The Story of the Tarot

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Originally Posted by NikolaiI

Roger Zelazny has some books where the main character, a wizard, travels through tarot-like cards to sort of teleport, because each card is like a portal. Not tarot, but similar. Oh, and the wizards make the cards themselves.

I chose The Star, but haven't had a chance to look it up on other sites. It seems interesting though, thanks for posting this.

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Actually, that you chose the star doesn't surprise me. The Star is about being in a place of destiny - at least using traditional terminology. Using more modern parlance the presence of the star indicates that your "guiding star" (your Self, in Jungian terms) is overtly present in your life. Do you know Jung's concept of synchronicity? He felt that the world is patterned in exactly the same way as we are patterned and so when patterns come together in the physical world and match the ongoing pattern developing in the psyche of the person, Jung felt this was meaningful and should be attended by the person. So getting the Star indicates that this matching of patterns is available to you and that you have a choice, to look and see or not as you choose. It indicates someone ready to take a major step forward in his/her learning, and probably a major step away from what s/he was. With the Star the new direction always comes with some insight, some new knowledge about the nature of reality. But new ways of seeing always also mean losing something, even if it is just a comfortable ignorance. An important question you have to ask is "are you the kind of person that looks and refuses to "see" or are you not?" Partly you answer might depend on whether the card came out right side up or reversed. (Don't tell me...that's your business.)

I got home really late tonight (went to see Harry Potter with friends) but tomorrow I will write out the next part of the Major story and get to the Star.

Thanks for telling us what you pulled.

I will keep that in mind. :) Thanks for telling me.

I just chose it from the site, so it didn't have a chance to come up reversed or anything.

I am actually about to take a trip, go see a monastery and some other places. I'm not taking very much with me, it should be very enlightening, and I do consider it a major step forward in my learning. I'm not familiar with that concept of Jung's, but I am familiar with the idea in psychology that newness can be wonderful for growth; like moving to a different city, getting a new job, things like that. But then, I think picking up a book should have a similar effect.

I don't know about destiny, but I did recently have a realization about karma. I sort of got an idea about the different forces in the world, and realized that a lot of what happens to you may depend on your karma, and also that you alone entirely decide your own karma. I actually realized this sort of similar to what you described your experience about understanding the world.

Anyway, thanks and I look forward to your reply.

Good thread. Tarot is philosophy for sure. Just most people do not understand and have been poorly educated about the archetypes represented. Some are frightened by it. It is a study that takes a lifetime or two I think.
Been working with tarot for over 30 years too. Good insights you brought forward.

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Originally Posted by ravin

Good thread. Tarot is philosophy for sure. Just most people do not understand and have been poorly educated about the archetypes represented. Some are frightened by it. It is a study that takes a lifetime or two I think.
Been working with tarot for over 30 years too. Good insights you brought forward.

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This woman is your sister, though neither of you know it yet so please your mother and get in touch with her. You can tell her I said so.

I have spoken!

So we left the soul on its journey as it had split from it initial Holy Fool state, found rules and the wonderful abundance of things, began to negotiate the world and its need for growth and order and then found that in all that it had gained it had also lost something…some capacity to be whole and so developed intermediaries (Hierophant) between the developing self and the original soul, and in this need to look forward and back, to further individuate and seek to rejoin the wholeness, the two halves of the person are symbolically rejoined in the Lovers. Now the splitting starts again, but at a new level. The first card is

VII The Chariot - This is both Arjuna as he prepares for battle and Krishna who acted as Arjuna’s charioteer. A person, just past the rejoining of the developed aspects of self that occurs in the Lovers if suddenly faced with a world that seems far more complex and difficult. Really though, the world is the same, what has changed is the level of reflexive capacity. The soul/self/person is beginning to realize that much of what s/he has always taken for granted is now not so simple. This is a time, not so much of decisions, but of coming to terms with what the self actually is, in Arjuna’s terms, our dharma.

