This is The World card, number XXI of the Major Arcana in the Rider-Waite tarot deck. It’s the final card in the sequence, symbolizing completion and wholeness. Everything comes full circle.
At the center is a nude, dancing figure—often read as androgynous, sometimes divine feminine—wrapped in a purple sash, holding two batons. She floats within an oval wreath, which itself mimics an ouroboros—a symbol of cyclical time, eternal return. Around her, the four figures in the corners—the man, eagle, lion, and bull—are lifted from Ezekiel’s vision and Revelation. They represent the four evangelists, the four fixed signs of the zodiac, the four elements. In short: the whole structure of creation.
This isn’t a victory card in the modern sense. It’s deeper. It suggests alignment—between self and world, inner and outer, heaven and earth. Not escapism, not transcendence, but grounded harmony. You’re not done because you’ve left the journey—you’re done because you’ve absorbed it.
But the circle implies continuation. The Fool is always ready to step back in. Completion gives way to the next beginning. That’s the paradox. Wholeness isn’t stasis—it’s movement that includes everything.
Archefact 