Illustration by Pamela Colman Smith, 1910. Public domain in the US since 1966 and in the UK since 2021. Vector digitisation of the Rider–Waite–Smith deck by OpenClipart contributor "klaatu-tarot", released public domain.
The Sun
Light and Spiritual Renewal
In 1911 Waite gave the Sun's reversed meanings as the same happiness and contentment in a lesser sense, rather than a separate inner-child diagnosis.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911 edition), Part II, XIX, The Sun; part III, section 3, XIX.
A naked child on a white horse waves a red banner beneath a large sun, with sunflowers rising behind a wall.
More context
Waite's child carries a red banner on a white horse. He reads the scene as passage from this world's light towards the light of the world to come. The child represents simplicity joined to wisdom, and the restored world. In another aspect, direct consciousness in the spirit replaces reflected light. His practical divinatory meanings remain happiness, fortunate marriage and contentment, lessened when reversed. The theological exposition does not describe consciousness abandoning interpretation altogether, nor promise that all fear is driven out.
Light
Waite connects the child with innocence, wisdom and restoration; his divinatory meanings include happiness and contentment.
Shadow
Waite gives the same happiness, marriage and contentment in a lesser sense when the card is reversed.