tarot correspondences

Today on CARD TALK, I’ll cover:
-what tarot correspondences are
-when tarot correspondences can be helpful
-where tarot correspondences come from
-the correspondences that I use in my own tarot practice
-how to get started with tarot correspondences

Check out my new podcast offering monthly forecasts, supportive insights, and practice advice, with me, astrologer Jeanna Kadlec, and numerologist Bee Scolnick: CALL YOUR COVEN!

For learning numerological correspondences, exploring the tarot through journaling and imagination, and building your own personal meanings for the cards, check out the 3am.tarot conservatory membership program. 

And as a special gift for CARD TALK listeners, click here to download your completely free workbook for building your best personal tarot practice!

Resources for correspondences:
On Elemental Dignities from Benebell Wen
Elemental Dignities from Little Red Tarot
Golden Dawn Correspondences from Mary K Greer
Tarot Correspondences in the Major Arcana from Pagan Grimoire
Devils & Digits
Bee Scolnick
Theresa Reed
Austin Coppock Tarot Astrology series
Herbcrafter’s Tarot
Elements email course
Tarot Correspondences: Ancient Secrets for Everyday Readers by T. Susan Chang
Tarot Elements: Correspondences & Working With Essential Dignities from Labyrinthos
Lindsay Fauntleroy 
And my book, Finding the Fool, includes numerological and elemental correspondences for every card in the deck, along with astrological correspondences for the majors!

For more on Meg, check out 3amtarot.com, and order your copy of Finding the Fool through Bookshop.org or your favorite local bookstore. Find episode transcripts and more over on the CARD TALK website. 

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Chapters

• 0:11 Tarot Correspondences and Their Significance
• 9:30 Exploring Tarot Correspondences and Connections

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

I'm Meg Jones-Wall and this is Card Talk, a mini podcast for tarot basics and evergreen insights. I'm here to help you build a tarot practice that works for you. Glad you're here. Today. We are going to be talking about tarot correspondences. Before we dive into our content for this episode, I just want to let you know to make sure to stick around until the very end. I created a completely free new resource that is just for you as my Card Talk listeners, as a way of saying thank you for being here and for supporting this work, especially as Card Talk continues to grow. So make sure you stick around to the very end of the episode, where I will tell you more about that resource and let you know how to find it.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Now today's episode is all about tarot correspondences and I've got to be honest with you, I've been kind of kicking the can down the road on this episode. I had originally intended to release this episode much earlier in Card Talk's existence, but given the size and scope of this topic, I've been kind of putting it off, in part because correspondences is a huge topic and in part because I only really use a handful of correspondences in my own practice, but I know this is something that a lot of folks are really interested in, and I know that, especially when you're getting started in a practice, correspondences can feel like a really useful tool to use to help explore various cards and build connections with those cards. I want to be clear that this is a mini tarot podcast. Okay, I'm still shooting to keep this under 20 minutes, and so we are not going to be diving deep headfirst into every kind of tarot correspondence that exists, because there are simply too many. This episode is really just about giving you a way forward, an introduction, talking about what tarot correspondences even are, some places you can find them, and providing you with a number of other resources courses, books, teachers and other things that you can use to start to explore this more in depth. So if you are someone that is new to correspondences, or if you love correspondences and are looking for more resources to support your work, make sure you check the show notes, because I'm going to link to a ton of different things you can use to continue to deepen this aspect of your practice. However, if correspondences feel completely overwhelming to you, if this does not appeal to you in any way, if it feels like information that doesn't have anything to do with you or your practice or it's just not interesting to you. That is also completely fine.

Speaker 1: 2:33

The main correspondences that I use in my own practice are tied to the elements and the numbers, because those feel like really clean, clear correspondences to me and I use them in almost all of my readings. I also sometimes use astrological correspondences and you'll kind of see all of these modalities working together in the new podcast that I'm working on with my partner and my friend. It's called call your coven. I'll link to that in the show notes as well. But those kinds of correspondences numerological, astrological and elemental are really the only ones that I use. But I want to offer you tools that you can use if you want to use more expanded correspondences in your own process. But again, please hear me when I say that if correspondences in general do not appeal to you, you do not have to use them. There's no pressure. There's no right or wrong way around correspondences. It's simply another cool aspect to the world that is tarot that you can incorporate into your practice if you want to.

