The third decan of Pisces: the Ten of Cups.
You are behind them. Contentment, family, the thing having worked, and the card has put you at a distance from it, across a stream, with nobody's face turned your way. What you feel from back here is the actual reading.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909. Scan in the public domain.
- 78cards
- 24spreads
- 36decans
- The Sun, now☉ 1.8° Libra, Two of Swords
Ten cups arc across the sky in a rainbow. A man and a woman stand with their backs to you, his arm round her waist, their free arms raised. Two children dance to one side. Across a stream, a house with a red roof.
The Golden Dawn gave the Ten of Cups the third ten degrees of Pisces, 20° to 30°, ruled by Mars in the Chaldean order, and Book T (1888) calls it the Lord of Perfected Success. The Sun crosses it every year, about 10 to 20 March; next from 10 to 20 March 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 Ten 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 III
Birthdays from about 10 to 20 March 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 in Pisces. The old reading is feeling that fights for the household, and finds its whole strength there.
In the Golden Dawn's scheme a birth here carries four cards: the Ten of Cups for the ten degrees themselves, the Lord of Perfected Success; the Moon for Pisces; the Tower for Mars; and the Queen of Wands, whose thirty degrees take this decan in.
Questions about Pisces III
- Which tarot card is Mars in Pisces?
- The Ten of Cups, which Book T calls the Lord of Perfected Success. The Golden Dawn gave it the third ten degrees of Pisces, 20° to 30°, in 1888, which is the whole reason a numbered card can carry a date.
- What are the dates of Pisces III?
- The Sun is in it about 10 to 20 March every year, and next from 10 to 20 March 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 Pisces?
- 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 Ten 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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