VIII Justice (Adjustment) – Having accepted that there are things that simply “are,” that are beyond our control we must make adjustments to the necessities of sharing life with many others, all equally “divine.” This stage of the journey is learning to decide on how to spend what gifts/energy/power you have. Having accepted emotionally that there are things beyond your control in the Chariot, Justice is about applying reason to the decisions this implies about how to live your life. This leads to the next lesson which is to…

IX The Hermit – tell the difference between what you want and what you need. Having had two hard lessons in the chariot and justice it is time to take that learning and weld it deep into your soul. This always done best alone and now far from the companionship of the Lovers, this is a time of celibacy. But the world often takes a dim view of what it must perceive as anti-social behavior. It throws a curve ball in the shape of…

X Fortune – the wheel of fortune. This card of ruled by Jupiter who I always imagine as the ghost of Christmas present. Introspection (Hermit) must be balanced ultimately with social welding. We are social creatures and everything we do is somehow related to the group from which we take our meaning and lives. I sometimes think of the transition from the Hermit to Fortune as a black hole endlessly, endlessly spiraling into itself only to ultimately pop itself out suddenly and often with brutal force into a whole different vibrantly glowing universe. In more mundane terms, you go along nicely, get into a work/school/home routine, wonder about stuff, listen to a little music, write a little poetry, and then BLAM you get DISCOVERED and your whole world changes.

XI Lust – Where all this leads is the discovery of the fire within…chi, wyrd, eros, libido…it doesn’t matter what you call it. It is desire in its unformed state. This is not lust for sex, or anything in particular it is the force that drives us to connect with each other, with ourselves, with the world, with ideas of god, with ideas of non-god…It is also (as I was taught) the basic force that allows for magic, art, creation of all sorts. The BIG issue in this card (its primary lesson) is discipline. Power is always greater when forced through a small aperture. Take water for example, run a glass full of water through a wide hose. You get a trickle. Not much power. Take the same amount of water through a tube the size of your capillaries and you get a stroke.

XII The Hanged Man – The key phrase for this card is “redemption through sacrifice.” This is learning discipline. The image of a man hung from a tree is common one in world mythologies. It is how Odin received the power of writing. Odin (like Jesus) was hung from a tree wounded by a spear. He had to give up his kingly power, his life even to learn what he needed. This is a card about giving up what you think it all means. With the recognition of the power that comes from the Lust card, comes the need to integrate it into a broader, more ethical world view than was necessary before. In other words, with power comes responsibility, and the first responsibility is to discipline the power and to know what the power serves. With this card you start the process of recognizing that your life is not your own, and yet you are completely responsible for what steps you take. It is a card of paradox.

XIII Death – This paradox leads to the death of the self you thought you were. Death is the end of things but it is also linked to sex through the sign of Scorpio. The energy that has been mobilized in Lust and disciplined by the sacrifice of the Hanged Man must transmute itself so that it can become more, grow into another level. Often things fall away with this part of the soul/self journey. What was once so vital to us no longer has a place in our lives, and those who we though would be with us always will not or cannot handle the transformation we are going through. But in this fire comes the first glimmer of what will be. This is…

XIV Art – Art is the next level up from The Lovers. It is the rejoining of self but with a stronger emphasis on internal rebirth. The card is the alchemical joining of white and red. It is the mixing of not male and female (as it was in the Lovers) but silver and gold, or dark and light. It is the creation of soul from what was really just a shadow of its possibility. This is the soul of the spirit-speaker…poet…artist. But we all know how crazy poets can be. This is symbolized in the next card…The Devil.

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Originally Posted by ravin

Good thread. Tarot is philosophy for sure. Just most people do not understand and have been poorly educated about the archetypes represented. Some are frightened by it. It is a study that takes a lifetime or two I think.
Been working with tarot for over 30 years too. Good insights you brought forward.

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Great to meet you Ravin. You know I have been reading cards for so long, and I rarely get to talk to someone who really knows the cards. Really, great to meet you.

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Originally Posted by PrinceMyshkin

This woman is your sister, though neither of you know it yet so please your mother and get in touch with her. You can tell her I said so.

I have spoken!

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Mother? Oh no dear boy.