Speaker 1: 3:24

First of all, what even is a correspondence? When we talk about tarot correspondences, what are we even talking about? A correspondence is essentially an association, okay. So in tarot, this can mean that a card might have a list of things from other modalities that are seen to or have been decided by someone, holds similar energy or similar mythology or similar roots or similar meanings or similar vibes. This is a vibe, and I can't stress that enough. A correspondence is really a way of translating energy from one modality to another. A correspondence can help us see a tarot card through another lens or find kind of a similar fingerprint or energy that exists in another modality and making a connection between those two things. If that makes no sense to you, that's fine. I'm going to give you some examples right now and I'm going to use the tarot to do it. So when we talk about the ace of wands being a one card, ace meaning one. When we talk about the ace of ones being a one card, that's a numerological correspondence, that's a number correspondence. Okay. When we talk about the knight of cups being a water card, that is an elemental correspondence. We're talking about cups being associated with the suit of water, the element of water. So that's an elemental correspondence.

Speaker 1: 4:42

There are also astrological correspondences, which I would argue is the other most popular correspondence that you're going to see. When it comes to tarot, when we talk about the judgment archetype being associated with Pluto or being a Pluto card, that is a planetary correspondence. That's Pluto is a planet. Pluto is a planet, don't fight me and that's the association that we have with judgment and the planet of Pluto. But when we talk about the devil being a Capricorn card, the devil archetype being associated with the sign of Capricorn, that's a zodiacal correspondence. Now, you could describe both as being astrological correspondences. I'm just getting a little bit more granular to help you understand the difference. And when we talk about the two of swords and by we I mean when other people talk about the two of swords, and by we I mean when other people talk about the two of swords being associated with the moon in Libra, which is to say the planet of the moon being in the zodiacal sign of Libra we call it a Deccan correspondence.

Speaker 1: 5:37

There are lots of other correspondences that exist in the world, but those are the main ones that I think you're going to see the most frequently and I hope that at least gives you an idea of what we're talking about. When we say tarot correspondences, we're thinking about how we could map that card onto a different system or modality or set of organized information and kind of find its corresponding or associated energy within that different structure or system. Now you might be wondering, meg, where do those correspondences come from? Who made them up? Who developed them? What are they based in? And honestly, that's an incredible question. And it's an important question because sometimes we don't know. Now, this is part of why correspondences can be so complicated and so messy. They can also be really helpful. But there can be a lot of different, contradictory correspondences out in the world because correspondence tables don't always have clear origins and sometimes they just get regurgitated and repeated and reprinted in books but aren't necessarily anchored in any particular time or attached to any particular thinker or philosopher or astrologer or numerologist or herbalist or whatever.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Some correspondences have really clear roots, like elemental dignities. For example, mary K Greer has a whole article that I'll link in the show notes. She's an incredible tarot historian but she has a whole article talking about how the first written instance of elemental dignities is in book T by McGregor Mathers, which was a text that was relied on heavily by the Order of the Golden Dawn. And because of those origins. That's why we often see that technique utilized with Rider Waite-Smith decks and Thoth decks, which are both decks that originated from the work of the Order of the Golden Dawn and relied on techniques developed by or expanded upon within the Order of the Golden Dawn and relied on techniques developed by or expanded upon within the Order of the Golden Dawn. But that's just one correspondence, right, and we're going to see different kinds of correspondences emerging at different times in history, some with more dubious origins than others, and, of course, some people are really straight up about saying I made these correspondences up, they feel right for me, they work for me.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Some tarot decks have additional correspondences baked right in. There's a beautiful deck called the herb crafters tarot, which has an herb and plant associated with every single card. They're gorgeous, but as far as I know these are some are based on historical correspondences, but others are based on the herbalists who worked on the deck. And then, of course, there are decks like the Thoth deck which have tons of different layers of correspondences baked right into the imagery, including keywords printed on the deck itself. So, depending on what decks you're using or what resources you're using, the correspondences may be easier to kind of trace through history and anchor to a certain person or group of people than others.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Now you might also be wondering why are correspondences helpful and when can they be helpful? I personally think that correspondences can be the most useful, especially when beginning a practice, if you're already really familiar with a different modality. So, for example, if you know astrology very well, if you're an astrologer, if you're a student of astrology, even if you're a professional practicing astrologer, you might know those astrological correspondences very well. Or you might be familiar with some of those astrological correspondences. Learning those astrological correspondences, learning the planets and signs and decans that correspond with different tarot cards, might be really helpful for you because you immediately have a system in mind that you can plug tarot cards into. And if you know another modality, if you're familiar with numerology, if you work with the elements or if you know, like herbalism or music theory or gemstones, a specialty deck that incorporates those correspondences or relies on those correspondences can be a great way to not only combine your interests but also help you understand the cards at like a ground level. Depending on the situation and how your brain works and what your interests are.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Correspondences can be helpful in different situations. As a professional, sometimes if I'm working with someone that I know is an astrologer, I might be more likely to rely on astrological correspondences when I'm reading for them, because I know that that's a language that they already understand, versus when I'm talking to my friends that are really familiar with numerology. We're probably more likely in our readings to talk about the numbers because, again, that's a language we both speak. But if you're not reading professionally and you're not particularly interested in any other modality that has a clear overlap, these might not feel super relevant. I also want to acknowledge that I see people saying on the internet a lot that correspondences are like the answer If you're getting confused by your cards, that memorizing a correspondence chart or table or learning a system of correspondences is going to help you learn tarot. But I really think that depends on the person and I know that for me, memorizing a bunch of keywords, memorizing a bunch of correspondences, probably would have made it impossible for me to learn the cards. I was already overwhelmed when I was trying to learn tarot and adding in another set of information when I was already struggling would not have felt helpful. But again, depending on your brain, these might be really useful.

