Last reviewed: 27 October 2026

The 22 energies: what each number means, at its best and at its worst

You got a number on your chart, maybe a 7 or a 15 or a 22, and now you need to know what it actually means. That is the moment where most guides either give you one flattering line or one scary line, and neither helps much. Below you will find all 22 energies, each with a positive expression and a difficult expression, in plain language. Read both sides for any number on your chart, and ask yourself which side looks more familiar in your daily life right now.

One note on names before you start. The Fool is 0 in some tarot decks and 22 here, so a 22 on this chart is the Fool. Energy 8 is Justice and energy 11 is Strength. Keep those two straight and the rest of the list will fall into place.

1. Magician

At its best (+), the Magician starts things with what is already at hand, turns an idea into a first step, and communicates clearly enough that others can follow. At its most difficult (-), the same skill can turn into talk without follow-through, or into shaping a message to impress rather than to tell the truth. Ask whether you are making something real or just making it sound real.

2. High Priestess

At its best (+), the High Priestess notices what is unsaid, trusts quiet observation, and waits for a fuller picture before speaking. At its most difficult (-), that quiet can harden into secrecy, withdrawal, or guessing at motives without checking them. Ask whether your instinct is informed patience or avoidance dressed up as intuition.

3. Empress

At its best (+), the Empress nurtures growth, creates comfort, and gives time and care to people and projects that need them. At its most difficult (-), care can tip into over-giving, control through kindness, or neglecting your own needs while tending everyone else. Ask where your generosity restores you and where it quietly drains you.

4. Emperor

At its best (+), the Emperor builds order, sets clear rules, and holds a plan steady when things get messy. At its most difficult (-), order can become rigidity, a need to control every detail, or rules kept long after they stopped helping. Ask which structures protect your work and which ones only protect your comfort with being in charge.

5. Hierophant

At its best (+), the Hierophant respects tradition, learns from teachers, and passes on what works in a form others can use. At its most difficult (-), respect for tradition can become blind obedience, or judging new ideas only by whether they fit old rules. Ask whether a rule earns its place by helping people or only by being old.

6. Lovers

At its best (+), the Lovers energy is about honest choice, clear values, and relationships built on mutual respect rather than pressure. At its most difficult (-), it can show up as painful indecision, pleasing both sides at once, or staying in a bond out of fear of choosing. Ask what you would choose if no one else had to approve of it.

7. Chariot

At its best (+), the Chariot drives forward with focus, steers through competing pulls, and keeps moving when the road gets rough. At its most difficult (-), drive can become pushing at all costs, ignoring tiredness, or winning an argument while losing the direction that mattered. Ask whether you are steering or just refusing to stop.

8. Justice

At its best (+), Justice seeks fairness, weighs both sides, and makes decisions with clear terms everyone can see. At its most difficult (-), fairness can turn into cold score-keeping, endless weighing without a decision, or punishment dressed up as principle. Ask whether you want a fair outcome or simply to be proven right.

9. Hermit

At its best (+), the Hermit finds clarity alone, thinks before speaking, and returns from quiet time with a steadier view. At its most difficult (-), solitude can become isolation, overthinking, or avoiding people who could actually help. Ask whether your alone time leaves you clearer or just further away from the conversation you need.

10. Wheel of Fortune

At its best (+), the Wheel of Fortune accepts cycles, adapts when luck turns, and spots a new opening in a change that first looked like a setback. At its most difficult (-), it can become passivity, waiting for fate to fix things, or repeating the same cycle while calling it bad luck. Ask what part of the turn you can actually influence.

11. Strength

At its best (+), Strength is calm courage, patience under pressure, and a steady hand with difficult feelings rather than force. At its most difficult (-), it can become suppressing anger until it bursts, or mistaking endurance for health when rest is what is needed. Ask whether you are handling pressure well or just hiding how heavy it feels.

12. Hanged Man

At its best (+), the Hanged Man pauses on purpose, sees a problem from a fresh angle, and lets go of a stuck approach. At its most difficult (-), pause can become stuckness, martyrdom, or waiting so long that the moment passes. Ask whether your pause is giving you a new view or just delaying a decision you already know you need to make.

13. Death

At its best (+), Death marks a clean ending, a habit or chapter closed properly so something new has room to grow. At its most difficult (-), it can become clinging to what has ended, or forcing a dramatic break when a quiet change would do. Ask what needs a proper ending in your life and what you are keeping alive out of habit.

14. Temperance

At its best (+), Temperance blends opposites with patience, finds a middle path, and heals a split by taking time rather than forcing it. At its most difficult (-), balance can become avoiding a clear stance, diluting everything until nothing has flavour, or patience used as an excuse not to act. Ask whether you are blending wisely or just refusing to choose.

