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Suits As Seasons


RavenOfSummer

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RavenOfSummer

There are a number of decks that depict the traditional tarot suits corresponding with the four seasons- Tarot of Trees, Prisma Visions and Victorian Fairy Tarot come to mind (I don't own the latter so am less familiar with it). Of the decks that do this, I believe there are a number of variations as to which season the creator chose to link to each suit. For example, Tarot of Trees is Wands=Spring, Cups=Summer, Swords=Autumn, and Pentacles=Winter. (It's been a while since I worked with it so please correct me if I'm wrong!) Prisma Visions is Wands=Spring, Pentacles=Summer, Cups=Autumn, and Swords=Winter. I'm not sure about the Victorian Fairy- maybe someone can add that?

 

What I am curious about is- since there are difference interpretations of this question, what is YOUR personal understanding of seasons relating to suits? What feels the most fitting to you?

 

For me it's Wands=Spring, Cups=Summer, Pentacles=Autumn, Swords=Winter.

 

My reasoning: Wands are like the spark that brings life. Cups represent overflowing abundance like the summer. Pentacles to me are like the harvest of the earth, and Swords are the stark, cold truth.

 

I can see lots of arguments to do it another way, but that's what feels the most natural to me. I don't know of any deck that uses my personal preferred correspondences, but maybe there is one!

 

So, which season do you see as which suit, and why?

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3 hours ago, RavenOfSummer said:

My reasoning: Wands are like the spark that brings life. Cups represent overflowing abundance like the summer. Pentacles to me are like the harvest of the earth, and Swords are the stark, cold truth.

I totally agree.

The Darkness of Light Tarot is another one with clear seasons in the suits, it follows this pattern as well 🙂   linky to deck

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I'm not sure when I started using this interpretation, but I picked it up somewhere along the years and I've just always stuck with it :)

 

Spring: Cups (emotional new beginnings, fits with the energy of spring)

Wands: Summer (fiery, hot, creative - the full expression of the season)

Autumn: Pentacles (slow, considered, fruitful - the harvest)

Winter: Swords (cold, clear, sharp reasoning, perception - the winter months)

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Saturn Celeste
13 hours ago, RavenOfSummer said:

Victorian Fairy- maybe someone can add that

This is copied and pasted from the review on AT:

 

The four suits are: Wands/The Spring Court, Cups/The Summer Court, Pentacles/The Autumn Court, Swords/the Winter Court. The Court Cards are entitled Page/Herald, Knight, Queen, and King.

5 minutes ago, Audelia said:

I'm not sure when I started using this interpretation, but I picked it up somewhere along the years and I've just always stuck with it 🙂

 

Spring: Cups (emotional new beginnings, fits with the energy of spring)

Wands: Summer (fiery, hot, creative - the full expression of the season)

Autumn: Pentacles (slow, considered, fruitful - the harvest)

Winter: Swords (cold, clear, sharp reasoning, perception - the winter months)

I agree Audelia!

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Interesting. 

I have no definitive opinion on this matter apart maybe the Swords for Winter which seems obvious (difficult season, hostile somehow)

 

In the Buckland Romani Tarot (I don’t own it), each suit is associated with a season:

-Cups (Koros in this deck)= Spring

-Pentacles (Bolers in this deck)= Summer

-Wands (Koshes)= Autumn 

-Swords (Chivs)= Winter

Edited by Decan
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Saturn Celeste
31 minutes ago, Decan said:

Wands (Koshes)= Autumn 

I also like the Wands as an Autumn card but I liked Audelia interpretation that Autumn moves slower.  Oh I'm so confused now!!

 

32 minutes ago, Decan said:

(difficult season, hostile somehow)

Oh woe is me, why does everyone look at the swords as hostile and BAD!! :evil:

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@Saturn Celeste yes, this topic isn't as simple as it can appear at first sight 🥺

 

Just concerning the Cups: I don't see them for Summer (because in this season there is a lack of water).

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Very interesting to see how others view it.

 

I've been studying a system which is worked out by placing the 40 pips in a circle, representing the wheel of the year. (The courts have their own separate circle on the wheel, as do the majors.) This system comes out of western magical/occult traditions (European).

 

It depends on the deck of course, but with RWS, Wands=fire, Swords=air, Cups=water, Pents=Earth. Adding the seasons also involves adding the cardinal directions, and I think it is generally agreed that Spring=east, Summer=south, Autumn=west, and Winter=north. Next, these two sets of correspondences are matched to each other.

