What Are You Top Three Favorite Cards of The Tarot? And Why?

[RickInBakersfield]

Me?

 

1. The Star - The Star appears after the troublesome Devil & Tower cards. The Star brings a calm feeling like the trouble has passed. The thunder and rain are gone.

 

2. The Fool - The Fool walks joyously into the unknown as a bright sunshine falls upon him. He steps off into a new adventure. Being a free spirit.

 

3. The Magician - It's a call to greatness. It's also a card that tells you to trust yourself and that you have what it takes.

 

What are your top three? And give us a brief reason why they are your top three.

 

Thanks!

 

Rick

[Raggydoll]

Fun topic!
 

My list of favorite cards only applies to my personal readings, and what they have come to represent for me. 

 

1. Two of Cups. This is the card that has come to represent me and my husband. Whenever it shows up, I know I can expect a period of an even stronger connection, with laughter, interesting discussions and romantic sparks. It can quite often indicate ‘date time’ and opportunities where we get to spend time together without the kids. 
 

2. High Priestess. This card has special significance for my spiritual path, and it signifies a deep and meaningful spiritual practice 

 

3. Ace of Cups. This choice surprised me a bit, but I realize that this card represents an energy of newness and sacredness that I really appreciate. It has always had very positive connotations in personal readings, and it can act as a cleansing and purifying force, as well as a source of spiritual inspiration . 

 

[DanielJUK]

Here are mine.....

 

The Lovers - I love the harmony and mutual connection with this card. Leaving the love side to one side, there is something in common in the connection between people (like work colleagues, friends, etc). Also decisions and choices are based on your alignment and your values. I like the shared values and harmony of this card.

 

The Sun - I like the warmth, positivity and optimism of this card. Whilst I don't like it when it gets too strong or too hot, some sunshine always brightens my day. Maybe because I live in a place which can have such gloomy weather, we are currently literally stuck in a miserable anticyclonic gloom weather pattern right now. Sitting in some sunshine has always made me feel more positive, whatever is going on in my life and holidays in sunnier places has already been healing for me. I need those rays!

 

Six of Wands - The victory of this card! After the conflict and battle of the Five, this guy is riding into victory and the crowd are adoring him for this. I think in some way we all need our accomplishment of our goals and challenges publicly acknowledged. Even if it is just someone saying well done to you. This card gives encouragement and confidence, the efforts were worth it.

 

 

If you ask me tomorrow, I would probably pick 3 different cards for this! It's not static for me 😄

 

 

[geoxena]

My #1 favorite is the Hermit, followed by Nine of Pentacles in second place.  I identify with both of them, but most strongly with the Hermit.  For third place, I'm not sure, but it might be the Star, depending on the deck.  Not because of identifying with it, but because that card is often very pretty (I especially like the Star card created by @Havutar for our collaborative deck, We Are One --> HERE).

 

 

 

 

Edited March 17 by geoxena

[xTheHermitx]

1. The Hermit - this card defines my whole existence and life!  Reclusive, but not a recluse. The Black Sheep. Always looking for the reason "why". On an internal quest. Happy to be alone, with my own thoughts, and not all of the "noise" of the world. Seeing things in a much different perspective than the masses/crowd. 

 

2. The Moon - the world shrouded in mystical light. Serenity because of solemnity. I am a night owl, and thrive in the moonlight. I recharge with lunar energy. Seeing things through that blue/grey veil. Being closer to the supernatural/spiritual energy of all that is hidden. 

 

3. Ace of Cups - Ultimate Rejuvenation and life energy. Core of Cleansing, and fluidity. Refreshing wash of liquid energy. 

 

I am going to sneak a 4th in here.....

 

4. Knight of Swords - LET'S GO!!!!!!!!

[Nemia]

What a fascinating question. Favourites - I'll list the three cards that most feel like messages for me in personal readings. 

 

Temperance - balance and moderation, letting things develop without pushing them, seeing two and more sides of one problem, never going to extremes. The alchemy of life. Add a pinch of salt to the sweet cake and sugar to the salad sauce to make them perfect. I aspire to this virtue because it's the most difficult for me. When this card comes up, I know that I'm in danger of obsessing or painting myself into a corner. 

