You're staring at those sixteen little squares, and the grid is mocking you. It’s that familiar morning ritual—or late-night obsession—where the New York Times Connections puzzle feels less like a game and more like a personal affront to your intelligence. If you've been searching for the tarot card group nyt recently, you’re likely tangled up in one of Wyna Liu’s infamous "purple" categories or a particularly nasty trick designed to lead you down a rabbit hole of false leads.
The NYT Connections game is brilliant because it relies on "red herrings." You see a word like "Tower" and immediately think of architecture, but then you see "Star," and your brain pivots to astronomy. Then "Fool" pops up, and suddenly, you're deep in the Major Arcana.
Connections isn't just about knowing facts; it's about spotting the specific way the NYT editors categorize those facts. When a tarot card group appears in the NYT, it’s usually because the words have double meanings that fit into other, more mundane categories. It’s a classic bait-and-switch.
Why the Tarot Card Group NYT Puzzle Trips Everyone Up
The New York Times doesn't just give you a list of occult items and call it a day. That would be too easy. Instead, they pick cards from the 78-card deck that function perfectly as everyday nouns or verbs.
Take the word "Justice." In a vacuum, it belongs with "Fairness," "Equity," or "Law." But in the context of a tarot card group, it's just one of the numbered cards in the Major Arcana. The difficulty spikes because the NYT often mixes these with "pseudo-categories." You might see "Magician" and think of "Houdini" or "Penn & Teller" before you think of a divination deck.
Actually, the "Fool" is perhaps the most common card to appear in these puzzles. It’s a short, punchy word. It fits into categories about "idiots" or "trickery," making it the perfect bridge for a red herring.
People get frustrated. I get it. You have four lives, and wasting one on a "near-miss" because you thought "Sun" and "Moon" were part of a "Space" category when they were actually part of the tarot card group nyt is enough to make anyone want to close the tab.
The Anatomy of a Red Herring
Wyna Liu and the editorial team at the Times are masters of semantic overlap. To beat the tarot card group, you have to look for the words that don't seem to belong anywhere else first.
If you see "Devil," "Tower," "Lovers," and "World," you've got a lock. But they rarely make it that obvious. Usually, you’ll get three cards and one "imposter" word that belongs to a different group entirely. Or worse, you’ll find five words that could all be tarot cards, forcing you to deduce which one belongs to the other hidden group.
For example, "Strength" is a tarot card. But it’s also a physical attribute. If the other three words in a potential group are "Durability," "Stamina," and "Power," then "Strength" isn't part of the tarot group this time. It’s part of the fitness group. This "overlapping member" strategy is the backbone of the NYT's puzzle philosophy.
Real Examples from the Archives
Let’s look at how this has actually played out in past puzzles. This isn't just theory; it's a pattern.
In one specific instance, the puzzle used words that are synonymous with "Magician's tools" or "Occult symbols." You had "Wand," "Cup," "Sword," and "Pentacle" (or "Coin"). These are the four suits of the Minor Arcana. To someone who doesn't know tarot, these look like "Fantasy RPG items." To a tarot reader, they are the bread and butter of the deck.
But the NYT loves the Major Arcana because those names are more iconic.
- The Chariot (often shortened to just Chariot)
- The Hermit
- The Empress
- The High Priestess
If you see "Hermit," your brain should immediately ping for "Recluse" or "Tarot." If "Recluse" isn't on the board, start looking for other cards. Honestly, the game is more about elimination than it is about direct hits.
How to Spot the Connection Before You Click
Don't just click. Seriously. The biggest mistake is seeing two words that match and immediately trying to find the other two.
When you suspect a tarot card group nyt is in play, try this:
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- Isolate the "weird" word. "Hierophant" isn't a word people use at brunch. If that’s on the board, it’s 100% a tarot reference.
- Check for "The" omissions. The NYT usually drops the "The" from card names. "The Sun" becomes "Sun." "The Moon" becomes "Moon."
- Look for the "Soothes" or "Dual meanings." If you see "Judgment," don't assume it’s a legal category until you check for "Temperance" or "Death."
Sometimes the category isn't "Tarot Cards" but "Words that follow 'The' in Tarot." It’s a subtle distinction, but it matters for how the NYT phrases their answers. They might also do "Figures on Tarot Cards," which allows them to include things like "Angel" or "Lion" (found on the World or Wheel of Fortune cards).
The Logic of the Purple Category
In Connections, the categories are color-coded by difficulty: Yellow (easiest), Green, Blue, and Purple (trickiest).
A tarot card group nyt almost always lands in the Blue or Purple tiers. Why? Because it requires "outside knowledge." The yellow category is usually something like "Parts of a Shoe" or "Synonyms for Big." Everyone knows those. Not everyone knows that "The Hanged Man" is a card, or that "Wheel of Fortune" isn't just a game show.
The Purple category specifically loves "wordplay" or "missing words." If the category is "___ Card," then "Tarot" might not even be on the board, but "Credit," "Report," "Birthday," and "Tarot" would be the link. However, when the cards themselves are the entries, you're usually looking at a Blue category—straightforward but requires a specific niche of knowledge.
Dealing with Frustration and "The Streak"
We’ve all been there. You’re on a 20-day win streak, and then a category like "Major Arcana" shows up and ruins everything because you thought "Temperance" was a 1920s political movement.
It's okay. The NYT Connections is designed to be "spiky." Some days are a breeze; other days feel like you need a PhD in linguistics and a deck of Rider-Waite cards just to get through the morning.
The beauty of the tarot card group nyt puzzles is that they reward curiosity. If you don't know tarot, you might learn something. If you do know tarot, you get that little hit of dopamine for spotting "The Tower" amidst a bunch of words related to skyscrapers.
Actionable Tips for Tomorrow's Grid
If you want to stop losing your streak to these types of categories, you need a system.
- Say the words out loud. Sometimes hearing the word "Hanged" makes you think "Man" immediately, which leads you to the tarot connection.
- Use the Shuffle button. It’s there for a reason. Often, the NYT places words from the same category right next to each other to bait you into a "red herring" group. Shuffling breaks those visual associations.
- Wait until the end. If you see "Death" and "Sun," and you’re 90% sure it’s a tarot group, but you can’t find the other two, leave them. Solve the Yellow and Green groups first. By the time you’re down to eight words, the tarot group will be much easier to see.
- Study the Major Arcana basics. You don't need to be a psychic. Just memorize the names: Fool, Magician, Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Strength, Hermit, Wheel, Justice, Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, Devil, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, Judgement, World.
The next time a tarot card group nyt pops up, you won't be guessing. You'll be looking at the board like a grandmaster, picking out "The Hermit" while everyone else is still trying to figure out if "Cup" belongs with "Saucer" or "Trophy."
Stop clicking on instinct. Start looking for the overlap. The NYT wants to trick you, but once you see the "tarot" skeleton behind the words, the puzzle falls apart in the best way possible.
Go through the remaining words on your board right now. Is there a word that can be preceded by "The" and sounds like a medieval title? That's your lead. Follow it.