The Crossword Clue That Broke My Brain
I swear, I only started this whole Tarot card investigation because of a stupid Sunday crossword. You know those big, themed ones that demand some really niche knowledge? I was stuck on 27-Across, five letters, clue was simply “Arcana answer.” Five letters! I tried LIFE, tried WISH, tried MAGIC, none of it worked. I kept thinking, man, which Tarot card name is only five letters and common enough to be an answer?
That little roadblock turned into a three-day research project. I didn’t want to just Google the specific crossword answer—that’s cheating. I wanted to figure out the universal rule. If a crossword puzzle setter needs a Tarot card, which one is their default go-to? I decided I had to brute-force the entire Major Arcana and figure out the letter count of every single card name, just to nail down the most likely candidates. It felt ridiculous, but I was committed.
Step 1: Listing and Counting the Majors
I just grabbed a standard deck list and started writing them down in a cheap notebook. I didn’t care about interpretations, just the raw letters. I realized pretty quick that most of the names are way too long for standard crossword boxes, or they require spaces that mess up the flow. Think about it:
- The Hierophant (13 letters, forget it.)
- The Hanged Man (10 letters, too bulky.)
- The High Priestess (14 letters, nope.)
I immediately chucked all the long ones. Crosswords like short, punchy words. So I focused on the sweet spot: four, five, or six letters. Eight is sometimes okay, but usually only for common words, not proper nouns or titles.
Step 2: Hunting the Shorties
This is where the real work started. I began categorizing them by length, excluding “The” unless the clue specifically required the article (which crosswords usually try to avoid). The results were eye-opening.
The four-letter candidates?
- DEATH. Perfect. Four letters, common theme, big impact. Definitely a contender.
- TOWER. Also four letters. Good, but maybe too specific for a generic clue.
The five-letter candidates (my original target)? This list was tricky, because most of them were borderline, or needed to be shortened.
- DEVIL. Five letters. Solid candidate.
- JUDGE (for Judgment). Might work, but “JUDGE” isn’t the card name, “JUDGMENT” is (9 letters). See, this is the crap that makes it complicated. Crossword setters usually simplify.
- SUN. Five letters. Oh my god, SUN.
- STAR. Four letters. Wait, I wrote that down wrong the first time. STAR is four letters. Even better!
And then the six-letter candidates:
- LOVERS. Six letters. A classic, but not as common as the others.
- HERMIT. Six letters. Less well-known to a general audience.
Step 3: The Elimination Round and the Crossword Mentality
I started thinking like the guy who makes the puzzle. They want a word everyone knows, even if they don’t know Tarot. And it needs to fit easily.
DEATH (4) is strong, but sometimes feels too morbid for general puzzles. TOWER (5) is okay. DEVIL (5) is strong.
But then I looked back at the four-letter options: STAR and DEATH. And the five-letter options: DEVIL and SUN.
I realized the absolute king of Tarot crossword clues has to be a four-letter or five-letter word that is utterly universal, non-threatening, and common in everyday language.
It turns out, the default, most dependable answer in almost every single crossword—the one I had initially missed in my frustration with the five-letter box—is STAR (four letters) or SUN (three letters if you drop ‘The’, but five if you keep it).
Wait a minute. I checked my original clue: five letters. If the clue was generic “Arcana answer,” the setter often uses the full card title. If the card is THE SUN, and the box is five letters, it’s gotta be just SUN. But if the box is five letters, and the title is two words, like THE STAR, that doesn’t fit.
I went back to the list and stared at the names again. I started thinking about the alternative names some decks use. I got desperate. I scribbled out all the long titles, leaving only the short ones, and tried to find synonyms.
Then it hit me. Justice. J. U. S. T. I. C. E. Seven letters. Nope. Wheel of Fortune. Way too long.
I finally went back to my very first failed attempt and realized my initial error. The clue wasn’t just “Arcana answer.” It was “Arcana answer, five letters, often seen as fulfillment.”
Five letters. Fulfillment. It had to be DEUCE. No, wait, that’s playing cards. Idiot.
I grabbed a dictionary and just started forcing five-letter words related to the meanings. JOYCE? No. HEAL? No.
I remembered an old deck I have where they rename some of the Major Arcana cards for clarity. And there it was. Five letters. It means fulfillment, happiness, and clarity.
It was BLISS. B. L. I. S. S.
Except, BLISS isn’t a standard Major Arcana card. But the setter had obviously used an obscure variant name or deck. I tried to plug it in, but that still didn’t fit the surrounding crosses.
This whole ridiculous journey, which started with me trying to shortcut the process, ended up teaching me one thing: in 90% of standard crosswords, if the clue is just “Tarot card,” the answer is either four letters (STAR) or five letters (DEVIL). My specific problem was an outlier, a weird clue using a synonym for a card, and the actual answer was some dumb, obscure card I’d never heard of. But the universal answer, the card that works when you’re stuck, is usually STAR.
Why did I waste three days doing this? Because I had time to kill. My wife and I had booked this weekend getaway, a cabin up north, thinking it would be quiet and relaxing. Turns out, the water pipes froze solid the night we arrived. We spent the entire time huddled next to a tiny space heater, drinking stale coffee, and waiting for a plumber who never showed up. No cell service, nothing to do but that damn crossword. If I hadn’t cracked that Tarot clue, I think I might have gone insane up there. So, thanks, STAR, for giving me something to focus on besides frostbite.
