People who are new to Tarot often get confused by the gender of the child in the card called The Sun. The infant on the horse wears flowers in their hair, so is it a girl? No! The roses are simply there to resemble the crown of a king.

The child is definitely a boy. We know this for a few good reasons.

• First of all, the symbol of the sun is a masculine energy, and The Sun card follows the feminine nature of the card called The Moon.
• The child is the son of the spiritual sun that shines at the top of this card, dominating the whole image.
• In mythic terms, the sun is linked to the Greek god Apollo, the god of light. This is a card of daylight—a time of activity and consciousness.
• We also know it’s a boy because A. E. Waite (the designer of the deck) refers to the masculine gender of the child in his book ‘Pictorial Key to the Tarot’. This handbook which relates directly to these cards says, “The characteristic type of humanity has become a little child therein—a child in the sense of simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and of Art; in that innocence, he signifies the restored world.”

The child is boy, but it doesn’t make much difference to your interpretations; the child simply represents the innocence of childhood and a child-like enthusiasm for life.