Women and Feminine Figures of Tarot Cards

Who are the Feminine Tarot Cards and Women of our decks? What do they stand for and how can we make the most of their guidance in a reading?

When reading Tarot, you almost always see specific people pop up. A mother, a brother, a friend. You find yourself warning your sitter about a colleague or telling them to listen to a woman in their family. But how do you find information about this person? The first step is of course to study each Tarot figure and learn what they stand for. Understand who they are, what’s their story. Your intuition will do the rest.

If the Empress pops up and your inner voice screams “Sister!” Then we’re looking at a sister. If she says “Friend!” Then, it’s a friend. Simple.

Now, sometimes your intuition doesn’t immediately kick in and that’s when step one will save your reading.

In this post, I will exclusively focus on the women and feminine figures in Tarot. Who are they? What is their message? What is their story?

First things first: there are 8 feminine figures in the major arcana. Just like there are 8 male figures.

The other 6 are gender neutral (a possible male or female energy can be established sometimes depending on your deck, but they should remain open).

Women and Feminine Figures in Tarot (Major Arcana):

The Empress

The High Priestess

Strength

Justice

Temperance

The Star

The Moon

The World 

In addition to them, there are 4 Queens in the minor suits: The Queen of Wands, Cups, Coins/Pentacles and Swords. Each of them is as fascinating as informative in any spread.

Male (or male energy driven) figures of the Major Arcana are:

The Fool

The Magician

The Emperor

The Hierophant

The Hermit

The Hanged Man

The Devil 

The Sun

Plus four Kings, Knights and Pages of the minor suits. Yes, there are way less women in the minor suit and that is not fair – hello Medieval roots 🙂

But on the other hand, their presence in a spread is even more powerful. Just like in Chess, a Queen is the real deal. I recently had 3 Queens in one reading. And that really made it memorable.

There are also the gender neutral or fluid cards, which more or less relate to female or male energy but mostly adapt to their context or deck.

These include:

Wheel of Fortune (neutral / feminine energy)

Death (neutral / feminine energy)

The Tower (gender neutral)

Judgement (Gender Neutral / masculine tendancies)

The Lovers (gender neutral)

Based on your cultural background and deck, this may vary a little bit. But that’s the most common order of things.