# The Tarot Codex

> The public archive for The Tarot Codex, a ten-volume tarot method by François R. Bonchamp. The series treats tarot as a readable visual language — scene, number, element, gesture, and reversal — rather than a list of memorized keywords. The site publishes free long-form articles on that method, a visual reference for all 78 Rider-Waite-Smith tarot cards and all 36 Petit Lenormand cards, six tarot spread guides, and free one-card reading tools.

- Language: English. Tarot reference material is based on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck (1909).
- Author of all pages: François R. Bonchamp (https://bonchamptarot.com/about-author).
- Citing: use the page's own URL as listed here. Articles name their author and show publication and update dates; all pages are by François R. Bonchamp.
- Books are sold on Amazon; links to Amazon are affiliate-style purchase links.
- A single-file version of the full card, spread, and article reference is at [llms-full.txt](https://bonchamptarot.com/llms-full.txt).

## Tools

- [Free Yes/No Tarot Reading](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/yes-no): Draws one Rider-Waite-Smith card against a single focused question and returns Yes, No, or Not Yet, with the visual evidence behind the verdict and optional reversal logic.
- [Daily Tarot Card](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/daily-card): One shared Rider-Waite-Smith card per day with its visual message.

## Tarot reference

- [Tarot directory](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot): Entry point to card meanings, spreads, and tools.
- [All 78 tarot card meanings](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/meanings): Major and Minor Arcana with visual scene analysis, upright and reversed meanings, and love, career, and yes/no readings. Each card has its own page at /tarot/meanings/{card-slug}, for example [The Fool](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/meanings/the-fool).
- [Yes or no meaning of every card](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/yes-no): Each card also has a yes/no page at /tarot/yes-no/{card-slug}.
- [Tarot spreads](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/spreads): Step-by-step position guides.
  - [The Celtic Cross Spread](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/spreads/celtic-cross): 10 cards. The definitive ten-card diagnostic layout revealing core dynamics, hidden subconscious factors, obstacles, and projected outcomes.
  - [Three-Card Past, Present, Future](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/spreads/three-card-past-present-future): 3 cards. The classic three-card linear timeline reading the developmental momentum connecting where you have been, where you are, and where you are headed.
  - [The Horseshoe Spread](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/spreads/horseshoe-spread): 7 cards. A versatile seven-card arc providing clarity on decision points, hidden factors, and tactical actions.
  - [The Relationship Alignment Spread](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/spreads/relationship-cross): 6 cards. A six-card diagnostic spread exploring emotional resonance, mutual expectations, and developmental harmony between two partners.
  - [The Two Paths Decision Spread](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/spreads/decision-making-two-paths): 5 cards. A five-card strategic spread comparing two distinct choices, their short-term impacts, and their long-term trajectories.
  - [Daily Guidance: Mind, Body, Spirit](https://bonchamptarot.com/tarot/spreads/daily-guidance-three-card): 3 cards. A daily morning alignment spread checking in on mental clarity, somatic vitality, and spiritual direction.

## Lenormand reference

- [Lenormand directory](https://bonchamptarot.com/lenormand): Entry point to the Petit Lenormand system.
- [All 36 Lenormand card meanings](https://bonchamptarot.com/lenormand/meanings): Each card has its own page at /lenormand/meanings/{card-slug} with meanings for love, career, timing, and its playing-card association.
- [Lenormand card combinations](https://bonchamptarot.com/lenormand/combinations): 630 pairwise combination meanings.
- [Grand Tableau guide](https://bonchamptarot.com/lenormand/grand-tableau-guide): How to read the 36-card Grand Tableau, with layout diagrams and reading directions.

