Where the Decans Come From
Decans are older than tarot by a long margin. The Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom divided the night sky into thirty-six sections, each rising in turn over the eastern horizon — "the faces of the hours" — and used them to mark sidereal time across the year. Hellenistic astrologers from the second century BCE onward carried the scheme into the Greco-Roman world as the dekanoi, three per sign, and gave each one a planetary ruler in the Chaldean rotation that this page still uses.
The medieval Latin Picatrix (translated from the Arabic Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm in 1256) preserved the Hellenistic decan tables and added a layer of magical imagery to each face. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, working in London in the 1880s, took those tables and did the move that gives this page its existence: they pinned the thirty-six pip cards (the Twos through the Tens of the four minor suits) onto the thirty-six decans in strict order, beginning with the Two of Wands at Mars-in-Aries-I and continuing around the wheel. The mapping appears in S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Book T (c. 1888) and was published more openly in Aleister Crowley's Liber 777 (1909) and The Book of Thoth (1944).
What this means for tarot is that every minor arcanum below the courts is also a thirty-six-fold horoscope position. The Three of Cups is also Mercury in Cancer II, the second ten days of July, a particular kind of warm, articulate water. The Eight of Swords is also Jupiter in Gemini I, the last ten days of May, an over-large mind in a small room. To know the decans is to know what each numbered Minor is made of, and to read the deck against the year that birthed the system.
"The Aces represent perfection; the twos original harmony; the threes potential; the fours stability; the fives motion; the sixes conscious harmony; the sevens degenerate weakness; the eights intellectual weakness; the nines a crystallization of the suit; and the tens what happens when the suit is applied to reality."
The Decan Ring
Twelve sectors, three slots per sector, thirty-six faces in total. Outer rim: the zodiac sign. Inner triplet: the three decan planets in Chaldean order. Underneath each planet: the pip card whose face it carries. Read clockwise from Aries at the top.
Outer rim · zodiac sign · 30° each. Inner triplet · decan ruling planet, 10° each. Label below each planet · the pip card on that face.
Twelve Signs, Three Faces Each
Aries through Pisces. For each sign: dates, element, mode, ruling planet, the major arcanum on its path, then the three decan triplets — pip card, planet, ten-day window, one-line essence in this guide's voice.
Aries
- · Dates ·
- 3/21 – 4/20
- · Element ·
- Fire
- · Mode ·
- Cardinal
- · Ruler ·
- Mars
Aries divides into a rising arc. Mars supplies the raw kindling at degrees 0-10 — the spark with no second thought. The Sun warms the middle ten degrees into vision that can be carried beyond the first horizon. Venus crowns the last ten with a doorway: the energy that began as ignition has become an opening someone could walk through. Read in order, the three pips of Aries are how a beginning becomes a place a beginning can live in.
· Three decans ·
- 3/21 – 3/30MarsTwo of WandsMars at zero — force at the start of its own arc, before consequence has had time to weigh in.
- 3/31 – 4/10SunThree of WandsSun-warmed Aries — the first vision sturdy enough to carry past the first horizon, ships sent and waited for.
- 4/11 – 4/20VenusFour of WandsVenus completing the spark — a doorway crowned in ivy, the first welcome a beginning earns.
Taurus
- · Dates ·
- 4/21 – 5/20
- · Element ·
- Earth
- · Mode ·
- Fixed
- · Ruler ·
- Venus
Taurus distributes itself slowly. Mercury at the first decan is the quick word that does not quite arrive in time, money troubled by missed timing. The Moon at the middle decan turns generosity into a tide — what is given is felt before it is named. Saturn at the last decan is patience sturdy enough to let the season finish; the Five-Six-Seven of Pentacles together describe what an earth sign actually does with money, mood, and time.
· Three decans ·
- 4/21 – 4/30MercuryFive of PentaclesMercury hesitating — the message that does not get through in time, body cold outside a lit window.
