Each card carries the attribution given it by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, set out in its instruction paper Book T, the system A. E. Waite's deck was built on. The thirty-six pip cards from Two to Ten take the thirty-six decans of the zodiac, with the decan rulers running in Chaldean order from Mars at the first degree of Aries. The aces take the root of their suit's element. The court cards are read here as element within element, the form in common use with Waite's deck; the Golden Dawn's own Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess do not map one to one onto Waite's King, Queen, Knight and Page.

The Major Arcana follow Waite's numbering, so Strength is the eighth card and takes Leo, and Justice is the eleventh and takes Libra. The older Marseille order reverses those two numbers and gives neither an astrological attribution. A later variant associated with Aleister Crowley exchanges the attributions of The Star and The Emperor; it is not used here.

This is one tradition among several, recorded because the decks on this site descend from it, not because it is the only way the cards have been read.