Astro-Tarot Decanate Tableau

I've haven't been satisfied with the traditional astrological spread in which the reader populates the twelve houses of a horoscope with tarot cards and then attempts to merge the house and card meanings into a meaningful whole. I've never found them to blend all that convincingly. On the other hand, the planet-and-sign associations of the Chaldean decans as applied to the tarot by the Golden Dawn make a lot more sense to me. I decided that, rather than keeping the 36 decan cards in a "zodiacal wheel" format, I would lay them out in a 9x4 array similar to a Lenormand Grand Tableau and use the decans as "house" signifiers in the same way. See the attached layout design.

Using a second deck, I lay out the 36 minor cards (2 through 10) in four 9-card lines (following the GD's zodiacal order) as the basis for the "situational awareness and developmental insight" matrix, with each line representing a zodiacal quadrant. I then place the Ace and Page aligned with each quadrant, along with two "placeholder" cards representing the eventual court and trump cards derived from the Significator's location, in four 4-card lines to the right as the basis for the "advice matrix."

I pre-select a Significator card to identify the querent, then shuffle and deal the deck on top of the "house" cards until all 52 positions are covered. If the Significator appears in the 9x4 array, I note the court card and trump card that correspond to the decan position holding the Significator, and substitute those for the "placeholder" cards in the "advice matrix" to the right of the Significator's position. Note that only the advice cards in the same line as the Significator are read. If the Significator either appears in the advice area or doesn't appear at all, I will reshuffle the reading deck and deal again.

I've included some photos of a sample layout, using the Gilded Tarot for the "base" houses and the Secret tarot mini as the reading cards. The Significator was the Knight of Cups, and it showed up reversed in the sixth position of the second line (7 of Wands), making the "Applicable Court" card the King of Pentacles and the "Applicable Trump" the Strength card. My plan right now is to read the 9-card square containing the Significator as the querent's "situation" and the associated 4-card "advice" line as recommendations for how to deal with it. I will blend the two-card sets using both standard meanings and elemental dignities to come up with a "shaded" interpretation that builds on strengths and weaknesses. The cards above the Significator show aspects of the situation that he or she can't control, those on the same line have a 50-50 chance of being manageable, and those below are within the querent's grasp. The cards to the left show influences that are passing away, those in the same column are "in the moment" and those to the right reflect emerging factors. I haven't decided yet whether and how to read the diagonals. In the "advice matrix," the Aces and Pages show opportunities to make a fresh start in mastering the situation, the Applicable Court card reveals the characteristics, attitudes and behaviors the querent should embrace or avoid, and the Applicable Trump card suggests ways in which the world-at-large will either aid or resist the querent's efforts.

I've read that twice and am still not 100% sure I understand it. But I think doing a tarot-like Grand Tableau is an inspired idea, and I applaud you for attacking it!

rwcarter said:

I've read that twice and am still not 100% sure I understand it. But I think doing a tarot-like Grand Tableau is an inspired idea, and I applaud you for attacking it!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the encouragement! I'll see if I can help. The "situational matrix" part is just the decan wheel (the version in Wang's Qabalistic Tarot) rendered into a 9x4 array, complete with the offset court card alignments and the zodiacal trump card correspondences. Because the Aces and the Pages of a suit cover an entire quadrant, I set them off into the "advice matrix" as showing the way resolution of the situation would begin. The "applicable" court and trump cards in the "advice matrix" are the ones associated with the decan position that the chosen Significator lands in when you deal out the cards. All of the reading cards are read in combination with the "foundational" decan cards in the same way houses are used in the GT. There is always the chance, when dealing only 52 of the 78 cards in the reading deck, that the Significator won't show up at all, thus the need to sometimes reshuffle.

Reading is done in two parts. So far I'm only reading the 9-card situational square containing the Significator, just the cards touching it (note that I added some additional guidance to the spread description), and the 4-card advice line that leads from the Significator's position. If it seems to work well (I've done one sample reading that indicates it will), I may expand the technique to include other Lenormand-type methods. (I've already used knighting in my previous 25-card version of the Voyager Tarot "Magician" spread, to good effect).

This is a tough spread, but once mastered looks extremely insightful.

Besides having to analyze the spread and do it myself, how would you read this?

like this:

So when you have your base decans those decans would influence the card placed on top? Correct? So if you have the base as the 4 of Wands and a seven of pentacles on top you might read it as there are issues surrounding pregnancy, marriage or unions. There would be delays in the romance department.

Or a better way to explain it would be....... the 4 of Wands would be Venus in Aries. The Seven of Pentacles falls on top of it. Since it's Venus in Aries then the Seven of Pentacles might indicate that you'll find love later in life since Saturn would be restrict Taurus's development within the scheme of venus and mars energy (of the 4 of wands).

Or would you read it as dates. For example, sometime between April 11-20, you should expect a any kind of delay or delayed gratification or basically "success unfulfilled" (7 of Pentacles).

I find this spread very interesting as I've been slowing add esoteric astrology to my mix. Correct me if I'm wrong with my interpretation of 4 of Wands and 7 of Pentacles combined.

Laurelle said:

This is a tough spread, but once mastered looks extremely insightful.

Besides having to analyze the spread and do it myself, how would you read this?

like this:

So when you have your base decans those decans would influence the card placed on top? Correct? So if you have the base as the 4 of Wands and a seven of pentacles on top you might read it as there are issues surrounding pregnancy, marriage or unions. There would be delays in the romance department.

Or a better way to explain it would be....... the 4 of Wands would be Venus in Aries. The Seven of Pentacles falls on top of it. Since it's Venus in Aries then the Seven of Pentacles might indicate that you'll find love later in life since Saturn would be restrict Taurus's development within the scheme of venus and mars energy (of the 4 of wands).

Or would you read it as dates. For example, sometime between April 11-20, you should expect a any kind of delay or delayed gratification or basically "success unfulfilled" (7 of Pentacles).

I find this spread very interesting as I've been slowing add esoteric astrology to my mix. Correct me if I'm wrong with my interpretation of 4 of Wands and 7 of Pentacles combined.

Click to expand...

I think you have the fundamental idea exactly right. Since Venus in Aries, astrologically speaking, can mean finding love later in life, and the 7 of Pentacles has been titled the "Lord of Success Unfulfilled," there is a reinforcement of the idea of incomplete satisfaction. Although the 4 of Wands is often seen as celebratory, the combination of the two is less encouraging.

I haven't tried anything with dates at this point.