- 5/1 – 5/10MoonSix of PentaclesMoon in the middle of Taurus — generosity tuned to a quiet ebb and flow, the gift weighed by mood not law.
- 5/11 – 5/20SaturnSeven of PentaclesSaturn waiting — patience that lets the season finish, the gardener who does not tug at fruit.
Gemini
- · Dates ·
- 5/21 – 6/20
- · Element ·
- Air
- · Mode ·
- Mutable
- · Ruler ·
- Mercury
Gemini, the messenger sign, distributes itself across three thinking-states. Jupiter at the first decan inflates the picture until thought builds a cage too wide for any single decision. Mars at the middle cuts the mind in the dark, the wound that thought inflicts on itself. The Sun at the last brings daylight after the long mental night — the decision finally legible, the mind allowed to sleep.
· Three decans ·
- 5/21 – 5/31JupiterEight of SwordsJupiter widening the cage — thought builds a room large enough to lose the door in.
- 6/1 – 6/10MarsNine of SwordsMars in the dark — the mind cutting itself with what the day did not let it say.
- 6/11 – 6/20SunTen of SwordsSun after the storm — daylight on the field of what the night made; nothing more to fear because it has all already happened.
Cancer
- · Dates ·
- 6/21 – 7/22
- · Element ·
- Water
- · Mode ·
- Cardinal
- · Ruler ·
- Moon
Cardinal water gives Cancer a tidal arc. Venus at the first decan opens the meeting that is not yet a promise but is already a binding. Mercury at the middle warms a circle of friends with language — the cup raised in a room. The Moon at the last withdraws the cup into one's own tide, the moment a bond becomes interior. Two-Three-Four of Cups together are a small biography of intimacy.
· Three decans ·
- 6/22 – 7/1VenusTwo of CupsVenus opening — the first meeting that is not yet a promise but already a binding the body feels.
- 7/2 – 7/11MercuryThree of CupsMercury at the table — language warming a circle of friends, the cup raised in plural.
- 7/12 – 7/21MoonFour of CupsMoon withdrawing — the cup turned inward, sated and unsated at once, waiting for what has not yet been offered.
Leo
- · Dates ·
- 7/23 – 8/22
- · Element ·
- Fire
- · Mode ·
- Fixed
- · Ruler ·
- Sun
Fixed fire holds the heat at the centre of summer. Saturn at the first decan turns Leo's heat into the friction of held conflict — strife that is the season's interior temperature, not its external enemy. Jupiter at the middle inflates the heat into the homecoming victor whose return the city pours out to meet. Mars at the last narrows the heat into the hill defended with what is left — courage as a posture against attrition.
· Three decans ·
- 7/22 – 8/1SaturnFive of WandsSaturn in the lion's heat — strife that is the season's interior temperature, friction without true enemy.
- 8/2 – 8/11JupiterSix of WandsJupiter at the gate — the return the city comes out to meet, a homecoming larger than the deeds that earned it.
- 8/12 – 8/22MarsSeven of WandsMars defending — the hill held with what is left, courage as a posture against attrition.
Virgo
- · Dates ·
- 8/23 – 9/22
- · Element ·
- Earth
- · Mode ·
- Mutable
- · Ruler ·
- Mercury
Mutable earth distributes itself as three modes of patient work. The Sun at the first decan lights the apprentice catching her own light — the moment a beginner first feels the craft answer back. Venus at the middle cultivates the garden tended for its own pleasure rather than for harvest. Mercury at the last completes the legacy as a story finally told — the household whose accumulation has become legible to the next generation.
· Three decans ·
- 8/23 – 9/1SunEight of PentaclesSun on the bench — the apprentice catching her own light, the craft answering back for the first time.
- 9/2 – 9/11VenusNine of PentaclesVenus in the garden — pleasure tended for its own sake, sufficiency that does not need to be impressed by anyone.
- 9/12 – 9/22MercuryTen of PentaclesMercury at the threshold — the legacy as a story finally legible to the next generation.
