Which Tarot Card Is Your Zodiac Sign? The Complete Chart

"I'm a Scorpio, so my card is Death?" Plenty of people do a double take the first time they see a zodiac tarot chart. The pairings come from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a late 19th-century esoteric society whose ideas shaped the Rider-Waite-Smith deck most people use today. In that system, each of the twelve signs is linked to one Major Arcana card, sometimes called your sign's "ruling" or "guardian" card. Below you'll find the full chart, how each card reflects its sign, and a lesser-known layer: the three Minor Arcana cards that belong to every sign.

The Zodiac Tarot Chart

Sign	Dates	Element	Tarot card
Aries	Mar 21 – Apr 19	Fire	The Emperor
Taurus	Apr 20 – May 20	Earth	The Hierophant
Gemini	May 21 – Jun 21	Air	The Lovers
Cancer	Jun 22 – Jul 22	Water	The Chariot
Leo	Jul 23 – Aug 22	Fire	Strength
Virgo	Aug 23 – Sep 22	Earth	The Hermit
Libra	Sep 23 – Oct 23	Air	Justice
Scorpio	Oct 24 – Nov 22	Water	Death
Sagittarius	Nov 23 – Dec 21	Fire	Temperance
Capricorn	Dec 22 – Jan 19	Earth	The Devil
Aquarius	Jan 20 – Feb 18	Air	The Star
Pisces	Feb 19 – Mar 20	Water	The Moon

Sign boundaries can shift by a day from year to year, so if your birthday sits on a cusp, read both cards.

How Each Card Reflects Its Sign

Fire Signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius

• Aries and The Emperor. Aries brings the spark to start things; The Emperor, seated on a stone throne carved with rams' heads, brings structure and responsibility. Drive plus discipline is what lets that spark go the distance.
• Leo and Strength. A woman gently holds a lion's jaws as it lowers its head in trust. For Leo, real power is gentle courage and self-acceptance, not force.
• Sagittarius and Temperance. An angel patiently blends water between two cups. Freedom-loving Sagittarius often grows most by finding a sustainable rhythm.

Earth Signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn

• Taurus and The Hierophant. Tradition, belief and learning. Taurus values stability, and this card asks that tradition be understood and lived rather than held onto out of habit.
• Virgo and The Hermit. A lone figure raises a lantern on a mountaintop. Virgo's care for detail and truth becomes quiet, hard-won insight.
• Capricorn and The Devil. This pairing makes people nervous. The Devil speaks of attachment and material desire; for achievement-minded Capricorn, it's a reminder not to be chained by duty, work or endless "shoulds."

Air Signs: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius

• Gemini and The Lovers. The Lovers is about more than romance. It is about choice and bringing your values into alignment, which mirrors Gemini's dance between many possibilities.
• Libra and Justice. Fairness, truth and cause and effect. Libra seeks balance, and Justice asks you to weigh things carefully and then commit to a decision you can stand behind.
• Aquarius and The Star. Hope, inspiration and healing. Aquarian idealism becomes quiet faith in the future.

Water Signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces

• Cancer and The Chariot. The armored charioteer recalls the crab's shell: protection for a soft interior, and the will to carry loved ones forward.
• Scorpio and Death. Scorpio is the sign of transformation, and Death is about endings and renewal, not literal death.
• Pisces and The Moon. Intuition, dreams and the unconscious. Pisces' sensitivity and imagination are a gift here, and also a fog worth learning to see through.

Why Is Leo Strength and Libra Justice?

If you have handled different decks, you may have noticed that Strength and Justice swap numbers. In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, Strength is VIII and Justice is XI. In the older Marseille tradition, it's the reverse. The Golden Dawn switched them so the Major Arcana would line up with the order of the zodiac, putting Leo's card before Libra's, and the Rider-Waite-Smith deck kept that order. Different numbers aren't a printing error, just a different lineage. For more on the 22 trumps, see our Major Arcana guide.

The remaining Majors are linked to planets or elements: The Magician to Mercury, The Empress to Venus, The Tower to Mars, The World to Saturn, and so on. For an extra layer, look up the card for your sign's ruling planet. Aries is ruled by Mars, for instance, so The Tower offers a second mirror.

The Three Minor Cards for Your Sign

The Golden Dawn also split each sign into three 10-degree segments called decans and assigned them to the numbered cards from two to ten. The pattern is easy to remember:

• Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) take the 2, 3 and 4.
• Fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) take the 5, 6 and 7.
• Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) take the 8, 9 and 10.
• The suit follows the element: Fire is Wands, Water is Cups, Air is Swords, Earth is Pentacles.

Sign	Minor cards
Aries	Two, Three and Four of Wands
Taurus	Five, Six and Seven of Pentacles
Gemini	Eight, Nine and Ten of Swords
Cancer	Two, Three and Four of Cups
Leo	Five, Six and Seven of Wands
Virgo	Eight, Nine and Ten of Pentacles
Libra	Two, Three and Four of Swords
Scorpio	Five, Six and Seven of Cups
Sagittarius	Eight, Nine and Ten of Wands
Capricorn	Two, Three and Four of Pentacles
Aquarius	Five, Six and Seven of Swords
Pisces	Eight, Nine and Ten of Cups

Every card page on ORAE lists its astrological correspondence, so when a card turns up you can see which sign's season it belongs to. To understand why suits and signs share elements, read the four elements.

Zodiac Card vs. Tarot Birth Card

Your zodiac card depends on the sign you were born under. Your tarot birth card is calculated by adding up the digits of your full birth date and reducing them to a Major Arcana number. The two methods are different and often give different cards. Think of them as two lenses: one reflects your sign's temperament, the other a numerological life theme.

Should Scorpios and Capricorns Worry?

Not at all. These pairings are symbolic, not a verdict on your fate. Death marks the close of a chapter and the start of something new; The Devil invites you to notice what binds you so you can choose freely again. Both are powerful cards. For more on the cards that look frightening, read the scariest tarot cards and what they really mean.

Try It on ORAE

The zodiac tarot hub has weekly, monthly and yearly readings for all twelve signs. Choose yours, such as Scorpio, to see the cards drawn for it along with an introduction to your sign's card. Because a sign reading speaks to everyone born under that sign, treat it as a gentle prompt. For a personal question, draw a single card or try the astrology-inspired Twelve Houses spread.

ORAE is completely free, needs no sign-up, and uses fixed, transparent rules rather than AI. Astrology and tarot are both symbolic languages for getting to know yourself. They can spark ideas and add some fun, but they don't decide your future; the choices stay with you.