Which Tarot Card Represents Each Star Sign

Which tarot card represents each star sign

In tarot, different cards can be associated with each zodiac sign based on their symbolism and characteristics.

Here are some commonly suggested tarot cards associated with each star sign:

1. Aries (March 21 - April 19): The Emperor

2. Taurus (April 20 - May 20): The Hierophant

3. Gemini (May 21 - June 20): The Lovers

4. Cancer (June 21 - July 22): The Chariot

5. Leo (July 23 - August 22): Strength

6. Virgo (August 23 - September 22): The Hermit

7. Libra (September 23 - October 22): Justice

8. Scorpio (October 23 - November 21): Death

9. Sagittarius (November 22 - December 21): Temperance

10. Capricorn (December 22 - January 19): The Devil

11. Aquarius (January 20 - February 18): The Star

12. Pisces (February 19 - March 20): The Moon

Please note that these associations can vary, and some individuals may have different interpretations based on personal beliefs or traditions.

How I Read Tarot Cards Differently

I never want to give the impression that I think my way is the best way – I think that’s why I’ve held off writing too much about this. Too often when people talk through how they approach their practices or the trouble they have with other practices, people assume that their attitude is one of elitism. Some people have asked me to expand on how I see my style of reading tarot as being different from others and I want to speak to that.

But know this first – I genuinely don’t give a fuck how you read.

Reading Systemically

I’ve often written about how I see Tarot as a system, not a set of individual cards, and this for me is a really key difference between how I read and how I see other people reading.

As goodbonestarot pointed out in the comments on this post, one card draws are very popular now. When I was learning, the dominant line of thought I was exposed to was that one card draws were a way to interact with the deck daily in a less energetically draining way than a full reading and were only really meant as learning exercises.

It seems to have shifted toward what I call “the drive thru divination” approach – that you should be able to roll up to someone’s ask box, shoot them a question, and get everything you need from a single card. I think a lot of this has to do with all the enthusiastic beginners Tumblr has who are trying to learn and practice on other people in a safe way – and that is absolutely good. But since Tumblr has a lot of beginners who are learning from other beginners who are learning from other beginners, I wonder if there isn’t some acceptance of that just being Tarot. That cards in total isolation is how to do Tarot.

Reading systemically for me is one part ye old internet Tarot elders of 2008 telling me that’s how it’s done and one part thinking systemically is how I do everything in life.

I’m queer. I’m nonbinary. I’m disabled. I’ve been pretty much constantly broke my whole adult life. I come from two very disadvantaged and exploited regions in the US (Appalachia and the South).

Thinking systemically is a matter of survival for me. I cannot turn it off.

I often joke that my approach to the minor arcana is “proletarian” – for good reason. Tarot resonates as a system of divination because it speaks to the lived reality of day to day people. The experiences of day to day people are largely shaped by systems out of their control. It makes sense to me then that Tarot should be similarly reflective of those truths. Both a system and shaped by systems, it’s roots in the lives of ordinary people.

People’s lives don’t happen in isolation. Experiences might seem episodic but they’re not isolated. They are both what they seem on their face and deeply tied to forces and themes far beyond the bounds of their immediate circumstances.

The reason why people get so spooked when I land a reading is not because I eloquently relay the traditional meaning of the cards but when I can see how all the threads connect, when I can see all the things that were or weren’t their fault, when I can know how badly they wished things had gone differently but the systems they live in decide differently.

Reading Emphatically

I’ve sensed in a lot of readings people give on here a sort of distance between themselves and the cards and by extension the people they’re reading for.

I can’t read that way.

One of the reasons I will always ask if someone is okay with a friend or someone else hearing what I say during a reading is because it’s incredibly personal, or at least it should be in my book. Empathy is one of the greatest tools a diviner can have. When I look at say a Nine of Swords, I’m not just looking at the surface meanings – I’m feeling the way I feel when that card has been present in my own life. I’m feeling the total anxiety, the way your stomach drops out from under you, the tension, the grief.

When you can speak precisely to how a person is feeling, nothing really compares.

But people are so hesitant to go there, to be vulnerable with the person they’re reading for, to get real. They look at cards like puzzle pieces when they’re actually full and complete experiences, real and powerful.

