Grigori
I thought a good way to kick of the study group, would be to break things down to the most simple parts and progress onwards from there. That way if your brand new to this method, then you will be easily able to get started, and if your a bit longer in the tooth, then you can help the rest of us catch up
With that in mind, I'm going to post an introduction to how the signs are allocated to the Minor Arcana, as I understand it. We can then work out what signs are applicable to our deck, even if using one where its not illustrated on the cards. As the discussion develops we'll learn more about how this is important and can be applied, and eventually we'll be ready to start looking at how it works when the Planets and Decans come into play, which we can do in another thread in the near future. The first thing we need to do is set aside the Aces. The Aces don't get signs attributed to them, as the represent the element itself among other things. So in this thread we are working with the 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10's.
As most people know, there are 12 signs considered in astrology. In order, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.
This is the order starting with Aries, as the start of Spring, and the start of the year. Book T also presents the order starting at Leo, which is another astrological option. It doesn't make any difference at this level I think, so I started with Aries as its probably more familar to most of us as "the beginning".
So we have a total of 12 signs. These signs are divided up into the 4 elements, Fire, Earth, Air and Water I color co-ordinated the list above also so you can see how the elements cycle through the year, but for ease of reading later:
Fire and Wands
Aries
Leo
Sagittarius
Water and Cups
Cancer
Scorpio
Pisces
Air and Swords
Libra
Aquarius
Gemini
Earth and Coins
Capricorn
Taurus
Virgo
The Fire and Air signs (wands and swords) are considered "male" or active, the Earth and Water (coins and cups) are "female" or passive. Yin and Yang if you prefer.
There is a second way of categorising the Signs, based on the "Mode", also knows as "Triplicity". There are three Modes. Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable. Each element has a sign that fits into each of these. E.g. Cardinal Fire is Aries, Fixed Fire in Leo and Mutable Fire is Sagittarius.
Briefly, Cardinal Signs represent the start of the Element, they are rapid and short lived energy. Fixed signs are the full strength of the Element, they are as the name Fixed suggests, more stable and long lasting energy. Mutable signs are the fading of the Element, and are variable in nature. So the strength of the element starts with the Cardinal Sign, reaches it peak with the Fixed, and then fades and changes in the Mutable.
The Cardinal Signs are
Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.
As the cardinal signs represent the start, they are attributed to the early cards, 2, 3 and 4.
The Fixed Signs are
Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius and Taurus (as usually seen together on the Wheel of Fortune or World cards)
They are the centre or strongest signs, and get the centre cards, the 5, 6 and 7's.
The Mutable signs are
Sagittarius, Pisces, Gemini and Virgo.
They are the end of the Element, and so get the last cards.
8, 9 and 10's.
Pretty simple really!
So if you put all that in order and relate it to you deck we get.
2,3,4 of Wands. Aries (Cardinal Fire)
5,6,7 of Wands. Leo (Fixed Fire)
8,9,10 of Wands. Sagittarius (Mutable Fire)
2,3,4 of Cups. Cancer (Cardinal Water)
5,6,7 of Cups. Scorpio (Fixed Water)
8,9,10 of Cups. Pisces (Mutable Water)
2,3,4 of Swords. Libra (Cardinal Air)
5,6,7 of Swords. Aquarius (Fixed Air)
8,9,10 of Swords. Gemini (Mutable Air)
2,3,4 of Coins. Capricorn (Cardinal Earth)
5,6,7 of Coins. Taurus (Fixed Earth)
8,9,10 of Coins. Virgo (Mutable Earth)
I'm not sure if that is clear or not. It would be good to have a conversation about this, so we can all get the "maths" under our belts, and also learn something about what this will mean for us eventually
With that in mind, I'm going to post an introduction to how the signs are allocated to the Minor Arcana, as I understand it. We can then work out what signs are applicable to our deck, even if using one where its not illustrated on the cards. As the discussion develops we'll learn more about how this is important and can be applied, and eventually we'll be ready to start looking at how it works when the Planets and Decans come into play, which we can do in another thread in the near future. The first thing we need to do is set aside the Aces. The Aces don't get signs attributed to them, as the represent the element itself among other things. So in this thread we are working with the 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10's.
As most people know, there are 12 signs considered in astrology. In order, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.
This is the order starting with Aries, as the start of Spring, and the start of the year. Book T also presents the order starting at Leo, which is another astrological option. It doesn't make any difference at this level I think, so I started with Aries as its probably more familar to most of us as "the beginning".
So we have a total of 12 signs. These signs are divided up into the 4 elements, Fire, Earth, Air and Water I color co-ordinated the list above also so you can see how the elements cycle through the year, but for ease of reading later:
Fire and Wands
Aries
Leo
Sagittarius
Water and Cups
Cancer
Scorpio
Pisces
Air and Swords
Libra
Aquarius
Gemini
Earth and Coins
Capricorn
Taurus
Virgo
The Fire and Air signs (wands and swords) are considered "male" or active, the Earth and Water (coins and cups) are "female" or passive. Yin and Yang if you prefer.
There is a second way of categorising the Signs, based on the "Mode", also knows as "Triplicity". There are three Modes. Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable. Each element has a sign that fits into each of these. E.g. Cardinal Fire is Aries, Fixed Fire in Leo and Mutable Fire is Sagittarius.
Briefly, Cardinal Signs represent the start of the Element, they are rapid and short lived energy. Fixed signs are the full strength of the Element, they are as the name Fixed suggests, more stable and long lasting energy. Mutable signs are the fading of the Element, and are variable in nature. So the strength of the element starts with the Cardinal Sign, reaches it peak with the Fixed, and then fades and changes in the Mutable.
The Cardinal Signs are
Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.
As the cardinal signs represent the start, they are attributed to the early cards, 2, 3 and 4.
The Fixed Signs are
Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius and Taurus (as usually seen together on the Wheel of Fortune or World cards)
They are the centre or strongest signs, and get the centre cards, the 5, 6 and 7's.
The Mutable signs are
Sagittarius, Pisces, Gemini and Virgo.
They are the end of the Element, and so get the last cards.
8, 9 and 10's.
Pretty simple really!
So if you put all that in order and relate it to you deck we get.
2,3,4 of Wands. Aries (Cardinal Fire)
5,6,7 of Wands. Leo (Fixed Fire)
8,9,10 of Wands. Sagittarius (Mutable Fire)
2,3,4 of Cups. Cancer (Cardinal Water)
5,6,7 of Cups. Scorpio (Fixed Water)
8,9,10 of Cups. Pisces (Mutable Water)
2,3,4 of Swords. Libra (Cardinal Air)
5,6,7 of Swords. Aquarius (Fixed Air)
8,9,10 of Swords. Gemini (Mutable Air)
2,3,4 of Coins. Capricorn (Cardinal Earth)
5,6,7 of Coins. Taurus (Fixed Earth)
8,9,10 of Coins. Virgo (Mutable Earth)
I'm not sure if that is clear or not. It would be good to have a conversation about this, so we can all get the "maths" under our belts, and also learn something about what this will mean for us eventually