AUTHOR’S NOTE: A while ago I pegged the three modern planets of astrology – Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – to the Chaldean wheel of correspondences used by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn to align the Minor Arcana of the tarot with the 36 decanates (or “decans”) of the zodiac. In doing this, I replaced one instance each of Mercury, Venus and Mars with its “higher octave” counterpart (so-called in esoteric astrology) in the order shown above, and one instance each of Mercury, Mars and Jupiter with the modern ruler of its decan’s astrological sign: Uranus in Aquarius, Pluto in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces, respectively. With thirty additional instances of the seven “classical” planets to work with, there may be more opportunities for experimentation but these six stood out. The original experiment is linked below.
Here I’m taking it one step further by showing these reassignments graphically and creating new keywords for them that reflect the updated correspondences. While it’s possible to arrive at these descriptive tweaks using the existing planetary associations, this way is a lot more fun!
Whereas Mars in Leo is courageous, exemplifying the 7 of Wands’ “Valour” in the face of daunting odds, Pluto in Leo as its “higher octave” (some astrologers also find Pluto’s exaltation in Leo) can be relentlessly combative, hence “Implacability.” That energized wand in the middle of the array looks like the “ring-pass-not” of armed resistance; the contrast reminds me of the “by-the-book” British colonial army about to be routed from the field by the Massachusetts irregulars, and the American Revolution was a clear case of world-changing “Plutonian upheaval.” (Astrologer Rob Hand once said at a lecture I attended “There is absolutely nothing superficial about Pluto.”)
Replacing Mars in the 5 of Cups, Pluto in Scorpio (its modern sign of rulership) doesn’t trifle with the niceties of right and wrong; instead it marches to the beat of its own drum. An immoral person knows the difference and chooses the ignoble path, thereby courting this card’s “Disappointment,” but an amoral individual is oblivious to the distinction and operates on instinct alone. This “Amorality” suggests the “blind” forces of Nature.
In the third decan of Scorpio, where the Golden Dawn placed Venus and the 7 of Cups as “Lord of Illusionary Success,” Neptune, the quintessential planet of illusion, stands in as its “higher octave” and offers a double dose of disillusionment, inviting the “Dissipation” that often attends corrupted values. “Dissolution” would be another way of putting it.
Uranus, the “higher octave” of Mercury, replaces it in the 8 of Wands, ramping up the urgency of “Swiftness” to the point of anxious vacillation that can lose focus and subside into useless hand-wringing. I selected “Anxiety” because I see all instances of the number Eight (restless Mercury in unbalanced Hod) in the Minor Arcana as expressing a degree of uneasiness. Another appropriate keyword would be “Agitation,” perhaps to the unhinged point of irrational (but hopefully not medical) “Apoplexy.” (By way of cultural metaphor, I can envision the character of “Perry White” in the 1950s Superman TV series turning purple and shouting “Great Caesar’s ghost!”)
Visionary Uranus replaces Mercury in the 6 of Swords as the modern ruler of “scientific” Aquarius. “Science” is too passive a keyword for this alignment, so I chose “Innovation.”
Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces, replaces Jupiter in the 9 of Cups occupying the second decan of that sign. Mystical Neptune is perfectly content in the placid environment of Pisces, so instead of buoyant “Happiness” we now have serene – although decidedly quiescent (i.e. “wishy-washy”) – “Tranquility.”
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 