I don’t think it’s okay to read for another person if you aren’t okay with knowing very personal things about them and in turn being known.

I read with my whole heart. Wide open. Every time.

Reading Magically

There’s been an assumption I’ve run up against recently where people think because I’m a respectable intelligent person, I must just be using the cards are a tool of self reflection or similar.

I want to let everyone know: I am not. I believe this shit.

I believe the Universe thrives in randomness, that it wants to connect with us, that its larger forces are evident in more micro experiences. I believe that cards are a tool for my intuition, a skill I use apart from them to great effect too.

Contrary to popular belief, I can be intelligent AND believe this is “for real”.

I’ve consistently had atheists walk out of my life as believers in “something”. I’ve probably converted more people to some flavor of pagan in my life than I ever did to Christianity. As one ex put it, “too much weird shit happens around you for me to ever be certain something ISN’T out there.”

I believe in the cards and I believe in the universe and I’m not going to couch that in “self-reflection”.

Conclusion

This is probably way more than y’all ever wanted to know and I’m not sure I even answered the question. The way I read tarot is different because I’m an empathetic believer in the system I use and I treat it as such. I’m not saying I’m special in that regard. It just seems different from what I’ve seen. But I’d love to know more people with similar leanings. I’d love to grow and help grow.

The Deck Bonding Challenge

One of the ideas I tossed around when I was looking at challenges to create for myself for the #100DaysOfTarot, one of the ideas I tossed around was a deck bonding challenge; to take my “Start Here” material and organize it into small chunks that someone could do daily while still using their deck for regular readings. I initially scrapped the idea since I don’t have a new deck I’m working with at the moment but my girlfriend asked me to write the challenge out for her to do with her deck. 

If you want to see someone doing this challenge in June, I’d recommend checking out @petrosophia, she’s kickass. I’m biased of course but she’s also just objectively a very reflective person, which is helpful if you want someone to follow along with. 

Before You Start

I’d recommend reading all of my “Start Here” section but especially my posts on not learning tarot cards like flashcards and on reading vertically. 

The important concepts here are the narrative approach to the Major Arcana/the suits and, well, reading vertically - taking all of the 1′s then all of the 2′s and so on. 

What to Do Each Day

On days the prompt says to ask the deck a question, shuffle and draw three cards. Use the book to look up the meanings if you need to. Make any notes you might want to keep or make a post about it. 

On the other days, select the cards listed and start with your first impressions. What story do you think is being told? What’s the emotion of each card? What’s the action? After you’ve made notes of your first impressions, make notes of the book’s definitions for each card as well. When you’ve completed a suit - say all of the pentacles - write a brief one or two sentence summary of the story being told. When working vertically, jot down three keywords after you’ve finished taking notes. 

For the two signifier questions, feel free to either select one and reflect on it or shuffle and draw one then reflect on it. Or hell do both. See how closely your pick matches you deck. 

You might also consider combining these prompts with the SOAP Journaling framework. 

Why Do This Challenge

The benefit I see with this challenge is that it allows you to develop a framework understanding of your deck over the course of several weeks which I think is more approachable for a lot of folks. I’m also just a firm believer that a little structure goes a long way. 

But feel free to play with this structure. Do all the Pentacles at once if you please. Maybe you need to break down the Vertical Reading into smaller chunks. Maybe you’re using a playing card deck so you just omit all of the Major Arcana. This is just a starting point. 

And I’m excited to see what y’all do with it! 

The Prompts

1   Ask the Deck: What are your Strengths? (Draw 3 Cards)

2   Ask the Deck: What are your Weaknesses? (Draw 3 Cards)

3   Pentacles 1-4

4   Pentacles 5-7

5   Pentacles 8-10

6   Pentacles Page & Knight

7   Pentacles Queen & King

8   Swords 1-4

9   Swords 5-7

10  Swords 8-10

11  Swords Page & Knight

12  Swords Queen & King

13  Wands 1-4

14  Wands 5-7

15  Wands 8-10

16  Wands Page & Knight

17  Wands Queen & King

18  Cups 1-4

19  Cups 5-7

20  Cups 8-10

21  Cups P&K

22  Cups Q&K

23  Major Arcana 0 & 21

24  Major Arcana 1-5

25  Major Arcana 6-10

26  Major Arcana 11-15

27  Major Arcana 16-20

28  Vertical Reading - The 1’s

29  Vertical Reading – The  2’s

30  Vertical Reading - The 3’s

31  Vertical Reading – The  4’s

32  Vertical Reading – The 5’s

33  Vertical Reading – The  6’s

34  Vertical Reading – The 7’s

35  Vertical Reading – The  8’s

36  Vertical Reading – The 9’s  

37  Vertical Reading – The 10’s

38 Internal Signifier – Who am I Internally (Select or Draw a Card)

39 External Signifier – Who am I Externally (Select or Draw a Card)

40 Ask the Deck: What do you want me to know? (Draw 3)

Reading Reversed Cards Made (Slightly) Easier

Note: I’m still in a lot of pain but I can’t sleep and I want to write through this while it’s still fresh in my mind. I’ll probably schedule it for later in the day but just know that I wrote this at 1am fighting through a pretty intense autoimmune flare and it might strike a different tone than my other pieces.

My girlfriend has been following along with my May tarot challenge I have going, drawing cards every few days and catching up on prompts when she can. Over the weekend she pulled a reversed card for the first time since using her new deck – she hadn’t intentionally shuffled reversed cards in – and asked if and how she should read the card as the book for her deck didn’t list any reversed meanings.

Now the only reason I could advise her for her specific deck was that I’d seen people use it before and knew how others approach reversed cards. But it got me thinking about what of that advice applied more generally.

Not all decks come with reversed meanings described by the creator of the deck. Some decks have reversed meanings that come to be agreed on collectively by the community of people who study and use it. Some explicitly advise against it. But most – it’s really open ended.

So here are my thoughts.

Should you read reversed cards at all?

I respect people who decide not to read reversed cards. It’s a personal decision and if it doesn’t align with what you want or need from your practice and you’ve taken the time evaluate it then by all means don’t read reversed cards. Hell, if you don’t read reversed cards because you don’t want to try to remember another 78 meanings, I can respect that too. Just lay them down upright and shuffle them back in.

But there’s a lot lost in not reading them and I think it’s worth reflecting on that. In my view, the standard deck has enough “bad” or unpleasant cards in it as it is to at least touch on when things are lacking in a person’s life but I don’t know that it’s as helpful as reversed cards for getting at the truth and the root that lack.

In my personal practice, tarot cards upright are what I might refer to as “the natural course” or “the natural result”. In life, in our self-development and journeys, it is totally natural and even fruitful to have lows. Those lows lead to deeper self-awareness and aid in a person’s growth.

But reversed cards refer to, to borrow a therapeutic term, “stuck points”. Beliefs, behaviors, or experiences that have become so engrained that we operate from them as truths – even as we know they’re warped and harmful. These are lows that are not helpful, do not contribute to our growth, and keep us locked in the past.

For me personally, being able to locate those stuck points in a reading – both for myself and another person – is very important to me. Those are most often the points in a reading that have resulted in querents coming back to me weeks or months later to tell me they freed themselves of their circumstances and finally feel okay again. Hell, I’ve had that experience reading them for myself.

So should you read with reversed cards? It’s personal, but I recommend trying.

Reversed Cards as Shadow Self/Dark Side

This is the approach I most often use for decks that don’t have their reversed meanings listed.

Reading with this mindset helps if you have some understanding of religious shadow work – spiritual work undertaken to confront our fears and reintegrate those dark and messy parts of ourselves we’re deeply uncomfortable with – but having a working definition will do just fine.

Another way of understanding it might be to think of the card’s dark side. Even the most admirable people have flaws that can hurt other people and themselves. The figures of tarot cards are no different.

I think understanding this style works better with a few examples.

Take the High Priestess. Upright she is the beacon, the kind of intuition and knowledge that comes from inhabiting a liminal space. But reversed, she can be a very isolated figure, one who withholds what she knows or at least doesn’t offer it freely.

Or take the Three of Cups. Upright it embodies deep friendship and camaraderie. But reversed it can mean lacking privacy, a feeling of those your care about encroaching on your autonomy or relationship. Having friends is absolutely a great thing, but friends can also distract, smother, and take us away from more important tasks and people.