## Core pages

- [The Tarot Codex series](https://bonchamptarot.com/books): All ten volumes with summaries and reading order.
- [Across the Table](https://bonchamptarot.com/across-the-table): Standalone tarot work by François R. Bonchamp on the history of card reading, the counterfeiters and cold reading, and reading the person across the table.
- [About the series](https://bonchamptarot.com/about-series): What the method is and who it is for.
- [About the author](https://bonchamptarot.com/about-author): François R. Bonchamp.
- [Knowledge archive](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge): Index of the free articles listed below.
- [Tarot decks](https://bonchamptarot.com/decks): Deck notes and recommendations.
- [FAQ](https://bonchamptarot.com/faq): Common questions about the series and the method.

## The volumes

- [Codex I: Tarot by Sight](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-i-tarot-by-sight): The foundation of the series: a practical method for reading the card as an image before reducing it to a keyword.
- [Codex II: The Tarot Number Code](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-ii-tarot-number-code): A clear structure for understanding how Ace through Ten behave across Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles.
- [Codex III: Fire, Water, Air, Earth](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-iii-fire-water-air-earth): A practical guide to the elemental forces behind the suits and the atmosphere of a spread.
- [Codex IV: The Living Court](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-iv-the-living-court): A mature framework for Pages, Knights, Queens, and Kings as roles, behaviors, conflicts, and stages of growth.
- [Codex V: See the Card Clearly](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-v-see-the-card-clearly): A visual-symbolic guide to animals, plants, landscapes, clothing, architecture, tools, and objects in tarot.
- [Codex VI: Reading the Stars in Tarot](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-vi-reading-the-stars-in-tarot): A grounded introduction to planets, zodiac signs, modalities, decans, and astrological symbolism inside tarot.
- [Codex VII: The Tarot Combination Method](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-vii-tarot-combination-method): A method for reading cards in relationship instead of treating spreads as disconnected definitions.
- [Codex VIII: The Body Language of Tarot](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-viii-body-language-of-tarot): A guide to gaze, hands, faces, posture, movement, distance, and the human behavior visible inside the cards.
- [Codex IX: Tarot's Hidden Structure](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-ix-tarots-hidden-structure): A compact structural method for reading the Minor Arcana through suit, number, element, image, context, and sentence.
- [Codex X: The Reversal Key](https://bonchamptarot.com/codex-x-reversal-key): A practical framework for reading reversals as changed expression rather than automatic opposite meanings.

