Leo I: Grand Melee

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 post on the astrolabe. The standardization of the Gregorian calendar and down-to-the-nanosecond accurate clocks has decoupled our understanding of the passage of time from the natural phenomenon around us (for the most part). The Gregorian calendar is the right hand man of capitalism and patriarchy. It's not all bad: its accuracy makes it possible to refer to events in the distant past. The problem is that it has become a weapon of oppression.

Tracking time by observing the movement of the sun through the ecliptic has opened a some interesting doors for me. It has inspired a bunch of research and a new project to create my own lunisolar calendar, specifically to break free of the tyranny of the Gregorian calendar in my practice and to re-situate my understanding of time in the natural movement of the sun and the phases of the moon. What does this have to do with the first decan of Leo and the V of Wands? Well, it's all about struggle. Struggling against the constraint of industrialized time tracking seems like a very Saturn in Leo thing to do.

I will be sharing my ideas on working with a lunar or lunisolar calendar as part of a magical practice in a future post. I've got a few ideas but they have to duke it out first to see who wins.

The V, VI, and VII of wands (the minors for the three decans of Leo) remind me of playing Wall Ball as a kid in the 6th grade. We religiously kept track of the turn order over the course of the week, and it was a big deal. We played every recess. It was a real struggle to fight your way to the front of the line (V of Wands) but if you did you were SUPER COOL (VI of Wands). Getting to that front spot felt great, but then you had to keep the position by consistently fending off all the other kids that were just as hungry for that glory (VII of Wands).

Most of what I learned in school I learned at recess.