Exploring the Minor Arcana through Astrology, Part 1
I’ve talked about using astrology with tarot and the decanic minor system in passing, such as my interview with the Thoth Tarot, my thoughts on choosing a tarot system and making it work for you, and my astrologically inspired divination challenges, especially my Lamplighter Challenge for Virgo. But I haven’t actually given much of an overview of the system that maps certain segments (decans, or 10º sections) of the zodiacal wheel to each of the minor arcana (hence “decanic minors”). That’s because I expected that those were who interested in the system already had some knowledge about it and because there are some great books and podcasts that cover the subject well.
But I’ve been asked about it, and you’re already here, and Mantis (of Mantis Tarot) thought it would be fun to both talk about it during one of my Not Such a Hermit live chats and post about it on our blogs, so here is a brief outline for how I use them and some things that you may want to consider as you adopt my method, adopt someone else’s method, or tweak a method for your own personalized approach. In later posts on this topic, you’ll dig a little deeper with planetary interactions and court cards, and you’ll see my take on some of the cards that I think deserve a second look using the decanic minor system.
UPDATE: If you prefer a more visual overview, I’ve created a video slideshow to supplement my Awaken the Court Cards session on astrology and the court cards, and I’ve posted it on YouTube. It goes over the basics, not all of the details covered in this blog post.
The Fundamentals
In astrology (Western “Tropical” astrology to be more precise), the sky can be represented as a wheel (360º) broken up into 12 astrological signs that are each 30º of that bigger wheel. This is the zodiac. It’s not quite the same as the actual stars in the sky since those are not all 30º and, over the centuries, the constellations have moved. So if you’re trying to actual use real-life constellations, you’re going to get frustrated. The constellations are a general map to the codified theoretical correspondences that make it easier to navigate and understand this system than our imperfect material reality. That is to say, I don’t care about Article X in Journal Z going on about a missing 13th zodiac sign, Ophiuchus. Astrology and astronomy overlap; they are not the same. Astrology is very neatly organized.
There are twelve signs that follow a consistent pattern of element and modality, and they fall in line with the four seasons (based on solstices and equinoxes). That means that three of the signs are fire signs, three are earth, three are air, and three are water (and they go in that order). Four of the signs are cardinal signs (they start a season), four are fixed signs (located in the middle of a season), and four are mutable signs (located at the end of a season). Because they’re tied to the seasons, they always go in the same order of cardinal, fixed, mutable. Once you learn the order of elements and learn the sign’s modality, it’s much easier to remember which sign comes next in a sequence.
The system maps out as follows:
Aries — Fire — Cardinal (Spring/Fall)
Taurus — Earth — Fixed
Gemini — Air — Mutable
Cancer — Water — Cardinal (Summer/Winter)
Leo — Fire — Fixed
Virgo — Earth — Mutable
Libra — Air — Cardinal (Fall/Spring)
Scorpio — Water — Fixed
Sagittarius — Fire — Mutable
Capricorn — Earth — Cardinal (Winter/Summer)
Aquarius — Air — Fixed
Pisces — Water — Mutable
Bringing the Fundamentals to Tarot
The tarot can be read as an astrological tool. Some tarot decks include astrology explicitly and some don’t seem to intentionally include it. Some decks include a specific Western Esoteric system, and some make up their own associations. Feel free to do whatever you want to do, but as you’re learning it’s useful to have an easily referenced system that makes sense and that you can turn to again and again. After that, you can branch out with greater confidence.
The same pattern of element and modality can be mapped onto the minor arcana of the tarot. (The majors also have astrological correspondences, but they aren’t as neat as the minor correspondences. I list them at the end of this post.) How? Well, there’s an even number of cards for each of the four elements, so that’s a start:
Wands correspond to the fire signs (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius);
Pentacles/Disks/Coins correspond to the earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn);
Swords correspond to the air signs (Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius);
and Cups correspond to the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces).
