tarot, astrology & myth: libra
Solar Eclipse / New Moon in Libra, 2024, own digital collage.
The connection between the tarot and astrology is one that some tarot readers dismiss as not important while others stick to rigidly. I’m somewhere in the middle, especially for the Major Arcana, I find some of the attributions work and others seem a little far fetched. However, as a tarot reader with over 20 years experience, I can see the benefits of knowing the astrological associations of the cards, especially if you are beginning to learn the tarot for yourself. Whether or not you choose to use the attributions is another story and ultimately up to your reading style.
This is the first in a series of blogs that explores the connections that astrology has to the Major Arcana in the tarot. If you are learning the tarot for yourself and want to understand how the symbolic associations connect to astrology, I hope you’ll find these posts educational. Each zodiac season, I’ll write about how the sign relates to a Major Arcana card and how the archetypal symbols found in the card are associated with that sign. At the end of the series, your tarot game should have gone up a notch. If you enjoy this little bit of wisdom, please consider subscribing to my newsletter.
I have a background in art history and grew up with esoteric teaching. My pagan Gemini mother figured out my astrological chart the old fashioned way when I was a kid, with astrology books, a compass and a pencil. This was before you could just enter your details into Google and find out your whole astrological chart. It was common in our house to align someone’s character traits to their star sign: ‘well of course they’re mysterious, they’re Scorpio’. So for me, I already had a good foundation of astrology and I can understand why some astrological associations work with certain cards.
As this post is coming out in the second week of October, I’m beginning with Libra. We’ve just celebrated a Solar Eclipse and a New Moon in the sign, which many of the astrologers that I follow have said will cause some major shifts in the world, especially in areas that are associated with the sign of Libra. The symbol that is associated with Libra is the scales, which of course also relates to the Major Arcana card Justice in the tarot, which if you’re going by Rider Waite Colman Smith teaching, also corresponds to Libra. The attribution of the western zodiac to Major Arcana cards was introduced by Arthur Edward Waite, scholar, mystic and member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society based in England in the 19th Century. There is a little controversy with the Justice card particularly as Waite decided to switch the traditional positions of the cards 8 (Strength formally 11) and 11 (Justice formally 8) to correspond with his placements of the western zodiac in the Major Arcana. If you want to read more on this subject, check out my blog post here on Strength and Justice.
Libra and Justice connection
The etymology of the word Libra comes from the Latin Lībra, meaning a pair of scales, balance or pound (a unit of weight). Libra is a cardinal masculine air sign that marks the beginning of autumn, coinciding with the autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere and Pagan Sabbat, Mabon. Libra is ruled by Venus and is associated with the 7th house which relates to committed partnerships be it lovers or business relationships. Libras are said to enjoy harmony, balance, fairness, law, equality, order, to value beauty, be very good diplomats, have a keen sense of perception and be adept at bringing equilibrium to situations. I also find Librans to be creative. And if we think about the time of year for Libra, it falls at or around the equinox – when the days and nights are equal - returning us back to this idea of equality and balance.
Each zodiac sign is associated with a part of the body, Libra governs the skin, liver and kidneys. The kidneys are two little butter bean shaped organs that regulate and filter toxins in the body in order to maintain a proper balance, (there's that word again), of healthy substances.
Justice tarot card from the Nefertari deck
Mythological connection and Karma, cause and effect.
The symbolism of the scales goes way back and the power that this particular symbol holds is its association with the soul and karma. If we look at the Justice card in my Nefertari deck, a giant set of scales is depicted, to the right we can see a feather sitting on the scales. This is Ma’at, ancient Egyptian Goddess of harmony, balance, truth, justice and cosmic order and here she is depicted as the feather of truth itself. On the other side of the card we see Thoth, the ancient Egyptian God of wisdom, writing and magic. Ma’at and Thoth were husband and wife and both represent qualities associated with the element of air - truth and wisdom. I believe this scene is the Weighing of the Heart ceremony where the heart of the deceased was weighed against Ma’at’s feather of truth. If the heart was lighter than her feather, then the Gods would discuss this with the Forty Two Judges (divine entities) and if they were in agreement that the soul was just, the soul would continue it’s journey towards the blessed afterlife or Field of Reeds. If the heart was heavier than the feather, then the soul would not be granted access and the heart was devoured by Amut and remained forever in the void. This is a cosmic Justice, a Justice that is not bound by earthly prejudices.
Ma’at was also a concept or set of principles that ancient Egyptians had to adhere to. Being a “good” person and living your life with harmony, truth and honour was very important to keep the Ma’at in balance.
Justice tarot card from the Rider Waite Colman Smith deck
On the Rider Waite Colman Smith card, we see a depiction of Justice that might be more familiar to some and probably modelled on the ancient Greek mythological Goddess of Justice, Themis. Here we also see the scales but the feather has been transformed into a sword, the sword of truth. In the tarot, swords are associated with the element of air and traits such as intellect, truth and wisdom. The rigid posture of the figure of Justice, the arms down to the bottom of her robes forms a square denoting balance and order, a foundation. Numerology wise this connects to number 4, which relates to the Emperor in the tarot. Many cultures find the square to be a symbol of the divine, but I find the RWS rendition a little cold. Is this from my own prejudice of how a divine entity should come across, as warm and loving? Perhaps it is the very suggestion of perfection from the square like posture, the rigidity that alludes to the damning effect the quest for perfection can have on one, whereby one becomes crippled by it, unable to make progress for fear of making a mistake. This is the human side, the earth bound side of the Justice archetype not the cosmic one that is divinely perfect as found in nature. This also weaves back into the central message of the archetype which is that we humans are responsible for the way in which our lives have unfolded. The cause and effect of each action, the conscious and unconscious decisions we make all add to our karma, and the weight of our soul.
Michaelmas, a celebration of the Archangel Michael who is also often depicted holding a set of scales and a sword, and was also responsible for weighing the souls of the dead, takes place on 29 September - also Libra season. I find it interesting that many courts in the UK use the word Michaelmas to divide the legal year, beginning in October and some UK universities also use the term to mark the beginning of their academic year (end of Sept). Both of these professions again link to associations with Libra and Justice - Law and Wisdom.
I hope you enjoyed this piece. I’ll be writing about Scorpio next month and its association with the Death card.
Bibliography
K. Farnell, 2002, Astrology
A. Ronnberg, & K. Martin, 2010, The Book of Symbols, Reflections on Archetypal Images