The point here is to consider the drawbacks of each card, even the happiest among the deck.

When it comes to cards with less happy meanings, consider what I wrote above about stuck points.

For example, the Nine of Swords upright is about anxiety and dread, usually merited, that disrupts. But the Nine of Swords reversed for me can mean deep anxiety we’re not fully aware of that disrupts but is too deeply buried to really grapple with. It can also mean anxiety that has come to rule a person’s life regardless of whether there is an impending doom of some sort. It’s the upright meaning of the Nine of Swords but as a situation that blocks a person’s growth rather than serving as a natural part of a person’s progression.

Reversed Cards as Retrograde

This approach for me is far more recent and I’m still testing it out, but it’s been helpful enough that it feels worth mentioning here.

Recently, I got a question about planetary associations of tarot cards which is a field I am not versed in at all. But it did get me thinking. I’ve often referred to tarot cards as existing in a personal constellation and thinking of each card as a star or a planet in the sky was a refreshing view. It got me wondering about those cards as being in retrograde.

Now, I fully admit that I don’t fully understand retrograde as an astrological term but my barest understanding is that when a planet starts “moving backwards” through the night sky, the area that planet rules over stops running as smoothly.

So for a card to be reversed, or “retrograde” in this model, it would raise the question: what happens when the situation in the card stops moving smoothly?

For instance, applying this take to the Three of Cups reversed could result in reading it as a sign that friendships are faltering, that people are growing apart, that there is too much focus on the individual rather than the group.

Like I said, I’m still experimenting with this approach, but I wanted to present it for other people to fine tune. I doubt I’m the first person to write about this and I hope others will chime in with resources here. I’m having very good luck with this approach.

Conclusion

I think there’s a way to combine all this but it’s also fine to take the parts that work for you and run with them. I just wanted to present what I know for people who still might be figuring out how they want to use reversed cards in their practice.

I wish you the best of luck! May your readings be accurate, fruitful, and transformative!

*I do not claim my way is the one true way so take what is useful and leave the rest.

**If you wind up using this stuff in another setting, please credit me. This stuff is my art. Don’t steal, please credit. Thanks!

A Spread for Cards that are Hard to Read

Do you have any of those cards that when they turn up they make you really uncomfortable and you never feel like you can properly describe their meaning to someone you’re reading for? I know I do – The Lovers, The Queen of Wands, and The Emperor have haunted me since I started reading. Cards that are difficult to read can teach us a lot about ourselves and can help guide our shadow work.

I’ve been toying with this spread a little and I wanted to put it out there for others to try out. The idea is that you let the deck speak to what’s blocking your understanding of a given card – which if you’re interested in shadow work, often highlights areas of ourselves that need to be given attention.

The spread is laid out as follows.

Method

Shuffle the deck and find your chosen card. Place it in the first position. Take the cards immediately following it or proceeding it depending on which will have enough cards to fill every position in the spread. An alternative is to draw the card, put it in first position, shuffle how you choose, and draw the top cards to fill the remaining spots.

Positions

The first card is pretty straight forward. Choose a card that’s giving you trouble, that makes you uncomfortable every time it comes up. I think people tend to pick major arcana cards here but don’t be afraid to pick a minor card. All blocks have something to teach us

The second card is how your past influences how you read this card. It could be an event, a belief, an unresolved fear – anything really. Our past often dictates our expectations of the future. So when a card is difficult to read it often points to an expectation we’ve picked up from our past and it either challenges that expectation or confirms something uncomfortable.

The third card is how your perception of yourself is influencing how you read the first card. Similar to the second card, when a card is difficult to read it often challenges our image of ourselves. It may make us feel like bad people when we think highly of ourselves or vice versa, highlight an area we’ve struggled with, or make us question the narrative we tell ourselves.

The fourth card is how others in your life inform your reading of the first card. Often we see other people in the cards, ones we like and ones we don’t. Our feelings for or about that person will often undermine how we read this card in relation to ourselves and to other people.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh card are all what those influences can teach us about ourselves. The lessons they highlight can also offer clues as how to unblock your reading of the main card.

Conclusion

I hope folks find this spread helpful. I’m still tweaking it and toying with it. If you use it to create something new or come up with a different way to do a similar task, please reblog and/or let me know! I’d love to boost more materials on this.

