Cards - Le Tarot Astrologique / The Astrological Tarot (Grimaud)

Le Tarot Astrologique / The Astrological Tarot. Grimaud, France. Bespoke divinatory deck, 48 single- and double-headed cards + booklet. Size: 75mm x 127mm.

Deck make-up:
Trumps / Major cards (planets): Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
Trumps / Major cards (extras): ascendant card, nodes card, fortune card.
Minor Cards (astrological 0°): Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.
Minor Cards (astrological 10°): Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.
Minor Cards (astrological 20°): Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.

A divinatory deck (not strictly tarot as such) created in 1927 by Frenchman Georges Muchery and drawn by a famous poster/magazine illustrator of the time, Henri Armengol (note the monogram on most of the cards). In this fusion of tarot and astrology, each sign of the zodiac is allocated 30° of the heavens in three stages – 0°,10° and 20°. Each of these ten degrees possesses different qualities.

Muchery wrote an accompanying book, The Astrological Tarot.

The pack is still widely available, usually in semi-professional print-on-demand editions of varying quality.

Click on any card to explore the design.

(Comments or corrections, please e-mail: Click to see e-mail address.)

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Astrological cards (0°)

The 0° cards have conventional illustrations of the signs of the zodiac...

Astrological cards (10°)

...but the other two segments (10° and 20°) of each zodiac sign stray farther from conventionality. Aries here features Andromeda. Libra shows "a sage enamoured of Science". Sagittarius has Colossus.

Astrological cards (20°)

Taurus shows "seven light and ethereal spirits" who are "leaving this sorrowful earth for a higher sphere". Gemini shows Sirius (and his dog). My favourite card, though, is Pisces which here shows "a river which is slowly but surely leaving its bed, while destroying everything which it encounters".

Planet cards

Extras

The Ascendant card represents the consultant. The reversible "Noeud" card is for the nodes of the moon – ascending and descending. How you use all the cards is in Muchery's book.