Libra
- · Dates ·
- 9/23 – 10/22
- · Element ·
- Air
- · Mode ·
- Cardinal
- · Ruler ·
- Venus
Cardinal air begins the second half of the year with three faces of equilibrium. The Moon at the first decan does the blindfolded weighing — relationship under a lunar light, decision deferred to feel. Saturn at the middle deepens the weighing into sorrow as a structure that takes its own time. Jupiter at the last opens rest large enough to hold a whole campaign — the truce that is not surrender but the enlargement of the room.
· Three decans ·
- 9/23 – 10/2MoonTwo of SwordsMoon under the blindfold — equilibrium kept by refusing to look, two truths held until one chooses itself.
- 10/3 – 10/12SaturnThree of SwordsSaturn through the heart — sorrow as a structure that takes its own time, grief as the honest reading of what was always true.
- 10/13 – 10/22JupiterFour of SwordsJupiter resting — the truce large enough to hold a whole campaign, the body laying down the question for now.
Scorpio
- · Dates ·
- 10/23 – 11/21
- · Element ·
- Water
- · Mode ·
- Fixed
- · Ruler ·
- Mars
Fixed water holds depth without surfacing it. Mars at the first decan delivers the loss that arrives as a wound rather than a sigh — the cup spilled, the bond cut. The Sun at the middle warms the memory the season keeps after the loss; nostalgia as residual heat. Venus at the last pulls attraction into seven shapes at once — Scorpio's middle decade is famously the seven-cup decan of choice without sufficient information.
· Three decans ·
- 10/23 – 11/2MarsFive of CupsMars wounding — the loss that arrives as a wound rather than a sigh, the cup spilled and not yet looked behind.
- 11/3 – 11/12SunSix of CupsSun warming memory — nostalgia as residual heat, the season the body keeps after the season has turned.
- 11/13 – 11/22VenusSeven of CupsVenus refracting — attraction pulled into seven shapes at once, choice held in suspension by an excess of want.
Sagittarius
- · Dates ·
- 11/22 – 12/21
- · Element ·
- Fire
- · Mode ·
- Mutable
- · Ruler ·
- Jupiter
Mutable fire gives Sagittarius the long arc. Mercury at the first decan supplies the swift wits that move at thought-pace — eight wands in flight, the message faster than the messenger. The Moon at the middle stands the night-watch that has learned to read shadows — courage as endurance, not as charge. Saturn at the last carries the burden that follows the long arc to its end — the journey weighing what the journey was for.
· Three decans ·
- 11/23 – 12/2MercuryEight of WandsMercury in flight — speed at thought-pace, the message arriving before the messenger has caught its breath.
- 12/3 – 12/12MoonNine of WandsMoon on watch — the night-vigil that has learned to read shadows, courage as endurance not charge.
- 12/13 – 12/21SaturnTen of WandsSaturn under load — the burden that follows the long arc to its end, the journey weighing what it was for.
Capricorn
- · Dates ·
- 12/22 – 1/19
- · Element ·
- Earth
- · Mode ·
- Cardinal
- · Ruler ·
- Saturn
Cardinal earth begins winter with three faces of structure. Jupiter at the first decan opens the juggle that a wider horizon makes possible — the new year managing more than fits in two hands. Mars at the middle aligns force to craft — the apprentice's hand corrected by the master's. The Sun at the last is the gold one will not let move — security crystallized into something that fears its own loosening.
· Three decans ·
- 12/22 – 12/30JupiterTwo of PentaclesJupiter juggling — the wider horizon that makes the impossible balance possible, two coins kept up by a single laugh.
- 12/31 – 1/9MarsThree of PentaclesMars at the workshop — force aligned to craft, the apprentice's hand corrected by the master's.
- 1/10 – 1/19SunFour of PentaclesSun on the hoarded gold — security that fears its own loosening, treasure pressed into the chest plate.
