Well, I came to tarot via astrology, the opposite direction from you, and I found it helpful to bear in mind the astrological attributions of the cards when trying to understand them, so it might be a good idea to think of the relevant suits + major arcana cards when trying to get your head around the nature of the elements + various signs and planets. I suppose it depends on the decks you use though - I have always used the Thoth deck (and to a far lesser extent the Rider-Waite), which is particularly strongly integrated with astrology.
To help you get a handle on the houses, you could try using the Astrological house spread, with 12 cards in a circle, each one representing a different area of life. Each house also corresponds to an astrolgical sign (1st-12th = Aries-Pisces), so it's good for giving you a feel for the signs too.
There are lots of good, free, online resources for learning about the basics of astrology. A good outline is at
http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Astrology - it provides some good links too.
http://www.selfhelpastrology.com/ (click on the 'Basics of Astrology' tab) offers a more descriptive introduction. I have found
http://tryskelion.com/ a great resource for learning about tarot, so you might want to look at the astrology section there (click on 'The Arts' tab on the left hand side). Finally,
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/ is a massive and very very professional astrology site with absolutely tons of info, ranging from the introductory to the highly obscure!
Hope that helps.
