The first decan of Scorpio: the Five of Cups.
Three are gone and the loss is real, and nothing here asks you to reframe it. The number he is feeling, though, is five. Two are behind him, upright, outside his eyeline, and the crossing is already built. You have not turned round yet.
Power draw Venus is on this card tonight. Venus moves on 25 October.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909. Scan in the public domain.
- 78cards
- 24spreads
- 36decans
- The Sun, now☉ 1.8° Libra, Two of Swords
A figure in a long black cloak, head down, seen from behind. Three cups lie spilled in the grass, two red and one green. Two more stand upright behind him. Beyond, a river, a bridge, a small keep on the far side.
The Golden Dawn gave the Five of Cups the first ten degrees of Scorpio, 0° to 10°, ruled by Mars in the Chaldean order, and Book T (1888) calls it the Lord of Loss in Pleasure. The Sun crosses it every year, about 23 October to 2 November; next from 23 October to 2 November 2026.
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 Five 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 Scorpio I
Birthdays from about 23 October to 2 November 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. Mars at home in Scorpio. The old reading is intensity that keeps score of what was lost, and rarely looks at what is left.
In the Golden Dawn's scheme a birth here carries four cards: the Five of Cups for the ten degrees themselves, the Lord of Loss in Pleasure; Death for Scorpio; the Tower for Mars; and the Knight of Cups, whose thirty degrees take this decan in.
Questions about Scorpio I
- Which tarot card is Mars in Scorpio?
- The Five of Cups, which Book T calls the Lord of Loss in Pleasure. The Golden Dawn gave it the first ten degrees of Scorpio, 0° to 10°, in 1888, which is the whole reason a numbered card can carry a date.
- What are the dates of Scorpio I?
- The Sun is in it about 23 October to 2 November every year, and next from 23 October to 2 November 2026. 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 Scorpio?
- Mars, in the Chaldean order Book T uses. The triplicity order, which most horoscope columns use, gives it Mars instead. Both are right in their own system; here are both orders for all thirty-six.
What is drawn on the Five 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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