XXI. The World

Upright

• Great success.
• Feeling like the world is at one's fingertips.
• Synergy, everything working together in profound ways.
• A long trip to see many places or monuments.
• Mastering a craft or completing one's education.
• Finishing a significant chapter in life, having not backed down from its challenges.
• Being surrounded by significant people and things, as at a holiday dinner surrounded by family, friends, and heirlooms.
• All of the elements which make a person's world distinctively their own, typically in a positive light.
• Completion of a project which is highly significant, personally or to many people.

The World can be a powerful representation the important and cherished elements that make a person's world their own, or the achievements which make one's own existence feel distinguished and exceptional. It can also symbolize things coming together just right— miraculous synergy.

Special occasions where family and old friends gather together are also characteristic of this card, as they bring together very important elements of a person's world.

Alternatively, The World can represent seeing the world: taking an important trip or traveling far and wide.

Reversed

• A tremendous loss which makes it feel like the world is falling apart.
• Losing a harmonious life to discord.
• Losing a job or a home.
• Being forced to relocate.
• Having to say goodbye to a dear friend.
• The death of a close friend or family member.
• Losing the life one knew and loved.
• A world falling apart.
• Being extremely low. It might not get any worse.
• A world in disharmony. A broken life.
• Extensive damage to people's lives. A broken place or a broken social circle.

The World Reversed oftentimes signifies loss, perhaps devastating loss. It may indicate the loss of something or someone central to a person's existence, or many things in that vein. It may also represent conflict or discord, or key elements not coming together to synthesize a whole.