All Posts (2 of 4)

Birth and death are the bread of life's sandwich, or perhaps the bookends of life's library, if you will (and you should). With the Sun ruling the second decan of Scorpio, we have the strikingly beautiful tableaux of the procession of life from cradle to grave--along with all the beauty and sweetness that happens in the middle.

Hoooo boy, what better way to usher in the decans of Scorpio than with Mars, the traditional ruler of Scorpio. While there have been a couple of grim tableaus so far in our decanic journey, nothing is quite so grim as the V of Cups with it's associated majors of the Tower (Mars) and Death (Scorpio).

Am I the only one perpetually confused by the association of Jupiter with the Wheel of Fortune? There's a lot of very tortured explanations on why this might be the case, but none of them really make sense to me. The Wheel of Fortune is about change, fate's ever shifting nature, the rise **AND FALL** of fortunes

In keeping with the theme of relatively easy to understand associations, Libra II brings together The World (Saturn) and Justice (Libra) resulting in the III of Swords. Saturn not only rules the second decan of Libra but is also generally exalted anywhere in Libra. I don't usually go for the whole Crowley "Lord of Blah" tarot card titles, but there is something kinda poetic in the description "Lord of Sorrow".

I know how much you all love nerding out about taking notes! If you missed the prior two videos I've done on this topic, they are linked below for your convenience. Taking good notes is a critical part of any practice so it's worth spending some time on.

Sometimes trying to understand the relationship between the decanic minors and the associated zodiacal majors (planet and sign) can be quite tricky, for example with the X of Swords in Gemini III which is enigmatically associated with the Sun and The Lovers. However, with the II of Swords it seems pretty straight-forward.

Kabbalah isn't really something I incorporate into my own practice. That's not to say I don't study it, or that I'm not aware of the impact it has on "western esotericism", it's just not a thing I **DO**. I don't do Kabbalah because it's not mine.

In the German language there isn’t really a direct translation for the English word “abundance”. Überfluss is probably the closest which literally translates to “over flow”. It’s the word you would use to describe a river that floods over the banks from too much rain water. The implication is mostly negative: having more than you need isn’t necessarily a good thing. There’s something of Überfluss in the IX of Pentacles.

When someone is good at something, and I mean REALLY good, it looks like the thing they are good at is effortless. When someone is so good at something that the thing they do is intrinsically a part of who they are, it seems impossible that they were ever not good at whatever that thing is. When we experience the output of someone at that level we often disregard the many hours of work it took to gain that level of mastery. "They must just have talent" we say. "I could do that too, if only I had the talent."

As I mentioned at the beginning of this whole decanic stroll thing, I've been using T. Susan Chang's book

Ah the sweet victory of Jupiter in Leo--just take it all in: fame, glory, and recognition for a superlative performance. The hard work and struggle of the V of Wands has finally paid off. You're the winner baby.

One of the many things I've learned so far in this whole decan walk thing is how weird it is to take the Gregorian calendar as the "truth" of how to track time. I wrote on this subject a bit back in my

If there's one card in tarot that I likely most resonate with most of the time, it's the IV of Cups. In fact, it's frequently my significator, even coming up randomly in friend's readings to indicate me. It's not just because my Sun, MC and Mercury are in Pisces and Cancer is my ascendant, it's also because I'm generally internally focused and sometimes oblivious to the important things going on around me.

Just a quick post to let folks know that there is [a new update for Urania](https://urania.app/news/one_oh_two_release/) which adds support for chart rotation, and that the lovely Reverend Erik and I [had another fun chat diving a bit deeper on nerdy magic+tech topics](https://arnemancy.com/articles/podcast/on-a-boat-with-captain-tres-henry/).

I'm behind on decan posts, as usual. But the good news is that after reviewing site stats, no one is reading these posts anyway! So who the fuck cares! The III of Cups is really one of my favorites. That's likely partly because it's a three, and I'm a three, but it's also just the magical energy and liveliness present in this card.

Hey, we're finally free of the horrors of Gemini and the VIII, IX and X of Swords! Phew. Bring on the relatively reasonable sign of Cancer and the suit of cups I say. The II of Cups seems like a relatively straight-forward card symbolizing productive and harmonious union in all it's forms. That is, of course, until one's eye wanders to the top of the card which features a lion's head

The tens in the minor arcana are all about endings and completions of a cycle. None of the tens are more viscerally final than the X of Swords though. That's some next-level final realness right there. Here's the description from A. E. Waite himself: "A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card.

Well, not that I'm not always behind on my decan posts, but this time I'm really not not behind. I blame a five week trip to the US to visit family and friends (and to get vaccinated thanks to the shitty vaccine roll-out in Germany). These three decans of Gemini are simultaneously infuriatingly difficult to parse while also intrinsically visceral.

The VIII of Swords in Gemini I is an interesting follow-on to the VII of Pentacles from Taurus III. With the VII of Pentacles we have to deal with the consequences of our prior actions and in the VIII of Swords we are basically in complete denial of the place we find ourselves in (due to the consequences of our prior actions).

I am so comically behind on my decan posts that I just can't even. CAN'T EVEN. Actually, I can even because being late is a thing that already happened as a result of poor past-me decisions. Which brings us to the VII of Pentacles, the minor associated with the third decan of Taurus. And just to really point out the lateness here, Taurus III was from May 10th to the 20th. It's now June 1.