In the Tarot de Marseille, the Sun shines down on two children standing together in front of a low brick wall, often read as twins, sometimes as Castor and Pollux, the Gemini brothers of Greek myth. A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith made one of their boldest changes to the traditional deck here. They took the two children out of the enclosure and replaced them with a single naked child riding a white horse out into the open, arms flung wide. The wall is still there, but now it's behind him. The Marseille children are safe inside a garden. Waite's child has left it.
The card corresponds to Resh, "head," and to the Sun itself. Its path links Hod, Splendor, with Yesod, the Foundation. Paul Foster Case's keyword for the Key is regeneration: renewed life after the long night journey through Death, the Tower and the Moon. Read it that way and the child becomes the Fool again, innocent once more, but this time the innocence has been earned. It has come through the dark cards and out the other side, laughing.
The sunflowers leaning over the wall are a nice detail for gardeners. Young sunflowers really do track the sun across the sky, but mature flower heads stop moving and settle facing east, toward the sunrise. Growth follows the light, and maturity faces the dawn. The whole card argues that joy isn't a prize for finishing the work. It's what shows up once the work has cleared the way, and life can express itself the way it wanted to all along.
The shadow is glare: forced positivity that won't admit a single cloud, the ego mistaking its own shine for the sun's, and the exhaustion of someone who can never stop performing happiness for an audience. The sun gives light to everyone and keeps no score. When did you last feel uncomplicated, childlike joy? Are you shining, or performing?
The Sun's advice is almost embarrassingly simple and often ignored: go outside, play, make something for the fun of it, and celebrate without apologizing. It's advice you need to hear daily, and an image can say it daily without ever getting tiresome: today is allowed to be good.
