Zodiac Tarot [Cards]

Start learning about tarot cards, and fairly soon you'll hear of the system of astrological correspondences for the tarot developed by the Golden Dawn (an occult society) in the nineteenth century. With many decks, you have to learn about the GD system separately because it's hard to figure it out from just looking at the cards--for a beginner, especially, the pictures seem to have little to nothing to do with astrology. For example, in decks based on the RWS deck, the Eight of Swords shows a blindfolded woman bound in a ring of eight swords: you can easily pick up on feelings of being trapped from the card, but does that say Jupiter in Gemini to you?

Lee Bursten has gone about this from another angle: what if you started with the astrology and drew pictures to match? This tarot definitely feels like a carefully constructed system--not as hit-and-miss as a traditional RWS deck.

First, in the Major Arcana, Bursten came up with archetypal characters for any card represented by a planet and scenes with the flavor of the sign for the cards represented by the signs of the zodiac. So the Wheel of Fortune (Jupiter) shows a middle-aged businessman (Bursten calls him the Father) and the Lovers (Gemini) depicts a library.

In the Minor Arcana, where each card gets a planet-in-sign association, the character is drawn in the corresponding scene. Here, the Eight of Swords (the Eight of Clouds in this deck) shows the Father in a library that's so overstuffed with books that he barely has room to sit and study (Bursten's description: "Too much (Jupiter) attention to detail (Gemini)").

The Court Cards, matched with pairs of elements in the GD system, just shows those elemental pairs. The Queen of Wands (here, the Queen of Torches), associated with Water of Fire in the GD system, is a picture of a flaming torch against a watery background.

So does the deck work? With tarot decks, of course, that's pretty much a personal reaction, but I think it could if you're prepared to have a more intellectual than intuitive reading. I think this deck might succeed better as a tool for learning the GD system than as a reading deck, plus I could see merit in meditating on the cards to see if you can see the traditional RWS meanings in the pictures.

Artistically, the pictures are clear enough. The characters appear to live in the 1950s; I don't know whether that was Bursten's decision or Luca Raimondo's (the artist). All characters are white, which surprised me a bit: Bursten's earlier tarot deck, Gay Tarot, was racially diverse. This deck cries out for some good explanations and an accompanying book, but right now all you get is the LWB and its descriptions are pretty skimpy.

As an astrologer I have been waiting for this deck, and I believe it is quite inspired. Tarot, the kabbalah tree of life, and astrology are interlinked, but it is not easy to move from one method of "divining" to another. Because I know astrology, these cards made perfect sense to me, and they work. Also, because I was born in 1950 and all the picture books in my childhood had pictures like on these cards, I could connect back to my roots...always a good way to reach for inspiration.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see both reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars