The third decan of Cancer: the Four of Cups.
Nothing in this picture has gone wrong. That is the difficulty with it. The three cups have not failed, they have stopped registering, which is quieter and much harder to take to anybody for sympathy. Nothing has to have gone wrong for you to have stopped noticing it, and that is the uncomfortable part of where you are.
Power draw Mars is on this card tonight. Mars moves on 28 September.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909. Scan in the public domain.
- 78cards
- 24spreads
- 36decans
- The Sun, now☉ 1.8° Libra, Two of Swords
Under a tree, arms folded, legs crossed, a young man looks down at three cups in the grass. A fourth is held out of a cloud at his eye level. He has not raised his eyes.
The Golden Dawn gave the Four of Cups the third ten degrees of Cancer, 20° to 30°, ruled by the Moon in the Chaldean order, and Book T (1888) calls it the Lord of Blended Pleasure. The Sun crosses it every year, about 12 to 23 July; next from 12 to 23 July 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 Four 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 Cancer III
Birthdays from about 12 to 23 July 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. The Moon at home in Cancer. The old reading is deep feeling with a tide in it: full, then withdrawn, then full again.
In the Golden Dawn's scheme a birth here carries four cards: the Four of Cups for the ten degrees themselves, the Lord of Blended Pleasure; the Chariot for Cancer; the High Priestess for the Moon; and the Knight of Wands, whose thirty degrees take this decan in.
Questions about Cancer III
- Which tarot card is the Moon in Cancer?
- The Four of Cups, which Book T calls the Lord of Blended Pleasure. The Golden Dawn gave it the third ten degrees of Cancer, 20° to 30°, in 1888, which is the whole reason a numbered card can carry a date.
- What are the dates of Cancer III?
- The Sun is in it about 12 to 23 July every year, and next from 12 to 23 July 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 third decan of Cancer?
- The Moon, 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 Four 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.
← Three of Cups · Cancer: Two of Cups · Three of Cups · Four of Cups · Five of Wands →