Rider Waite Card Meaning - The World

XXI - The World - Reaping Rewards

The image on this card is also Biblical in origin, denoting the restoration of the world to the state of perfection lost by the fall of Adam and Eve. It is “a story of the past,” Waite writes, a time “when all was declared to be good, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (156). In his commentary on the card, he hints that perfection has dwelled in the world all along, “unchanged – and indeed unchangeable” (156). It is not in the material world, he says but in the “consciousness of Divine Vision”, implying, perhaps, that it is through expanded consciousness that we come to know what we truly need to live well in the glory of the world.

The World card on the table indicates peak experiences of attainment and satisfaction. Important goals are reached, personal affairs are brought into balance and the questioner feels good about himself or herself.

Reversed, the World is upside down, bringing stagnation, dissatisfaction, and discontent through fear and resistance to growth and change.