Tarot and Astrology: The Zodiac Signs, Planets and Elements of Each Card

Written by Orbitarot · Sources: listed at the end of this guide · Updated October 7, 2026

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Key finding: The Golden Dawn correspondences split the 22 Major Arcana into 12 signs + 7 planets + 3 elements; Waite's 1910 card entries name none of the 12 signs, and the planetary signs he does describe on Temperance (the sun) and The Devil (Mercury) differ from that list (Sagittarius and Capricorn).

How are tarot and astrology connected?

Tarot and astrology are linked through a set of correspondences that gives each of the 22 Major Arcana cards a zodiac sign, a planet or an element. The best-known version comes from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical society founded in London in 1888. A. E. Waite, who devised the 1909 deck, was a member.

The cards themselves are older than these links. Tarot decks were played as card games long before anyone tied them to the stars, and the astrological layer is one interpretive tradition among several. It is a popular one, though, and many modern readers use it. This guide sets out the full list as our site uses it, counts how it is built, and checks it against what Waite actually wrote about the cards.

Which tarot card goes with each zodiac sign?

In the Golden Dawn system, each of the 12 zodiac signs has one Major Arcana card: Aries is The Emperor, Taurus The Hierophant, Gemini The Lovers, Cancer The Chariot, Leo Strength, Virgo The Hermit, Libra Justice, Scorpio Death, Sagittarius Temperance, Capricorn The Devil, Aquarius The Star and Pisces The Moon.

The table adds approximate sun-sign dates (the exact changeover day can shift by a day from year to year) and each sign's element, with the tarot suit that shares it.

Notice that the signs run in order through the deck. Aries, the first sign, sits on card IV, and Pisces, the last, sits on card XVIII, with planet and element cards filling the gaps between them. That order depends on the numbering in Waite's deck, where Strength is card VIII and Justice card XI, the reverse of many older decks. Of Strength he wrote: "For reasons which satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged with that of justice, which is usually numbered eight." He never said what those reasons were. One effect is plain from the table, though: with the swap, Leo (Strength) comes before Virgo (The Hermit) and Libra (Justice), just as the signs run in the zodiac.

What are the astrological correspondences of all 22 Major Arcana?

The 22 Major Arcana split into 12 zodiac signs, 7 planets and 3 elements: 12 + 7 + 3 = 22. The seven planets are the classical ones, Sun and Moon included, from Mercury to Saturn. The three elements are Air, Water and Fire; Earth has no Major Arcana card in this list.

The split is not arbitrary. It follows the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which an old Jewish text, the Sefer Yetzirah, divides into 3, 7 and 12. The Golden Dawn matched each card to a letter, and the letter brought its element, planet or sign with it. Here is every card, with links to its full meaning.

Some pairings are easy to see in the pictures. Strength, with its lion, goes to Leo. The High Priestess, a lunar card, goes to the Moon. The Sun goes to the Sun. Others take more explaining: The World goes to Saturn, and the Wheel of Fortune to Jupiter, the planet astrologers have long linked with luck and expansion.

Which suit goes with which element?

The four Minor Arcana suits each carry one of the four classical elements: Wands are Fire, Cups are Water, Swords are Air and Pentacles are Earth. Each element also covers three zodiac signs, so many readers link a sign to a suit through its element: Aries, Leo and Sagittarius to Wands, for example.

• Wands, Fire: energy, drive and ambition. Fire signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius.
• Cups, Water: feelings, relationships and intuition. Water signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.
• Swords, Air: thought, speech and conflict. Air signs: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius.
• Pentacles, Earth: work, money, body and home. Earth signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn.

The Golden Dawn went further and gave the numbered Minor Arcana cards, Two to Ten, to the 36 decans, the ten-degree slices of the zodiac. Those links exist, and some readers use them, but we do not list them here. This guide sticks to the Major Arcana and suit correspondences that we can show and check against our own card data.

Did Waite use astrology in the Pictorial Key?

Barely. In the 78 card entries of Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), not one of the 12 zodiac signs is named, and neither are Mars, Jupiter or Saturn. He does describe a few astrological symbols drawn on the cards, and they do not all match the Golden Dawn list his own deck is usually read with.