So now we have a soul that has taken the first lessons of earth (rules, things, other people) and broadened them into lessons of self, power and responsibility in a world of rules, things and others. Now the final phase begins.

XV The Devil – I think of the devil as a goat with blinkers. I have known goats. We share some important traits with them. They can be quite devoted to their own wants. They eat without caring what roots they pull from the earth. They can eat nearly anything and are amazing good at falling right side up. That is they create havoc where ever they go and hardly ever bear the brunt of their own behavior…until its time for goat kebabs. A person who is an artist (whether with words, paint or just life) can get obsessed about what s/he wants to understand, leaving behind all other obligations. Often someone in the grip of obsession will walk right over the very people who have made it possible for them to get where they are. The Devil’s lesson is that we are humans…we are hominids…and we need others. Even in the throws of “I MUST KNOW” we are asked to keep in mind that others are still there. Remember with the transition between Chariot and Justice we had to come to terms with the coexistence of feeling and though, want and need, this is the same lesson but on a broader scale. Now we must learn to hold still for someone else’s need even when our own need is driving us to ignore others. (Also look at the fact that the religious mediator card (Hierophant) number 5 is a card that requires mediation of new self and old self and the devil (card number 15) requires the same mediation but between self and others. The cards are moving us deeper into the world.)

XVI The Tower – The lessons of the Devil appear particularly difficult for us to learn. The tower is a card that shows the difficulty we experience in the previous lesson. Here we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t. This is about the violent falling apart of everything we have, everything we think we understood and knew about the world. What the tarot says is that whatever you think you know, the next time you go through this cycle, you will have to let go of everything you think you know, because, for sure, you are wrong. The sensation of wrongness is horrible. It hurts. It is scary and it is necessary. We so want to be right, to understand, because biologically and socially we are so vulnerable. Knowledge of “how the world is” acts as our hedge against that vulnerability. So it is really hard to let it go. But to grow out even further we must.

XVII The Star – The star is the guiding light in the darkness that has resulted from the destruction of what you were. It is the final pouring out of the old to make room for what is coming. It is (for Jung) the mandala of the Self glowing, calling you to individuation.

XVIII The Moon – And yet, following the Star requires further journey. It requires facing the final demons. It reminds me of Siddhartha’s final temptations by the Demon King before Sid became the Buddha. The moon card requires you to walk past the dogs that guard the gates of hell. But this is not the kind of hell that was envisioned in Dante’s Inferno. It is more like the realm of Erishkegal. Erishkegal’s sister Inanna (The Queen of Heaven and Earth) had to descend to her sister’s realm. She was forced to take of every article (things like her crown and lapis beads) that represented her earthly life and power. She was ultimately required to die. But as she was needed to make the earth grow, her consort (the god Dummuzi) went down to Erishkegal’s realm in her place. (Note: here is the first dying god myth that we know about…a male god who dies to redeem his loved one/the world). So often the Moon is interpreted as lunacy, as madness, as illusion. But really it is the required recognition that all that you think you possess (even your life) is only temporarily yours and will one day be forfeit. And the be even more severe, the Moon requires the recognition that part of you must die to release the rest…and that Erishkegal is really you.

XIX The Sun – If this path can be walked without falling from the “razors edge” then when the gates of Hel or Ereshkigal are finally passed, the light of the world is for the first time truly visible to you. This is the burning birth of the Self as it roars up past the darkness and what you thought was true. In a person’s life this feels like the roar of an epiphany as it comes to life in your head and heart.

XX The Divine Child (Aeon) – This card is what is born of the marriage of Sun and Moon. This is the hieros gamos or sacred marriage and its result. Once the humility of the Moon is in a full balance with the power of the Sun then (and only then) can time be born in consciousness. This is the birth of god…or the birth of wisdom, something we humans seek but as of yet have not (as a species) reached.

XXI The Universe – Once the birth of true consciousness is manifested the final welding of time and matter occurs and here is the Holy Fool, no longer a lone wanderer but manifest in every thing, in all that is. Here the Universe is now the Holy WiseOne (not us, but the world in which we are embedded).

reading tarot's stories is similar to analyzing your dreams.
you are presented with images of strong symbolism and shown this your mind is given insight into whatever it was concerned with.

