Bohemian Gothic Tarot

XXI THE WORLD

Lighter or more conventional meanings

Finding your joy * Fulfilment on spiritual and emotional levels * Dancing through life, refusing to give in to despair or negativity * Realising the meaning and purpose of your life - and knowing you can achieve it * Overcoming fears of death * Feeling certain that creativity is stronger than destruction.

Darker, shadow or more hidden meanings

Finding your joy in a selfish way, without compassion for others * Getting tremendous pleasure from an achievement that's ethically or morally dubious * Reaching a satisfying state, but you still feel something is missing * A joyful and fulfilling end to a dark and dangerous "journey" or process.

This is the fulfilment card of the tarot - the card that indicates that we've reached our ultimate goals and can celebrate joyously. It refers to an emotional, rather than an intellectual or analytical achievement, combining, as it does, much of the most positive in the two cards that come immediately before it in the Majors sequence - the enlightenment of The Sun together with the exhilaration of rebirth symbolised by judgement.

The World card of The Bohemian Gothic Tarot shows a woman treading lightly across a river, using a series of boulders and skulls as her stepping stones and balancing herself by gently holding the tree above. The image signifies an ability to overcome - to step gently across - death and decay, while staying in touch with life and living things. It's about refusing to be pulled down into despair or depression, but instead continuing to rejoice in spiritual achievement and inner contentment. In a profound sense it shows an ability to rise above earthly troubles and find a way to cross from darkness into light.

In a reading, this card can stand for endings and closure, and the joy and fulfilment we can find in a project, a cycle, a journey or even a life that's completed well and achieved what it set out to do. It's a rapturous card, but there is also a little sadness mixed in - it carries some of the sense of "moving on" that we find also in the Eight of Cups, and there could be a touch of nostalgia and a reluctance to accept that something important is now finished. However, having said this, The World's meaning is essentially merry, joyous and jubilant. Even in a deck as dark as The Bohemian Gothic Tarot, The World shines out as a promise that we can find our way across even the hardest of challenges. It's an overwhelmingly reassuring card that tells us that we will reach delight and contentment.

Some further ways to consider this card

There are many cards in this deck that show skulls. When The World falls close to other cards like this (for example the Queen or King of Swords) does it change the way you see and interpret those images?

The dress that the dancing woman wears is a very pure sky blue, a colour that doesn't appear often in this deck. Is that significant to you and if so, how?