 

Empress -  if Temperance is a card of aspiration, Empress is the card I identify with most. It's the maternal aspect of it, but also the creativity. Since I can remember myself, I wanted to be a mother, to be loving and giving, and rule my little empire. I nurture my projects and creative outlets, which are necessary to me. Another aspect of the Empress is the dignity - if I'm honest to myself, being respected is pretty important to me, probably too important. I'm not really a team player, as much as I'd love to be one, and it took me years to get to terms with my inability to teamplay over time. This card reminds me that sometimes, I like to rule the roost a little too much. 

 

Nine of Pentacles or Queen of Cups? I find myself in both. Last year, on the Llewellyn tarot calendar, I found this little gem. 

 

  

 

Yeah, that's me. I even made a pendant with the Queen of Cups that I wear quite often. 

 

Where are the more controversial cards? Honorable mentions would go to Death and the Four and Five of Pentacles. 

 

 

[Teemu]

Hi, I have only a Top Two.

1. The Hermit: I like the idea of quietness, solitude and follwing one's own way. Actually I am quite identifying with it.

2. Strength: I have been happily partnered with an astrological double lion (sun sign and ascendant) and dragon (chinese horoscope). So I have been a lion tamer for about 30 years now 🙂

[xTheHermitx]

I am happily surprised about how many people have listed The Hermit. 

 

most of the people I encounter don't even think of the Hermit card, let alone have it as a favorite. They always say :"that card is so dull and grey. It's depressing"

 

and funny that I have always thought of it as "home"

[Misterei]

1 hour ago, xTheHermitx said:

I am happily surprised about how many people have listed The Hermit. ...

most of the people I encounter don't even think of the Hermit card, let alone have it as a favorite. They always say :"that card is so dull and grey. It's depressing"

On 3/12/2025 at 8:36 PM, xTheHermitx said:

Happy to be alone, with my own thoughts, and not all of the "noise" of the world. Seeing things in a much different perspective than the masses/crowd. 

I found your comments about Hermit very interesting. Hermit and Moon are my life cards [numerology 9] but in no way would I call them my favorites. I always felt that the Hermit was forced on me by an unkind Cosmos or doomed karma 😱. Why couldn't I be Empress? Or Magician? Or World? 

But I'm learning to embrace Hermit. I'm coming to a place where I don't exactly feel happy to be alone, but I feel more WHOLE when alone than with others. It's hard to explain in words, but thank you for sharing your relationship with Hermit card. It shed light on my own relationship to Hermit as a Life Card.

 

 

[xTheHermitx]

2 minutes ago, Misterei said:

I found your comments about Hermit very interesting. Hermit and Moon are my life cards [numerology 9] but in no way would I call them my favorites. I always felt that the Hermit was forced on me by an unkind Cosmos or doomed karma 😱. Why couldn't I be Empress? Or Magician? Or World? 

But I'm learning to embrace Hermit. I'm coming to a place where I don't exactly feel happy to be alone, but I feel more WHOLE when alone than with others. It's hard to explain in words, but thank you for sharing your relationship with Hermit card. It shed light on my own relationship to Hermit as a Life Card.

 

 

 

reading your response definitely makes me think about perspective...

 

i feel like The Hermit and Moon have always been my life cards, but it has just been a recent discovery as to why...as far back as I can remember, I have been a dreamer/loner, especially according to my mom, who can verify those tendencies in me back to my toddler days. 

 

I can't imagine wanting to be The Empress, or Magician (in some ways...in others, I feel like The Magician is just a "younger" Hermit), or the World. Being a life-long loner, that is just a perspective I have never considered. It makes me sad that you feel like the Hermit was forced on you, but that also gave me a different perspective about how the cards effect us. It is sort of fascinating really. I never thought about cards being forced on us...and am now curious to find out which cards are effecting me like that. Right away, The Hierophant comes to mind...which is soooo freaking weird.

 

I honestly hope that you find the comfort of the Hermit that I have always had. It is like that of the mother soothing her child. Protective in many ways. The comfort of hiding underneath the warm covers from the Monsters Under the Bed. It sounds like you also might be discovering a trait that has been "hiding" underneath - the feeling of being whole when you are alone. (This is actually the perfect description of how I feel when I am alone. TY!!!). hopefully this can become a safe space and recharge zone!

 

Just remember that the light of Ain Soph glows in the lantern!!! And he/we is/are holding it, even if he/we don't see it or realize it yet...that is the other thing about the card that I think helps me feel Whole. And in Ain Soph is your Empress, Magician and World! 

