Visualizing the Zodiac: How I analyzed my natal chart using tarot

Today I pulled out a book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time, Corrine Kenner’s Tarot and Astrology. Actually, I think I read this when I first started working with the tarot, but I didn’t retain it–it was information overload for me, at that point. Today I only got a few pages in before I had to pull out my tarot and start playing…I started with Corinne’s sun sign layout, where you put the Sun card next to the card that represents your own sign. For me, that’s the Sun + Death (Scorpio)! (The Sun can be fatal, you know! Fire burns.)

Of course, you know where my obsessive brain went from there. Why not lay out my entire chart, using tarot cards? And that’s what I did, using Maria Strom’s Hip Chick Tarot, because the images are bright, bold, and simple. I wanted to shut down the information overload and see the big picture, the story in these cards.

Here’s how it looked:

Now, it’s always puzzled me that I have Leo rising, because I don’t feel like a fiery leader. But when I look at my chart in pictures via the Hip Chick Tarot, and see Strength snuggled up with a Tiger, it makes perfect sense. Because I do have Leo in my first house, but just for a few minutes, and the rest of that house is filled up with a Virgo Hermit. So now I’m seeing myself, especially looking back at childhood, as a quiet kid who just wanted to hang out with my cats. Accurate.

Moreover, my fighting style? Quiet, hermit-like all the way. I am a fighter (Mars in the first house, come on) but I don’t necessarily let people see that, and my fighting style is full on control freak. My birth card is the Emperor, so yeah, but also, Mars in ultra organized Virgo? And my Sun in super nosy Scorpio saying, yes, I’m going to look at every detail I can get my hands on, thank you very much, and then I’m going to categorize and organize that shit.

This reminds me of when one of my karate teachers asked me to test for advanced green belt, and I replied, “Well, I’ve been thinking about this, and I feel ready, except that I haven’t learned how to do a backward roll yet.” (Because you know I had gone through the curriculum and study guide and put little check marks next to what I felt ready to be tested on! Come to think of it, there was a study guide? My teachers must have some Virgo power in their charts, too.) And she said, “It’s easy. I’ll teach you. I like this attention to detail!”

But, back to astrology. I’ve got Pluto sitting in my first house as well, which in this deck is showing me sticking my head out of a shell, like, hey, I’ve hatched, but there’s absolutely no need to throw the shell away. Upcycle that shell! We can still get some use out of it! So yeah, accurate.

Then we’ve got my Libra planets hanging out in my 2nd house of money: Jupiter (the Wheel, woo-hoo!), Uranus (that traveling Fool!), and Mercury (the Magician, but also reversed because Bonnie will never EVER escape Mercury retrograde, apparently!). There’s a lot here. To me the Fool hanging out in my house of money is a super interesting sign since I’ve been craving moving into a van and just wandering around, and this tells me, hey, that’s not a bad idea financially. Not just because of not paying rent but because it would be somehow helpful to me as an entrepreneur to do that. (In case my teenage daughter is reading this: It’s okay, I have no plans to do this until you finish high school.) Mercury Rx hanging out here says to me, just do the resting and retreating that you need to, you narcoleptic, because it will be beneficial in ways you may not yet realize.

But also, all of this is happening in Libra. Balance. Justice. Fairness. This says to me that the universe most has my back when I keep things in balance. And it also says to me that aligning myself with my own ideals about truth and justice is not something that will impoverish me but quite the opposite. That alignment is how I get time onto my side, which for this not very punctual person is always a challenge.

House of Mind: Sun and Neptune in Scorpio! I just love this but I don’t have a lot to say about it. Transformation IS fascinating. Who wouldn’t want to set their mind to thinking about Death and the Hanged Man? That’ll pull me out of my shell if nothing else will!

Fourth house, home. Dude, I don’t have the energy to be a control freak everywhere. And I don’t want to. So, Empress Venus in Sagittarius? No rules for my kids! That’s why they have brains of their own. (Other parents find this appalling, but my kids are awesome, so clearly you’re all just wrong. Drop the rules. Trust me, your kids will make up their own rules that are perfectly fine.)

And yes, romantically-speaking (because Venus is here), I totally fall for straight shooters. Be honest with me and I won’t put you under my Scorpio microscope. Lie to me and I will Mars in Virgo your ass and you won’t realize I’m doing it because I’m quiet and stealthy. Also, I will answer you honestly if you ask me a direct question. However, don’t ask me if you can’t handle a truthful and rather complete and analytical reply. This is how many conversations with my husband go:

Him: (asks a question)

Me: (overly honest reply with an obsessive Virgo level of detail)

Him: Okay, okay, OKAY, I get it, stop, stop, STOP! TMI! [TMI = too much information]

Hmm, come to think of it, I’ve had conversations like this with my kids, too . . .

Moving on.

Saturn in Aries. The Universe (or I would say Multiverse) in the house of the Emperor, which for me is my ninth house. Huh. So, there’s certainly a lesson for me here. Because you can’t actually fit the universe or multiverse in any house or bind it with a lot of rules no matter how much of a control freak you are. You’re bound (pun intended) to run into frustration there. Especially if you’re trying, as I am prone to, to learn every single thing about everything. It won’t all fit in my head! Help! 🙂 And also, there are rules here that do bind me. They’re just not the rules made by humans. (Not that I’m above human law or anything, far from it, but I do tend to defy social conventions because who has the energy for all that?)

Midheaven: the Hierophant. Sacred Knowledge, in this deck. Since I think of Midheaven as the work one does, this fits very well with tarot, but also with my habit of being both a constant student and constant teacher. (Hierophant: institutions: this can often mean a school or university, and it can also refer to work within a lineage, such as a religious lineage).

There’s more that I could look at here, but let’s just end with Cancer’s Chariot, or Will in this deck, in my 12th house, or what I think of as the house of my Achilles heel. Problems with motivation in this house of challenges? Problems figuring out which direction the Chariot should go? Um, again, accurate. It takes a lot of fuel and like nine hours of sleep to get my Chariot moving! A couple of cats (see the photo) could probably get me up and out the door, but my ADHD brain will still think of 10,000 paths and routes to follow.

Would you like me to look at your natal chart in this way, with this deck? We can do this in one of my regular appointments, or even with an email reading—just ask!