Which tarot cards mean yes

The whole deck sorted by the answer it leans towards, with the reason in every row. Use it to read a card you have already drawn, not to decide one in advance.

78 cards

A bare yes is the easiest lie in tarot, which is why no row here gives one. A card leans; the question decides. Where a verdict and your situation disagree, your situation is the one that knows more, and the reason is there so you can tell which is which.

Cards that lean yes

49 cards

The Fool: The Fool leans yes, with a condition worth stating: it favours going ahead, not the assurance that going ahead works out. Read it as permission rather than prediction. If the question was really "is this safe", the honest answer is that The Fool is the card saying the safety you are waiting for is not coming.
The Magician: A yes that comes with an invoice. The Magician says the outcome is achievable and that it will be achieved by you doing something specific, not by circumstances arranging themselves. If nothing changes in your behaviour, treat this card as a no.
The Empress: A warm yes, conditional on time. The Empress favours the matter but works on natural rather than convenient timelines, so the answer is closer to "yes, and it will take longer than you want" than to "yes, soon". Forcing the pace is the main way this yes turns into a no.
The Emperor: A firm yes, conditional on discipline. The Emperor supports the matter provided it is approached with structure rather than improvisation — plan it, formalise it, and keep to what you commit to. Approached casually, this card turns unforgiving.
The Hierophant: Yes, by the established route. The Hierophant supports the matter when approached conventionally — through the proper channel, with the right guidance, in the recognised form. If your question was about doing it your own unorthodox way, this card is closer to a no.
The Chariot: Yes, if you drive it. The Chariot indicates the outcome is achievable and depends entirely on sustained effort and a clear direction. It is a poor card for anyone hoping the situation resolves itself, and a strong one for anyone prepared to push.
Strength: Yes, with patience. Strength supports the matter and indicates it requires steadiness over time rather than a decisive push. If the question was whether you can force this now, the card says the force is what will cost you the yes.
Wheel of Fortune: A yes that belongs partly to circumstance. The Wheel indicates the matter turns favourably, and is honest that the mechanism is timing rather than merit. Since the same wheel keeps moving, treat a yes here as a window rather than a settlement.
Temperance: Yes, in moderation and in time. Temperance supports the matter provided it is approached gradually and without extremes. It is a poor answer for anyone asking whether they can do this quickly or all at once, which is usually the actual question.
The Star: A gentle yes. The Star is among the deck’s most favourable cards and indicates the matter goes well, though on a restorative timescale rather than an urgent one. Its yes is about the direction of travel more than about speed.
The Sun: The clearest yes in the deck. The Sun indicates a favourable outcome with few conditions attached, and is one of the very few cards where the simple reading and the careful reading agree.
Judgement: Yes, on the condition of honesty. Judgement supports the matter where you have genuinely reckoned with it, and reads the absence of that reckoning as the obstacle. If the question involves something unexamined, the card is asking for the examination first.
The World: An emphatic yes, with the sense of something reaching its proper conclusion rather than simply going your way. The World rarely indicates a quick outcome; it indicates a complete one.
Ace of Wands: An energetic yes. The card favours acting, and is honest that it describes the start rather than the finish — a yes to going, not a promise about arriving.
Two of Wands: A qualified yes: the thing is possible and available, and the card is specific that it requires a decision you have not made yet.
Three of Wands: Yes, with a note about timing. The card favours the outcome and is explicit that it takes longer than you would like — a yes about direction rather than about speed.
Four of Wands: A settled yes. The card favours the thing and suggests the result is stable rather than exciting, which for most questions about home and commitment is the better news.
Six of Wands: A confident yes. The card shows the outcome already achieved and acknowledged, which is about as affirmative as the minor arcana gets.
Seven of Wands: A qualified yes. The figure has the advantage and keeps it — the card favours the outcome while being explicit that it takes sustained effort rather than a single push.
Eight of Wands: A fast yes. The staves are already in flight and nearly down — the card indicates the thing is in motion rather than under consideration.
Nine of Wands: A worn yes. The figure is still standing and the staves are still up — the card indicates the thing holds, and is honest that holding it is the whole difficulty.
