Astrological Resources for the Tarot

I'm not very familiar with the meanings of the 12 signs of the Zodiac. Because there are correspondences between the signs and certain of the Major Arcana (as mentioned by Paul Foster Case in his book, for instance), I'd like to know more about the meanings of the signs.

Looking at astrology books on Amazon, however, it appears most of the books, if not all of them, assume you are ready to believe in and actually want to DO astrology. I have no interest in astrology itself. (Out of courtesy to those who may believe that natal charts have some validity, I'll refrain from sharing my opinions on that subject.)

All I want is a basic text that tells me what the signs of the Zodiac (and possibly the planets) mean in astrology, so I can apply those meanings while gazing at a Tarot spread.

Can anyone recommend a book or an online source that spells out these details?

Wikipedia is about as un-woo woo as you can get: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrological_sign

Just go to the respective page of each sign to learn more about it (although it look like they're having some issues with their Sagittarius page).

There's also About.com: http://astrology.about.com/od/signsofthezodiac/qt/Intro-To-Zodiac-Signs.htm

I second GlitterNova. Online resources are going to be your best bet here.

I think the correspondences are most useful to people who are interested in or believe in astrology--people who are already familiar with the concepts, and who can use those concepts as a jumping-off point to familiarize themselves with the cards and their meanings. I personally have no interest whatsoever in astrology, so I found that learning the correspondences with the Tarot didn't really add much for me even after I had learned in detail about the various houses, signs, and planets. The correspondences do provide information about how to read a card, but a reader can also get that same information through various other means that I have found more useful and applicable in my personal practice.

I've modified the title of your thread to make it clear that it's the resources you are looking for, not a debate on astrological correspondences per se.

Virtually all basic books on Astrology are written for someone who intends to learn Astrology even at a basic level. I agree with the posts above, it's better to use internet resources than spend on a book that will only be useful for a dozen pages or less.

A fairly easy to use website here is

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/

On the main page look for more zodiac signs just to the right of the large Sagittarius pic and directly under the heading Sun in Sagittarius clicking on any of the glyphs immediately below will give you an account of the corresponding sign.

Over in the left hand column dark blue column, you will find a more about the planets section which operates on the same basis of clicking on a planetary glyph to get material on that planet.

But you do need to consider the point made by JackofWands. If you don't believe in Astrology then you really should ask what you will get out of the exercise. Yes it might help you understand the points made in one particular book but it's unlikely to prove of any further use.

I'm not a fan of using astrological correspondences, if you read Kaplan's encyclopaedia of Tarot Volume 1 page 4 you'll find a neat demonstration that correspondences mean different things to different authors and indeed deck designers. So one person's take is not in any way definitive. This is even more the case with later authors than those used by Kaplan, as Astrologers themselves have tended to come up with more and more soft definitions relating to psychological traits and moved from many of the original meanings.

BTW your opinions on the validity of Astrology may well be relevant to getting something out of the exercise, so don't bother with our feelings, lol. You mentioned the validity of natal charts in particular (and there's a lot more to Astrology than nativities). If you said a little more about your objections, then you might actually find that the signs do or don't have any relevance at all to your own use of Tarot. I'm not looking for a debate on the validity of Astrology, there, but simply how to help your particular situation and enable you to make a better decision.

I think the passage midiguru is talking about is the one where Case says that the Tarot is written, in part, in the language of astrology, and so that language must be learned regardless of one's beliefs. While I know for a fact that it is perfectly possible to use a deck without astrology, most decks today are based, often unknowingly, on the Golden Dawn tradition, which had incorporated astrology in their understanding of tarot.
Often the use of astrology for tarot is more "archetypal" than orthodox, so it is really enjoyable to learn.

One nice and simple book for beginners is The only astrology book you'll ever need, by Joanna Woolfolk. You can jump here and there and select the info you need, although that book is huge. But it is very descriptive, so you can separate clearly what you need from what you want to stay away from

However keep in mind that how astrology applies to your deck (if it does) really depends on who created it

Thanks for the links, everyone. That should be very helpful.

Minderwiz said:

But you do need to consider the point made by JackofWands. If you don't believe in Astrology then you really should ask what you will get out of the exercise. Yes it might help you understand the points made in one particular book but it's unlikely to prove of any further use.

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Many decks make use of astrological symbolism. I'd like to have a better idea what those funny squiggles refer to, that's all. It's all about feeding bits of stuff into the unconscious so that one's intuition can play around. To me, that's the whole point of using the Tarot. I'm pretty well convinced that the assortment of cards that appear in a spread is entirely random -- but even so, it's clear that the intuition can produce a meaningful reading, if one has enough perspectives on the cards for the unconscious mind to assemble something.

I'm contemplating writing a pamphlet (probably a free PDF) called "Tarot for Atheists." Strip out all of the references to "the Divine," which honestly do nothing but muddy the water, and get down to the nuts and bolts -- what these wonderful symbols mean in the human mind and human society.

Minderwiz said:

BTW your opinions on the validity of Astrology may well be relevant to getting something out of the exercise, so don't bother with our feelings, lol.

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I'm trying to learn the fine art of politeness. (I'm not always very good at it.)

I look at the Tarot as a practical, do-it-yourself form of psychotherapy -- a way of prompting the unconscious to look at things from different and possibly productive new angles. Because each spread is unique, there's plenty of scope for that type of usage. An astrological chart, conversely, is a fixed entity. You were born at the moment when you were born. That being the case, I see far less utility for an understanding of astrological symbolism.

midiguru said:

I'm trying to learn the fine art of politeness. (I'm not always very good at it.)

I look at the Tarot as a practical, do-it-yourself form of psychotherapy -- a way of prompting the unconscious to look at things from different and possibly productive new angles. Because each spread is unique, there's plenty of scope for that type of usage. An astrological chart, conversely, is a fixed entity. You were born at the moment when you were born. That being the case, I see far less utility for an understanding of astrological symbolism.

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I think you've been very polite and my response should not be seen in any way as an attempt to convert you.

As I said in my previous post, Astrology does not simply comprise nativities, I practice a branch of Astrology called Horary. That casts a chart for any question you care to mention; as the chart is new each time each one is different and fresh. If you look down the threads you will find it's quite popular.

Even natal work though does not depend solely on one chart. There are a series of derived chart such as Solar and Lunar returns, progressions, etc and indeed for particular events in a person's life, such as marriage or getting a new job or indeed asking a question on Aeclectic.

midiguru said:

Many decks make use of astrological symbolism. I'd like to have a better idea what those funny squiggles refer to, that's all. It's all about feeding bits of stuff into the unconscious so that one's intuition can play around. To me, that's the whole point of using the Tarot.

I'm pretty well convinced that the assortment of cards that appear in a spread is entirely random -- but even so, it's clear that the intuition can produce a meaningful reading, if one has enough perspectives on the cards for the unconscious mind to assemble something.

Click to expand...

Yes, I understand you're point and as even Modern Astrology retains some structural approach, It's not entirely intuitive, more a channelled intuition. Most Modern Astrologers (of whom I'm a lapsed member) make a great deal of use of Jungian psychology. A use which has now seeped into Tarot. and deck design.

I notice from your public profile that your favourite decks are Rider Waite and a couple of decks based on it. Waite co-produced his deck at a time before Astrology went down the path of character assessment, so the allocations of signs/planets are on a different basis than you'll find in today's Astrology (though it's by no means any less valid and possibly more valid as a consequence).

Now that might be irrelevant given your goal but just bear in mind that the modern view may not correspond to what Waite had in mind.

You're always welcome to come by and throw some cold water on some of the claims of Astrology

Good luck