Speaker 1: 10:39

And just to give you an idea of how many correspondence tables exist, I'm going to rattle off a short and in no way exhaustive list of some of the correspondences that I have found in just one book that's on my shelf. You can find correspondences, of course, for numerology, astrology and elements, as I've already listed, but you can also find correspondences for the Kabbalah tree of life, for colors, for animals, for plants, for incense, for perfumes, for gemstones, for metals, for mythical figures, for musical notes, for magical weapons, for deities, for angels, for symbols, for glyphs, for weather systems, for natural events and for timings, just to name a few. I say all of this to emphasize both that you can use any kinds of correspondences that you like in order to enhance your tarot practice, and also you don't have to use correspondences at all If you don't want to as part of your tarot practice. It's really entirely up to you.

Speaker 1: 11:40

Some readers really do throw out the little white book, grab their deck of cards and purely rely on their own intuition and understanding of the imagery on the cards to read. They build their entire relationship with the cards that way and that's all it is, and that's great, honestly. But the thing is, a lot of correspondences are baked into tarot card imagery and a lot of correspondences are where the main keywords that you might find included in those books come from, in other words, some of the main keywords that you're going to see repeated over and over when it comes to tarot cards, that are included in little white books that get passed on through teachers or that are replicated in historical documents, like things from the order of the Golden Dawn. They all come from correspondences, which means that even the imagery itself often hearkens back to those correspondences, whether we realize it or not. Popular tarot deck styles, the most well-known deck styles, like the Marseille, the Rider-Waite-Smith and the Thoth, all use correspondences and rely on correspondences to create their base meanings, which means that even if you don't think about correspondence as much, even if you're not like memorizing tables or trying to get into the nitty gritty of every detailed correspondence for a tarot card, you might still find out that you actually do kind of know them already. For example, if you associate the four of cups from the minor arcana with selfishness or emotional apathy, for example, that often directly comes from the combination of the number four and the element of water. Now, there are tons of other meanings that we can derive from that combination of correspondences, but the one that often gets repeated that we see in the Rider-Waite-Smith and the Thoth and even the Marseilles. Sometimes they originated from those numerological and elemental correspondences. And, of course, there are dozens of other correspondence tables that you can use to go as deep as you want. But I think it's important to note that, while you don't need to memorize correspondences necessarily to be a tarot reader, you might find that the deeper you get into the practice, the more correspondences are baked into the meanings that you have already learned or discovered along the way.

Speaker 1: 13:43

Now, if you're interested in studying correspondences, if this really appeals to you, if you want to learn more, if you're just curious, if, if the idea of tarot correspondences sounds sexy or interesting or you just want to research it, I think that typically, the best place to start is with the primary ones that most people are going to be fairly familiar with, which is to say, the ones that I spoke about at the top numerology, elements and or astrology. First off, if you want to learn more about numerology, I of course highly recommend my own class. It's called Devils in Digits. It's specifically about tarot numerology and you can access it through my monthly membership called the 3am Tarot Conservatory, and, of course, I'll pop a link for that in the show notes. But I also recommend following numerologists, studying numerology on its own and even taking classes or buying books about numerology, and I really want to recommend my friend, bea Skolnick here. She's a brilliant numerologist, she's queer, she's so much fun and she knows so much about numerology and making it really accessible and easy to understand. There are a lot of brilliant astrologers in the world and so if you want to learn more about tarot astrology, there are lots of people that you can follow, and I have a lot of astrologers that I really love and talk about often on social media. But specifically when it comes to learning tarot astrology, I really want to recommend my dear friend and mentor, teresa Reed. She's got an incredible Patreon, she does amazing lives that are completely free to access on Instagram and she also has a lot of different classes and resources that you can utilize. But she is a practicing tarot reader and a practicing astrologer and she writes a lot about the overlaps and the correspondence between these two modalities. So highly recommend checking her out and again, I'm dropping resources for her in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 15:20

