Some experiences keep returning in different forms. A relationship where your needs gradually disappear. A project you abandon just as it starts attracting attention. A decision you keep postponing, even though you already know something needs to change.
Tarot offers a way to pause and look at those experiences through images. Its cards depict familiar human situations: desire, uncertainty, authority, attachment, loss and the possibility of beginning again.
The meaning of a card develops through the question being explored and the circumstances of the person receiving the reading.
At SOLVANA, I approach tarot through symbolism, recurring patterns and the choices available in the present. Its connection with evolutionary astrology begins with an interest in what motivates behaviour, what makes change difficult and how a familiar response might gradually become a more conscious choice.
A Brief History of Tarot
The earliest documented tarot cards come from 15th-century Italy, where they were used for card games. Some surviving decks were painted by hand and decorated with gold. Their imagery reflected the cultural, religious and social world in which they were created.
Tarot acquired its associations with divination and Western esoteric traditions centuries later. From the late 18th century onwards, writers developed new interpretations of the cards, including claims that they preserved ancient Egyptian wisdom. Those claims do not have sufficient historical evidence to establish an Egyptian origin for tarot.
Modern tarot brings together several layers: historical imagery, later symbolic systems and contemporary approaches to interpretation.
Understanding that history helps distinguish what is documented about the cards from the spiritual meanings subsequently attached to them. Both can be discussed without treating them as the same kind of knowledge.
How a Tarot Deck Is Structured
A standard tarot deck contains 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana.
The Minor Arcana are divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles. In many established traditions, these correspond respectively to fire, water, air and earth.
Their themes often concern recognisable parts of everyday life: motivation and action, feelings and relationships, thought and communication, work and material resources.
The Major Arcana address broader experiences, including independence, authority, values, changes in identity and the acceptance of an ending.
For this series, I work with the 22 Major Arcana, whose imagery allows room to explore the psychological and developmental aspects of a reading.
Drawing a Major Arcana card does not mean a dramatic event is inevitable. A significant change can begin quietly, perhaps with the first time you express a boundary without feeling obliged to justify it.
The Major Arcana as a Journey
One familiar contemporary interpretation reads the Major Arcana as a symbolic journey, beginning with the Fool and ending with the World.
The Fool can represent a willingness to enter unfamiliar territory before every detail is settled. The Magician brings attention to skills, resources and the ability to act. The Emperor introduces structure and authority, while the Lovers raises questions about choice and personal values.
Later cards, including the Hermit, Death, the Tower and the World, offer images through which to consider reflection, endings, disruption and the integration of experience.
This journey is an interpretive framework, rather than a historically established account of what the earliest tarot makers intended.
Personal growth rarely follows a neat sequence either. You might feel confident and independent at work while still relying heavily on someone else’s approval in a relationship. A card can bring attention to that difference without reducing your life to a fixed stage.
Tarot, Symbolism and the Inner Life
The image on a card stays the same, but people respond to it differently.
One person sees protection and stability in the Emperor. Another notices control or remembers a demanding parent. Those responses can provide a starting point for reflection.
An approach informed by analytical psychology considers tarot imagery through archetypes, the shadow and the development of a more integrated sense of self.
Archetypes concern recurring patterns of human experience, such as nurturing, seeking, exercising authority or confronting the unknown.
The shadow can include qualities that have been difficult to acknowledge or express. Anger, ambition and a desire for attention may belong there, but so can confidence or creativity that once felt unwelcome.
In a reading, I pay attention to how someone responds to the image as well as its established symbolism. A detail that draws their attention, a feeling of resistance or a memory it brings back may be worth exploring.
A card does not prove that a hidden trait or experience exists. This is a reflective use of imagery, rather than a psychological diagnosis or a substitute for therapy.
How Tarot and Astrology Became Connected
The systematic links between tarot, planets, zodiac signs and elements developed within later Western esoteric traditions.
In one widely used system, the Major Arcana are assigned correspondences with zodiac signs, traditional planets and elements. These associations create a shared symbolic vocabulary through which the two practices can be read together.
They are correspondences within a particular tradition, rather than scientifically established relationships. They also vary between schools and decks, so a consistent reading needs a clear understanding of the system being used.
Several examples show how these connections can inform an interpretation.
The Magician and Mercury
This correspondence draws attention to communication, learning, skill and the use of available resources.
In everyday terms, the Magician can invite a closer look at the distance between knowing and doing. You may already have the ability or information you need, while still waiting for permission to use it.
The High Priestess and the Moon
This association concerns receptivity, emotional memory and what has not yet been articulated.
The High Priestess can offer space to notice an impression before acting on it. That includes allowing time to distinguish an intuitive response from an assumption or a fear.
The Empress and Venus
Value, pleasure, receiving and nurturing belong to this correspondence.
A reading might explore whether you can accept support, recognise the value of your work or give an idea the time and attention it needs to develop.
