Navigating correspondences

A queer and dreamy perspective

When I read tarot for someone, we talk about the images on the cards, and I also add information from other systems of meaning that may or may not be visible. These systems are called tarot correspondences. I draw on a tarot system developed by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn at the turn of the 20th Century.

This system was contemporary with analytical psychologist Carl Jung, and I find it to be compatible with his views on dreams and the human psyche.

However, both Jung and the Golden Dawn frame systems that restrict norms of gender and sexuality. While these concepts have their uses, several members of the tarot community have begun to “queer” these correspondences with an updated sense of social justice.

Continue reading to learn how I try to make these resources work together in my tarot practice.

Carl Jung and “dreamy” tarot

Jungian analysis and tarot entered my life through different paths, but neither made sense to me until I put them together. Eventually I found the Tarot Reader Certificate Program offered by Jung Platform, and everything fell into place.

When I talk about a Jungian or “dreamy” approach to tarot, this means my readings are interactive with the querent. Instead of telling you what the cards say, we discuss what the images mean to you and what they reveal inside you.

Jung is famous for his concepts of the collective unconscious, archetypes, and personality types. Here are a few of his concepts as I apply them to tarot.

  • A moment when your external and internal reality seem linked, like an uncanny coincidence, often revealing something unconscious.

    Tarot is a brilliant tool to evoke synchronicity, as a reader connects a card’s visible and hidden contents to a querent’s unique circumstance.

  • Broadening understanding of a concept by taking models from a variety of sources and mapping them into a parallel structure. For example, Jung is known for applying ideas from alchemy to his analytic psychology.

    In Tarot, we refer to this as correspondences - deriving the meaning of a card from multiple systems, such as the Golden Dawn’s interlocking systems of astrology and kabbalah. These correspondences allow the reader and querent to access an archetype from multiple angles and increase comprehension.

  • Identifying personal symbols and expanding them into larger social contexts, such as mythology.

    Tarot amplifies the querent’s experience when the reader helps place their unique experiences within the archetypal stories behind each card.

  • Persona describes who we appear to be, and it changes with context. Most of us wear a different personality in our workplace than we do at home with family. From the creation of Persona develops the Shadow, which is everything the Persona is not, and it usually comprises all the things we do not wish to be.

    In Tarot, every card may assume a more resourceful or less resourceful position of its virtues and vices. This conversation creates opportunity for the querent to work on owning and integrating their Shadow in pursuit of a more whole self.

Golden Dawn correspondences

Much of the English-speaking world learned about tarot through the systems codified by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, active between the 1890s - 1920s. The Golden Dawn was an occult secret society that compiled magic traditions for their own purposes. While many of the traditions they drew from were ancient, the application of these traditions to tarot cards was new. They corresponded everything they could to the cards, from gods and magical weapons to sensory experiences like herbs, colors and musical notes.

tarot cards predate the Golden Dawn by hundreds of years, but there is not much recorded history of how people used tarot for divination before then. It’s customarily known that cultures like the Romani contributed to tarot lore much earlier.

  • Deriving the meaning of the 22 Major Arcana trumps from the seven classical planets, 12 zodiac signs, and three elements.

    Assigning the 36 Minor Arcana ranked 2-10 to the 36 astrological decans, each of which occupy 10 degrees of the astrology wheel and blend meanings of zodiac signs with a planetary ruler.

  • Incorporating the seven stages of alchemical transformation into Tarot elements and card interactions.

  • Assigning the 22 Major Arcana to the 22 pathways and Hebrew letters on the Tree of Life.

    Assigning the Minor Arcana to the 10 sephiroth on the Tree of Life.

Queer correspondences

I don’t believe there is a right or wrong way to read tarot cards. I draw on the Golden Dawn’s system and Jung’s ideas because they are robust and useful. However, every system has its limits, and I believe my tarot practice is improved by blurring lines instead of darkening them.

In the spirit of truth and justice, I consider social constructs like gender and race assigned to the bodies found in tarot cards just a starting place that we can question. Since Pamela Colman Smith created her tarot deck images with Arthur Edward Waite in 1909, tarot has enjoyed a rich contribution of renditions from artists all over the world. If you work with me, you will have your pick of decks from my collection, where I hope you’ll find art and human depictions that reflect and speak to you.

I want to uproot white supremacy from my life, and that includes my tarot practice. Many of the tools I have gained to understand and divorce white supremacy culture comes from Tema Okun. This is how her ideas improve my use of correspondence systems in tarot.

  • There is no perfect system.

  • Two things can be true at once. A third way is always possible.

  • Breathe truth into your reading.

  • Feeling is part of the answer. There is no such thing as being completely neutral.

  • Empower each other to answer the question together.

Learn more

I credit the expertise and works of these people for my knowledge and application of tarot and Jung. Please look them up and appreciate their work.