And, of course, working with the elements is so useful in so many ways. I love talking about the elements. I have a free introductory email course very, very basic, but that will introduce you to the four elements of the tarot that you can find on my website. But I'm also going to include some books and teachers in the show notes for both what we call the classical elements or the Western elements, which are the four elements that we mostly talk about with the tarot, and I'm also going to include some resources on the Eastern elements, or the traditional Chinese elements, of which there are five. This is the elemental set that includes metal and wood and is so interesting to compare and contrast with the classical elements. I think it's worth studying both, so I'm including references for both in the show notes and, of course, beyond that, there's lots of other correspondences to explore, so I'm going to share some additional resources in there. These show notes are going to be huge, but it is what it is.

Speaker 1: 16:07

There's lots to talk about when it comes to tarot correspondences. The last thing that I want to say here is that I think that there is so much to be valued when it comes to looking at tarot alongside other modalities and other ways of thinking, when we allow tarot to kind of find its way into other systems, or when we learn to see the energy of tarot in other modalities, it really can deepen our understanding of, and experience of, the cards. With that in mind, I want to let you know about a brand new podcast project that I'm working on with my partner, astrologer Gina Kadlec, and my dear friend, numerologist B Skolnick. Both of them are so brilliant, and so the three of us have decided to combine our powers and do a monthly forecast and educational podcast called call your coven that is launching in September 2024. So if you're interested in learning to see the world through the lenses of tarot, numerology and astrology simultaneously, and you're looking for practical insights on how to use those modalities in your daily life, check out the podcast. I'm so excited about it. It's been fantastic so far, and if you're really interested in correspondences, I think you'll find this really helpful in learning to integrate that into your world in a way that's not completely overwhelming.

Speaker 1: 17:18

On the flip side, our chip or trick for this episode is simple Don't get lost in the sauce here. Okay, please, don't feel like you need to know every single kind of tarot correspondence in depth or even by heart. I really believe that correspondences are there to make it easier for you to connect with and deepen your understanding of the cards. But look, some of these correspondences are kind of weird, some of them are confusing and some are kind of a stretch. Some have murky origins, some contradict other modalities. There's just like a lot going on when it comes to the world of tarot correspondences, so use them if you want to pay attention to the ones that resonate and the ones that don't. And again, don't get lost in the sauce here. Use what works for you, and if a correspondence doesn't make sense, you don't have to force it. You can just move along.

Speaker 1: 18:03

Now, at the top of this episode, I promised you a little special something for Card Talk listeners, and I want to tell you more about it. I have gotten so many questions lately, like literally people in my inbox, people replying to me on social media and people in my discord asking about how to deepen their tarot practice, how to make their tarot practice feel more personal or how to otherwise expand their tarot practice to feel more stable and more fulfilling, and while a lot of the resources and courses that I already create are really designed to do just that, I know the times are tight for all of us, and so, with that in mind, I made you a completely free, downloadable workbook that is all about building your best personal tarot practice. Now you can use this digitally as a PDF and plug things in. You can print it out if you want it's an A4 size or you can just look at the prompts and copy them over to explore in your own journal or on your own space. But this is a 12 page, again totally free workbook that includes tons of questions, journal prompts, suggestions and even a few tarot spreads and exercises sprinkled throughout to really help you dig into what your best tarot practice looks like for you, what's going to suit you, what's going to support you, what's working and what isn't, what your tarot story is, etc. I'm also including throughout the workbook different links and resources in case you're looking for additional podcast episodes here on Card Talk or classes, writings or other resources that I've created that can help support you in different ways.

Speaker 1: 19:30

I'm not going to be posting about this free offer anywhere else. It is literally just for you, so all you have to do is find the link in the show notes for the Build my Best Practice workbook. Click on it. It's going to take you to my website, you'll be able to download it completely for free. I really hope you love this little offering from me to you and please receive it with all the love in my heart.

Speaker 1: 19:50

I'm so grateful that you're here. I love working on Card Talk and I appreciate you listening and supporting this work. That's all I have for you today but, as ever, thank you so much for spending this time with me and I will be back again soon with more Card Talk. Card Talk episodes are always free for everyone to enjoy, so if you love what you hear, please consider supporting the podcast by subscribing, recommending Card Talk to a friend or two or donating to help with production costs. You can find episode transcripts, learn more about me and join my signature Tarot Conservatory membership program through my website, 3amtarotcom. Thanks for listening and see you next time.