Break the order up into more memorable parts?
I am trying to help teach in a few weeks and I am hoping to find some information as to why say The Devil is Capricorn and The World is Saturn as I am sure my peeps will never remember
Let's start here for trying simply to remember the majors and their astrological associations. And no, they are not going to be so easy to remember. But you can cut them down into "parts" that are easier: The Golden Dawn essentially wanted the Astrological signs to go up from Aries to Pisces, with Planets (Mercury, Moon, Venus-Saturn...Uranus, Neptune and Pluto had not been discovered, and no Earth, that was "universal") and elements (Air, Water, Fire...no Earth, that as "universal") filing in the blanks more-or-less in order.
That's five planets
Three Elements (note, you can replace with Uranus, Neptune and Pluto if you like)
Twelve Signs
We start with "Air" for the Fool, and that's easy to remember (element #1, we take our first breath as a baby--the Fool, the start); now three planets follow: Mercury for Magician, Moon for HPS and Venus for Empress (inner "planets" as it were). Those are followed by the first six zodiac signs: Aries for Emperor, Taurus for Hierophant, Gemini for Lovers and Cancer for Chariot. Strength is the Leo...and is #8 in part because Justice is so evidently Libra (to Waite), but Waite didn't want Libra to come before the Hermit which he and the GD saw as Virgo. That was part of the reason for the switch. So that Leo (strength) would go before Virgo and Libra after.
One element, three planets and six zodiac signs for 0-9 (or the first ten). Notice that "Air" is followed by "Mercury" the "talking" zodiac sign (for Magician). And Venus is followed by "Aries" which is the Greek name for "Mars" so you get a kind of "Venus & Mars."
Next up we go back to planets: The Wheel (10) is "Jupiter" Then a zodiac sign, Justice is Libra (11), then the 2nd elemental: Hanged Man: Water. So Planet-Zodaic-Element. Astrologically that "Fire-Air-Water" by the way (Jupiter fire, Libra air and Water water).
Back to the remaining zodiac, in order: Death is scorpio (you had the water element, so the zodiac following it is a water sign), Temperance is Sag. (fire), Devil is Capricorn (Earth). Three signs which are also three elements.
Next up, planets bracketing two zodiac signs: Mars is the Tower, followed by Star is Aquarius and the Moon is Pisces and the Sun-sun. So, Mars-(Star, Moon)-Sun (Planet--zodiac, zodiac--planet)
And with that last planet being "Fire" we end come to our final element: Fire for Judgement. Our final planet after that is Saturn for the World. (Element-Planet). Breaking these up into parts like this can help with remembering them. But one thing the GD did make easy in remembering them was to keep the Zodiac signs in "order". Hope that helps some. As for "why is this X not y..." I'll answer that in a separate post.