The first decan of Capricorn: the Two of Pentacles.
Juggling is the usual word, and the picture is more exact than that. The two things are joined, and he is moving to keep them up. You are managing both of yours, and managing them well, and the thing that could tip them is not in your hands.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909. Scan in the public domain.
- 78cards
- 24spreads
- 36decans
- The Sun, now☉ 1.8° Libra, Two of Swords
He is dancing. A young man in a red hat twice the height of his head, two coins tied together by a green ribbon in a figure of eight, and behind him two ships climbing waves taller than their masts. He has not looked round.
The Golden Dawn gave the Two of Pentacles the first ten degrees of Capricorn, 0° to 10°, ruled by Jupiter in the Chaldean order, and Book T (1888) calls it the Lord of Harmonious Change. The Sun crosses it every year, about 21 to 31 December; next from 21 to 31 December 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 Two of Pentacles 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 Capricorn I
Birthdays from about 21 to 31 December 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. Jupiter in Capricorn, in its fall. The old reading is a juggler of two lives, both of them serious, both of them kept in the air.
In the Golden Dawn's scheme a birth here carries four cards: the Two of Pentacles for the ten degrees themselves, the Lord of Harmonious Change; the Devil for Capricorn; Wheel of Fortune for Jupiter; and the Queen of Pentacles, whose thirty degrees take this decan in.
Questions about Capricorn I
- Which tarot card is Jupiter in Capricorn?
- The Two of Pentacles, which Book T calls the Lord of Harmonious Change. The Golden Dawn gave it the first ten degrees of Capricorn, 0° to 10°, in 1888, which is the whole reason a numbered card can carry a date.
- What are the dates of Capricorn I?
- The Sun is in it about 21 to 31 December every year, and next from 21 to 31 December 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 first decan of Capricorn?
- Jupiter, 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 Two of Pentacles, 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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