The Astrology Book

tion indicates that the lessons learned in houses two, eleven, and eight could be

brought to bear on whatever tasks were undertaken in the fifth house.

Sources:

Brau, Jean-Louis, Helen Weaver, and Allan Edmands. Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology.New

York: New American Library, 1980.

Marks, Tracy. How to Handle Your T Square.Arlington, MA: Sagittarius Rising, 1979.

TABLE OFHOUSES

A table of houses is, as the name indicates, a table that allows astrologers to locate the

position of the houses when casting a horoscope. Tables of houses are usually pub-

lished in book form, with the house positions arranged according to latitude and side-

real time. This information is incorporated into chart-casting programs, so, with the

increasing use of personal computers by astrologers, traditional tables of houses have

become obsolete.

TAROT ANDKABALLAH

The tarot is a set of cards related to contemporary playing cards that are used for div-

ination. Tarot cards are often viewed as being an extension of Kaballah (or Cabbala or

Cabala), a form of Jewish occultism. Kaballistic mysticism is built around the Tree of

Life, a widespread diagram of the cosmos consisting of 10 circles (spheres) that are

connected by 22 paths (lines). Each of the principal 22 tarot cards (the Major

Arcana) is associated with one of these lines.

One characteristic practice in traditional occult thought has been to connect

the symbol system of a given occult art with other symbol systems. Because of the

prestige enjoyed by astrology in past eras, practitioners of other occult systems were

especially interested in drawing on astrological symbolism. Palmistry, for example,

deploys the symbolism of astrology, particularly in the names given to the fingers and

to certain mounds on the palms.

Over the centuries, astrology and astrological symbolism became associated

with both the tarot and the Kaballah. However, as systems that grew to maturity inde-

pendently of the science of the stars, this connection was never quite natural. The dif-

ficulty is easy enough to see from a purely mathematical standpoint: How does one

appropriately associate 10 spheres or 22 cards with 7 planets (the number of signifi-

cant heavenly bodies known to the ancients) or 12 signs? Such associations, while

useful in some instances, are never really convincing as a complete system.

Sources:

Cavendish, Richard. The Black Arts.New York: Capricorn Books, 1967.

Gettings, Fred. Dictionary of Astrology.London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.

TAURUS

Taurus, the second sign of the zodiac, is a fixed earth sign. It is a negative (in the

value-neutral sense of being negatively charged), feminine sign, ruled by the planet

Table of Houses

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