A couple days ago, when listening to someone else talk about Tarot, an idea come to me that the Major Arcana might be related to the astrology house system and that it might have a loose association with the astrology signs as seen through the traditional astrology wheel.
When this idea came to me, I singled out the Major Arcana cards and placed them in an arrangement that looked (somewhat) like the following layout.
It took me a number of days to start to get comfortable with this layout because there are 22 cards and astrology wheels are 12 sections or integral divisions or multiplications of that number. After setting clearer intentions, the layout that you see above is what I have come to – two rows of 10 cards with two end cards.
This means that there are 5 main cards that describe attributes of each quarter section of the astrology chart. The bottom row represents what is internalized as an individual. The upper row represents what is externalized in the world.
Here is a video where I introduce you to the concept.
One of the things that I noticed right away was the placement of Strength and Justice. These are the two moral cards that people have been known to switch place in different decks. Yet, when you look at the cards in this way, the Strength card, which is the Leo card, falls directly in the fifth house which is ruled by Leo. Likewise, the Justice card, which represents Libra falls directly into the seventh house which is ruled by Libra. Other obvious placements include Death, which clearly falls in the eighth house of Scorpio (like it should) and the Hermit card, which represents Virgo falls in the sixth house of Virgo.
It is also interesting pairing the cards up that would represent an axis through the wheel. For instance, The High Priestess has the mythology of having to gone into the underworld (hell) and returned, but she can’t talk about it, only show you what it is like. This is on the same axis as the Death card, which we know is the gatekeeper of this realm. Likewise, The Hermit is all about self-rule and paying very close attention to the details or your actions, which is on the axis of judgment, which is having to pay the price for your actions.
Anyway, I found it interesting enough to create a video and share this post. Let me know what you think. Do you see a similar symbolic representation in the cards for this layout?
Have a great day.
Dave