Suits, Seasons and Hemispheres

I have a couple of questions related to the Tarot and associations.

I have lived in both hemispheres and in the North I used to work with the suit associations thus:

Wands - Spring

Cups - Summer

Pentacles - Autumn

Swords - Winter

However....

In the Southern hemisphere the Cup months/sun signs ir Cancer and Leo fall in the winter, and so it feels wrong to relate them to summer... and vice versa... everyyhing turns topsy turvy.

So how do other deal with this astrology/seasonal aspect of Tarot?

Thanks!

Well, for a start, when I read, I read Tarot, not astrology or seasons. I take each individual card at face value: I look at the *images* on it. I can't remember the last time I mentioned weather or seasons in a reading - I probably never have - and I do remember the last time I mentioned astrology - it was eighteen or nineteen years ago.

Tarot itself, and how it interfaces with the life of the person sitting in front of you, deals with that conflict by simply making it a non-issue.

For example, regarding seasons, I tend to take part on quite a few exchange circles. If you look at some of the recent ones I've been in, they've used spreads related to summer for some strange reason - I've sat here shivering, my teeth chattering, while I've done those readings, and they seem to have resonated for the clients. Seasons don't matter - seasons are outer-world stuff, and if a season goes away, it always comes back again. Tarot is concerned with the vital, not the trivial, with inner-world stuff, and that rarely has much to do with a thermometer or barometer reading.

And if you are doing a deck with Eastern traditions, the association would be different as well.

I've never even thought of the hemisphere differences Winterchild! I am so Northern Hemisphere biased! goodness I hope I haven't done a reading for a South Hemisphere dweller and gone on and on about the wrong seasons!

If you look online there is so many different opinions about what season means what. So I always think you associate yourself with what works for you and Nis is right about the cards. I mean the RWS 5 of Pentacles is clearly winter with the snow.

I was hoping nisaba would respond ;-) We have ways...!

A few years ago I was going through Tarot for Yourself, and I suddenly realised that the last time I had looked at the cards in this way I was in a different hemisphere. Recently I found the book again and started wondering about how some disciplines relate the zodiac to the cards, the seasons etc. When I did my birthday reading last week I was looking at the cards that relate to my birthday and they are cups which are often classed as summer. In the Northern hemisphere I was born in summer... down here my birthday is midwinter... I just started wondering!

I do agree with nisaba that the cards do their own thing, and I have done the upside down exchanges too. Anyway I am creating my own cards, slowly and making each card mine... for example the Ace of Cups... my version of my cup overflowing, is a mug of steaming black tea, on a cold snowy winter morning with a fire inside or maybe a candle and a good book... that is abundance!!!

Hello,

I feel that the seasons associated with each suit are more in relation to the feeling the suit conveys, rather than the time of the year. The Victorian Fairy Tarot is a great example that works with the same configuration you mentioned. Wands in Spring, a time of new beginnings and development. Cups in Summer, a fruitful time of friendship and celebration. Pentacles in Autumn, the season of harvest and abundance (and hard work!). And Winter, a bleak but often necessary season of change that refreshes the world around it for a new spring.

I suppose it may pose a challenge if you're doing readings internationally/online that involve the seasons, but I feel the cards adapt to the reader and their environment.

Also, Winterchild - I love your idea for the Ace of Cups, as both a lover of tea and tarot. I hope to see your cards one day if you choose to share - or publish - them.

Glennmaicha said:

Also, Winterchild - I love your idea for the Ace of Cups, as both a lover of tea and tarot. I hope to see your cards one day if you choose to share - or publish - them.

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Yes! l second this, sounds wonderful. Exactly how l would curl up in winter with my favourite tarot.