One Tarot Card, Three Decks: How Artwork Changes the Reading
Tarot's traditional meanings are attached to card names and positions — The Tower, the Three of Cups, the Ten of Swords — but the actual artwork illustrating each card varies enormously between decks. Two readers holding the same named card from two different decks can be looking at genuinely different scenes, and that visual difference often shapes what a reader actually notices first.
This guide compares how a single, widely known card is illustrated across a few well-known deck traditions, and how that shift in artwork nudges the reading.
Why the Same Card Can Look So Different
Tarot decks generally fall into a few visual traditions. The most influential is the Rider-Waite-Smith style from 1909, which established fully illustrated scenes for every card (not just the face cards) and became the template most modern decks either follow closely or deliberately depart from. Decks that follow this tradition tend to keep the same core symbols — a falling tower, a particular figure, a specific number of cups — while decks in other traditions may abstract those symbols, restyle them culturally, or drop some entirely in favor of a different visual language.
Case Study: The Three of Swords
In a Rider-Waite-Smith-style deck: the traditional image shows three swords piercing a single heart against a stormy, grey sky. The scene is stark and unambiguous — the symbolism of piercing pain is placed front and center, with almost nothing softening it.
In a nature- or botanically-themed deck: the same card might replace the heart-and-swords scene with three thorns piercing a wilting flower, or three broken branches against a storm. The core idea — sharp, multiple sources of pain — survives, but the softer, organic imagery can shift the emotional tone of a reading from "sharp shock" toward "slow wilting."
In a minimalist or abstract deck: the card might reduce the scene to three geometric lines crossing a single shape, with no literal heart or swords at all. Read this way, the card leans more toward the structure of the pain — three distinct pressures — than the emotional intensity of the traditional image.
What changes in the reading: a reader working with the traditional image is more likely to lead with themes of heartbreak, grief, or emotional injury specifically. A reader working with the abstract version might instead lead with the idea of multiple simultaneous stressors, without assuming the pain is romantic or emotional at all. Neither reading is "wrong" — the artwork is doing real interpretive work, not just decoration.
How to Compare Artwork Yourself
When you're deciding which deck to use, or interpreting a card pulled from an unfamiliar deck, ask:
- What's literally depicted? Note the concrete objects, figures, and setting — don't skip past this to jump straight to "the meaning."
- What's missing compared to the traditional image? If a deck removes a classic symbol (like the heart in the Three of Swords), consider what that omission opens up or closes off in the reading.
- What's added that isn't in the traditional version? New symbols in a deck's reimagining of a card are often the artist's intentional commentary — worth reading into rather than ignoring.
- What's the overall tone — stark, soft, geometric, warm? Tone alone can shift a reading's emotional register even when the core symbolism stays intact.
The Takeaway
Traditional card meanings give you a reliable starting point, but the deck in your hands is not a neutral delivery system for that meaning — its specific artwork is part of the message. Comparing the same card across a few decks is one of the fastest ways to notice how much a reading depends on what's actually in front of you, not just the card's name.
This comparison builds on the traditions covered in our tarot history and practice guide, which walks through where these visual conventions came from and how to build a reflective reading practice around them.