AUTHOR’S NOTE: If there are any astrologers among my readers who were active during the era of New-Age metaphysical expansion, feel free to fact-check my historical observations. Having been there myself, this is how I remember it.

Astrology uses a modal form of analysis: there are three quadriplicities (also known as modalities) – Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable – of four signs each, and four triplicities – Fire, Earth, Air and Water – of three signs each, going counter-clockwise from Aries. (I always get tripped up by the “four-of-three” and “three-of-four” dichotomies.) One sign of each triplicity is aligned with one of the quadriplicities: there is one Cardinal Fire sign (Aries); one Fixed Fire sign (Leo) and one Mutable Fire sign (Sagittarius), and the same arrangement applies to the Earth, Air and Water signs for a total of twelve pairs. These zodiacal qualities, along with the chart axes (Ascendant/Descendant and Midheaven/IC), the intermediary house structure, and the planetary energies and their aspects, form the fundamental building-blocks of horoscope delineation.

When certain of these factors were brought over into the tarot by way of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s “esoteric correspondences,” 56 of the cards were spread out among the four triplicities, 14 in Fire (Ace through Ten and Page through King of Wands), 14 in Water (the Cups series), 14 in Air (the Swords) and 14 in Earth (the Pentacles or Disks). It should be noted that this effort followed in the footsteps of Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette) and later French occultists of the 18th and 19th Centuries.

According to a different yardstick, 36 of the 40 minor cards and 12 of the 16 court cards were dispersed among the three quadriplicities, 12 pips and 4 subdivided courts in each Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable sub-set (“subdivided” indicates that the court-card partitions are bifurcated – think “split personality” – as depicted in the diagrams at the end of this essay), with four of each – Aces and Pages/Princesses – held aside for special treatment. This was the Golden Dawn’s “Chaldean” model.

As shown in the innermost ring of the upper diagram, the 12 “zodiacal” trumps were assigned to the triplicities beginning with the Emperor in Aries and ending with the Moon in Pisces. Ten of the major Arcana had no place in the zodiacal pattern: three were considered “Primal Element” trumps that related directly to Air, Water and Fire, while seven were “planetary” trumps that were matched with the seven “classical” planets, Sun through Saturn, and they can be related to elements through their sign rulership. Sun, Mars and Jupiter are Fire in esoteric astrology; Moon is Water; Mercury is Air; and Venus and Saturn are Earth when assigned to the planetary trumps. All but the Sun and Moon had two signs (and two different elements) of rulership in traditional astrology, but these are the elemental assignments most commonly used with the tarot. (Note that Elemental Dignities are an entirely different subject that I’ve addressed in previous essays.)

In astrology, an abundance (called a “preponderance”) or an absence of planetary emphasis in any of the horoscopic departments (for example, numerous planets – known as a “stellium” – or zero planets in any sign or house) is accorded unique significance. Twentieth-Century astrology teachers used to say that the planets represent the “action” or what will happen; the houses show where in the native’s life it will occur; and the signs convey how the energy will manifest; any vacant “bins” (e.g. empty signs or houses) among the last two will normally downplay their importance in the individual’s circumstances.

When the astrological correspondences are applied to tarot reading, the same principles apply. A deficit of cards representing any element or mode will dial back availability of that power and require some kind of offset to restore parity. For example, a lack of Water cards could indicate diminished emotional empathy, which would not bode well for a love-based relationship reading. An absence of Fire cards could convey a paucity of ambition or enthusiasm when energetic self-assertion is needed. Few or no Air cards could mean mental aimlessness evident in conflicting priorities and incoherent ideas, while insufficient Earth could signify impracticality, laziness and low productivity. Obviously, a shortfall of any influence will mean a surplus of one or more of the others, creating a dynamic imbalance. What I’m taking about here is the “zodiacal profile” of a topic-specific pull – the ratio of elemental Fire, Water, Air, Earth and related “modality” cards in the spread – and what that means for the overall narrative.

The Chaldean zodiacal wheels shown below were created by the Golden Dawn. They identify the astrological correspondences for all of the cards except the three elemental and seven planetary trumps, which can be factored in as stated above. These charts can be used to determine the elemental and modal complexion of our spreads.

In astrology, although the connection is not usually made and may in fact be controversial, the Cardinal signs (and by association the tarot Twos, Threes, Fours and Queens) are considered action-oriented; the Fixed signs (and the tarot Fives, Sixes, Sevens and Knights or Thoth Princes) are security-oriented; and the Mutable signs (and tarot Eights, Nines, Tens and Kings or Thoth Knights) are socially interactive or people-oriented. (These court-card alignments are where I part ways with the Golden Dawn; my preferred order would be the authoritative Kings/Knights as Cardinal; the patient Queens as Fixed; and the dynamic Knights/Princes as Mutable, as I noted in a earlier post.)

The Ace-Princess pairs each cover a quadrant of signs (Pentacles in the Northeast with Aries, Taurus and Gemini; Wands in the Northwest with Cancer, Leo and Virgo; Cups in the Southwest with Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius; and Swords in the Southeast with Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces). The element of each pair matches that of the middle (Fixed) sign in the quadrant, but the cards influence all three equally.

The pip-and-trump elemental and/or planetary correspondences have direct applicability in tarot reading, while the court-card associations are diluted by their mixed pedigree. I generally view them according to the element that comprises two-thirds of their affiliation, while the other one-third is background “color.” In The Book of Thoth, Aleister Crowley conflated this dual paradigm into a range of typical “moral characteristics,” and I find this to be the best approach to their interpretation. However, all of these correlations should be treated as secondary to the cards’ core meanings.