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Originally Posted by libernaut

reading tarot's stories is similar to analyzing your dreams.
you are presented with images of strong symbolism and shown this your mind is given insight into whatever it was concerned with.

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This is exactly right. I teach a class at a local community college on the interpretation of dreams. Tarot is a distilled dream using the symbols common to western thought and practice. Really good observation.

This is, by the way, the reason tarot can be really useful in clarifying a problem we might have. The symbol systems are so much a part of our history and general cultural training they can act as memory stimulators...that is they can help the brain synthesize multiple experiences in our lives and come up with a possible connection between what had been scattered events. This last is, if not the function, at least a major function of art.

to respond to an email I received on the subject of the tarot as a "poetry machine"

Wallace Stevens has much to say about the connection between poetry and reality. He couches it within the term "resemblance" and says “the study of the activity of resemblance is an approach to the understanding of poetry….in the act of satisfying the desire for resemblance it touches the sense of reality, it enhances the sense of reality, heightens it, intensifies it. If resemblance is described as a partial similarity between two dissimilar things, it complements and reinforces that which the two dissimilar things have in common. It makes it brilliant.”

Brilliant...shining out, startling the eye of those who live within its environment, drawing attention to it by means of moving light around a corner from the sun to an eye. This is poetry. An act of attention: attend the earth and you will see.

In the same essay, the first of "Three Academic Pieces" in The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and The Imagination, Stevens says “the proliferation of resemblances extends an object. The point at which this process begins, or rather at which this growth begins, is the point at which ambiguity has been reached. The ambiguity which is so favorable to the poetic mind is precisely the ambiguity favorable to resemblance.”

This is the poetry-machine in tarot. Its ambiguity, that much despised by many, is the source of its reality.

Finally, Stevens says: “A sense of reality keen enough to be in excess of the normal sense of reality creates a reality of its own…the intensification of the sense of reality creates a resemblance: that reality of its own is a reality.”

Now that is interesting.

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Originally Posted by MaryLupin

This thread discusses the Tarot as a text and not as an icon of Universal Truth.

When I was taught to read the cards, (about 37 years ago) I was taught that they tell a story about how we (meaning those who come from the same cultural background as my aunties) grow as human beings. I don't want to discuss the Truth Value of the story. I want to discuss the story itself, as a text made of pictures (with symbols and a few words), what it says about a way to be human and how the story shifts depending on how you lay out the cards.

The main “chapters,” as it were, are 5. The first is the major arcana; the last four are the mundane suits. Probably makes sense to start with the major arcana, unless anyone would prefer otherwise.

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This may be askew from your topic, but I am also interested in tarot as symbolic representations of psychological or developmental stages (closer to your topic). I also use the tarot to effect change (magic, perhaps less relevant to your topic).

I photograph and write for a small newspaper. I just noticed that my latest photo, a candid shot that appeared on the front page, bears an amazing resemblance to the Ryder-Waite "Magician" card. The person in the photo is holding one hand upward, blowing a bubble with a bubble wand, while the left arm is pointed downward. I won't get too specific about the photo, out of respect for the subject's privacy. Now that I look back through many photographs, I see resemblances to other tarot cards, as well. In the same issue, another photo uncannily resembles the scene in the 10 of Cups, with two children off to the right dancing, while the adults in the left half of the frame gaze on with a look of satisfaction. This gives me some ideas in how to look at seemingly random photographs.

Open to any thoughts.

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Originally Posted by earthboar

This may be askew from your topic, but I am also interested in tarot as symbolic representations of psychological or developmental stages (closer to your topic). I also use the tarot to effect change (magic, perhaps less relevant to your topic).

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I think that the Tarot does exactly what you point out above. It is a representation of how European minds have seen the "path" along which humans appear to go as they move through life. In a sense it is an early psychology in the same way alchemy is an early chemistry. Yet, just as alchemy is more than proto-chemistry, tarot is also more than an early psychology. This is brought out in your second point, that you use tarot to cause change.

