How I Use the Sabian Symbols

Online Sabian Symbols Generator:

Lynda Hill's Sabian Symbol Oracle or Astrology Weekly's Sabian Symbols' Oracle

Physical Deck of Cards:

A deck of "specially designed cards" can be found at the back of 360 Degrees of Wisdom by Lynda Hill, but I much prefer the instructions to create one's own deck on page xxvi using a pack of traditional playing cards. I would most likely be violating numerous copyright laws by typing the exact instructions here, yet I modified them a bit to suit my needs, since I could only locate one pack of playing cards in my kitchen drawer. The book suggests that you use two different decks preferrably with different colored backings in order to conveniently seperate the sign deck from the number deck at a glance, yet I personally think this is a bit wasteful, not to mention the inconvenience of having two incomplete decks of cards floating around one's house.

First seperate the picture cards (referred to in the book as court cards) from the number cards (Ace-10).

The first bit of math works perfectly--there are three court cards (King, Queen, and Jack) in each of the four suits (Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs) and twelve signs of the zodiac. However, since each sign is composed of thirty degrees, and there are ten number cards (Ace-10) in each of the four suits, one set of number cards in one suit is not needed. The book discards Spades, but if you are missing one or more cards from a certain suit and none from another, please use common sense and use this suit.

Now comes the fun part--labelling! Although it really doesn't matter which card receives which sign, some kind of order greatly appeals to me. So I recommend that you start with the King of any suit and make this card Aries, the Queen of the same suit Taurus, and the Jack of the same suit Gemini. Or you can get more creative than the book and make each suit represent an element--perhaps Hearts fire signs, Diamonds air signs, Spades Earth signs, and Clubs Water signs so the red cards correspond with masculine signs and the black cards correspond with feminine signs.