Page of Wands: An eager yes without much weight behind it. The card favours going ahead and is silent on whether the thing lasts, which is fair — at this stage nobody knows, including you.
Knight of Wands: An emphatic yes about the action and a silent one about the consequences. The card supports going ahead and does not promise the landing.
Queen of Wands: A warm yes. The card indicates the situation responds well to you being straightforwardly yourself in it — which is a yes about method as much as about outcome.
King of Wands: A decisive yes. The card indicates both that the thing works and that it works because someone takes charge of it — most likely you.
Ace of Cups: A warm yes, and a soft one. The Ace favours the thing being asked about, on the understanding that what it opens is a beginning rather than a settled outcome.
Two of Cups: Yes, provided the question involves someone else. The Two of Cups answers well about partnership and has little to say about a decision you make alone.
Three of Cups: Yes, especially where the question involves other people. It is a card about things going well in company, and it answers social questions more confidently than solitary ones.
Six of Cups: Yes, warmly, and with a note: the card tends to answer in favour of things connected to the past, which is worth noticing if the question is whether to go back to something.
Nine of Cups: A strong yes, and traditionally the deck's clearest one. Its only caution is the reversed question of whether the wish was the right one, which does not change the answer.
Ten of Cups: Yes, and the most expansive yes in the suit. It answers particularly well for questions about home, family and long-term arrangements.
Page of Cups: A tentative yes. The card favours the thing and is honest that it describes a beginning, not a result — a yes to trying rather than to arriving.
Knight of Cups: Yes, romantically and at a walking pace. The card favours the thing while being honest that it will take longer than the enthusiasm suggests.
Queen of Cups: Yes, on emotional grounds. The Queen answers questions about care, trust and depth more confidently than practical ones, where she has less to say.
King of Cups: Yes, calmly. The card favours the thing on the understanding that it will be handled rather than resolved effortlessly — the outcome is competence applied to something difficult, not the difficulty going away.
Ace of Swords: A decisive yes. The card is force and conquest in Waite's reading, and it favours the outcome while being explicit that the way through is directness rather than accommodation.
Six of Swords: A quiet yes. The card indicates the passage completes and the water improves, while being clear that the change is gradual and does not feel like a victory at any point.
Knight of Swords: An emphatic yes about the action and a silent one about the consequences. The card indicates the thing happens quickly because somebody drives it, and takes no view on the wreckage.
King of Swords: A reasoned yes. The card indicates the thing holds up under examination, which is a stronger form of yes than enthusiasm — and it comes with the condition that the case has to be made properly.
Ace of Pentacles: A solid yes. The card indicates the thing is not only favourable but tangible — an outcome with substance rather than a promising direction.
Three of Pentacles: A confident yes conditional on effort. The card indicates it works, and is specific that it works through skill and cooperation rather than through anything falling into place.
Six of Pentacles: A yes that involves someone else. The card indicates the thing works out through support rather than independently, which is worth knowing before accepting it as a straightforward affirmative.
Eight of Pentacles: A yes conditional on work. The card indicates it comes good and is explicit that nothing about the result arrives on its own — the effort is the mechanism, not a precondition.
Nine of Pentacles: A yes on your own terms. The card indicates a favourable and self-determined outcome, reached through your own effort rather than through anybody else's decision.
Ten of Pentacles: A substantial yes. The card indicates not only a favourable result but a lasting one, which for questions about home, family and money is the strongest answer available.
Page of Pentacles: A patient yes. The card indicates the thing is worth beginning and is explicit that it is a beginning — the result is real and further away than the question assumes.
Knight of Pentacles: A patient yes. The card indicates the thing happens and takes its time — the answer is affirmative about the outcome and a warning about the schedule.
Queen of Pentacles: A generous yes. The card indicates a favourable and materially comfortable outcome, arrived at through resourcefulness and care rather than through luck.
King of Pentacles: A solid yes. The card indicates a prosperous and stable outcome, and is specific that it holds because somebody competent is looking after it.