## Articles

- [Reading the Person Across the Table: Tarot, Charlatans, and Attention](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/reading-the-person-across-the-table): A forensic study of the history of card reading, the mechanics of cold reading, and the psychological craft of observing the person sitting across the table.
- [Why Tarot Is a Symbolic Language](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/why-tarot-is-a-symbolic-language): Tarot becomes clearer when it is approached as a visual language of scene, symbol, number, element, gesture, and pattern.
- [How Numbers Shape Meaning in Tarot](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/how-numbers-shape-meaning-in-tarot): Aces through Tens are not decorations. They give the Minor Arcana a developmental grammar.
- [The Four Elements in Tarot](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/the-four-elements-in-tarot): Fire, Water, Air, and Earth describe four fields of human experience inside the deck.
- [How Court Cards Really Work](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/how-court-cards-really-work): Court cards are not fixed personality labels. They can describe roles, behaviors, conflicts, and stages of growth.
- [How Reversed Cards Change Meaning](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/how-reversed-cards-change-meaning): A reversed card is not automatically the opposite. It shows a changed relationship to the upright theme.
- [Tarot Symbols Explained](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/tarot-symbols-explained): Symbols in tarot are fields of possibility, not passwords with one fixed translation.
- [Body Language in Tarot](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/body-language-in-tarot): Hands, faces, posture, gaze, and movement reveal meaning before a single keyword is applied.
- [Astrology and Tarot](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/astrology-and-tarot): Astrology can deepen tarot when it adds symbolic pressure without replacing the card.
- [How to Read Tarot Card Combinations](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/how-to-read-card-combinations): Card combinations become readable when you ask how cards relate, not what each card means in isolation.
- [Major Arcana vs Minor Arcana](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/major-arcana-vs-minor-arcana): The Major Arcana names archetypal thresholds; the Minor Arcana shows the texture of lived experience.
- [How Professional Tarot Readers Think](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/how-professional-tarot-readers-think): Strong tarot reading is careful, contextual, ethical, and grounded in visible evidence.
- [What Missing Suits Mean in a Tarot Spread](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/what-missing-suits-mean-in-a-tarot-spread): Learn how to interpret the complete absence of a tarot suit or element, and how it transforms your readings.
- [What It Means When No Cups Appear in a Tarot Reading](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/no-cups-in-tarot-reading): Discover the diagnostic meaning of emotional absence and how to interpret a tarot spread with no Cups or Water element.
- [What It Means When No Major Arcana Cards Appear](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/no-major-arcana-cards-in-tarot-reading): Discover the meaning of an only minor arcana tarot reading, and why details matter more than destiny when there is no major arcana in a tarot spread.
- [How to Read Gaze Direction in Tarot Cards](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/how-to-read-gaze-direction-in-tarot-cards): A practical guide to reading where figures look in tarot cards to uncover focus, avoidance, and relationship dynamics.
- [When Tarot Cards Face Each Other in a Spread](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/when-tarot-cards-face-each-other-in-a-spread): A scholarly guide to the spatial grammar of tarot cards facing, avoiding, or turning away from one another in a spread.
- [What Hands Mean in Tarot Cards](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/what-hands-mean-in-tarot-cards): A scholarly guide to the secret language of hand gestures, offerings, and open or closed hands in tarot cards.
- [What Feet and Shoes Mean in Tarot](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/what-feet-and-shoes-mean-in-tarot): Explore the hidden symbolism of feet and shoes in tarot. Learn how bare feet, armored boots, and walking direction reveal grounding, posture, and status.
- [Armor in Tarot Cards: Protection, Status, and Distance](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/armor-in-tarot-cards): Explore the rich symbolism of armor in tarot cards. Learn how steel plating, helmets, and shields represent protection, social status, emotional distance, and controlled vulnerability.
- [Walls, Gates, and Doors in Tarot Symbolism](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/walls-gates-and-doors-in-tarot): A scholarly guide to the architecture of the soul in tarot cards. Learn how stone walls, open gates, and closed doors symbolize psychological boundaries, defense systems, and thresholds of transformation.
- [How to Read Repeating Symbols Across a Tarot Spread](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/how-to-read-repeating-symbols-across-a-tarot-spread): A scholarly guide to identifying and interpreting repeating symbols, colors, gestures, and elements in a tarot spread to uncover macro-narratives.
- [How to Turn Tarot Cards Into One Sentence](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/how-to-turn-tarot-cards-into-one-sentence): A structured, practical method to combine multiple tarot card meanings into a single, cohesive interpretive sentence.
- [Reading Distance Between Figures in Tarot](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/reading-distance-between-figures-in-tarot): A scholarly guide to interpreting visual distance, spatial relationships, boundaries, and vertical hierarchy between figures in a tarot spread.
- [Crowns and Thrones in Tarot Symbolism: Sovereignty, Authority, and Burden](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/crowns-and-thrones-in-tarot-symbolism): Explore the deep symbolism of crowns and thrones in tarot. Understand how authority, inherited responsibility, ego, and institutional power shape the cards.
- [How Movement Creates Story in a Tarot Spread](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/how-movement-creates-story-in-a-tarot-spread): Learn how to read tarot as a story by tracking visual movement, figures moving toward or away, and blocked motion in a tarot spread.
- [The Cards That Are Not There: Reading Absence in Tarot](https://bonchamptarot.com/knowledge/reading-absence-in-tarot): A scholarly guide to reading absence in tarot. Learn to interpret cards not present in a tarot reading, missing elements, and what is missing in a tarot spread.

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