The line between archetype and stereotype

[ravenest]

Originally Posted by mosaica

So astrology is so complex because it needs to mirror the complexity of life (or life mirrors the complexity of the universe!). So can you use astrology to bring complexity to the courts?

More like use your observation and intuition to bring the complexity of the individual out of the archetypes in both tarot and astrology.

[Minderwiz]

I would be very doubtful of trying to use Astrology to bring out the complexity of the Court Cards (or for that matter any of the other Tarot cards), except by analogy.

Astrology works on the basis of a moment in time, for which a chart is erected. Astrology assumes that the moment, be it a birth or an event or a question takes on a character determined by the planets and important points at that moment.

Now the Courts, or indeed any card do not create a 'moment' except when the deck as a whole is created. I Can see that a 'moment' can be fixed for the creation of a deck and Astrology could be used to examine that moment and to deduce some knowledge of the nature of the deck.

That being said, many readers do use Astrological analogies and I can see that that can be quite useful, rather like using a system of keywords. So long as the reader understands that they are reasoning by analogy, rather than describing inherent characteristics, I would imagine that some very useful insights can be drawn.