ASTROLOGY & THE TAROT

Jul 23, 2021

Happy Pioneer Day! 

Here's a few more pages from my tarot notebook...

There's an astrological dimension to every tarot card that invites a familiarity with astrology—especially if you're a student of tarot or plan on designing your own tarot deck...

Whether you're a believer in astrology or not, I'm convinced everyone should spend enough time with it to develop a basic familiarity with its underlying principles. Like tarot, I find it to be a very misunderstood subject. Personally, I'm open to it, but I'm also very skeptical...

However, I love the poetic genius of its cosmic clocklike nature! I love its imagery and archetypes! It's great for unlocking mythology and art history. It has really helped me understand personality and relationship dynamics. It's one of the greatest subjects to study if you want to nurture a complex and more nuanced understanding of premodern worldviews, styles of thinking and cultural norms—like those of the Smith family and early followers of mormonism. 

The other day I bought a farmer's almanac—published since 1818—at the local grocery store, and I'm fascinated that there are still people who refer to astrology to figure out which days of the  month are most auspicious for digging post holes, getting hair cuts and asking for a loan! 

My friend Tom Brady, a Santa Fe based astrologer of over 50 years, believes astrology is universally beneficial to study regardless of personal belief. He says it teaches one "to think in circles and cycles, like nature thinks, rather than in the straight lines conditioned by alphabetic literacy. Despite all its gifts, the psychology of literacy has divorced us from nature, and played a major role in creating the ecological, social, and economic crises currently engulfing us. If there is a new world coming, and I sincerely believe there is, it will be shepherded into place by humans who have learned to think in ways that intentionally reverence the world rather than unconsciously exploit it."

I referred to the following books and a few websites when gathering this information:

1. Astrology and Astronomy by Ernst and Johanna Lehner

2.The Secret Language of Astrology by Roy Gillett

3. Ruling Planets by Christopher Renstrom

4. The Secret Language of Birthdays by Gary Goldschneider & Joost Elffers

5. An Introduction to the Tarot and Astrology by Paul Foster Case