Tarot of the Ages - Astrology

Hello everyone,

this is my first "real" post in this forum. It's a little longer and hope it's in the right subforum. If not I'd be happy to see it moved.

Some weeks ago my copy of the "Tarot of the Ages" arrived. There are a few aspects I really like on this deck, like the artwork and swords/air and pents/eath switching the cardinal directions (east vs. north) which feels "right" for me.

However, I don't get the astrological attributes of the majors at all. Unfortunaltely the LWB gives no source or even an explanation other than "the artist has followed the inspiration given to him by his Muse"

The Trumps are attributed as follows:

Magician (1) - Elemental Air
High Priestess (2) - Moon
Empress (3) - Mars
Emperor (4) - Sun
Hierophant (5) - Aries
Lovers (6) - Taurus
Chariot (7) - Gemini
Justice (8) - Cancer
Hermit (9) - Leo
Wheel (10) - Virgo
Strength (11) - Venus
Hanged Man - (12) Libra
Death (13) - Elemental Water
Temperance (14) - Scorpio
Devil (15) - Sagittarius
Tower (16) - Capricorn
Star (17) - Mercury
Moon (18) - Aquarius
Sun (19) - Pisces
Judgement (20) - Saturn
Fool (21) - Elemental Fire
Universe (22) - Jupiter

I am somewhat familiar with the Golden Dawn / Thoth attributes, and this feels completely "strange" to me, e.g. the Empress/Mars or the Hermit/Leo combination.
I don't want to just ignore it, though, because I like to at least try to understand the basic philosophy in a new deck, before I use it. The creator of this deck obviously had something in mind when he assigned signs and planets to the majors. But what?

Is there a system that I'm missing completely? Any ideas where the "inspirations from the Muse" came from? An older/different system that I'm unaware of?

I hope you can help me out here. I'm really glad about any ideas (other than "just ignore it").

Thanks for reading this long post!

Samedi

I can't get too technical explaining these symbol attributions, but I can tell you they are not random. Their is another deck, the El Gran Tarot Esoterico, that uses the same symbol ordering system in the Majors.

I believe these assignments are set forth from some Spanish system. I find the attributions intriguing. Especially the Empress as Mars. I believe this system attempts to emphasize the sacred feminine. I have both decks and the El Gran in particular really sets me to thinking.

Christine Payne Towler in her book, The Underground Stream, goes into some detail about this Major ordering. I've read it, but its not a light read and I can't remember details. Interestingly her own deck, The Tarot of the Holy Light doesn't use theses attributions she seems fond of writing about in her book. Instead she uses a more traditional European set of assignments in her Majors that still is somewhat close the 'Ages' and the 'El Gran', but is not quite as jarring as the arrangement you're asking about.

I believe this Spanish arrangement is based on the 'Gra' version of the Tree of Life. If I remember correctly, the Gra Tree of Life has its origins in an old Spanish esoteric school utilizing what they believed to be the more correct Hebrew Kabalistic understanding of the Tree rather than the more modern Golden Dawn ordering or traditional European school of ordering. I'm not completely clear on this and may have my facts wrong on this last point. Don't quote me.

None the less, I find this Gra ordering really fascinating in terms of how it re-shades some of the Trump meanings. Totally cool.

I forgot to add, there is another deck to be released within a month or so, the Magdalene Tarot, that will use the same attribute ordering as the 'Ages' deck. This deck does indeed emphasize the sacred feminine with a theme of Mary Magdalene as embodying the said sacred along the lines of the 'Divinci Code.'

Thank you so much, Terrapin, your post was exactly what I needed!

I've started to do a few searches for "Gra kabbalah" and "Gra tree of life". There are even a few very helpful threads in the kabbalah section of this forum.

Seems I tried to tackle the problem with a wrong approach. Its not primarily about Astrology being attributed to the majors, bit instead about a connection between the hebrew letters being coupled with astrological signs and planets. In the "Gra" version the 7 planets are in a different order, so the association with the 7 double letters seems to be different.
Then in turn the letters are paired with the majors in alphabetic order (Trump 1 (Magician) --> Aleph... and so on). So the association of majors and astrological symbols is a secondary one rather than a primary one. And since the starting point is different (Magician as opposed to the Fool), the whole sequence is offset by one compared to the GD-Version learned.

Reading your post, you are obviously aware of this, but I'll just write it down anyway, so it might help someone else with the same problem. For me, that really was an exciting discovery.

So that answers the "how"-question. As for the "why" it seems I'm off to a lot of homework about the Kabbalah, especially the "Gra" version.

The "Gra" Tree looks very beautiful to me, with it's perfect symmetry. All mother letters (higher elements) build the horizontal paths, all double letters (planets) the vertical paths. Someone mentioned that this version of the tree depicts the state before the "fall of man", because there is no obvious abyss. That connects nicely to the "Hommage to Atlantis"-idea of the deck (Atlantis as a "fallen civilisation").

It will be interesting to find out, what a "Marsian" Empress means. I quite like the idea of Strength connected to Venus...

So thanks again for your great help!

-----------------------edit---------------------

Just checked out the Magdalene Tarot. It almost makes me break my promise to myself not to buy any more decks...

Hello Samedi. Glad you found the info useful. You are actually ahead of me in your Tree understanding in speaking about double and mother letters which I've heard of, but haven't explored what they mean yet.

The book I mentioned above does talk about the Gra Tree being before the Fall, so the Atlantis angle is quite brilliant and I hadn't thought about that either! Thanks for the insight.

I've been thinking about Mother Nature and the sheer power and force, in relation to Mars. No one can resist her influence, she can destroy us in a wink. Of course she has the nurturing side too, but I find all astrological attributions incomplete when assigned to tarot cards. To me Leo doesn't really mean Strength (or Lust for that matter) in the way I understand that tarot card and Saturn in Taurus doesn't seem to mean failure (or waiting or harvest) in the way I understand the 7 of Pentacles. I see astrology/Hebrew letters/Tree paths as light shading rather than hard fast descriptors.

Terrapin said:

I see astrology/Hebrew letters/Tree paths as light shading rather than hard fast descriptors.

Click to expand...

Exactly this!.

It's an aspect one can turn to for additional inspiration. And I do feel that it influences the character of each card - that's why I like to find out what the creator of the deck had in mind when he made the deck.

I don't always have to use the attributes. But they come in very handy when a card doesn't make sense at first glance.