But there are 14 of each suit, and that’s not convenient for astrological math (there are three signs per element, after all). What do we do? We cut out some cards. Get rid of the court cards, and you have ten cards per suit. That sounds even, but it’s not good for three. So what do we do? We cut out the Aces. The Aces aren’t really part of the lived experience of the suit anyway since they’re more like a promise for future potential. Now we’re left with the 2s–10s of each suit, nine cards per suit/element, and that’s convenient because nine is a multiple of three. We can now map three cards to each sign. Remember how each sign has 30º of the zodiac? Dividing 30º by three means that each card can have 10º of the zodiacal wheel. And for that reason, they’re called decans. In calendar terms, a decan is ~10 days.
Layering in the modality system, we can map the first three cards of each suit (2–4) to that element’s cardinal sign (they start a season after all), the middle three (5–7) to the fixed signs, and the last three (8–10) to the mutable signs.
Aries (Cardinal Fire): 2–4 of Wands
Taurus (Fixed Earth): 5–7 of Disks/Pentacles/Coins
Gemini (Mutable Air): 8–10 of Swords
Cancer (Cardinal Water): 2–4 of Cups
Leo (Fixed Fire): 5–7 of Wands
Virgo (Mutable Earth): 8–10 of Disks/Pentacles/Coins
Libra (Cardinal Air): 2–4 of Swords
Scorpio (Fixed Water): 5–7 of Cups
Sagittarius (Mutable Fire): 8–10 of Wands
Capricorn (Cardinal Earth): 2–4 of Disks/Pentacles/Coins
Aquarius (Fixed Air): 5–7 of Swords
Pisces (Mutable Water): 8–10 of Cups
As you go through the zodiacal wheel, you see that it always goes in sequential numerical order, even if the suits jump around.
These fundamentals are a good place to start learning and practicing incorporating astrology with the minor arcana. With that in mind, you can start to think about the way that the three cards related to a sign tie into the aspects of that sign.
Consider the 2–4 of Wands and the way that they relate to Aries as a fiery initiator.
How do the 5–7 of Cups relate to Scorpio’s intensity and willingness to get into the murky depths of one’s subconscious?
You can also start to work with energies and timing. Now that you know that the 8–10 of Swords are Gemini cards, seeing them all together might have a message about Gemini season, a Gemini, or Gemini energy that’s relevant beyond just the doom and gloom of those cards as you might normally interpret them.
And of course, if you want to get precise with predicting time, it’s hard to get more precise than a 10 or 11-day window, which is what the decans provide. Whether you think you can get accurate predictions or not using the system is up to you and your belief system, but the system is there if you want to use it.
The last thing that you may want to try is to analyze the cards as they relate to their sign through the sign’s major arcanum. What is Gemini energy after all? It’s a lot of things, but it may also be calling your attention to the Lovers, which is the card that represents Gemini in this system. (Again, this is just one system. Some decks have their own unique system.) In this system, each of the major arcana is mapped to a zodiac sign, a planet, or an element (or modern planet if you use those). The zodiacal majors are as follows:
Aries: The Emperor
Taurus: The Hierophant
Gemini: The Lovers
Cancer: The Chariot
Leo: Strength / Lust / La Force
Virgo: The Hermit
Libra: Justice / Adjustment
Scorpio: Death
Sagittarius: Temperance
Capricorn: The Devil
Aquarius: The Star
Pisces: The Moon
In the next post on this topic, I’ll talk about the planetary majors alongside the planets that have the greatest effect on each decan and how you can use those to add even more flavor to your understanding of the minor arcana.
In the meantime, I highly recommend T. Susan Chang’s Tarot Correspondences, M. M. Meleen’s Tabula Mundi Tarot (and books), as well as their podcast, Fortune’s Wheelhouse. And they highly recommend Austin Coppock’s 36 Faces, which is currently out of print, so I don’t have it, but I will definitely be buying it on reprint.