THE TAROT STUDIES GLOSSARY · A–Z
The Letter K
Explore Tarot terms beginning with K, including Kabbalah, karmic reading language, key cards, keywords, Kings, and the separate Kipper divination system.
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Kabbalah
A Jewish mystical tradition concerned with the nature of the divine, creation, and spiritual interpretation. Western occultists later developed Hermetic Qabalah and connected it with Tarot. These related systems should not be treated as identical or stripped of their distinct histories.
Subject: History and Systems
Related terms: Qabalah, Tree of Life, Hebrew letters
Kabbalistic Pathworking
A contemplative practice used in Hermetic Qabalah and related Western esoteric traditions to explore the spheres or paths of the Tree of Life through meditation, visualization, and symbolic study. Some practitioners use Tarot cards—especially the Major Arcana—as images for this work. Methods and card assignments vary by school, and this Western occult practice should not be treated as identical to Jewish Kabbalah.
Subject: Correspondences
Related terms: Tree of Life, Major Arcana, Qabalah
Karmic Pattern
A spiritual interpretation of a recurring experience as part of a longer cycle of cause, consequence, and learning. In Tarot, the phrase may support reflection on repeated choices or relationships, but it should not be used to blame someone for suffering or claim certainty about past lives.
Subject: Reading Language
Related terms: recurring cycle, spiritual belief, personal responsibility
Karmic Spread
A Tarot layout designed to explore recurring themes, lessons, attachments, or spiritual beliefs about cause and consequence. Position meanings vary. The spread is best framed as reflective inquiry rather than proof of a past life or predetermined debt.
Subject: Reading Language
Related terms: past-life reading, recurring pattern, spiritual reflection
Key
An older esoteric term for an individual Tarot card, especially a Major Arcana card, emphasizing its role as a symbolic key to a larger system of meaning. Numbered references such as “Key 0” or “Key I” may appear in occult Tarot writing.
Subject: History and Systems
Related terms: Major Arcana, trump, card title
Key Card
The card treated as the central or most influential point in a reading. It may be selected in advance, assigned by the spread, or recognized during interpretation because other cards repeatedly connect back to its theme. When selected or assigned in advance, it may also function as a focus card.
Subject: Reading Language
Related terms: focus card, anchor card, central card
Keyword
A short word or phrase used to recall one aspect of a card’s meaning. Keywords are helpful study tools, but they are starting points rather than complete interpretations; imagery, position, question, and card relationships determine how the idea applies.
Subject: Tarot Foundations
Related terms: traditional meaning, context, study aid
King
One of the four Court Card ranks and traditionally the most mature outward expression of a suit. Kings may represent people, leadership styles, responsibilities, authority, or ways of directing an element. Their meaning is not limited by the querent’s gender.
Subject: Card Structure
Related terms: Court Cards, rank, elemental expression
Kipper Cards
A separate thirty-six-card divination system that originated in nineteenth-century Germany and uses named people, situations, institutions, and social circumstances. Kipper is sometimes studied alongside Tarot and Lenormand, but it has its own structure and reading methods.
Subject: History and Systems
Related terms: cartomancy, Lenormand Deck, divination deck
Knight
One of the four Court Card ranks, positioned between Page and Queen in the Rider-Waite-Smith system. Knights commonly express a suit through movement, pursuit, testing, and directed action. They may represent a person, role, developmental stage, or way of carrying an element into the world.
Subject: Card Structure
Related terms: Court Cards, Page, Queen, King