The second decan of Scorpio: the Six of Cups.
This is the card of the past, and the past in it is sweet. The flowers were grown, not picked wild, and they sit in a cup instead of a drink. The wall is stone and the gate is open. Somebody was kind to you inside a wall like that, and it cost more than you saw.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909. Scan in the public domain.
- 78cards
- 24spreads
- 36decans
- The Sun, now☉ 1.8° Libra, Two of Swords
Inside a walled courtyard, a hooded figure hands a child a cup of white flowers. Six cups, flowers in every one. Behind them a tower, roofs, and a small figure with a pike leaving by the gate.
The Golden Dawn gave the Six of Cups the second ten degrees of Scorpio, 10° to 20°, ruled by the Sun in the Chaldean order, and Book T (1888) calls it the Lord of Pleasure. The Sun crosses it every year, about 2 to 12 November; next from 2 to 12 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 Six 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 II
Birthdays from about 2 to 12 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. The Sun in Scorpio. The old reading is loyalty to the past, and a memory that gives old things back with both hands.
In the Golden Dawn's scheme a birth here carries four cards: the Six of Cups for the ten degrees themselves, the Lord of Pleasure; Death for Scorpio; the Sun for the Sun; and the Knight of Cups, whose thirty degrees take this decan in.
Questions about Scorpio II
- Which tarot card is the Sun in Scorpio?
- The Six of Cups, which Book T calls the Lord of Pleasure. The Golden Dawn gave it the second ten degrees of Scorpio, 10° to 20°, in 1888, which is the whole reason a numbered card can carry a date.
- What are the dates of Scorpio II?
- The Sun is in it about 2 to 12 November every year, and next from 2 to 12 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 second decan of Scorpio?
- The Sun, 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 Six 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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