15. Devil

At its best (+), the Devil energy, faced honestly, names attachment, desire, and the deals we make, so they can be examined rather than hidden. At its most difficult (-), it shows up as feeling trapped by spending, work, a habit, or a relationship, while still defending the trap. Ask what you would lose if you loosened your grip, and whether that loss is real or only feared.

16. Tower

At its best (+), the Tower clears away a structure that was already failing, even if the collapse feels sudden, and leaves room to rebuild on firmer ground. At its most difficult (-), it can become chaos welcomed for its own sake, or shock used to avoid the slower work of repair. Ask what was already cracked before it fell, and what you want to build next.

17. Star

At its best (+), the Star brings hope after a hard stretch, a clear aim, and a quiet sense that recovery is possible. At its most difficult (-), hope can become wishful waiting, a distant dream that excuses no action today, or optimism that ignores a real problem. Ask what small step your hope points to this week, not someday.

18. Moon

At its best (+), the Moon honours intuition, dreams, and the feelings that surface when facts alone do not explain a situation. At its most difficult (-), it can become confusion, fear filling in gaps, or reading a threat into every shadow. Ask which part of your unease comes from evidence and which part comes from uncertainty itself.

19. Sun

At its best (+), the Sun brings clarity, warmth, and simple joy, and makes a situation easier to see and easier to share. At its most difficult (-), brightness can become overexposure, naivety about a real risk, or pressure to stay cheerful when honesty would help more. Ask whether your clarity includes the hard parts or only the sunny ones.

20. Judgement

At its best (+), Judgement takes an honest review, owns past choices, and makes a fresh call based on what was learned. At its most difficult (-), it can become harsh self-judgement, judging others to avoid your own review, or calling every change a final verdict. Ask whether your review helps you act differently or only helps you feel guilty.

21. World

At its best (+), the World marks completion, a project finished well, and a sense of place in a larger picture. At its most difficult (-), completion can become perfectionism that never lets a thing end, or restlessness that moves on before the last step is done. Ask what finishing would actually look like, in concrete terms, for the work in front of you.

22. Fool

At its best (+), the Fool steps out with openness, tries a fresh path, and trusts that a first step can teach what planning alone cannot. At its most difficult (-), openness can become carelessness, ignoring real risks, or starting over so often that nothing takes root. Ask whether your leap is brave or simply unprepared, and what one safeguard would make it wiser.

Reading the plus and minus honestly

It is tempting to read only the positive half for your favourite numbers and only the difficult half for numbers you dislike. Resist that. The point of giving both sides is to give you a fuller question, not a verdict you can shop for. For each number on your chart, read the positive sentence, then read the difficult sentence, then ask a plain question: which side shows up more in my week, and can I name one example? If you cannot name an example, the meaning may not be relevant right now, and that is fine. Leave it and move on.

Also watch how the sides interact across your chart. A strong Chariot next to a strong Hermit, for example, might describe a real tension between pushing forward and pulling back for thought. Neither side cancels the other. The chart is most useful when it names a tension you already feel, in words clear enough to talk about with someone else or to write about in a journal. Use it that way, and the 22 energies become a vocabulary, not a label set.

Questions people ask

How do I find the meaning of a number on my chart?

Match the number to its heading above, from 1 Magician to 22 Fool, and read both the positive and the difficult expressions. Then ask which side fits a concrete example from your recent life, rather than deciding from the label alone.

Is 22 the Fool or is the Fool 0?

In some tarot decks the Fool is numbered 0, but in this system the Fool is 22. A 22 on your chart therefore means the Fool, and there is no 0 point on this chart. The list above follows that numbering throughout.

Is 8 Justice or Strength?

Energy 8 is Justice and energy 11 is Strength in this system. Some decks swap those two, so the confusion is common, but this site uses 8 for Justice and 11 for Strength everywhere, so you can rely on that pairing.

What if both the positive and difficult sides feel true?

That is common, and it usually means the energy is active in your life right now. Most people express a number well in one area and badly in another, so look for a specific example for each side instead of picking one overall label.

What if none of the meaning feels true for a number?

Then leave that number for now. A meaning can feel flat because the timing is wrong, because the example has not happened yet, or because the chart is simply not speaking to that part of your life. You do not need to force a fit.

Should I worry if my chart has Death, the Devil, or the Tower?

No. Those names sound alarming, but in this system they describe endings, attachment, and sudden change, which are normal parts of life. Read them as prompts about habits and structures, not as warnings about doom, and talk to a trusted person if a reading ever feels distressing.