 

Sword/air-spring/east: This makes sense to me because I think of the swords as mental plane, which is the element of air. Mental clarity (or lack of), and conflict (which mostly originates in our thoughts). Air to me is the breath of spring, and spring is east, because the Sun and stars and Moon and sky rise in the east and set in the west. In the wheel of the year, the Ace of Swords is placed at the spring equinox, and the 2-10 move south, like the seasons.

 

Wands/fire-summer/south: Wands are the spark, the fire, passion (spirit), fire is summer (heat) and summer is south. The Ace of Wands is placed at the summer solstice, and the 2-10 move west toward autumn, like the seasons.

 

Cups/water-west/autumn: Emotion, creativity, dreaming, psy, inner plane. The Ace of Cups falls at the autumn equinox and the 2-10 move north, toward winter. Water is associated with west in many western magical traditions, though it is not as intuitive to me as the others. But if you are Celt, for example, the ocean is west. And the sun sets in the west, and autumn is west.

 

Pentacles/earth-winter/north: physical plane, prosperity, physicality. The Ace of Pents falls at the winter solstice and the 2-10 move east toward spring.

 

I just started studying this system in the past couple of weeks so I'm still learning about it. But I like the wheel of the year concept.

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RavenOfSummer
On 6/21/2019 at 2:34 AM, Rupicapra said:

I totally agree.

The Darkness of Light Tarot is another one with clear seasons in the suits, it follows this pattern as well 🙂   linky to deck

Thank you @Rupicapra! I wasn't aware of this deck 😊 So you, I, and the creator of the Darkness of Light are all in alignment!

On 6/21/2019 at 11:59 AM, Saturn Celeste said:

This is copied and pasted from the review on AT:

 

The four suits are: Wands/The Spring Court, Cups/The Summer Court, Pentacles/The Autumn Court, Swords/the Winter Court. The Court Cards are entitled Page/Herald, Knight, Queen, and King.

I agree Audelia!

Ahh, and it sounds like so is Lunaea Weatherstone, creator of the Victorian Fairy! Thanks for the info @Saturn Celeste 😀

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RavenOfSummer
On 6/21/2019 at 12:44 PM, Saturn Celeste said:

I also like the Wands as an Autumn card but I liked Audelia interpretation that Autumn moves slower.  Oh I'm so confused now!!

 

Oh woe is me, why does everyone look at the swords as hostile and BAD!! :evil:

Haha, I don't see Swords as bad. But I do see them as cold and stark, like winter.

 

Swords as Winter seems to be the most agreed upon among most of us- though not all of us! Really interesting to see everyone's interpretations and reasoning.

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RavenOfSummer
On 6/21/2019 at 12:59 PM, Decan said:

Just concerning the Cups: I don't see them for Summer (because in this season there is a lack of water).

@Decan this is very regional, and depends on local geography and climate. Where I live, in the US mid-Atlantic region, summer is the time of abundant water. As an example- in a large national park in the mountains of Virginia just south of where I live, there are many waterfalls throughout the the park. However, websites and guidebooks will warn you that if you try to go see the waterfalls in any season other than summer, you may be disappointed, because there may not be enough water for the waterfalls to be flowing. This same park has to turn off many of its smaller public bathroom and drinking water facilities in the late fall through late spring, because there's not enough water to keep them operating. Where I live in Washington DC, we have numerous rainstorms and thunderstorms all summer long, and even when it is not raining there is a lot of moisture in the air- it is VERY humid all summer long. Summer is also monsoon season in India other parts of South Asia, rainy season in much of Africa, etc.

 

So I think a lot of this association has to do with where you live and what you are accustomed to. For me, when I think flowing water or see those abundant waterfalls, I think "summer." So that has a lot to do with why I associate Cups with summer.

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RavenOfSummer
On 6/21/2019 at 3:37 PM, McFaire said:

Very interesting to see how others view it.

 

I've been studying a system which is worked out by placing the 40 pips in a circle, representing the wheel of the year. (The courts have their own separate circle on the wheel, as do the majors.) This system comes out of western magical/occult traditions (European).

 

It depends on the deck of course, but with RWS, Wands=fire, Swords=air, Cups=water, Pents=Earth. Adding the seasons also involves adding the cardinal directions, and I think it is generally agreed that Spring=east, Summer=south, Autumn=west, and Winter=north. Next, these two sets of correspondences are matched to each other.

 

Sword/air-spring/east: This makes sense to me because I think of the swords as mental plane, which is the element of air. Mental clarity (or lack of), and conflict (which mostly originates in our thoughts). Air to me is the breath of spring, and spring is east, because the Sun and stars and Moon and sky rise in the east and set in the west. In the wheel of the year, the Ace of Swords is placed at the spring equinox, and the 2-10 move south, like the seasons.