Cards that say it depends

16 cards

The High Priestess: The High Priestess declines the question, which is itself informative. She indicates the matter is not yet decidable on the evidence available, and that pressing for a verdict now will produce a guess dressed as an answer. Wait, and ask again when something has actually changed.
The Lovers: The Lovers refuses a flat answer because its subject is a decision that is yours to make. It says the matter turns on alignment: yes if the thing you are asking about matches what you actually value, no if you have been arguing yourself into it. The card returns the question with the criterion attached.
The Hermit: The Hermit does not answer; he sends you to find out. The card indicates the question cannot be settled from outside and needs a period of honest reflection first. If pressed, it leans toward "not yet" — not because the answer is no, but because you are not currently in a position to hear it.
Justice: Justice answers according to the facts rather than the question. If your position is sound and your conduct will bear examination, this is a yes. If it will not, the card is a warning rather than a verdict. It is the deck’s most conditional answer, and the condition is you.
The Hanged Man: Closer to "not yet" than to either answer. The Hanged Man indicates the matter is suspended and not currently decidable, and that pressing now produces nothing. The useful reading is that the delay itself is the message, and that your view of the question may change before it resolves.
The Moon: The Moon declines the question on the grounds that the information is unreliable. Any yes or no drawn from this card would be a guess with a card attached. The useful reading is that you are not currently positioned to know, and that acting as though you were is the risk.
Five of Wands: The card describes a contest with no winner in the picture. It is not a no, but it says the answer will be argued over rather than arrived at.
Ten of Wands: The card says it is achievable and expensive. Whether that is a yes depends on what the load is buying, which is the question the card is really asking.
Two of Swords: The card is a refusal to answer rather than an answer. It indicates the question is genuinely open and is being kept open, which means the deciding factor is a choice nobody has made yet.
Four of Swords: The card answers about timing rather than merit. It indicates the thing is not resolved now and that the delay is restorative, so the honest reading is not yet rather than no.
Seven of Swords: The card indicates the thing can be achieved and that the method matters more than the odds. It is a yes about capability and an open question about what the approach will cost.
Page of Swords: The card indicates the question is still being investigated rather than answered. Its honest reading is that you do not have enough information yet, and that the information is gettable.
Queen of Swords: The card answers by refusing to flatter the question. It indicates the honest answer is available and may not be the one wanted, and that a clear look at the facts is what settles it.
Two of Pentacles: The card indicates it is possible and that possibility rests entirely on capacity. It is a yes if something else gives, and it does not say what.
Four of Pentacles: The card indicates the current position is secure and static. If the question is whether things stay as they are the answer is yes; if it is whether they improve, the grip is what prevents it.
Seven of Pentacles: The card indicates the thing is viable and slower than you want. Whether that is a yes rests on how much more time and effort you are genuinely willing to put in.

Cards that lean no

13 cards

Death: Not as a judgement but as a description: Death indicates the thing being asked about is ending rather than continuing. If the question was whether something can be preserved, the answer is no. If it was whether change is coming, the answer is emphatically yes.
The Devil: A no with a caveat. The Devil indicates the matter is bound up with attachment or compulsion rather than clear choice, and that proceeding on those terms leads somewhere you will not want. If the question was whether you can get free of something, the reversed reading is a yes.
The Tower: A no in the sense that the thing being asked about does not hold. The Tower indicates collapse rather than continuation, and it is worth reading as information rather than misfortune: what it removes is generally something that could not have survived being asked to bear weight.
Four of Cups: A soft no, and specifically a not-as-things-stand. The card describes a situation nobody is actively moving, which for most questions means the answer is no by default rather than by decision.
Five of Cups: No, with a qualification the card insists on: it describes a disappointment rather than a catastrophe, and what remains afterwards is usually more than expected.
Seven of Cups: A no of a specific kind: not refusal, but non-decision. The card describes a situation where nothing resolves because too much is being held open, which for a yes/no question reads as no.
Eight of Cups: No, in the sense of moving on rather than being refused. The card favours leaving, so a question about whether to stay, continue or return generally answers no.
Three of Swords: A no with sorrow rather than obstruction in it. The card indicates the thing does not go the way you hoped, and that the disappointment is real rather than a matter of adjusting expectations.
Five of Swords: A no in substance even where the surface says yes. The card indicates the thing may be achievable and that achieving it damages what you wanted it for.
Eight of Swords: A no for now rather than in principle. The card indicates the way is blocked and is unusually clear that much of the blockage is positional — which makes it a no that changes if you move.
Nine of Swords: A no weighted with dread rather than obstacle. The card indicates the fear around this is running well ahead of the facts, so treat it as a signal to check the facts before accepting the answer.
Ten of Swords: A final no. The card indicates the matter is concluded rather than obstructed, which makes it one of the few clear negatives in the deck — and the dawn behind it says the answer stops costing something fairly soon.
Five of Pentacles: A no with hardship rather than obstruction in it. The card indicates a period of lack around this question, and points at help as the thing that changes the answer.