I read in another of your posts that you see spiritual and religious life/reality as an interior process. I suspect that extended this means that miracles happen but they tend to be interior miracles, i.e. miracles of change are more about change in perception than they are about change in the objective reality. So a person prays for "more" and when the miracle happens it is that they realize they have already more than they will ever need. (Please correct me if I have read this incorrectly.)

I do think that Tarot is a road map of the western mind. I think this because it is the western mind that created them, honed them, played with them, dreamed of them, drew them and otherwise put our "soul" into them. So they are external bits of us that we can play with, move around and "converse" with until we start to understand ourselves a little better. This process of externalizing ourselves, reflecting on what we see and then internalizing the new knowledge is foundational to a good magical practice. That much of it happens below the level of consciousness (or above if you want to think of it as Art) is what makes it seem "magical" in the sense of some external being influencing what we do, know and say.

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Originally Posted by earthboar

I photograph and write for a small newspaper. I just noticed that my latest photo, a candid shot that appeared on the front page, bears an amazing resemblance to the Ryder-Waite "Magician" card. The person in the photo is holding one hand upward, blowing a bubble with a bubble wand, while the left arm is pointed downward. I won't get too specific about the photo, out of respect for the subject's privacy. Now that I look back through many photographs, I see resemblances to other tarot cards, as well. In the same issue, another photo uncannily resembles the scene in the 10 of Cups, with two children off to the right dancing, while the adults in the left half of the frame gaze on with a look of satisfaction. This gives me some ideas in how to look at seemingly random photographs.

Open to any thoughts.

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This is great! I am going to remember this. It is a bit like cultural deja vu. We "know" these symbols because they resonate throughout the culture. They are often "invisible" in the sense that they are all around us but we are not taught to look for them. Like some plants. People can see them (literally) but never notice them until they have to find them (say for a class) and then once they spot one, it is as if they are surrounded by them. They are always so surprised that they were there all along but they were never visible. Some people take that literally and think that because they never noticed the plant before that somehow the plant was never really there and only recently started growing there.

This weekend I am going to start posting the minor suits with respect to the story they tell about development. In some ways the minor suits are more useful in understanding a human life because they deal with specific mundane situations...like love, money, learning and ambition.

Each of the four minor suits talks about a specific area of life. Pentacles or Disks are about earth. It covers the practical aspects of life like money, home, security and fecundity. It is associated with the north. Animals that are often associated with it are wolves and sometimes snakes. Its colors are usually white, black or green.

Swords are about air: knowledge and intellect. It talks about new realizations, broadening (or shrinking understanding) and intellectual discipline. The animals I’ve seen connected to the east (its direction) are usually hawks, eagles and other animals that rule the air. The color most connected with the east seems to be yellow.

Rods (or staffs) are associated with fire, with the Chi, energy, will, spiritual force, etc. It is associated with the south. Snakes are sometimes associated here (they seem to move along the line between north and south). Also, at least in my experience, plants (especially sacred ones) are often evoked here. Also, there is the badger. One would think that they might go to the north because the dig, but for some reason (perhaps their fierceness?) they seem to get mentioned mostly when evoking the Fire. Red is its color.

The last suit is Cups and they are associated with water, the west, with emotions of all sorts, the great mother bear, whales, death and rebirth and blue.

note: the directions are reversed if you live in the southern hemisphere

All suits start with the Ace. The Ace is the undifferentiated source of power. As the numbers move, the power comes into focus, is changed, solidified so-to-speak, and honed. This is like the major: moving from Fool to Universe, what was potential becomes manifest. Then of course that which is manifest fails/dissolves/implodes/dies and that which is potential resurfaces from under the manifestation and the cycle begins again. The numbers of the cards represent the stage of this movement within the element of the suit.

So numbers are important to the tarot.

1. 1 Ace or one implies an undifferentiated power. It is all power but no sense of application and so often it can be a bit of a bully and rather aggressive. Understandably I suppose, the Ace is thought of as masculine or yang. Ego.
   
