The first decan of Leo: the Five of Wands.
Five people swinging and nobody hurt is not a fight. It is a room where everybody is talking at once, which makes it noise and cost rather than damage. Whatever this is costing you in time and attention, nobody in it is bleeding, and you can stop counting it as a war.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909. Scan in the public domain.
- 78cards
- 24spreads
- 36decans
- The Sun, now☉ 1.8° Libra, Two of Swords
Five young men on one mound, five staves crossing at every angle. Not one blow is landing. Every tunic is a different colour, nobody is in uniform, and nobody has fallen down.
The Golden Dawn gave the Five of Wands the first ten degrees of Leo, 0° to 10°, ruled by Saturn in the Chaldean order, and Book T (1888) calls it the Lord of Strife. The Sun crosses it every year, about 23 July to 2 August; next from 23 July to 2 August 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 Five of Wands 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 Leo I
Birthdays from about 23 July to 2 August 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 Leo, in its detriment. The old reading is pride that has to be earned in a contest, and a birth that keeps picking one.
In the Golden Dawn's scheme a birth here carries four cards: the Five of Wands for the ten degrees themselves, the Lord of Strife; Strength for Leo; the World for Saturn; and the Knight of Wands, whose thirty degrees take this decan in.
Questions about Leo I
- Which tarot card is Saturn in Leo?
- The Five of Wands, which Book T calls the Lord of Strife. The Golden Dawn gave it the first ten degrees of Leo, 0° to 10°, in 1888, which is the whole reason a numbered card can carry a date.
- What are the dates of Leo I?
- The Sun is in it about 23 July to 2 August every year, and next from 23 July to 2 August 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 Leo?
- Saturn, in the Chaldean order Book T uses. The triplicity order, which most horoscope columns use, gives it the Sun instead. Both are right in their own system; here are both orders for all thirty-six.
What is drawn on the Five of Wands, 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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