What do the animals in our tarot deck teach us

We all have our animal friends, that accompany us through life, that we admire from afar in nature, and some we even aspire to have some of their qualities: think of the unconditional love of our dogs, the agility and 6th sense of our cats.

So what can we learn from imagery of these animals in our decks?

I thought I would start with The Fool and his dog, since if you know me, my dogs are very important to me, and are often on my Instagram feed!

I was taught that this dog was the fool’s loving companion, his support, and that he represented that, and unconditional love on our soul’s journey. I have seen other people say that this dog can also be seen as a warning, “hey! Human, don’t forget if you fall it is dangerous!” Either, or both could work here, both interoperations I see as love.

We see a dog pop up again, in the ten of pentacles, this time two dogs, and they are adults. This could show that we have advanced from that innocent young part of our life in the Fool card, even the dogs have grown and matured, neither of them are as wild and scruffy as the one in the fool! But again, they are companions for us through the whole thing. The day I wrote this, I had a short reading with someone at a party, and this whole idea showed up! She pulled the fool and this card-she was graduating college and just got engaged, this was a fun little affirmation and illustration of how we move and grow and the tarot reflects it!

We see the dog again in The Moon card, this time he is paired with the wolf. Sides of a similar coin, the dog is just the domesticated wolf, right? This has always said to me that we need to look at what parts of us have been domesticated, what parts of our wild selves do we need to balance with the domestic side? We are all many faceted, let’s keep the balance between the wild and domestic self so we can see things clearly and reach enlightenment.

In The Moon card we also see the crayfish who is climbing towards the moon-this little creature is a sign of our ability to live in two worlds too.

The cats we see in the deck are on the queen of wands, and the Strength card in the Major arcana. The cat with the queen of wands to me is about her psychic, magical abilities. Remember the queen of wands is an amalgamation of the elements of fire and water (queens are yin/water element and wands are the fire element) she is seen as the witch of the deck because she can balance and alchemize different things. The cat helps her hold that power. Robert M. Pace says in his book The Tarot: History, Symbolism and Divination that the cat is the domesticated version of the lion.

The big cat aka the lion in the Strength card, is just that, a big kitty in the loving hands of the figure in the card. Just like the wolf represented the wild dog, this cat is that-the wild cat, the one that we can befriend and domesticate with love, with gentle kindness. It reminds us we can face and conquer our fear with a loving gentle heart. People used to train animals with fear and punishment-think of a lion tamer in an old time zoo (not good), but now we train with love, shaping and kindness-at least the dog trainers I know and respect do that. This metaphor carries over into our lives. We can get further with love, and understanding that fear.

We see this idea of finding our balance with wildness and domestication in the cards a lot, to me this is about accepting ourselves fully, and integrating our whole lives, all our parts together-in other words embrace your whole self! We can also see this as how we integrate with the the natural world around us, acceptance and working together-respect for the untamed and finding understanding here.

There are a lot of horses in our deck: all the knights, Death, 6 of wands, and the Sun card. They are our helpers, they represent movement, they represent hierarchy too. In the knights they all mean movement, and they show us how we are moving. The Knight of Pentacles’ horse is steady, slow, full of earth energy. The other knights are moving in different ways, and in a reading it is interesting to see what they may be moving towards!

The rider in the 6 of wands, riding his horse, is above all the other things, all the other wands that he has been dealing with in the preceding card, he has literally been lifted up with success, and the horse is a symbol of this. This is kind of the same for the Sun card, only more so. The figure is happy, riding high, naked in a field of sunflowers-who wouldn’t want to feel the things that both of these riders are feeling? Elated! Supported, and on the move.

In the Death card we see this horse more as a messenger, he is the harbinger of change, of crushing old ways beneath his feet and bringing new beginnings. The rose on the flag represents re birth, so although this card looks scary, it is actually getting rid of the outdated old ways, and bringing new energy into your life. New energy that you need and want.

Remember when I said the wands suit is fire? The salamander in the King of wands card represents this element. People at one time thought salamanders could walk on fire, but I imagine they were just fleeing the fire. But the way they move, some of their colors, it does make sense.

The Queen of pentacles, the ultimate earth mama has a rabbit near her throne, to remind us of being close to the earth, fertility, luck, abundance. A few cards before this we see a hawk in 9 of pentacles signifying success and control, and friendship with this bird-there is a sense of peace, and friendship with the animals in both these cards to me. This is another theme I notice, friendship with animals and nature.

We see some snakes in our deck too: in 7 of cups and The Lovers card. In both situations they represent sexuality, temptation and transformation. The cups in the 7 of cups represent all our options, this is one of them. Just like the snake in The Lovers card can tempt us. Eden Gray tells us in the description of the lovers card that temptation comes from the subconscious, this holds true for both of these cards.

We see a fish in the page of the cups, this reminds us of the fluid nature of our emotions.

In the ace of this suit (cups) we see a dove as well, representing peace. If you look closely there is also a dove carved into the table of the Magician card.

this guy is from the Wooden Tarot deck created by Andrew Liam Swartz and can be found on Skullgarden.net

The happy squirrel-truly I saved the best for last. This is a card that you don’t find in all decks and was added and adopted after a Simpson’s episode. Lisa goes for a reading, and she pulls this card, I love that the Simpsons have had so much influence on the world! The happy squirrel can be a reminder to plan for the future, to “squirrel away” what you will need, but this is balanced with fun and playfulness. He also can remind us how we can bring in chaos in our lives, are we gossiping like the squirrel in Norse Mythology, Ratatosk-this little guy runs up and down the tree of life between realms spreading gossip-creating chaos? Are we causing trouble just for the sake of some fun? I would venture to guess this is my dog’s idea of the squirrel, every time that little cutie runs along the fence, my home becomes chaos! And my little dog waits for him….but he will never catch him, and I am sure the squirrel knows this!

I would love to hear how you see these animals in your life and in the cards. Drop a comment below and we can discuss!

The books I mentioned in the above blog are available:

The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination by Robert M Pace

A Complete Guide to the Tarot by Eden Gray

The images I refer to are for the traditional Rider-Waite deck