Random tarot card generator — draw from the 22 Major Arcana

How to use the random tarot card generator

1. Choose a Spread: One card or Three cards.
2. Leave Allow reversed cards ticked if cards may be drawn upside down, or untick it.
3. Press Draw. The first card is shown large with its keywords.
4. With three cards, a table lists the Past, Present and Future positions, each card and its traditional keywords.

What it does and when to use it

You can use a card as a journaling or reflection prompt rather than a forecast. Draw one card in the morning and write a few lines on how its keywords, such as “patience, courage, gentle persistence” for Strength, relate to your day. Writers can use a spread to shape a character arc, and game masters to add a twist to a story. A three-card spread gives a simple beginning, middle and end.

For a yes-or-no style answer, try the Magic 8 Ball or the yes or no generator. For a story prompt without the mystic theme, use the random sentence generator.

How it works

The 22 cards are stored with an upright and a reversed set of keywords. For a spread, the tool shuffles the deck with a Fisher–Yates shuffle and deals the first one or three cards, so a card cannot appear twice. For each card it then draws a random fraction; below one half means reversed (when reversals are allowed). All random numbers come from crypto.getRandomValues, so every card has a one-in-22 chance for the first position and every card is equally likely to be reversed.

The keywords are short, neutral summaries of traditional meanings, written for this site.

Worked examples

One card. One run drew VI · The Lovers (reversed), with the keywords “imbalance, a choice put off”. Every result ends with “For entertainment only. Tarot cards have no proven power to predict events or give advice.”

Three cards, no reversals. One run gave Past: IX · The Hermit (solitude, reflection, inner guidance), Present: 0 · The Fool (new beginnings, spontaneity, openness) and Future: XVII · The Star (hope, renewal, calm), shown in a table headed “Position | Card | Traditional keywords”.

Limits and tips

• Only the Major Arcana are included, so a draw never shows a Minor Arcana card such as the Three of Cups.
• There is no card artwork; the result is text.
• If you feel anxious about a reading, close the page. A random draw says nothing about your life.
• Everything runs in your browser.