Merenwen said:
Interesting that some of them do correspond, with some additions. Just because I haven't found all the references, doesn't mean to say the don't exist. The LWB has Golden Dawn as further reading suggested, so I suspect they will be there.
That is so great that you went through the deck and found all that! Astrology is really the key to this deck.
Yes, you're quite right the Golden Dawn's "Book T" has this information. Here is a link to a pdf
http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/gd/t.pdf
If you look on page two there is a chart that shows all the minor arcana astrological references.
There is a study group in the Golden Dawn subforum of the Thoth forum that is looking the Golden Dawn astrological basis for tarot and you might enjoy those threads as well.
Some of the astrological references are a little hidden in the Cosmic Tarot, For example the Four of Wands is Venus in Aries and there is a dove-like bird flying (a dove is one of Venus' main symbols) and a spiral on the ground that looks like a ram's horn. Many of the cards don't seem to have specific visual references at all, but maybe I just haven't found them all yet.
You're right the Princess of Pentacles has horns on her headband like Taurus and there is a horned animal of some kind in the background. Still, the deck does seem to follow a pattern where the Kings each represent one of the Cardinal Signs, the Princes represent the Fixed Signs (Taurus is the Fixed earth Sign), and the Queen's represent the Mutable Signs. I'm not sure why the artist then goes and puts Taurus symbolism on the Princess of Pentacles as well as on the Prince. Maybe both cards represent Taurus. Usually though the Princesses represent the element and don't represent a Sign.
Another reason I would put the Prince of Pents as Taurus rather than Capricorn (besides that it fits the Cardinal/Fixed/Mutable pattern) is the symbol of Venus on the pole in the background. Venus is the ruler of Taurus.
Here is a link about Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable signs. (By the way your Sun sign, Sagittarius, is a Mutable Sign).
http://www.bobmarksastrologer.com/TheSigns.htm
You can look at the kinds of qualities associated with each sign and it tells you about the personality of the court card. Notice the King of Wands has a sort of staff with a ram's head in the background (Aries) and the Queen of Cups has Pisces fish on her fan. I think you are right about the Queen of Wands, the archer represents Sagittarius, the Mutable Fire Sign.
A few more astrological symbols in the cards: the lion in the Six of Wands is a symbol of Leo. The caduceas (snakes twining on a pole) in the Six of Swords is a symbol of Mercury. The symbol on the woman's belt in the Three of Wands is like an Aries glyph upside down and she has a Sun glyph on her headband. The dove in the Four of Wands is a symbol of Venus, the ram's horn in the same card is a symbol of Aries. Queen of Pentacles has a Virgo glyph on the top of the tower. I had to use a magnifying glass but it is there.
--Myrrha