Signs, Rulers and Associated Tarot cards – Introduction

As I mentioned in my Facebook page recently, starting from next week I will start looking into Zodiac signs, their ruler planets and these signs’ association with Major Arcana Tarot cards. (I will not go into the cards of the ruler planets, keeping it for the future😊))

I am saying ‘next week’, because first I would introduce some of the astrological terms and Tarot cards so that when I jump into the main subject, no one feels excluded.

This means that I will talk about some concepts, as if we are all in an Astrology 101 classroom. Some of the these may feel like a repetition for my regular readers, but for the ones who are coming into my world for the first time with no knowledge in Astrology and Tarot, this introduction may be particularly useful.

So, which are the Zodiac signs and what are their ruler planets?

As you may all know or not, there are 12 Zodiac signs and if we go with a modern approach, they have Sun, Moon and 7 planets as their ruler planets. In this regard, some of the signs share the same planets as their rulers. I said modern approach, since in traditional astrology Outer Planets’ (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) rulership is not taken into consideration.

Let’s have a look at the signs and the rulers: Aries (Mars), Taurus (Venus), Gemini (Mercury), Cancer (Moon), Leo (Sun), Virgo (Mercury), Libra (Venus), Scorpio (Mars – Pluto), Sagittarius (Jupiter), Capricorn (Saturn), Aquarius (Saturn – Uranus) and Pisces (Jupiter – Neptune). As you can see, except Sun, Moon and Outer planets, the rest rule 2 signs at the same time but of course with different expressions in each.

And to understand planet and sign relationship better, I would like to reiterate the part in last week’s blog (https://amethystastrotarot.com/?p=686), “signs tell us ‘how’ the planets express themselves. In this regard, it can be said that when we talk about a planet, we will be using nouns. However, in case of signs, adjectives that will be in use.” And for more detailed information you may revisit my blog about Planets, Signs and Houses as well. (https://amethystastrotarot.com/?p=584)

Hoping that, everything is much clearer about signs and their rulers, time for the Tarot cards:

In a normal deck of 78 cards –some decks may just contain Major Arcana- there are 22 Major Arcana (which are also called trumps) and 56 Minor Arcana (which are also called pips) totalling to 78.

So, what do Major and Minor Arcana mean literally? As it is mentioned in the Introduction part of T. Susan Chang’s ’36 Secrets’ book, “Secret is a literal translation of the Latin arcanum, as in major and minor arcana- i.e., the Greater and Lesser Secrets.” This is true…In the Major Arcana, there is a whole story that consists of the ‘major’ events in a life cycle, so that we may consider these 22 cards as the leading actors of Tarot cards likewise the planets in Astrology. I must mention that Minor Arcana cards from 2 to 10 are also associated with planets and signs. However, at this point this information may not be necessary and may make things more complicated. I personally think that understanding astrological associations of Minor Arcana may enrich the reading, but at the same time it may really turn the reading into something very technical rather than intuition based.

Having said that, next week, I will start with my Sun sign Virgo ruled by Mercury (https://www.facebook.com/tpastrotarot/posts/142350640974508) and the associated Major Arcana is the Hermit (IX).

If any questions, please do not hesitate to drop an e-mail to tpastrotarot@gmail.com or please pay a visit to my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tpastrotarot.

Quick shout out: We are still in the Pisces season, so happy birthday to all Pisces fellows.

Stay well and keep safe until next week,

Teri