Tarot cards matched to zodiac signs
A complete correspondence table — assembled in late-Victorian London rather than inherited.
3 min read · Published 2 September 2026
The short answer
Twelve Major Arcana cards correspond to the twelve zodiac signs, seven to the planets, and three to elements. The Minor Arcana's 36 numbered cards from Two to Ten map onto the 36 decans. These correspondences were systematised by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn from 1888 onwards, not inherited from an older tradition — which is why they align so neatly.
The zodiac correspondences
| Sign | Major Arcana card |
|---|---|
| Aries | The Emperor |
| Taurus | The Hierophant |
| Gemini | The Lovers |
| Cancer | The Chariot |
| Leo | Strength |
| Virgo | The Hermit |
| Libra | Justice |
| Scorpio | Death |
| Sagittarius | Temperance |
| Capricorn | The Devil |
| Aquarius | The Star |
| Pisces | The Moon |
Some are persuasive — Libra with Justice and its scales, Capricorn with The Devil's goat-horned figure. Others require more work: Scorpio with Death rests on the sign's older associations, and Aquarius with The Star on the water-bearer imagery.
The planets and elements
| Body or element | Card |
|---|---|
| Mercury | The Magician |
| Moon | The High Priestess |
| Venus | The Empress |
| Jupiter | Wheel of Fortune |
| Mars | The Tower |
| Sun | The Sun |
| Saturn | The World |
| Air | The Fool |
| Water | The Hanged Man |
| Fire | Judgement |
Twelve signs, seven planets and three elements gives twenty-two — exactly the number of Major Arcana. That is not a coincidence discovered; it is a scheme constructed to produce it, which is the most informative fact about the whole table.
The decan mapping
The Minor Arcana correspondence is more elegant and less well known.
Each suit's cards from Two to Ten is nine cards, and four suits gives 36 — the number of decans, the ten-degree subdivisions of the zodiac.
The Golden Dawn mapped them in order, using the Chaldean planetary rulerships. So the Five of Cups is a specific decan with a specific planetary ruler, and its traditional meaning was derived partly from that assignment.
The Aces sit outside the scheme as the pure element of each suit, and the sixteen court cards are handled separately, usually as combinations of element and mode.
This is genuinely tidy, and the tidiness is the giveaway: inherited systems rarely fit together this cleanly.
Using them
As a learning aid they are genuinely useful. If you know astrology and are learning tarot, the correspondences give you a route in — and the same in reverse.
As evidence of a deep connection between the systems, they are not. The tables were built by people who wanted the systems to align, and they were free to choose assignments that produced alignment.
AsterNym computes a tarot birth card from your birth date by the Mary K. Greer method — arithmetic rather than correspondence — and does not use the Golden Dawn tables. Both approaches are twentieth-century; we prefer the one whose working can be shown.
Common questions
- Which tarot card matches my zodiac sign?
- Aries is The Emperor, Taurus The Hierophant, Gemini The Lovers, Cancer The Chariot, Leo Strength, Virgo The Hermit, Libra Justice, Scorpio Death, Sagittarius Temperance, Capricorn The Devil, Aquarius The Star and Pisces The Moon.
- Where do tarot and astrology correspondences come from?
- The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn systematised them from 1888 onwards, mapping the Major Arcana onto signs, planets, elements, the Hebrew alphabet and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Both Waite and Crowley were members, which is why their decks share the framework.
- How do the Minor Arcana relate to astrology?
- The cards from Two to Ten across four suits total 36, matching the 36 decans of the zodiac. The Golden Dawn mapped them in order using Chaldean planetary rulerships, and the Aces sit outside the scheme as the pure element of each suit.
- Are the tarot-astrology correspondences ancient?
- No. They were constructed in late-Victorian London in the 1880s and 1890s. The fact that twelve signs, seven planets and three elements sum exactly to the twenty-two Major Arcana reflects a scheme designed to fit rather than a connection discovered.