 

sorry....I sort of rambled because a ton of stuff was hitting my mind as I was typing...

 

keep in touch about this journey! It will be cool to see what happens

[lyredragon]

My three Favorites:

 

1. The Wheel of Fortune: I actually have a keychain fob with this card. It's a sort of reminder to myself that when I am facing apparently insurmountable problems, The universe is reminding me that I really do have all the answers I need. It's an uneasy card, because sometimes you feel like you are staring into the void in your life or shouting into the abyss, when really, the universe is waiting to see what you are going to do with the puzzle pieces you already have. But that is as affirming as it is uneasy. You have the answers. now pick a direction and go already.

 

2. Queen of Cups: Do you ever have a card that you just know the deck you are using is using that card as its nickname for you? I've had that happen with two decks now, this same card. That's the RWS deck and Kim Krans' The Wild Unknown tarot. So the Queen of Cups is loving, tender, spiritual, psychic. She is the reputation and stewardship of the suit, and the suit as a whole governs mystery, learning emotions and social connections. And that's. . .well that's some of the source of my greatest hurts in life and so much so that there are days when I feel utterly dried out and disconnected. But the cards call me or call me out like that anyway. probably both a call and a call out. The cards are like that some days

 

3: 9 of Rods: I understand this as the card that lets you know who your friends really are. When you are tired from your fights, wounded from your wars, leaning on your staff, bandaged and sore, the pickets of the bulwark stand, the posts made of spears driven into the land. There your allies did work so you could rest. beware though, obligation comes next. 

[Sar]

3/Wands

I just love the outlook of it all. 

K/Cups

Mastering both the active and the more passive feelings we, the human beings have.

High Priestess

Strong and secretive.

[Morwenna]

1. I'm another Hermit. I found out in recent years that that's me numerologically, and on reflection that really is me. I love company but I recharge in solitude. I really did like it best when hubby was still here because I had him right there but I could, and often did, go into another room and follow my own pursuits; I had the best of both worlds. It's why when I was a student I liked dorm life, whereas so many of my fellows didn't; I could open my door or shut it, depending on my mood.

 

2. The other side of that is the 3 of Cups. In my celebratory moods that's where I want to be! Even though I like solitude, I'm often beset with a real case of FOMO. Again, it's why I liked dorm life. And now that I'm a widow, I'm actually glad that we didn't move into a house; I feel safer and more comfortable here in a small apartment building in the fringe residential area of a small city. We neighbors look out for each other, and sometimes we socialize. And besides that I do have different groups of friends.

 

3. This was a little hard, because at first I thought of the Queen of Cups, but she's really more what I aspire to (still) than what I've actually achieved. Even at my age I'm still that Page, Cups, yes, but something of the other pages too. (They do say, growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional...) My mother used to call me a professional student; well, not professionally, but informally, that's been my whole life, and I never intend to stop.

 

 

[Libra 58]

The Moon.

There´s always little light to find in the darkness of your life.

 

The Hermit.

It´s me, but I´m not so alone as I think.

 

The Queen of Swords. 

She represent me, but I don´t always represent her.

 

These cards depends of the images in the decks, sometimes I don´t like them at all!

[Esclarmonde]

I'm another Hermit. I like being alone and, though I'm not a recluse by any means, I find being  around people for too long tiring. And I like the wisdom and guidance aspect of the Hermit too, it's something I can relate to.

 

My other top card is Death, not least because astrologically, the card is connected with Scorpio, and I was born under that sign. I also like the transformational aspect of the card, the fact that it points to endings and beginnings. 

 

The third one would be either Empress or queen of Wands, I can't really make up my mind on that one... I perceive both to project strong female characteristics, and I often get the Empress in readings when a card in a spread is supposed to represent me as the querent.

[Pio2001]

Hello,

My favourite card is the High Priestess.

It reminds me of an anime character of my childhood : Circé the Enchantress, in Ulysses 31. I heard these lines from the anime when I was 8 and they made a strong impression on the kid I was: "Circe wants to know everything, to keep everything.[...] When Circe knows the entire universe, she will be more powerful than the Gods."

In the anime, she first captures Ulysses and changes his companions into pigs, but eventually she releases them and sacrifices herself to save Ulysses. 

For me, the High Priestess is the keeper of knowledge. Like her, I would like to know everything (but not to become more powerful).

