Planetary correspondences in tarot pair each planet with a card, so every planet gets a face you can hold. In the Golden Dawn system, seven classical planets sit in the Major Arcana: The Magician is Mercury, The High Priestess is the Moon, The Empress is Venus, the Wheel of Fortune is Jupiter, The Tower is Mars, The Sun is the Sun and The World is Saturn. Modern readers add Uranus to The Fool, Neptune to The Hanged Man and Pluto to Judgement.
The 36 numbered Minor Arcana cards carry planets too, each one a planet in a sign, called a decan. Readers use all these links as a second language for the cards: a planet adds a mood, a pace and a set of stories. ✨
Jump to: the planet cards · Uranus, Neptune and Pluto · all 36 decan cards · using planets in a reading · planetary days and metals
Which tarot cards go with which planet?
Here are the ten Major Arcana cards readers tie to planets today. The first seven come from the Golden Dawn. The last three are a later layer that many modern decks and books now use.
| Card | Planet | Where the link comes from | What readers see in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| I The Magician | Mercury | Golden Dawn | Words, skill, quick decisions |
| II The High Priestess | Moon | Golden Dawn | Intuition, dreams, hidden knowing |
| III The Empress | Venus | Golden Dawn | Love, beauty, abundance |
| X Wheel of Fortune | Jupiter | Golden Dawn | Growth, luck, turning fortune |
| XVI The Tower | Mars | Golden Dawn | Sudden change, courage, breakthrough |
| XIX The Sun | Sun | Golden Dawn | Joy, vitality, success |
| XXI The World | Saturn | Golden Dawn | Completion, patience, mastery |
| 0 The Fool | Uranus | Later readers (Golden Dawn: Air) | Leaps of faith, freedom, surprise |
| XII The Hanged Man | Neptune | Later readers (Golden Dawn: Water) | Surrender, vision, a new angle |
| XX Judgement | Pluto | Later readers (Golden Dawn: Fire) | Rebirth, awakening, a calling |
The Golden Dawn pairings above are listed card by card in the World of Playing Cards history of tarot attributes. The other twelve Major Arcana cards belong to the zodiac signs, from The Emperor (Aries) to The Moon (Pisces).
Want the full upright and reversed reading for any of these cards? Jump to it in our free tarot card meaning finder.
Where do planetary correspondences in tarot come from? 🔮
Tarot began as a 15th-century Italian card game, played for fun. Readers turned it into a tool for divination in the late 1700s, and in the 1860s French occultists around Éliphas Lévi began calling the trumps the Major Arcana and the pips the Minor Arcana, as the Victoria and Albert Museum's tarot history tells it.
The planets arrived with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical society formed in London in 1888. Its members studied astrology and tarot side by side. They gave each of the 22 trumps one planet, sign or element: seven planets, twelve signs and three elements. In 1909 Aleister Crowley, a former member, printed the tables anonymously as 777, reportedly from an order manuscript that initiates had to memorise.
That same year, two other members, Arthur Edward Waite and the artist Pamela Colman Smith, brought out the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. You can still spot the planets in its pictures.
Why seven planets? They are the seven moving lights the ancient world watched without a telescope: the Sun, the Moon and five wandering stars. Old astrology ranked them by how fast they seem to travel, in the Chaldean order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon. It comes back in the decans.
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto: the modern three
The outer planets joined the sky much later. Uranus was found in 1781 by William Herschel, the first planet discovered with a telescope. Neptune followed in 1846, spotted by Johann Galle where Urbain Le Verrier's maths said it would be. Pluto was discovered in 1930 and is now classed as a dwarf planet.
The Golden Dawn knew Uranus and Neptune, yet kept to the seven classical planets. It gave The Fool to Air, The Hanged Man to Water and Judgement to Fire.
Later readers grafted the outer planets onto those three cards, and some Golden Dawn followers now give Uranus to The Fool. Today the common modern pairing is Uranus with The Fool, Neptune with The Hanged Man and Pluto with Judgement.
Not every school agrees. Elbert Benjamine's American system, for one, put Uranus on the Wheel and Neptune on Strength instead. If your deck's guidebook differs, follow your deck.
Modern astrology calls the outer three "higher octaves". Uranus is Mercury's rebellious higher octave, which is why The Fool feels electric. Neptune makes The Hanged Man dreamy, and Pluto makes Judgement a trumpet call to begin again. ✨
Decans: the planets in the Minor Arcana 💎
The planets do not stop at the trumps. The decans began in ancient Egypt as 36 star groups, first painted on coffin lids. Later astrologers split each zodiac sign into three 10-degree decans and gave each one a planetary ruler. The Golden Dawn used these decans to read the numbered 2 to 10 cards, starting with the Two of Wands as Mars in Aries.
The rulers simply follow the Chaldean order round and round the zodiac. Here is the full decan map for all 36 cards:
| Sign | Cards | Planets, in order |
|---|---|---|
| Aries | 2, 3, 4 of Wands | Mars, Sun, Venus |
| Taurus | 5, 6, 7 of Pentacles | Mercury, Moon, Saturn |
| Gemini | 8, 9, 10 of Swords | Jupiter, Mars, Sun |
| Cancer | 2, 3, 4 of Cups | Venus, Mercury, Moon |
| Leo | 5, 6, 7 of Wands | Saturn, Jupiter, Mars |
| Virgo | 8, 9, 10 of Pentacles | Sun, Venus, Mercury |
| Libra | 2, 3, 4 of Swords | Moon, Saturn, Jupiter |
| Scorpio | 5, 6, 7 of Cups | Mars, Sun, Venus |
| Sagittarius | 8, 9, 10 of Wands | Mercury, Moon, Saturn |
| Capricorn | 2, 3, 4 of Pentacles | Jupiter, Mars, Sun |
| Aquarius | 5, 6, 7 of Swords | Venus, Mercury, Moon |
| Pisces | 8, 9, 10 of Cups | Saturn, Jupiter, Mars |
The aces stand for their whole element, so they sit outside this map. The Two of Pentacles is Jupiter in Capricorn, juggling with a grin. The Nine of Cups, the wish card, is Jupiter in Pisces, generous and dreamy.
