Zodiac Tarot Wheel “Beta” 2

This provides “beta” 2 of the Zodiac Wheel with Tarot, Astrological, Qabalistic and Elemental Divinatory Meanings Based Upon Writings of the Golden Dawn. You can read more about the reasons and mechanics of it by clicking here. Suffice it to say that it’s meant to be something that all people interested in Tarot can print at home, learn from, adapt for themselves, and distribute as is (with attribution) or with their own improvements under their own license preference.

I’m particularly interested in feedback as regards to its “usability.” All comments and suggestions that might improve it are welcome. I hope that the next iteration will be the final one, at which point I’ll make the Visio “source” files available.

Miscellaneous update note: I am re-instituting the mandatory confirmation of email addresses for those that wish to register to download the “source” files. A “bad actor” has returned, and is submitting multiple phony addresses, most likely probing for a spam conduit, or to grab files. My sincere apologies for the inconvenience, and thanks for understanding.

Note that I’ve added a “cheat sheet” to this iteration. As mentioned in my last post, it appears to me that this chart makes apparent the huge influence that astrological and qabalistic factors have had on the divinatory meanings we still use today, with minor revisions. For almost any non-major that you may have had confusion about, if you trace back the zodiac and qabalistic path, it’s quite possible you will understand that card better. It seems to be the case for me. I hope to hear from those who find it useful or not.

I’ve also made a PDF available (click here for it). Unfortunately you won’t be able to select and copy text inside the wheel if using the PDF… it appears to be a limitation of the Visio export. If a lot of people prefer PDF, I will use a different method that preserves that capability.

A few notes appear below the chart graphic which you may find helpful, or which address the feedback I would like. If you’re just impatient, click on the chart graphic just below to make if full screen, then right click and save as (or long tap if you’re viewing on mobile) if you wish to download it as a scalable vector graphic.

• A number of changes have been made with the primary goal being better legibility. In general, font sizes are larger. The key is to keep the size of the outer Zodiac circle as small as possible while increasing the inner circles so that there is more room for text.
• The secondary goal is to make it easier to customize all the text. Changes have been made to enable storage of all the text you see in the graphic as an external Excel file. This enables anyone who would like to put their own names and meanings in to do so more easily, if they have a reasonably recent copy of Microsoft Visio, or access to someone who has a copy and can help them.
• Should someone wish to edit the graphic who simply has no access to MS Visio, it is still possible to edit the .SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file. There are free programs such as Inkscape which can do so, or proprietary products such as Adobe Illustrator. It is even possible to edit the file as text, using, for example, Windows Notepad. Though if you want to edit it as text, I suggest locating and downloading a free XML editor, which will handle the hierarchically structured text file more carefully.
• As noted previously, the external files will make it easy to substitute alternate meanings. If you publish a new deck, for example, and you wish to change divinatory meanings to your point of view, it is a matter of editing and saving the Excel file, opening Visio, press the “Refresh External Data” button, and export a fresh SVG file. That file then can be distributed with your deck as a kind of documentation and study aid. The screenshot below shows what it’s like working with it in Visio. All the text is structured in columns. Changes to the four columns at right will let you update the graphic. The first column at left is an ID, and doesn’t appear in the graphic. That should not be edited. But when we make the original “source” available, I’ll create a document explaining how to use it all.
  
• This also makes language translations easier. We should note in both cases that if the replacement phrase is too long, you may have to go back in with Visio to touch up the formatting. In the illustration above, you can see how the external data appears in its own window inside Visio. You don’t edit the data there, you edit it in the Excel file. But if you have to change the formatting… the size of text, the size of a shape… you do that in Visio.

There are still a few things left… three or four divinatory meanings too long by a few letters to fix, incorporation of the “Cheat Sheet” into the export file if people think it’s a worthwhile addition, and any changes or corrections suggested. But I think the graphic is nearly ready for the world.

Revision History

The official 1.0 version of the wheel, with source files, became available here. The SVG graphic above was updated to the 1.0 version.