The second decan of Libra: the Three of Swords.
Sorrow, plainly. What is unusual is the absence of anybody to blame. The card gives you the injury and withholds the scene, and that is a mercy of a kind: nobody in this picture has to be forgiven before you are allowed to hurt.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909. Scan in the public domain.
- 78cards
- 24spreads
- 36decans
- The Sun, now☉ 1.8° Libra, Two of Swords
A heart, three swords through it, a grey cloud behind, rain in straight lines across the whole card. No figure, no landscape, no room. It is the plainest picture in the deck.
The Golden Dawn gave the Three of Swords the second ten degrees of Libra, 10° to 20°, ruled by Saturn in the Chaldean order, and Book T (1888) calls it the Lord of Sorrow. The Sun crosses it every year, about 3 to 13 October; next from 3 to 13 October 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 Three of Swords 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 Libra II
Birthdays from about 3 to 13 October 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 exalted in Libra. The old reading is a nature that takes fairness seriously enough to be hurt by it.
In the Golden Dawn's scheme a birth here carries four cards: the Three of Swords for the ten degrees themselves, the Lord of Sorrow; Justice for Libra; the World for Saturn; and the Queen of Swords, whose thirty degrees take this decan in.
Questions about Libra II
- Which tarot card is Saturn in Libra?
- The Three of Swords, which Book T calls the Lord of Sorrow. The Golden Dawn gave it the second ten degrees of Libra, 10° to 20°, in 1888, which is the whole reason a numbered card can carry a date.
- What are the dates of Libra II?
- The Sun is in it about 3 to 13 October every year, and next from 3 to 13 October 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 Libra?
- Saturn, in the Chaldean order Book T uses. The triplicity order, which most horoscope columns use, gives it Saturn instead. Both are right in their own system; here are both orders for all thirty-six.
What is drawn on the Three of Swords, 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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