Posts Tagged "Decan Walk"

And here we are, at the end of our decanic journey: Pisces III. It's been a long, and a short, time. A lot has happened in the world over the last ecliptic year. Things have changed, and other things have stayed the same. Although the things that stayed the same are just on a longer change cycle. Like how Jupiter is slower to move across the sky than Mars.

In the penultimate position of our year long decan walk, we find Jupiter in the land of Pisces, and it's a damn beautiful thing. Jupiter is the traditional ruler of Pisces, and Jupiter also rules the second decan of Pisces. It's just a whole lot of radiant Jupiter up in here. Can I get an amen? Now let the music play.

We have arrived at last in the final sign of the zodiacal year: Pisces. I'm publishing this post on my birthday, which happens to fall in the last degree of Pisces I, which is ruled by Saturn.

"Shrewd but flawed by overthinking or excessive complexity, with a resulting tendency to be unreliable or unsuccessful." Nowhere in the suit of swords are the machinations of the mind more obviously folly than in the VII. The necessary resourcefulness of the VI has turned into outright brazen shenanigans.

Sometimes the best thing you can do in a situation is just get the hell out. Sometimes things are just so borked that you have to pack up your family, your belongings, and take the leap of faith to head for greener pastures.

I'm writing this post from a lovely cabin on the Præstø Fjord in Denmark. We are here for Jake's birthday which is in a couple of days (in Aquarius II, in fact). There are a couple of consequences to me being at this location related to this post: 1) I'm on vacation so kinda short posting, and 2) I didn't bring my AT deck (only my compact RWS), so no AT photo this time.

What happens when the Devil is supercharged with the radiant power of the Sun? Conspicuous consumption—the dominant western paradigm—that's what. If you have ever felt a flash of rage when you realize that you can't have something you want, then you know the power of the Devil's radiant chains.

A bit of a meta-observation with this whole decanic tarot journey thing: you sometimes learn more about a card when the associated majors are in stark contrast than you do when they are symbolically aligned. In this case we have the III of Pentacles bookended by the Tower and the Devil. Which might, on the surface, look like utter nonsense.

In my experience of reading cards for others (which I no longer do and haven't done for years) the II of Pentacles is most likely to catch the attention of the sitter and usually results in a comment like: "that's exactly how I feel!" It's one of those on-the-nose cards where the image is more exoteric then esoteric (though it does have its secrets).

Here at the end of Sagittarius, and at the end of the suit of wands, we are left to deal with the weight of the consequences of our choices. The X of Wands is a good reminder that having solid boundaries and saying "no" are critical life skills. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Take on only what you really intend to carry all the way to the finish line.

Something I have learned over the past two years of this ongoing pandemic is that we (people in general) have a lot more resolve than we thought we did. No card in the RWS captures resolve like the IX of Wands.

Anyone that picks up a RWS deck as their first tarot is likely to be entirely flummoxed by the VIII of Wands. What the hell is even going on in this image? A bunch of sticks flying through an open sky, or maybe just floating there? There's no visual indication of motion so we are just left with this still life of floating sticks.

If there's a tarot card that captures my state of mind since the start of the pandemic, it's the VII of Cups: escapism, illusion, and way too much drinking. I imagine that the figure in the foreground is wearing sweat pants. Although, who can say what pants they are wearing because they are pictured from the waist up, like every person on a Zoom call. Maybe the cups and clouds background is one of those conf call backdrops designed to hide the fact that you didn't make the bed this morning and there's piles of dirty clothes everywhere.

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".

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.

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.

Well, I seem to be forever behind on my decan walk posts, surprising no one. We are already nearly half way through Taurus III and I'm just now writing about Taurus II. This whole decanic journey is proving to be a bit more intense than I was anticipating.

We are nearly half-way through Taurus II and I'm still trying to process what happened in Taurus I. Pamela Colman Smith's fantastic art for the V of Pentacles really captures the mess. We got very difficult family health news toward the end of Taurus I. Given the adverse health events often associated with the V of Pentacles, this all lines up pretty well.

It's really kinda terrifying how fast 10-ish days go by. It's not like there wasn't a lot going on, it just doesn't feel like 10 days of goings on (or 12 really because I'm late getting this post out, surprising no one). We have now moved into Taurus I, which means it's time for the Aries III retrospective.

Woo howdy, these decans are flying by aren't they? We have entered Aries III which means it's time for the Aries II retrospective. Part of what I'm discovering with this decan walk through the perspective of the tarot minors, is an on-the-ground practical experience of the card paired with the decan.

The sun just moved into 10° Aries which means we've just left the decan of Aries I, and have entered Aries II. As such, and in keeping with my decan walk plans (and hopefully not annoying everyone with too-frequent updates), here are my thoughts about Aries I:

Whoo damn! It's been a while since the last HoD update. Such is the cycle of things I suppose, particularly when one has, let's say, attention span problems. This may be a fairly short update as I mostly just want to share my decan walk plans and give you some pointers if you would like to pursue something similar.