 

Wands/fire-summer/south: Wands are the spark, the fire, passion (spirit), fire is summer (heat) and summer is south. The Ace of Wands is placed at the summer solstice, and the 2-10 move west toward autumn, like the seasons.

 

Cups/water-west/autumn: Emotion, creativity, dreaming, psy, inner plane. The Ace of Cups falls at the autumn equinox and the 2-10 move north, toward winter. Water is associated with west in many western magical traditions, though it is not as intuitive to me as the others. But if you are Celt, for example, the ocean is west. And the sun sets in the west, and autumn is west.

 

Pentacles/earth-winter/north: physical plane, prosperity, physicality. The Ace of Pents falls at the winter solstice and the 2-10 move east toward spring.

 

I just started studying this system in the past couple of weeks so I'm still learning about it. But I like the wheel of the year concept.

Fascinating. What's the system you're studying? Is it from the Greenwood Tarot? I know that deck is based on the Wheel of the Year, but I don't own it so am not too familiar with it's associations.

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2 hours ago, RavenOfSummer said:

Fascinating. What's the system you're studying? Is it from the Greenwood Tarot? I know that deck is based on the Wheel of the Year, but I don't own it so am not too familiar with it's associations.

I think those four sets of correspondences go back to at least to Kabbalah, through the Golden Dawn, Crowley-Thoth, Waite-RWS, Case-BOTA, etc. I'm working on tracing it back to source material.

 

As for laying out the pips sequentially on the wheel, I don't know where this began. DruidCraft and Wildwood have it that way.

 

The Greenwood also has water in the autumn-west, earth in the winter-north, but fire is placed in the spring-east and air in the summer-south. And the pips aren't arranged sequentially around the circle. For example, tens are in the center of the circle. So although Chesca Potter believed that ancient tarot was originally based on the wheel of the year, she has it laid out differently.

 

 

 

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RavenOfSummer

Thanks @McFaire! Really interesting to see how many different ways there are of thinking about this and the reasons behind them. Thanks also for the Wheel of the Year layouts! 

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I found this diagram in Robert Wang's 1983 Qabalistic Tarot. He was a student of Israel Regardie, and painted the Golden Dawn deck in collaboration with Regardie in the 1970s. Interestingly, he commented that a two-dimensional representation is simplistic because the world it represents is three dimensional. Somewhere in the Golden Dawn teachings there is a three-dimensional Solid Sphere which shows the entire system of attributions.

 

Even the two-dimensional system is a bit complex for my brain!

 

The diagram shows the Golden Dawn's system of Zodiac correspondences. Not the same thing as seasons or cardinal directions. But you can see the influence it had on later decks and systems.

 

I think the diagram is saying that individual cards correspond to certain dates, but an entire suit does not, in the Hermetic GD system (which RWS, Thoth, and BOTA grew out of). But I suppose you could use these attributions if you were looking for a system to determine timing. Might be interesting to experiment with.

 

 

IMG_1714.thumb.JPG.30963dd8c8db19eec4624d32b1dbcc80.JPG

 

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Rose Lalonde

The image @McFaire posted from the GD is what I go by for a card's relationship to the seasons. It shows up in Crowley's writings about the Thoth. For example, he says of the 3 of Wands, "It refers to the Sun in Aries... The meaning is harmonious, for this is the beginning of Spring." Not that anyone has to agree with Crowley! I'm just saying I do. 

 

But that means for the minors, one suit doesn't represent an entire season to me...
 

start of a new season

Fire/Aries/Spring  2, 3 and 4 of Wands 

Water/Cancer/Summer  2, 3, and 4 of Cups

Air/Libra/Autumn  2, 3, and 4 of Swords

Earth/Capricorn/Winter  2, 3, and 4 of Pentacles

 

mid season

Fire/Leo/Summer 5, 6, and 7 of Wands

Water/Scorpio/Autumn 5, 6, and 7 of Cups

Air/Aquarius/Winter  5, 6, and 7 of Swords

Earth/Taurus/Spring 5, 6, and 7 of Pentacles

 

ending of a season

Fire/Sagittarius/Autumn for the 8, 9, and 10 of Wands

Water/Pisces/Winter for the 8, 9, and 10 of Cups

Air/Gemini/Spring for the 8, 9, and 10 of Swords

Earth/Virgo/Summer for the 8, 9, and 10 of Pentacles

That's the same as the image above really. The seasons are heavily involved, and so is which part of the season we're talking about symbolically -- I'm thinking of things like the vast difference between the beginning of summer break as a kid when it seemed we had forever off, and then the end of summer when we were buying school supplies. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Rose Lalonde
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Rose Lalonde
54 minutes ago, McFaire said:

Wow, interesting, @Rose Lalonde. Do you use cardinal directions at all?

