Tarot and Western Astrology

We must now consider an entirely different element

but a most important one, which enters essentially into the fundamentals of the astrological conception of the zodiac. It is first necessary to call the attention of the student to the fact that all ancient religions were symbolic celebrations, either of the forces of nature in the macrocosm, and so primarily of the Sun, or of the forces of nature in the microcosm, and so primarily of generation. In other words, all religious ideas are related either to the life of the Earth or to the life of man.

Owing to the numerous accidents which occurred in the gradual development of civilization—and in particular we would refer to the growth of the Roman Empire—these ideas became to some extent confused. More in the book.