2. 2 is about balancing (or rebalancing) after the force of the Ace. It can be seen as submissive (or at least receptive) if one’s point of view is entrenched in yang. The number 2 is often seen as feminine or yin. It codes the capacity for empathy or recognition of the existence of Other. This is an “evolution” from the Ace, which being undifferentiated doesn’t recognize an Other.
   
3. 3 is about adding a third to this balanced state. That can be easy or hard depending. It is about communication (now that there is a group).
   
4. 4 is about solidity, stability and power. Imagine a castle with a King and Queen doing their bit for social stability and earthly fecundity.
   
5. 5 is the hardest number in the tarot. It is that crux point of change when you are neither climbing or falling but doing a little of both. There was a lesson taught me about the number 5. I was told this is the current number of human learning as far as our species goes. If you take the pentacle and put the point down (the satanic star) then the whole person (the soul or spirit if you like) is being guided by the wants and desires of the four elements. That is, you want that cake, you eat that cake regardless of whether you are a diabetic or not, regardless of whether it is yours or not. Another example: you want it to be true that all is planned in the world and that the bad will be punished, you fiercely deny and ignore any evidence to the contrary regardless of how much intellectual manipulation you have to do for the “data” to make sense. Turn the pentacle the other way (the witches star) then you get all kinds of impulses from the senses but they are filtered through the 5th element (reason? Probably not. Maybe empathy? Yeah, I like word better. If feels a better fit.)
   
6. 6 is double three, and so the social world has taken on a real importance here. 6 people are often social caretakers, full of responsibility but also of the sense of human companionship and delight in others.
   
7. 7 is the reflective stage that comes after the social whirl. It is the capacity to watch and learn.
   
8. 8 Is 4 doubled. Here is power that applies power for its own sake. That can be good, I hasten to add. But like all the other numbers its basic force can be harmful to one’s health. Here it would be the conscious ability to lead, the study of power and management but it could also be suppression and totalitarianism when it runs into someone who disagrees or has another point of view.
   
9. 9 completes the first sequence. It is 3 X 3 and also 3 + (3 X 2). So it is the number associated with artists, writers, humanitarians, etc. As far as the particular suit goes it is the fulfillment of the potential of that realm of life – the potential being defined by the person’s position on the learning curve. So if you still need to beat peace into people then 9 will fulfill that potential – probably not fun.
   
10. 10 starts the cycle again and so is the rebirth of the potential but following the consequences earned in the previous card (9).
    
    Of course the minor cards don’t stop there. What follows are known as the court cards. These are (variously) 3 or 4 cards and called things like knight, page, queen and king. Depending on how many court cards there are in you deck you have the numbers 11, 12, 13 and 14.
    
    The number 11 is considered to be a special number (because of its repetitiveness). It represents idealism with a kicker of fanaticism. So of course 22 represents hyper empathy, or a practical idealism with a kicker of manipulation.
    
11. 11 - it represents idealism with a kicker of fanaticism...allegiance
12. 12 - artistic talent, vitality, but tends towards triviality if not corralled...cyclic
13. 13 - respect for (and sometimes love of) tradition and all that goes with that, like responsibility with a tendency toward rigidity...devotion
14. 14 - respect for (and often a tendency to overindulge in) change and excitement...freedom

The court cards in the Thoth are positioned as follows:
Following the 10 there are

1. Princess (number 11)
2. Prince (number 12)
3. Queen (number 13)
4. Knight (number 14)

When I read I change this order. I put the Prince first, followed by the Princess, the Knight and the Queen last. So in my ordering 11 is associated with the Prince, 12 with the Princess, 13 with the Knight and 14 with the Queen.

I am going to post two suits today and two tomorrow.

MaryLupin,

You're spot-on with regard to the directions and attributes of each suit, thank you, but I would change one thing: The Eagle is actually associated with water, the suit of cups, and the west.