Decans can soften a hard card, too. The Three of Swords is heartbreak, but its decan is Saturn in Libra, so readers take it as a painful truth that restores balance.
How do readers use planets in a reading? 🌙
When a planetary card lands, ask what kind of energy has walked into the room. Two planets in one spread can talk to each other. The Magician beside The Empress pairs a clever plan with a fertile heart. The Tower beside The World sets Mars's rush against Saturn's slow, steady hand. New to the cards themselves? Our beginner's guide to reading tarot starts at the very first shuffle.
Readers also feel a planet's pace in its card. The Moon circles Earth in about 27 days, and Mercury circles the Sun every 88 days. Jupiter takes about 12 years and Saturn about 29.4 years. Pluto's orbit lasts 248 years.
So The High Priestess or The Magician feels like days or weeks, the Wheel of Fortune like a season of life, and The World like a chapter closing. It is a feel, not a stopwatch.
Decans give a gentler calendar. The Sun spends about ten days in each one, and the cycle starts with the Two of Wands from about 21 March. That is the autumn equinox here in Aotearoa. When someone asks "when?" and a numbered card answers, some readers point to its ten days in the year.
Planetary days and metals beyond the cards
Planetary correspondences reach well past tarot. Our week is a planetary week. Sunday is the Sun's day and Monday the Moon's. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday carry Norse gods matched with Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus, and Saturday is Saturn's. Friday is named for the goddess Freya, which we rather like.
Old alchemy gave each planet a metal: gold for the Sun, silver for the Moon, quicksilver for Mercury, copper for Venus, iron for Mars, tin for Jupiter and lead for Saturn. That is why copper is called Venus's metal, a link our copper bracelet guide explores.
Try this: a seven-day planet practice 🕯️
- Each morning, take that day's planet card out of your deck: The Sun on Sunday, The High Priestess on Monday, and so on through The World on Saturday.
- Prop it up by the kettle or on your desk where you will see it.
- Ask one question: "Where will this planet show up today?"
- Before bed, jot one line in a notebook about where you felt it.
After a week, the seven planets stop being a table and start feeling like old friends. For deeper layouts, try our five tarot spreads for self-discovery.
Choosing a piece
Any 78-card deck works, but a Rider-Waite-Smith style deck makes it easiest, because its symbols follow the Golden Dawn system. Good places to start (NZ prices, October 2026):
- Magic Gate Tarot: a full 78-card deck for around NZ$16.
- Tarot of the Golden Wheel: around NZ$72, a fairy-tale deck about life's turning cycles.
- Original Rider Waite Tarot Pack: around NZ$80, the classic for learning correspondences.
- The Astrology Directory: around NZ$40, for the signs behind the decans.
- Moon Astrology: around NZ$42, for High Priestess and Moon card lovers.
- Carnelian zodiac pendant: around NZ$10, a carnelian drop on a Virgo card, the sign Mercury rules.
Still choosing? See the best tarot decks for beginners, or which sterling silver pendant suits your zodiac. Shipping is free in New Zealand over NZ$99, or browse the decks at Shop 62, Westfield Manukau.
Start with the seven classical planets and one deck you love. Once Mercury, Venus and Saturn have faces, every reading gains a second voice, and the sky starts talking through your cards. 💜
Find a tarot deck for your planetary practice
Planetary correspondences in tarot: your questions
Which planet rules The Magician?
Mercury. The Magician is Mercury's words, skill and quick thinking in card form. When he appears, readers say you already hold every tool you need, so speak up and make your move.
Why is The High Priestess the Moon but The Moon card is Pisces?
In the Golden Dawn system the seven planets went to seven trumps, and the Moon went to The High Priestess, with her crescent at her feet. The Moon card took the sign Pisces instead. Readers feel both: The High Priestess is calm inner knowing, and The Moon is the dreamy, shifting night path.
What is the Jupiter tarot card?
The Wheel of Fortune. Jupiter is the planet of luck and growth, so readers take the Wheel as a lucky turn and a reminder that every cycle moves on. In the Minor Arcana, Jupiter also rules cards like the Two of Pentacles and the Nine of Cups.
What zodiac sign is the Two of Pentacles?
Capricorn, in its first decan, ruled by Jupiter. Readers see a cheerful juggler keeping practical life moving, with Jupiter's good humour easing Capricorn's hard work.
Do I need to know astrology to use planetary correspondences?
No. Start with the seven planet cards and one keyword each, then add the decans when you are ready. Many readers learn astrology through their cards, one planet at a time. 🧿
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum: tarot history. World of Playing Cards: tarot trump attributions and the Chaldean order.
- Wikipedia: the Golden Dawn, 777 and decans. Biddy Tarot, Kerykeion, T. Susan Chang and Labyrinthos: Golden Dawn, modern and decan correspondences.
- NASA Science: planet facts. Lowell Observatory: planets and weekdays. Princeton University Library: the seven planetary metals.