Astrology & Tarot

Where these attributions come from

The system below is the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's, worked out in the late nineteenth century and inherited by both the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and Crowley and Harris's Thoth. It is not the only system — older Continental traditions attribute differently, and some modern readers reject planetary correspondence entirely — but it is the one that underlies most English-language tarot published since 1910.

What makes it worth learning is that it is consistent. The trumps run in zodiacal order, the pips run in decan order, and the two interlock. That interlocking is what allows a card to be read against a live sky rather than in isolation, which is what this site does every day.

The twelve signs

The ten planets

The 36 decans

Each sign divides into three decans of ten degrees, and each decan carries one numbered pip from Two to Ten. That is thirty-six decans and thirty-six pips, mapping one to one. The decan's ruling planet is what gives each pip its Golden Dawn title — the Two of Wands as Lord of Dominion, the Ten of Swords as Lord of Ruin.

Every sign page lists its three decans with dates, rulers and cards, and each decan has its own page. Browse all 36 decans →

Retrogrades

Three planets get their own page here, each showing whether it is retrograde today and when the next period runs, computed from the ephemeris rather than typed into a calendar. Retrogrades do not summon particular cards; they change what certain cards are asking.