Two of them agree with the correspondences. On The Empress, assigned to Venus, Waite writes:

The symbol of Venus is on the shield which rests near her. A. E. Waite, The Empress, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)

And of The High Priestess, assigned to the Moon: "She has the lunar crescent at her feet". Two others point elsewhere. Temperance is Sagittarius in the Golden Dawn list, yet Waite describes:

A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his breast the square and triangle of the septenary. A. E. Waite, Temperance, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)

He then adds that "It is, moreover, untrue to say that the figure symbolizes the genius of the sun". The Devil is Capricorn in the list, but Waite places a different planet on the figure:

At the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury. A. E. Waite, The Devil, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)

None of this means the correspondences are wrong. The Golden Dawn kept much of its teaching private, and Waite wrote his book for a general reader. It does show that the zodiac table is a layer of tradition read alongside the 1909 deck, not something Waite spelled out card by card.

How often will your zodiac card turn up?

Your sign's Major Arcana card has a 3.85% chance of appearing in a three-card reading, or about one reading in 26. In a ten-card Celtic cross it rises to 12.82%. Any of the 12 zodiac cards turns up in 39.85% of three-card readings. Here is the arithmetic.

• One specific card in three cards: 1 - (77/78 x 76/77 x 75/76) = 1 - 75/78 = 3/78 = 3.85%.
• One specific card in ten cards: 10/78 = 12.82%, by the same reasoning.
• At least one of the 12 zodiac cards in three cards: the other 66 cards give C(66,3) = 45,760 hands out of C(78,3) = 76,076, so 1 - 45,760/76,076 = 39.85%.

So seeing your own sign's card is uncommon but far from rare. If it lands in a reading, it is a good prompt to ask how that card's theme fits you right now. It does not predict anything about your sign.

How can you use astrology in a tarot reading?

Use the correspondences as an extra layer of meaning, not as a forecast. Read the card in its position first, then ask whether its sign, planet or element adds anything: The Emperor's Aries link, for example, stresses initiative and leadership. If it adds nothing, leave it out.

1. Find your sign's card. Use the first table, then read that card's page as a portrait of a theme in your life, not of your personality.
2. Find your element's suit. Notice how often that suit shows up in your readings. Our tarot journal keeps count in your own browser.
3. Read planets as forces. The Tower as Mars, for example, is sudden force and conflict.
4. Mix with other systems if you like. Our tarot birth card calculator uses your full birth date, a numerology method that is separate from the zodiac links.

For a quick reflection, draw a random tarot card and look up its correspondence in the table above. For the history of the deck's pictures, see our guide to Pamela Colman Smith's 1909 deck.

Find your own placements

Every correspondence above starts from a sign or a planet. To see which ones are yours, draw your birth chart, or look up one placement at a time: your Sun sign, Moon sign or rising sign. All our astrology calculators run in your browser.

Questions

What tarot card is my zodiac sign?

Aries is The Emperor, Taurus The Hierophant, Gemini The Lovers, Cancer The Chariot, Leo Strength, Virgo The Hermit, Libra Justice, Scorpio Death, Sagittarius Temperance, Capricorn The Devil, Aquarius The Star and Pisces The Moon, in the Golden Dawn system.

Which tarot suit goes with my element?

Wands are Fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius), Cups are Water (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces), Swords are Air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) and Pentacles are Earth (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn).

Where do the tarot zodiac correspondences come from?

The most widely used set comes from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical society of the late 19th century. A. E. Waite, who devised the 1909 deck, was a member.

Which tarot cards are planets?

The Magician is Mercury, The High Priestess the Moon, The Empress Venus, the Wheel of Fortune Jupiter, The Tower Mars, The Sun the Sun and The World Saturn.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: William Rider and Son, 1910), card entries for the Greater and Lesser Arcana; public domain: https://sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/index.htm
• Major Arcana correspondences: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn tradition, as listed in our deck data: site/deck.py, astrology field
• Zodiac card odds: our own Python calculation (C(66,3) = 45,760; C(78,3) = 76,076): Computed October 2026

Spotted a mistake? hello@orbitarot.com.

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