The Sun Yes or No: Yes, Clearly

Written by Chaya the Medium.

The Sun is the clearest yes in the deck. Here is how I read it for yes or no questions, upright and reversed, and why even the reversal keeps most of the warmth.

If you want the short answer, the Sun is a yes. In a yes or no draw the upright card says the situation is open, warm and supported by greater clarity. It is the most straightforward yes in the Major Arcana, and the only complication is that people distrust it because it is so plain.

This is a card of yes as daylight. The child is on the horse. The sunflowers are up. There is nothing hidden in the picture because there is nothing to hide.

Is the Sun a yes or a no?

Upright, I read the Sun as a yes. Reversed, I read it as unclear, neither a clean yes nor a clean no. Those are the same directions my free yes or no tarot draw uses, so if you drew the card there, this page explains the answer it gave you.

Tina Gong's the Sun guide at Labyrinthos associates the upright card with joy, success, positivity, vitality and clarity. Brigit Esselmont's yes or no tarot overview at Biddy Tarot notes that readers assign yes and no values differently, which is true, and it is why I state mine rather than pretend there is one correct table.

Why the upright card reads this way

I read the Sun as yes because everything in the card is visible and good: full light, a bare and unafraid child, a wall of flowers, a white horse. When a question is about whether something will go well, the Sun says it will, and says it without conditions.

The yes is about the present and near future. The Sun does not describe forever. It describes a situation that is bright now, which is a very good place to start from.

The Sun reversed as yes or no

Reversed, I read the Sun as unclear. The reversal keeps the positive potential and says the timing or the expectations may need adjusting: the good thing is real and it is not arriving in the shape or on the schedule you pictured.

If you drew the Sun reversed, do not read it as a no. Read it as a yes that needs its expectations trimmed, and ask which part of what you wanted was the Sun and which part was decoration.

The Sun yes or no in a love question

In a love question, the Sun is a yes to joy, openness and a relationship that is good in plain sight. It is a strong card for new love and a reassuring one for established love. Reversed, it suggests the happiness is there and something about the timing or the expectations is slightly off, which is a conversation rather than a crisis.

The Sun yes or no for work and money

For work and money, the Sun is a yes to success, recognition and the plan that works: the launch, the application, the project you have been unsure about. Reversed, it suggests the win is coming in a smaller or later form than hoped, and is still a win.

When a yes or no draw is the wrong tool

The Sun answers questions about whether something will go well. It is a poor card for questions about depth, endurance or complexity, which it answers with cheerful brightness whether or not that is the whole story. A single card answers a single, well-formed question. If the question is really three questions, or is about another person's choices, a yes or no draw will give you a confident answer to the wrong thing. My guide to a one question psychic reading explains how I handle questions that need more than one card.

What to record before drawing again

Keep three short notes: the exact question you asked, the plain evidence that things are going well, and what you expected that the Sun did not promise. The third note is the whole of the reversal.

For comparison, the Star yes or no and the Moon yes or no answer differently. The the Sun card meaning page covers the card in full, and the Sun as timing and the Sun as feelings cover the two other questions people most often ask of it. You can draw a card for your own question with the yes or no tarot tool. For a personal interpretation, my guide to an online psychic reading explains how readings work, and the three-card tarot listing and customer reviews are worth reading before deciding whether to order.