Upright meaning
A naked child sits on a white horse with a red banner, arms open, in front of a wall where four sunflowers lean towards an immense sun with a human face. There is no ambiguity anywhere in the picture, and after The Moon that is the entire point. The Sun is usually read as clarity and plain good feeling: the day that goes right, the misunderstanding cleared up, the ordinary satisfaction of work that came off. The tradition also attaches something to it that is easy to miss, which is unselfconsciousness, being pleased without checking first whether you are allowed to be. It makes no promise about your circumstances and cannot. What it invites you to consider is what is already good in a week you would describe as unremarkable, and why that never gets said out loud at the kitchen table.
Reversed meaning
Reversed, the light is dimmed rather than extinguished. The card is usually read as good things happening that you cannot quite feel, which is a particular kind of flatness and more common than people admit. It can also describe cheerfulness performed for an audience, the bright voice on the telephone that costs something to produce, or a small delay in something that will come right anyway. The tradition treats the reversal gently and does not read it as misfortune. It invites you to consider what would let you enjoy what is already here, and whether you have been postponing satisfaction until some later condition is met that keeps moving further away.
In love
In love, The Sun is straightforwardly warm. It describes ease between two people: laughing at the same thing, being comfortable in silence, a stretch where nothing needs managing. For a long marriage it often points at simple enjoyment that has been crowded out by logistics, and suggests putting an afternoon back in the diary for no reason. For someone alone it reads as visibility, being out among people rather than at home being sensible. The tradition attaches no warning of consequence to this card, which is unusual. Its only caution is not to talk yourself out of a good thing while it is happening.
Work and money
For work, this card reads as things going right and, more usefully, as being seen doing them. It suits recognition, a piece of work finished well, a period where the job stops being a struggle. The tradition's counsel is to say what you did rather than wait for somebody to notice, which many people find harder than the work itself. It also favours plain speaking: the clear explanation, the honest summary, the sentence that stops a meeting going round again. Where it warns at all, it warns against complacency in a good run, since good runs are the right time to prepare for duller ones.
Yes or no?
upright: Yes · reversed: Maybe
Upright this is the clearest yes in the deck, and the tradition adds that the reasons will be obvious rather than mysterious. Reversed it becomes a mild maybe, usually meaning yes but not this week, or yes with less delight attached than you were expecting.
Ask the cards: yes or no →The card's advice
Say the good thing out loud. Tell somebody what went well this week, and let yourself be pleased about it for a whole evening without adding a qualification. Then spend an hour doing something you enjoyed at twenty and have not done since. The counsel this card offers is that enjoyment is not a reward for finishing everything, and that waiting until you deserve it postpones it indefinitely.