Seasons of the suits

jojojo

Hi, I have read posts that you can determine timing with the seasons of the suits. I have the Universl Rider Waite and I wondered what seasons were linked to each suit and why...can anyone help. Thankyou
 

tarotbear

Look to the Ace

Generally speaking, most people disagree about the seasons, even Waite himself. I am sure someone will disagree with me, too! But some of us see the seasons in the Aces of the suits as :

Ace of Pentacles - Spring - blooming garden
Ace of Cups - Summer - growth of water lilies
Ace of Wands - Autumn - the yods 'falling' off the wand
Ace of swords - Winter - stark gray skies

Remember, though, that we think of summer as the time the kids are not in school (June, July, August) , but Summer is from May, June July - midsummer being in June. So, remember that when you are trying to place something happening at a time of year. The seasons vary deck to deck depending on the artist.
 

poivre

What works for me & I believe everyone has their own way.

Pentacles- Winter-North & Cups-Summer-South

Swords-Spring-East & Wands-Fall-West


Pentacles and Cups support each other as
Swords and Wands

......N...
.W.......E
......S...
 

Sulis

I see them differently :) I use the same correspondences as I use in magical work:

East - Air - Swords - Spring
South - Fire - Wands - Summer
West - Water - Cups - Autumn
North - Earth - Pentacles - Winter

Love

Sulis xx
 

wizzle

Astrological attributions

One of the obvious strengths of astrology is it's precision in terms of time. All of the small cards of the tarot have an astrological correspondence which, if used, is exact to within 10 days of any given period. For example, the 2 of wands is Mars in Aries and is associated with 0 to 10 degrees of Aries or March 21-30.

The Princesses/Pages rule the astrological quadrents thus,

Page of disks = March 21 - June 20
Page of wands = June 21 - Sept 22
Page of cups = Sept 23 - Dec 21
Page of swords = Dec 22 - March 20

In addition, the court cards rule the small cards with each court card owning about a month in time, from the last 10 degrees of one sign into the next 20 degrees of the sign that follows.

There are some very handy tables showing the correspondnces on page 207 of DuQuette's book "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot." The tables are based on the Golden Dawn system so everyone can work out their own tables by checking out Book T http://www.tarot.org.il/Library/Mathers/Book-T.html

Inasmuch as the Aces are the culmination and summary of a suit, I'm not sure using them as time is meaningful. However, if I did use them in that way I'd assign each ace to the beginning of it's astrological quadant which would yield

Ace of wands - vernal equinox (Aries = fire)
Ace of cups - summer solstice (Cancer = cups)
Ace of swords - autumnal equinox (Libra = air)
Ace of pentacles - winter solstice (Capricorn = earth)
 

tarotbear

Like I said jojojo - find a set of correspondences that works for you and use it! LOL!!!! :smoker:
 

levannah60

Ellen Cannon Reed's Way....

The way I am comfortable with is the Ellen Cannon Reed's way when she did the witches' tarot.

Wands: Air-Spring-east
Swords: Fire-Summer-South
Cups: Water-Fall-Autumn
Pentacles: Earth-Earth-Winter

Kings: Winter
Queens: Spring
Princes: Summer
Princesses: Autumn

I have never been able to see it any diffrently, and I have tried.
Oh well, to each their own, aye?
 

levannah60

Opps!

Pentacles-Earth-Winter-North
 

Sophie

levannah60 said:
Pentacles-Earth-Winter-North
The trouble I have with some of these attributions - and this one in particular - is that they contradict directly the image on the RWS. How can I look at a card full of ripe grapes, lush vines & roses, and think "winter"? It's completely counter-intuitive. It is autumn now, where I am. Our wine-growers here have just started to harvest the grapes & will continue over the next two weeks, then there'll be big wine-growers' harvest festivals in all the villages (great fun! - free wine & grapes ;))

Of course, in those decks where the creator has deliberately worked in those attributions, they work very well (e.g. the DruidCraft). But they don't work with the RWS. Pentacles are obviously set around harvest time - between August and October (for the grapes) in the Northern Hemisphere, and between February & April in the Southern Hemisphere.
 

wizzle

RWS King of Pentacles

The RWS King of Pentacles rules from April 21 to May 20 or the last 10 degrees of Airies and the first 20 degrees of Taurus if you follow the GD system. Hence all the bulls on his throne, etc. I'm not sure that's all that consistent with grapevines, but at least it works well with the bulls.

Or it could be that the king is associated with the sign of Taurus. Waite was not specific about astrological attributions with the exception of saying

"The bull's head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne."

How that get's one to winter and Capricorn, I don't follow either.