Are Tarot Cards Astrology?

Great question.

The short answer is no, tarot cards are not astrology.

With so many decks of tarot cards displaying astrological signs, planetary information and other astrological references these days, it would be easy to start thinking tarot cards are astrology somehow. While both tarot and astrology can be used for divination and to understand the world around us, tarot cards and astrology have very different origins.

Astrology is thousands of years old, and our best guess for tarot cards is that they originated in Italy over 500 years ago in the 15th century.

So while tarot cards are pretty ancient, they’re nowhere near as ancient as astrology. Astrology and tarot had nothing to do with one another for millennia.

But.. there is a tarot astrology connection

In the late 19th century, a very famous group of occultists called the Golden Dawn connected the two schools of divination. They’re still separate things, but  ever since the contributions made by the Golden Dawn it has been possible to connect tarot cards to astrology during a tarot reading.  That is, if you want to.

Today, you’ll find dozens of tarot decks which include astrological information on the cards. This information is there to add an additional dimension to your tarot interpretations, but it isn’t necessary. If you don’t want to include astrology in your tarot readings, just ignore the astrological markings on your cards (if there even are any). Tarot exists on its own and you do not need to reference astrology in any tarot reading if you don’t want to.

If you do decide to add an astrological component to your readings though, astrological references can make your readings deeper and richer, and open new doorways to interpreting the tarot.