What Is Your Tarot Birth Card?

Tarot and astrology mostly operate in separate spheres, but there’s some crossover between them. For instance, did you know you have a birthday tarot card? Your birth day doesn’t just determine your zodiac sign. It’s also connected to specific tarot cards.

You have one card that corresponds to the Major Arcana. This card is tied to your Sun sign. You also have multiple Minor Arcana cards that are connected to the astrological decan you were born in.

This guide explores the astrology of tarot by letting you know all the cards associated with your zodiac sign. This includes the Major Arcana card that reflects your core archetype or path for growth, as well as your Minor Arcana and court cards. You can consider these your tarot birth cards.

How Your Birthday Tarot Cards Are Calculated

There are two common ways you can calculate which tarot card connects to your birthday. One method is based on astrology, and uses your zodiac sign and the decan you were born under to determine which tarot cards correspond to your birth date.

This method was formalized in the late 19th century by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It draws on Ancient Egyptian decan astronomy and Western astrological tradition and is the method I tend to prefer.

The other uses numerology, and adds together the numbers in your birth date to arrive at a Major Arcana card. The numerology method comes from Western occult numerology as developed by writers like Papus (Gérard Encausse) in Tarot of the Bohemians and later expanded by 20th-century tarot teachers like Paul Foster Case, who applied numerical reduction techniques to the Major Arcana to determine a birth or life-path card.

I’ll go into how to determine your tarot card through numerology once our Tarot Birth Card Calculator is live, but for now, let’s delve into the tarot cards that are assigned to your birthdate through the astrological method.

Why Do Tarot Cards Correspond to Zodiac Signs?

To understand why tarot cards correspond to zodiac signs, we get to travel back to ancient Egypt. Long before modern astrology took shape, the Egyptians tracked time using 36 star groups called decans. About every 10 nights, a new decan would rise on the horizon.

When Greek astrologers encountered the Egyptian decans, they mapped them onto the 12-sign zodiac, assigning three decans to each sign.

Fast-forward to the late 19th century. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn applied the decans to the tarot deck. They mapped the decans onto the Minor Arcana, and organized the cards by element, modality, and planetary rulership. They also assigned each of the 22 Major Arcana to a zodiac sign, planet, or element. You can find those correspondences here.

The result? A structured tarot–astrology correspondence system, often visualized as a decan wheel, that is still used today.

If you start dabbling more in tarot, you’ll likely keep coming across the Golden Dawn. The group didn’t invent tarot, astrology, or ceremonial magic, but they were instrumental in organizing these traditions into the structured systems that have a profound impact on Western esotericism.

In fact, several Golden Dawn members directly shape modern tarot. Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith created the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, while Aleister Crowley developed the Thoth Tarot.

How the Tarot Zodiac System Works

Within the tarot deck, there are four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles (also called Coins or Disks). These suits correspond to the four classical elements used in astrology and magic: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.

Each element is also associated with three zodiac signs. When all of that is combined, those correspondences look like this:

• Wands: Fire – Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
• Pentacles: Earth – Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
• Cups: Water – Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
• Swords: Air – Gemini, Libra, Aquarius

Beginning with Aries, the Golden Dawn mapped the 2, 3, and 4 of each corresponding suit in the tarot to the cardinal zodiac sign. They then mapped the 5, 6, and 7 to the fixed signs and 8, 9, and 10 to the mutable signs. Like this:

Fire Signs

Aries (Cardinal Fire) : 2, 3, 4 of Wands
Leo (Fixed Fire): 5, 6, 7 of Wands
Sagittarius (Mutable Fire): 8, 9, 10 of Wands

Earth Signs

Capricorn (Cardinal Earth): 2, 3, 4 of Pentacles
Taurus (Fixed Earth): 5, 6, 7 of Pentacles
Virgo (Mutable Earth): 8, 9, 10 of Pentacles

Water Signs

Cancer (Cardinal Water): 2, 3, 4 of Cups
Scorpio (Fixed Water): 5, 6, 7 of Cups
Pisces (Mutable Water): 8, 9, 10 of Cups

Air Signs

Libra (Cardinal Air): 2, 3, 4 of Swords
Aquarius (Fixed Air): 5, 6, 7 of Swords
Gemini (Mutable Air): 8, 9, 10 of Swords

Then, they took each of those signs and divided them into three using the decan system. Each decan is 10 degrees (or roughly ten days). The first decan covers degrees 1-10 of a sign, the second covers degrees 11-20 and the third decan covers degrees 21-30.

Your birthday falls within a specific decan and the Minor Arcana cards of that decan are the one associated with your birth date.

How the Court Card Correspondences Work in the Tarot

Court cards follow a different logic than the Major or numbered Minor Arcana, and, frankly, this can be very confusing. In the Golden Dawn system, each court card has three layers: the element of its suit, the elemental “temperament” of its rank, and a specific zodiac modality (cardinal, fixed, or mutable).

While the numbered Minor Arcana cards represent individual 10-degree decans, court cards purposefully overlap the second two decans of one sign and the first decan of the next. This transition shows how the energy of one sign evolves into another.

Because the Rider-Waite-Smith deck renamed several of these ranks and swapped the titles of the King and Knight, the key to navigating this is to look at the card’s modality rather than just its name. Here’s how to understand this.

