Hermetic correspondences

"As above, so below" (the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus). In the Western esoteric tradition, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, astrology is the backbone that connects the tarot, the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, alchemy and ritual magic. Every one of the 78 cards has an astrological attribution. Learning these tables lets you read a chart through the tarot and vice versa.

The Chaldean order

The seven classical planets in order of speed, slowest to fastest: Saturn → Jupiter → Mars → Sun → Venus → Mercury → Moon. This order governs the planetary hours, the decans, and, via the planetary hours, the order of the weekdays (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday/Mars, Wednesday/Mercury, Thursday/Jupiter, Friday/Venus, Saturday).

The seven planets

Above the planets: Chokmah (2) = the sphere of the zodiac / fixed stars; Kether (1) = the Primum Mobile, the first swirling. Malkuth (10) = the Earth and the four elements. Modern Hermeticists sometimes assign Uranus → Chokmah, Neptune → Kether, Pluto → Daath (the hidden sephira, the abyss).

The three mother elements

The twelve signs

So 12 signs + 7 planets + 3 elements = the 22 Major Arcana = the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet = the 22 paths on the Tree of Life.

The 36 decans: the Minor Arcana

Each sign is split into three decans of 10°, each ruled by a planet in Chaldean order (starting with Mars at 0° Aries). Each decan is one of the numbered cards 2–10. Cardinal signs get 2–4, fixed signs 5–7, mutable signs 8–10. The suit follows the element: Fire = Wands, Water = Cups, Air = Swords, Earth = Disks. The Aces are the pure elemental roots; the 16 court cards govern the elements and straddle the decans.

Using this in a reading: find the decan of any natal planet (e.g. Sun at 15° Scorpio → 6 of Cups, Pleasure, Sun in Scorpio) and meditate on that card as a secondary symbol for the placement. Your Sun's decan card is often used as a personal "birth card."

Alchemy and the planets

The seven planets are the seven metals, and the alchemical Great Work is often described as a journey through them, from leaden Saturn (the nigredo, blackening, depression, decay) to solar gold (the rubedo, reddening, the realised self), passing through the lunar albedo (whitening, purification). Jung read this as the process of individuation: the planetary gods as stages of the psyche's transformation.