Study And Discuss Tarot Decanate System

[DanielJUK]

I've moved this old and informative Decans thread into the Esoteric area where it fits better for reference info, as requested by @fire cat pickles 

[Andrea_Luna]

oh thanks Universe i came across this thread... i have gotten into the complicated (for me) world of assossiation of golden dawn tarot, three of life, sephira, 22 paths, AND astrology... 

i have the minors all written down on a chart.. but im getting grey hairs with the court cards and their zodiac sings.. starting from the fact i found different sources listing for example all 4 kings as Earth element (earth/each suit), and other sources have them as Air element... or knights as fixed sings, others classify them as mutable. So that already is causing me trouble xd 

 

[Barleywine]

Here's a bit of Golden Dawn heresy. Recently I took a stab at putting the three "modern" (aka "trans-Saturnian") planets on the GD's Chaldean zodiac by replacing two instances of Mercury with Uranus, two instances of Mars with Pluto, and one instance each of Venus and Jupiter with Neptune. I based this on modern rulerships and exaltations. Although I'm now a traditional "seven-planet" astrologer and don't use those planets in my practice, I thought it would be interesting to see what I could come up with similar to efforts to put them on the Tree of Life. It seems astrologically sound and largely fits the Thoth minor-card meanings as explained in the essay. I'm thinking of mentally substituting them when I read; for example, Uranus in Aquarius as the ruler of science seems ideally suited for the Thoth 6 of Swords.
 

[Scandinavianhermit]

I'm in a hurry, but I just wanted to write, that the GD correspondence system of decanates and cards isn't the only one available. There's also the Papus one, the one suggested by Aaron Leitch, and the one suggested by Christine Payne-Towler. The Oxford comma is intentional. 

[Shaira]

On 8/30/2023 at 3:28 AM, Andrea_Luna said:

oh thanks Universe i came across this thread... i have gotten into the complicated (for me) world of assossiation of golden dawn tarot, three of life, sephira, 22 paths, AND astrology... 

i have the minors all written down on a chart.. but im getting grey hairs with the court cards and their zodiac sings.. starting from the fact i found different sources listing for example all 4 kings as Earth element (earth/each suit), and other sources have them as Air element... or knights as fixed sings, others classify them as mutable. So that already is causing me trouble xd 

 

 

Hi there - if I understand it correctly, the dual zodiacal associations for the Kings, Queens, and Knights (not Pages) are *both* right. Basically, a Knight rules over the first two decans of a Mutable sign (so, Pisces in the case of the Knight of Cups, say), *plus* he also rules over the last (third) decan of the *previous* astrological sign, which is Fixed, so the third decan of (Fixed) Aquarius again the case of the Knight of Cups. 

 

For me it took a bit of getting used to, but it provides a wonderful sense of psychic movement to each court card, especially when you consider the Minor Arcana which each of the decans is associated with. 

 

Take the Queen of Cups, for example. She "rules" the first 2 decans of Cancer, a Cardinal sign, but she's also associated with the final, third decan of the previous sign, Gemini, which is a Mutable sign. The Minor arcana associated with those decans are as follows:

 

Third decan of Mutable Gemini: 10 of Swords, the Lord of Ruin

First decan of Cardinal Cancer: 2 of Cups, the Lord of Love

Second decan of Cardinal Cancer: 3 of Cups, the Lord of Abundance

 

So, now you have a whole psychic movement encapsulated in the Queen of Cups and represented by those three Minor Arcana. The Queen has faced ruin; she has pulled herself back together through love; and now she basks in emotional abundance. No wonder she's an exemplary and inspirational figure of compassion!

 

All of the Kings, Queens, and Knights seem to work this way. It's an extra dimension or layer of detail you can draw on, and personally I find the emotional / psychic movement or development conveyed by the three-decan structure to be really compelling. 🙂

 

Blessed be,

 

Sarah