The Sun
Major Arcana
Upright
The reflection of the Tower, and the reversal is deliberate: where sixteen is a structure destroyed, nineteen is one that holds. Qoph is an axe — an instrument, something made and used rather than merely undergone. Papus's sense is earthly happiness, and the qualifier is doing real work: this is the material world functioning, plainly, without mystery. The two children stand in the open with nothing hidden about them.
Reversed
The light without the warmth — success that is entirely visible and not at all felt. Reversed can also mark plain good fortune distrusted on principle, examined for the catch until the season for enjoying it has passed.
Correspondences
- Papus's number
- 19
- Hebrew letter
- Qoph (ק)
- Hieroglyph
- An axe — an instrument made and wielded
- Septenary
- Third septenary (15–21), the world of Nature — fifth term, reflecting the Tower: the material structure that stands
- Divinatory sense
- Earthly happiness
In a Spread
At the commencement, the matter begins in plain and favourable conditions, which is rarer in this deck than it sounds. In opposition, an ease that is making the querent careless. At equilibrium the Sun is straightforwardly good — the situation works and is visible to everyone in it. As the result: material good fortune, of the ordinary daylight kind Papus is careful not to inflate.