How we write The Codex

The Codex is written and edited by the team behind Tarot Beyond, a small group of long-time tarot readers, writers, and editors. Every card meaning, reversal note, and combination synthesis is hand-written — not generated by a language model and not scraped from another deck's little white book.

Where a passage draws on a specific tradition, we say so. Where we take an editorial position — for example, treating reversals as internal or blocked expressions of the upright meaning rather than opposites — we say so too.

Our baseline is the Rider–Waite–Smith system: 78 cards split into 22 Major Arcana (archetypal life themes) and 56 Minor Arcana across four suits — Wands (fire / will), Cups (water / feeling), Swords (air / thought), and Pentacles (earth / body and resource).

Each interpretation is built from four layers:

• Archetype — the core image and what it stands for.
• Element & numerology — what the suit and number contribute (e.g. a Five is always a destabilising, mid-process card; a Cup is always about feeling).
• Practical reading — what this card tends to mean in love, work, and decision-making contexts.
• Reversed — how the same energy looks when blocked, internalised, or over-expressed.

Combination pages add a fifth layer: how two cards genuinely interact, rather than two meanings stitched together.

• No fear-based language. We don't tell you something terrible is about to happen.
• No predictions about other people's behaviour, health, or death.
• Plain English first, traditional terminology second.
• Every page is reviewed by a second reader before publication and revisited when we spot something we've grown out of.

The Codex is a tool for self-reflection, creative thinking, and conversation with yourself. It is not a forecast, a medical or mental-health resource, financial advice, or a substitute for professional help. If something in your life needs a doctor, a therapist, a lawyer, or a financial adviser, please speak to one.

You're always the author of your own decisions. The cards just give you a richer vocabulary to think with.

Spotted something wrong or want to suggest an improvement? Email info@thetarotbeyond.com. We read everything and revise pages when readers point out a better way to say something.