The first decan of Pisces: the Eight of Cups.
What he is leaving was not a failure. The cups are well made and stacked with care, and the only thing wrong with them is the gap. He is not looking back. The moon is. If you are leaving something that works, the card does not think you owe anybody an account of it.
Power draw the Moon is on this card tonight. Moon moves on 24 September.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909. Scan in the public domain.
- 78cards
- 24spreads
- 36decans
- The Sun, now☉ 1.8° Libra, Two of Swords
Eight cups stacked five along the bottom and three above, with a gap where a ninth would sit. A figure in a red cloak walks away uphill, past a dark crag. A moon with a face watches him go.
The Golden Dawn gave the Eight of Cups the first ten degrees of Pisces, 0° to 10°, ruled by Saturn in the Chaldean order, and Book T (1888) calls it the Lord of Abandoned Success. The Sun crosses it every year, about 18 to 28 February; next from 18 to 28 February 2027.
Why this card can carry a date
A decan is a third of a sign, ten degrees of the zodiac, and there are thirty-six of them around the year. The Golden Dawn gave one to each numbered card, so every numbered card is also a place on the calendar, and when the Sun, the Moon or a planet is inside those ten degrees the card is, in an old and literal sense, in season. All thirty-six are listed here, and where the Sun is today is computed on the server so anyone can check it.
The Sun spends about ten days in each decan every year. The Moon passes through each one for under a day, roughly once a month. Mercury and Venus run close to the Sun; Mars, Jupiter and Saturn move slowly, and can sit on one card for weeks or months. What this site prints about the Eight of Cups is computed at the minute you read, so it can be checked against any ephemeris, and it stops being printed the hour it stops being true.
Born with the Sun in Pisces I
Birthdays from about 18 to 28 February fall in this decan. The boundary moves by a day or so from year to year, which is why the birth card page works from an ephemeris and not a table. Saturn in Pisces. The old reading is a seeker who can walk away from a good thing because it is not the whole thing.
In the Golden Dawn's scheme a birth here carries four cards: the Eight of Cups for the ten degrees themselves, the Lord of Abandoned Success; the Moon for Pisces; the World for Saturn; and the King of Cups, whose thirty degrees take this decan in.
Questions about Pisces I
- Which tarot card is Saturn in Pisces?
- The Eight of Cups, which Book T calls the Lord of Abandoned Success. The Golden Dawn gave it the first ten degrees of Pisces, 0° to 10°, in 1888, which is the whole reason a numbered card can carry a date.
- What are the dates of Pisces I?
- The Sun is in it about 18 to 28 February every year, and next from 18 to 28 February 2027. The boundary moves by a day or so from year to year, so a birthday on the edge can fall either side; the birth card page settles it from an ephemeris rather than a table.
- Who rules the first decan of Pisces?
- Saturn, in the Chaldean order Book T uses. The triplicity order, which most horoscope columns use, gives it Jupiter instead. Both are right in their own system; here are both orders for all thirty-six.
What is drawn on the Eight of Cups, and the four things people go to on it. Draw a card and if this is the one that turns, the reading will say which body is on it. The sky, and why a card here can carry a date.
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