Aquarius
- · Dates ·
- 1/20 – 2/18
- · Element ·
- Air
- · Mode ·
- Fixed
- · Ruler ·
- Saturn
Fixed air holds long-form thought. Venus at the first decan registers the harmony broken because the air went thin — the relationship that fails because the room got too small for it to breathe in. Mercury at the middle finds the right word for the journey ahead — the reluctant traveller offered language. The Moon at the last is the night-thought that takes back what does not belong — the inventory taken in the quiet.
· Three decans ·
- 1/20 – 1/29VenusFive of SwordsVenus thinning — harmony broken because the air went thin, the room too small to breathe relationship in.
- 1/30 – 2/8MercurySix of SwordsMercury at the ferry — the right word for the journey ahead, departure offered language to make it bearable.
- 2/9 – 2/18MoonSeven of SwordsMoon at the inventory — the night-thought that takes back what does not belong, retrieval done while the camp sleeps.
Pisces
- · Dates ·
- 2/19 – 3/20
- · Element ·
- Water
- · Mode ·
- Mutable
- · Ruler ·
- Jupiter
Mutable water dissolves the boundary at the year's end. Saturn at the first decan supplies the daylit leaving — the walk away from the cups one will not hurry to name as left. Jupiter at the middle is the wish honoured by all nine, completion that arrives full. Mars at the last is joy that has weathered fire — the family on the doorstep, the suit's last decan resolving in arrival rather than overflow.
· Three decans ·
- 2/19 – 2/28SaturnEight of CupsSaturn at the path — leaving by daylight what one will not hurry to name as left, the cups arranged behind without ceremony.
- 3/1 – 3/10JupiterNine of CupsJupiter granting — the wish honoured by all nine, the table laid for satisfaction that will not be kept secret.
- 3/11 – 3/20MarsTen of CupsMars in the rainbow — joy that holds because it has weathered fire, the family arranged on the doorstep of what was earned.
How to Read Decans in a Spread
First the discipline. The decans look like a calendar but they are a cosmology. The thirty-six date windows are the structure of the solar year, not of any querent's near future; reading them as a forecast is the same category error as reading a music score as a weather report. When the Three of Cups appears in a Tuesday's spread, the relevant fact is not that we are in the second decan of Cancer this week — it is that the card carries the warm-articulate-water register that decan describes. The decan tells you what the card is made of. The reading tells you where you are inside it.
Second, the use. A decan is a quality of unfolding. Mercury in Cancer II (the Three of Cups) and Saturn in Pisces I (the Eight of Cups) are not opposites in time; they are opposites in tempo. One is voice raised in a circle; the other is the quiet slipping out before anyone notices. When two pips land together in a spread, line them up by their decan-tempo and the reading often resolves on its own — the spread already knows whether it is asking the querent to gather or to leave, to brighten or to deepen, and the decan vocabulary lets you say it crisply.
Third, the sign-block. Each decan inherits the temperament of its sign. Cardinal decans (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) push the pip toward initiation; the card lands as a first move. Fixed decans (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) push it toward consolidation; the card lands as a holding pattern. Mutable decans (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) push it toward transition; the card lands as a handoff. A spread weighted toward one mode will sound that mode whether the question asked for it or not — and that information is part of the answer.
Fourth, the planet. Each decan also carries a Chaldean planet. Mars decans (Two of Wands, Five of Cups, Three of Pentacles, Nine of Swords, Seven of Wands, Ten of Cups) sound a martial note no matter what suit they sit in — direct, willed, sometimes wounding. Sun decans glow without trying. Saturn decans tighten the time horizon. Reading the planet across the suit collapses the difference between the four elements and shows the spread's psychological register, which is often the thing the querent actually wants named.
If you want this for timing reframes — turning "when?" into a question the deck can meet — the timing essay carries the practical templates and the editorial guard rails this page hands off to.
The decans are the deck's slowest layer. They move at the pace of the sun's apparent path, ten days at a time, and they were already being charted three thousand years before tarot existed. To read them well is to remember that a tarot reading is a small event inside a long cosmology, and that the cards on the table are also faces of a year that has been turning since long before the question was asked.