 

My other favourite card is the Queen of cups. When I work at home, I easily get angry or stressed. The Queen of Cups is the one who controls her emotions. She never gets angry. She reminds me to be kind and peaceful.

 

 

My next choice is the Wheel of Fortune. It is such an insightful card. It can have a lot of different meanings:

• What we hold to be certain may, in the end, be false
• Even in the most desperate situation, there is hope
• It may represent resilience against life's challenges
• In this version (tarot Brambilla), Fortuna is turning the Wheel blindfolded, which can mean that when something bad happens to us, it was not necessarily on purpose.
• etc. 

 

Edited September 17 by Pio2001

[Chariot]

I like what you said, @Pio2001, about the blind Wheel of Fortune.  So many Wheel of Fortune cards either are quite neutral (just a wheel surrounded by decorations) or show a wheel (like a watermill wheel) being turned by forces we can't control, where each individual has going up moments, sitting on top moments, then going down moments.  These waterwheel cards seem to show an inevitable, chronological cycle.  However, the blind Fortune in your chosen deck is turning the wheel in a rather random way ...which is how fate, or fortune, often feels.  I like that notion connected with this card.  You're lucky, or you're not ...but it's luck, not inevitability, at work.
.............
Thinking about my own favourite three upright cards (to get, in my personal readings) made me realise how much I am oriented towards control over my own destiny and how much I value solitude and comfort.  I love The Magician ..means I already have everything I need to make things happen. Whatever I do just now will work.  I also feel love for The Chariot, which means I control the vehicle in which I'm traveling the world. And then, I love getting the 9 of Pentacles.  I'm happy in my own company, like The Hermit, but much more contented and lazy!  I'm not contemplating philosophy in austere circumstances ...I'm just enjoying myself in peace and comfort.  Yes. 🙂

 

These favourites probably provide a clue to the cards that are my least favourites in my own personal readings. The Tower ...yikes, my complacency and comfort are shattered, and I didn't see it coming. The 8 of Swords ...I feel trapped and don't have a clue what's going on.  The 5 of Pentacles...I'm on very shaky personal and financial ground. 😞

Edited September 18 by Chariot

[Morwenna]

On 9/18/2025 at 3:03 AM, Chariot said:

 And then, I love getting the 9 of Pentacles.  I'm happy in my own company, like The Hermit, but much more contented and lazy!  I'm not contemplating philosophy in austere circumstances ...I'm just enjoying myself in peace and comfort.  Yes. 🙂

 

I can relate to that! 😃

[Tanga]

1) The PRIESTESS - every time!  Because I've always wanted to be one. And I know a few that I admire.

 

2) The QUEEN OF WANDS.  Because I'm more like a Page or Queen of Pentacles - but I've always wanted to be more like a Queen of Wands in character

(Whenever I think about this - That song from Evita - "Eva beware of the City!    / I want to be a Buenos Aires Big Apple!" - comes to mind.  

Well - I want to be, I want to be, that Tarot lady, Queen of Wands!).

 

3) The DEVIL.  Because interpretations of the Devil card (both artistically and metaphorically) can be so interesting. AND - it is also my card because I'm a Capricorn.

[zurgles]

When I was younger my favorite tarot cards were the Hermit (my life card), Death, and the Star. I was quite existentialist and mental and thought if I thought through it enough my mind could overcome anything. I was like a floating brain reluctantly bound to a body. I was also super into psychology and was always pushing myself to change and grow, through analyzing myself and my past. After repeatedly digging myself into mental holes and existential loops and suffering mental health crises, I’ve come to respect other form of intelligences, pacing myself, and my body as my home. I still appreciate these cards though. 
 

I think now my favorite cards are the Star, the Hierophant, and Strength.
 

The Star because after the tower, you reencounter your spiritual and hopeful self and find the inner compass within that directs you to where you see you truly need to be. Your spirit is revitalized by her life giving waters. You feel your connection to everything.
 

The Hierophant because it’s the card I know best. Learning from the past can help you build a better future. Also as a pagan it makes me think of becoming my own spiritual authority and creating my own traditions and learning from religions/cultures to create my own path. Also community. There’s problems with the card, but I respect it.

 

And Strength because it makes me think of mind-body connection, taming yourself and your animal impulses through mindfulness and gentle reparenting and physical techniques like yoga or qi gong. It reminds me of what I learned in therapy groups.