Fate's Hand

How Fate's Hand works

Ask a question — or just keep one in mind — and seven tarot cards are dealt to you face up. Fate gets seven more, face down. Each round fate turns one card over, and you choose which of yours meets it. That choice is the whole game: sometimes it is worth giving up a card to keep a better one, or letting two rivals cancel each other out.

Who wins follows the old elemental dignities of the tarot. Fire and air feed each other, so do water and earth; fire and water, air and earth pull against each other. The Major Arcana outrank the suits, as trumps did in the card games the tarot started as, and the Fool plays the old role of the Excuse: it never wins and is never lost.

How the reading is built

After seven rounds the cards left standing tell the story: what prevailed and what it took in, what you let go, what stayed on fate's side, what cancelled out, and which element leads. Two people with the same deal get different readings if they play it differently — press Replay this deal to try another way, or copy the link to show someone your table.

The card meanings come from our tarot card guide. Play is free and nothing is stored on our side.

Fate's Hand is for entertainment and reflection. It does not predict the future and is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.