No, not well, lol. 😉  I mean the GD has Aces and Princesses/Pages corresponding to "quadrants of space" (and to seasons) as below, and the closest I've come is playing around with those cards as cardinal directions from the perspective of where in the world I or the recipient of the reading was, but honestly, I didn't do much with it. I find the Princesses' seasons more meaningful than the areas. Or maybe I just haven't wrapped my head around the areas properly. 🙂 

 

Ace and Princess of Wands = Asia and the area of the sky in which Cancer, Leo and Virgo reside. (signs of Summer.) 

Ace and Princess of Cups = Pacific and the area of the sky in which Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius reside. (signs of Autumn.) 

Ace and Princess of Swords = Americas and the area of the sky in which Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces reside. (signs of Winter.) 

The Ace and Princess of Pentacles = Europe and Africa and the area of the sky in which Aries, Taurus and Gemini reside. (signs of Spring.) 

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RavenOfSummer

Now that is fascinating, @Rose Lalonde! So each suit is a journey through the seasons. But each starting in a different season at the beginning and moving through the suit. That's a lot to think about! It makes sense though. Do you ever work with decks that relate a single season to each suit, like some of the ones mentioned above, and if so does that affect your approach when working with it?

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Rose Lalonde
2 hours ago, RavenOfSummer said:

...Do you ever work with decks that relate a single season to each suit, like some of the ones mentioned above, and if so does that affect your approach when working with it?

Not really? Now that you mention it, the decks I read with don't relate a single season to each suit.  
But... I adapt for the RWS. Waite made some changes, like the Hermit.   In the GD he corresponds to Virgo/end of summer, so the Thoth shows him in a field of wheat, but there's only snow in the RWS. Crowley sees a lot going on beneath the calm surface that we're going to reap as a harvest, while I think Waite emphasises cool stillness and clarity.   I adapt to the art in front of me (which makes me -- like most of us, I bet --  picky about decks! 😜  )

Which makes me curious... Do you read with decks that have a different season match up than your preferred correspondences above? 

 

Edited by Rose Lalonde
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On 6/22/2019 at 10:11 PM, RavenOfSummer said:

@Decan this is very regional, and depends on local geography and climate. Where I live, in the US mid-Atlantic region, summer is the time of abundant water. As an example- in a large national park in the mountains of Virginia just south of where I live, there are many waterfalls throughout the the park. However, websites and guidebooks will warn you that if you try to go see the waterfalls in any season other than summer, you may be disappointed, because there may not be enough water for the waterfalls to be flowing. This same park has to turn off many of its smaller public bathroom and drinking water facilities in the late fall through late spring, because there's not enough water to keep them operating. Where I live in Washington DC, we have numerous rainstorms and thunderstorms all summer long, and even when it is not raining there is a lot of moisture in the air- it is VERY humid all summer long. Summer is also monsoon season in India other parts of South Asia, rainy season in much of Africa, etc.

 

So I think a lot of this association has to do with where you live and what you are accustomed to. For me, when I think flowing water or see those abundant waterfalls, I think "summer." So that has a lot to do with why I associate Cups with summer.

Yes, you are right, it is regional, and where I live, indeed, summer is hot with not much rain, but a few severe storms can hit during the second part of August often.

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What an interesting discussion! 

 

I use the Wildwood almost exclusively, so when I actively engage with the seasons, that's the system that comes to mind. However, for the traditional suits, intuitively I'd have said sping-cups; summer-wands; autumn-pentacles and winter-swords. 

   The Wildwood decks (as McFaire shows above) are different, and here the cold, near-eternal Stones work perfectly as Winter. The lightness of Arrows is the start of activity and planning (Spring), Bows (=Wands) are always Summer, and Vessels as the time of abundance and the easiest season, are Autumn. There's no direct correspondence to other systems, and yet it makes perfect sense on its own terms. 

 

Yet again, it shows that it actually doesn't matter what system we use, or even if we use a seasonal system at all... but if we do, it needs to be one that works for us personally, and makes sense to us. The personalisation of meaning in Tarot is one of its most fascinating aspects... does anyone use a flexible system, where it changes according to intuition on the day?

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