As always, take the best and leave the rest and if you have any questions let me know!

Conceptions of the Self through Spreads

If you’ve followed me at all you know I like frameworks. I have some that I’ve developed or worked with for many years but there are others I consult less regularly and still enjoy. The following are spreads based on models I’m not an expert in. I present them here mostly as a way to introduce people to the ideas they contain. If you like any of them, I encourage you to explore it more deeply and see how it can be helpful to the shadow work you might be doing.

These are meant to be fun and I’ve not tried each of them personally yet so I can’t vouch for them. But I hope they inspire people to develop their own conceptions of self.

Psychoanalytic

Ego – the part of the self that we normally think of as “the self; it is the self as we known ourselves to be

Superego – the part of the self that’s co-created with other; shaped by social acceptability and how we’re raised to think and act.

Id – the part of the self that is below conscious awareness but that influences our behavior, often deals with unseemly desires or parts of the self that are too socially unacceptable to even acknowledge

If you liked my Four Fear Types post, you’ll like Pete Walkers work. It builds on the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theory of the self. He puts forward the idea that in people who’ve experience abuse or neglect early on, the Ego is diminished and the Superego takes its place. The Superego in some models is synonymous with the Inner Critic.

Self Discrepancy Theory

Own Actual – how you actually are, what patterns you currently have, what is realistic for you

Own Ideal – how you view yourself to be, your higher self, your best self

Own Ought – how you feel you should be, the standard that you hold yourself to

Other Actual – how you actually are with others, what’s realistic for you with others

Other Ideal – how others view you to be in the best light, how other idealize you

Other Ought – how others think you ought to be, the standard they hold you to

The Wikipedia page for this is actually really good for this theory. It has a really good chart for examining types of conflict that occur between the selves in this model. I’d really suggest supplementing this reading with it. I like this one because it points out that the self doesn’t exist in isolation, it’s constantly evolving and being co-created with others in your life for better or worse.

Elemental

Earth – Home, Family, Finances, Physical Health

Air – Intellect, Communication, Logic, Anxiety/Attachment

Fire – Passion, Spirituality, Drive, Anger

Water – Emotions, Intuition, Romance, Fluidity

Spirit – Core Self, Energy, Connection to the Universe

I like the classical elemental model of the self sometimes. It can help to understand my life is not one set of experiences of efforts. It’s not singular in any way. It’s a good way to check in with myself and make sure I’m dividing my energy among different areas and not neglecting anything too much. I don’t use it too often but I still enjoy it. Apply your own training with it and create your own spread if you want. I’d love to see more variations with this one.

Socioecological

Individual – the Self, your characteristics

Microsystem – Family, School, Church, Friends, Job

Mesosystem – Neighbors, Family Friends, Friends of Friends, Network

Exosystem – Mass Media, Industry, Local Politics

Macrosystem – Culture, Societal Ideals and Values

Chronosystem – Life transitions like divorce/marriage/death/birth, your history

One of my favorite models I learned during my brief stint in social work. The idea is that the self is created and influence across multiple nesting levels of influence. The bigger the level, the broader and all encompassing the influence but the less acute it generally is. Chronosystem kind of bucks that trend a little a lot of people don’t use it. But I liked using this as a model for the self because again it reminds us that we’re influenced by a whole host of people and our selves are not created in isolation.

Myers-Briggs

Energy – Where you gather your energy

Information – How you gather your information

Mode of Synthesis – How you work through information

Action – What you do with information

This one is purely for fun. I enjoy Meyers-Briggs even if it’s been pretty well debunked. Some folks might now know what area each letter roughly corresponds to. This was how it was explained to me by a woman who used to travel to different companies to administer the test and give seminars for employees on how to use it. I find the idea that we’re defined by our energy and how we interact with information really interesting, so I included this one here.

Conclusion

I hope these were an entertaining way to learn about some models of the self. If you’re an expert in any of these models and you want to expand on them – especially with regards to how they’ve influenced your shadow work – please reblog and add on! I only have a passing familiarity with these but they’re important enough I wanted to mention them.

As always, take the best and leave the rest and if you have any questions let me know!

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