanity, coming out from the walled garden of the sensitive life and passing on the journey home. The card signifies, therefore, the transit from the manifest light of this world, represented by the glorious sun of earth, to the light of the world to come, which goes before aspiration and is typified by the heart of a child.

But the last allusion is again the key to a different form or aspect of the symbolism. The sun is that of consciousness in the spirit—the direct as the antithesis of the reflected light. The characteristic type of humanity has become a little child therein—a child in the sense of simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and of Art; in that innocence, he signifies the restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the consciousness above the natural mind, that mind in its renewal leads forth the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.

Original Upright Meaning

Material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment.

Original Reversed Meaning

The same in a lesser sense.

Quoted from A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. The text is in the public domain.