The reasoning is that the four characters of Ezekiel's vision (Angel=east, air, swords; lion=south, fire, wands; eagle=west, water, cups; bull=north, earth, pentacles or coins) included the eagle. It seems odd and out of character, but Israel Regardie says, in his Golden Dawn, that the eagle is a creature that emerges from the clouds like rain, and dives into the water for fish...well, I took some liberal paraphrase, but his explanation went something like that.

Also, Mary, note the four sigils: The east is the sigil or diagram of two horizontal wavy lines: Aquarius. Again, this is not intuitively correct, but the rationale (if we have to have one) is that water comes from rain and clouds. The sigil for the south is, of course, the astrological sign for Leo, the lion. And what is the sigil for the west, cups, water? It is an outline of an eagle's head.

The sigil for the north, the "earthly" direction, is the astrological sign for Taurus, the bull.

So, I would make that one change about the eagle, specifically. Also, I think the bull is the extraordinarily quintessential earth symbol (possibly the "boar" too, wink wink, but that's another story...)

Why the bull should be at the top of the list of earth animals is because it is just everywhere in ancient European and near-east myth and civilization. Bulls were once worshipped, because they represented the power and fecundity, as you so accurately stated, of the earth. Baal, Mithras, anything or any god having to do with wealth, health, and earthly happiness, the bull was there. Also, look carefully at the throne of the King of Pentacles in the Ryder-Waite deck, which is the deck I personally prefer, and you will see bull symbols, along with grapes, another symbol of earth.

When performing rituals of magic, I lay the cards down in a circle in their respective positions. If I were to give a clue to using the tarot cards magically, and this applies to those who might be familiar with the banishing or invoking rituals of the pentagram, place the cards around you in their respective arrangement (king of swords east, king of wands south, king of cups west, king of pentacles north...the possibilities of these arrangements can become quite complex, I might post a photo sometime.)

Now, your post is so delightful, but I am going to quibble over the colors, as well. Only because, again, I am referring to the Ryder Waite tarot deck, and you might be using something else, like Crowley's Thoth deck. The art work of the Ryder-Waite deck has been described as childish, but its symbolism is profound. The backgrounds often give clues as to colors of the attributes of the suits. The sky in the swords cards are sky-colored, cerulean or azure (light blue). The sky color in the Pentacle cards is often yellow. I find that confusing, because I think of fire-lions-sun-south-wands as yellow. Darker blue is the color of cups. Russet, green and brown are the colors of the pentacles.

Now that I've thoroughly confused you, I'm going to give you the earthboar perspective of colors and suits: Swords=light blue or white. Cups= Sea Green or black. Wands = yellow and/or orange. Pentacles/coins=red and/or dark green.

From South to North, imagine a gradient of colors starting from bright yellow (like the sun) to dark red.

From East to West, imagine a gradient of colors starting from white, then light blue, then darker blue, then greenish blue (like the ocean).

This is a personal choice based on my own understanding of Golden Dawn symbology, in combination with the Ryder-Waite tarot deck. It is not fixed in stone, but what is important is that the schema makes sense to the individual.

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Originally Posted by MaryLupin

Each of the four minor suits talks about a specific area of life. Pentacles or Disks are about earth. It covers the practical aspects of life like money, home, security and fecundity. It is associated with the north. Animals that are often associated with it are wolves and sometimes snakes. Its colors are usually white, black or green.

Swords are about air: knowledge and intellect. It talks about new realizations, broadening (or shrinking understanding) and intellectual discipline. The animals I’ve seen connected to the east (its direction) are usually hawks, eagles and other animals that rule the air. The color most connected with the east seems to be yellow.

Rods (or staffs) are associated with fire, with the Chi, energy, will, spiritual force, etc. It is associated with the south. Snakes are sometimes associated here (they seem to move along the line between north and south). Also, at least in my experience, plants (especially sacred ones) are often evoked here. Also, there is the badger. One would think that they might go to the north because the dig, but for some reason (perhaps their fierceness?) they seem to get mentioned mostly when evoking the Fire. Red is its color.

The last suit is Cups and they are associated with water, the west, with emotions of all sorts, the great mother bear, whales, death and rebirth and blue.

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