Editorial note: The non-Rider-Waite tarot card images in this blog are sourced from the online collection of the British Museum, unless noted otherwise. The Marseilles images and Rider-Waite images are from scans I did at home.

In part five of this three-part series, the astrological connections to all the major arcana will be arranged. To get to this point, we had to slog through the very unsexy mathematics and number symbolism of the deck; I know how painful this was to some of us, but no pain, no gain, right?

The tendency of somewhat lazy and amateurish mystics who declared that the 22 cards must be about the 12 zodiac signs and the 10 planets always bothered me, mostly because three of those 10 planets were unknown to the Renaissance, and but because there is more to the heavens than just the zodiac.

Again, this is only my conjecture, based upon my perspective and deconstructions. So, here we go, and my hope is that this will all make sense at the end.

-Ed

• astrology
• numerology
• Tarot