The Emperor and Personal Authority
The Emperor raises themes of initiative, structure and responsibility.
A practical interpretation might concern making a decision you have repeatedly handed over to someone else, establishing a workable routine or setting a boundary you are prepared to maintain.
The Lovers and Choice
The Lovers can concern a romantic relationship, but its meaning extends to decisions that reveal your priorities.
A reading might explore whether a commitment reflects your values, how you handle differences or what you are agreeing to when you choose one path over another.
Justice and Reciprocity
Justice brings attention to agreements, accountability and the consequences of decisions.
Within a relationship or working arrangement, that may mean examining each person’s contribution, clarifying expectations or addressing an imbalance that has remained unspoken.
Death and Transition
Death offers an image through which to consider endings, release and substantial change.
Sometimes the subject is a role that once provided security but now leaves little room for growth. Letting it go may involve grief, uncertainty and a gradual adjustment to a different way of living.
The World and Saturn
This correspondence concerns completion, responsibility and the integration of experience.
Finishing a stage of life can involve recognising what you have learned, what you can sustain and which commitments you are ready to carry forward.
These examples are starting points. An astrological correspondence does not determine the whole meaning of a card. The question, the deck’s imagery and any accompanying cards also matter.
Card titles alone can be misleading. In the system described here, the Moon card has a zodiac correspondence, while the Moon itself corresponds to the High Priestess. Similarly, a direct association between Death and Pluto belongs to a more modern interpretive layer.
What Evolutionary Astrology Adds to a Tarot Reading
Evolutionary astrology pays particular attention to deep attachments, motivations and recurring patterns. Pluto, its opposite point, the lunar nodes and their planetary rulers are central to that exploration.
This approach belongs to astrology’s symbolic and spiritual framework. It considers what a person finds familiar, what they experience as secure and why a change they consciously want may still feel difficult.
When I combine tarot and astrology, I look at how those themes relate to the person’s current circumstances.
Consider someone who regularly puts their own needs aside to preserve a relationship. If Justice appears in their reading, it may provide a useful way to explore reciprocity, unspoken agreements and responsibility on both sides.
If a birth chart is also being examined, Venus, the Moon, relevant houses and their rulers, Pluto and the lunar nodes can provide further context.
The interpretation develops through the symbols and the person’s lived experience together. A card alone cannot establish a particular birth-chart pattern or prove something about someone’s past.
The practical response might be quite specific: expressing a need clearly, revisiting an agreement or pausing before accepting a responsibility that belongs to someone else.
Reading Death, the Devil and the Tower
Some tarot images can feel unsettling, especially when they appear without an explanation.
Death can bring attention to the ending of a role, habit or chapter. For example, someone may be moving away from an identity built around keeping everyone else comfortable. The card does not establish that a physical death will occur.
The Devil can provide a way to examine attachment, control or short-term satisfaction that restricts freedom. Examples might include a constant need for approval or remaining in a situation largely because it feels familiar. Its appearance is not evidence of a curse, infidelity or another person’s hidden intentions.
The Tower can represent a belief or structure being challenged. In a personal reading, that might concern an uncomfortable recognition that changes how someone understands a situation. It does not establish that a particular accident or disaster will happen.
I interpret these cards through the context of the reading, the surrounding cards and the person’s circumstances. A card’s name is never enough to draw conclusions about someone’s life.
How Weekly Tarot and Astrological Transits Work Together
For SOLVANA’s weekly tarot, I consider the astrological context of the week, including relevant transits, dates and aspects, alongside the card reading.
A sign’s traditional tarot correspondence is different from the card drawn for that week. A fixed symbolic association does not determine which card will appear in a weekly reading.
When a card is drawn from the deck, the interpretation follows that draw. If I deliberately select a card to illustrate a transit, I identify it as a selected symbolic card so the method remains clear.
Each reading considers three things: the card’s theme, how it might relate to everyday experience and a practical response worth considering.
With the Empress, for instance, the focus might be accepting support, recognising the value of your work or giving a developing project more attention. Those themes do not, by themselves, promise an income increase or a new relationship.
Whenever I connect a rising-sign reading with astrological houses, I specify the house system being used. A general reading cannot account for the precise houses, degrees and planetary relationships in every individual birth chart.
How to Use a Weekly Tarot Reading
A weekly reading is written for many people. Some passages may feel relevant; others may have little connection with your circumstances.
Pay attention to the part that relates to something you can actually recognise in your life.
If the theme is boundaries, consider a situation in which you have left an expectation unspoken. If the card concerns a beginning, choose a manageable first step for something you have been postponing.
My purpose in reading tarot is to create room between a familiar reaction and a different choice.
The card can help frame a conflict or give language to an experience. Decisions still need to take account of facts, personal circumstances and reliable information.
Sometimes the useful outcome is small: taking time before saying yes, discussing an expectation directly or starting a task without waiting for perfect conditions. That is where reflection can become something you can put into practice.