Sun Signs Everything Under The Sun!
Since ancient times with the help of tarot prototypes people used to discover the future and analyze their past and present. With time, cards underwent transformations and absorbed traditions and symbols from many practices and cultures.
Astrology is an even more ancient practice, which also has a long genesis story. It helps to navigate life events and discover repeated patterns in people’s behavior depending on the date of their birth.
Both astrology and tarot use specific symbols that bond to certain times, characters, and roles. This symbolism serves for analysis and discovering different life scenarios of past, present, and future. If you’re interested in tarot and want expert insights, you can visit websites like TarotAtlas for an accurate online tarot card reading, providing personal guidance on all aspects of your life.
In our article, we will discover how tarot cards and Zodiac signs connect in the Minor Arcana.
The Differences Between Tarot and Astrology
The classic Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck contains 78 cards, which are 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana (including court cards: Knights, Pages, Queens, and Kings). Each card has a unique name and meaning. The illustrations on the classic version of tarot cards refer to different cultures, sciences, countries, religions, mythology, and other areas of human knowledge.
The purpose of learning and reading tarot symbols is to find connections between big life events, analyze them, and discover different outcomes of individual situations. Practicing tarot helps in self-learning, reflection, and gaining insights.
Astrology is focused on the different positions of planets and stars in different periods of the year. There are 12 traditional Zodiac signs, houses, and planets that are represented by certain symbols. Each Zodiac sign relates to a specific time and connects to the characteristics of a person’s character or personality. By learning one’s astrological map, experts can predict key events in their lives, analyze the influence of planets, see compatibility with other Zodiac signs, and much more. Astrology helps to navigate relationships, careers, and friendships, and define the patterns of one’s behavior.
How Are Tarot and Astrology Related?
The correlations between tarot and Minor Arcana are expressed in different forms. For example, each tarot suit corresponds to one of four elements as well as groups of Zodiac signs. During the process of their genesis tarot cards included elements and meanings from alchemy, astrology, esoteric, warfare, court traditions, astronomy, natural sciences, Kabbalah, and more. As well as tarot, astrology in different ages was part of cultures of Asia, Middle East, and Europe.
One of the first attempts to connect tarot with astrology was made by the members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in London in the late 1880s. This order started as a small group that secretly learned occult sciences, discovered alchemy, astronomy, and other related practices.
Two members of the order, Arthur E. Waite and Pamella Colman Smith, created the classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Illustrations by Smith widened the number of interpretations of each tarot card. But the main change was adding the decans of Zodiac signs as correspondences for number cards in Minor Arcana.
Decans in astrology mean subdivisions of each of the twelve signs. This tradition was inherited from ancient astrological practices. Decans divided each sign period into approximately ten days. Such a new approach helped to make readings more personalized.
How Tarot Cards and Zodiac Signs Connect in the Minor Arcana
As mentioned above, the classic tarot deck consists of the 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana, which in turn consist of four suits: Cups, Swords, Wands, and Pentacles. Each suit contains 14 cards: Aces, court cards (face cards) and number cards (from 2 to 10).
The roads of tarot cards and Zodiac signs repeatedly crossed during the years of their genesis and transformation. Hence, the correlation between specific cards and signs was inevitable. The members of the Order of the Golden Dawn associated the number cards with planets:
- Two – Moon
- Threes – Saturn
- Fours – Jupiter
- Fives – Mars
- Sixes – Sun
- Sevens – Venus
- Eights – Mercury
- Nines – Moon
- Tens – Earth
With time, these correlations partially changed as more meanings and measurements entered the game.
How Are the Correspondences Between Tarot and Astrology Used in Reading?
Experienced tarot readers admit the correlation between elements, tarot cards, and Zodiac signs in multiple ways. A lot depends on the type of spread, personal preferences, approach to cards’ interpretations, and hints from a reader’s intuition.
For example, if a reader cannot define the exact meaning of a card, the correspondence with astrological signs can help find a way to explain the meaning.
Astrology also has different interpretations of archetypes. By knowing how to read and apply them in reading tarot experts refine the meanings of cards.
The Exact Astrological Correspondences for the Minor Arcana
In the table below one can see the actual connections between four elements that correspond to planets and Zodiac signs through their association with each Minor Arcana in the standard tarot deck.
Cups
| Two of Cups | Venus in Cancer |
| Three of Cups | Mercury in Cancer |
| Four of Cups | Moon in Cancer |
| Five of Cups | Mars in Scorpio |
| Six of Cups | Sun in Scorpio |
| Seven of Cups | Venus in Scorpio |
| Eight of Cups | Saturn in Pisces |
| Nine of Cups | Jupiter in Pisces |
| Ten of Cups | Mars in Pisces |
Swords
| Two of Swords | Moon in Libra |
| Three of Swords | Saturn in Libra |
| Four of Swords | Jupiter in Libra |
| Five of Swords | Venus in Aquarius |
| Six of Swords | Mercury in Aquarius |
| Seven of Swords | Moon in Aquarius |
| Eight of Swords | Jupiter in Gemini |
| Nine of Swords | Mars in Gemini |
| Ten of Swords | Sun & Moon in Gemini |
Wands
| Two of Wands | Mars in Aries |
| Three of Wands | Sun in Aries |
| Four of Wands | Venus in Aries |
| Five of Wands | Saturn in Leo |
| Six of Wands | Jupiter in Leo |
| Seven of Wands | Mars in Leo |
| Eight of Wands | Mercury in Sagittarius |
| Nine of Wands | Moon in Sagittarius |
| Ten of Wands | Saturn in Sagittarius |
Pentacles
| Two of Pentacles | Jupiter in Capricorn |
| Three of Pentacles | Mars in Capricorn |
| Four of Pentacles | Sun in Capricorn |
| Five of Pentacles | Mercury in Taurus |
| Six of Pentacles | Moon in Taurus |
| Seven of Pentacles | Saturn in Taurus |
| Eight of Pentacles | Sun in Virgo |
| Nine of Pentacles | Venus in Virgo |
| Ten of Pentacles | Mercury in Virgo |
Learning these correspondences can help to make any tarot reading more meaningful and specific. With the use of their intuition, tarot experts combine correlations of Minor Arcana with planets and Zodiac signs to understand which direction the card wants to point.
Afterall
Tarot cards had sufficiently changed and evolved during the process of their genesis from a basic form of playing cards to the modern classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Since ancient times, the roads of tarot and astrology crossed multiple times. If we dig deeper into the process of the genesis of tarot and Zodiac signs we see that they have many in common.
In our article we found out the differences and similarities between tarot and astrology by defining their essential characteristics and tasks. Also we found out how these two ancient practices correlate by their symbolic meanings and purposes of use. We found out the connections between Zodiac signs and Minor Arcana and provided the exact astrological correspondences for each Minor Arcana.
We hope that you found our article useful. Good luck!