• The Mother: The Queens rule the Cardinal signs.
• The Father: In the Golden Dawn and Thoth, he is called the Knight. In RWS he is known as the King. The Father is the one who rules Mutable signs (like Gemini) and the last decan of the Fixed signs.
• The Son: In the Golden Dawn and Thoth, he is called the King or Prince and is often abbreviated “K” on the correspondence wheel. In RWS, he is the Knight. The Son is the one who rules Fixed signs (like Taurus) and the last decan of the Cardinal signs.
• The Seed: These are the Pages or Princesses. They represent the most concentrated, physical potential of their element and don’t rule a specific zodiac sign, which is why they are often placed in the center or outer rim of the wheel.

Also, to help you identify the roles: in the Golden Dawn and Thoth systems, the “Son” (Prince/King) is almost always shown sitting in a Chariot, while the “Father” (Knight) is shown on a Horse. This is different in the RWS deck, where the “Son” (Knight) is shown on a Horse and the “Father” (King) is shown seated on a Throne.

How Do Use This in a Tarot Reading?

While all that is interesting from a scholarly perspective, how do you actually use that information when doing a tarot reading? There are a few ways.

A tarot card’s zodiac association can point to timing, people, or personal energies at play. If the same card appears repeatedly, it may reflect someone born in that decan or something important might occur during the decan associated with that card.

These correspondences can also be applied personally. Cards connected to your Sun sign, rising sign, or your birthday decan may highlight areas where you’re being asked to grow.

The Tarot Cards Connected with Each Zodiac Sign and Decan

The zodiac and elemental correspondences come from the Golden Dawn system, but the titles differ in Rider-Waite-Smith and Thoth decks. Because the RWS is the most popular deck of those three, those are the names you will find in the lists below.

Aries Tarot Cards (March 21 – April 19)

• The Emperor: Major Arcana
• March 21-30: Two of Wands
• March 31-April 10: Three of Wands
• April 11-20: Four of Wands
• Court Card (March 21 – April 10): Queen of Wands
• Court Card (April 11-20): Knight of Pentacles

Taurus Tarot Cards (April 20 – May 20)

• The Hierophant: Major Arcana
• April 21-30: Five of Pentacles
• May 1-10: Six of Pentacles
• May 11-20: Seven of Pentacles
• Court Card (April 21 – May 10): Knight of Pentacles
• Court Card (May 11-20): King of Swords

Gemini Tarot Cards (May 21 – June 20)

• The Lovers: Major Arcana
• May 21-31: Eight of Swords
• June 1-10: Nine of Swords
• June 11-20: Ten of Swords
• Court Card (May 21 – June 10): King of Swords
• Court Card (June 11-20): Queen of Cups

Cancer Tarot Cards (June 21 – July 22)

• The Chariot: Major Arcana
• June 21-30: Two of Cups
• July 1-11: Three of Cups
• July 12-21: Four of Cups
• Court Card (June 21 – July 11): Queen of Cups
• Court Card (July 12-21): Knight of Wands

Leo Tarot Cards (July 23 – August 22)

• Strength: Major Arcana
• July 23 – August 1: Five of Wands
• August 2-11: Six of Wands
• August 12-22: Seven of Wands
• Court Card (July 23 – August 11): Knight of Wands
• Court Card (August 12-22): King of Pentacles

Virgo Tarot Cards (August 23 – September 22)

• The Hermit: Major Arcana
• August 23 – September 1: Eight of Pentacles
• September 2-11: Nine of Pentacles
• September 12-22: Ten of Pentacles
• Court Card (August 23 – September 11): King of Pentacles
• Court Card (September 12-22): Queen of Swords

Libra Tarot Cards (September 23 – October 22)

• Justice: Major Arcana
• September 23 – October 2: Two of Swords
• October 3-12: Three of Swords
• October 13-22: Four of Swords
• Court Card (September 23 – October 2): Queen of Swords
• Court Card (October 3-22): Knight of Cups

Scorpio Tarot Cards (October 23 – November 21)

• Death: Major Arcana
• October 23 – November 1: Five of Cups
• November 2-12: Six of Cups
• November 13-21: Seven of Cups
• Court Card (October 23 – November 12): Knight of Cups
• Court Card (November 13-21): King of Wands

Sagittarius Tarot Cards (November 22 – December 21)

• Temperance: Major Arcana
• November 23 – December 2: Eight of Wands
• December 3-12: Nine of Wands
• December 13-21: Ten of Wands
• Court Card (November 23 – December 12): King of Wands
• Court Card (December 13-21): Queen of Pentacles

Capricorn Tarot Cards (December 22 – January 19)

• The Devil: Major Arcana
• December 22-30: Two of Pentacles
• December 31 – January 9: Three of Pentacles
• January 10-19: Four of Pentacles
• Court Card (December 22 – January 9): Queen of Pentacles
• Court Card (January 9 – 19): Knight of Swords

Aquarius Tarot Cards (January 20 – February 18)

• The Star: Major Arcana
• January 20-29: Five of Swords
• January 30 – February 8: Six of Swords
• February 9-18: Seven of Swords
• Court Card (January 20 – February 9): Knight of Swords
• Court Card (February 9-18): King of Cups

Pisces Tarot Cards (February 19 – March 20)

• The Moon: Major Arcana
• February 19-28: Eight of Cups
• March 1-10: Nine of Cups
• March 11-20: Ten of Cups
• Court Card (February 19 – March 10): King of Cups
• Court Card (March 11-20): Queen of Wands

The Names and Ranks of the Court Cards Across the Tarot Systems