I Learned Something New: Astrology Decans and Tarot

As a lot of you know, I’m an astrology student and a tarot buff, so I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of decans and their corresponding tarot cards before. I saw it in mentioned in a few books, and I know the major arcana cards for each sign, but I didn’t get it for decans, or how it worked.

Until now.

If you’ve noticed in your own life, sun signs don’t behave the same way. It’s not just because there are other planets affecting their personality in their chart, their sun-traits are a little different (a May Taurus expressers their bullishness in a different way than April Tauruses, I’ve had conversations about October Scorpios vs. November Scorpios and March vs. April Aries).

Enter decans.

In Western Astrology (tropical system), think of the wheel as a 12-slice pie. Each sign-slice is further divided into ten degrees, 0-9, 10-19, 20-29 called decans. Each of these decans has a different ruling planet, and a different corresponding tarot card.

NOTE: Vedic Astrology has a similar thing with 27 lunar houses divided through the zodiac and those lunar houses divided into “padas.” I may do more articles on Vedic astrology as I learn more about it, but right now, Western astrology is more in my wheelhouse.

Remember when I said I had no idea how assigning tarot cards to decans worked, and when I saw cards referencing these minor arcana cards, I got confused? Recently, it came up again in a video I was watching last night, which included a chart like this:

Source: https://www.tarotica.net/the-minor-arcana.html – it also expands on decans and the minor arcana if you want to learn more about them. 

After seeing it, I finally got it.

Each season (spring, summer, fall, winter) has 9 decans. Instead of going 1-9 (since minor arcana cards have the court cards, plus ace-10), it only includes numbered cards 2-10. So at the start of Aries, the cards are 2-4 of Wands. Why wands? Wands are the element of fire.

Here’s where it can get confusing. You’d expect Taurus to have tarot cards 5-7, however, they’re 5-7 of pentacles (representing earth, since Taurus is an earth sign), not wands. So not only does each season start over at 2, the suit changes at 5 and 8, with the change into a new sign.

Each minor card gives you more specific insight into the aspect of a sign and can reveal extra strengths or weaknesses in your chart. My sun sign, Scorpio, is represented by the major arcana card Death (Scorpio is the sign of transformation and regeneration, symbolized by this card), but my decan is the 5 of cups. Aleister Crowley calls it “Disappointment”, I call it the “crying over spilled milk” card. It’s a myopic loss: obsessing over small losses while ignoring how far you’ve come and the gains you’ve made, or you wallow when you should be taking action (crossing the river pictured in the card). Combined with my moon in Libra’s decan (2 of swords, symbolizing “deadlock”), means I have trouble moving on and making decisions.

What do I do with this information? Does it mean I’m doomed to a life of pity parties and being indecisive? No! It just means I have to work extra hard not to fall into the trap of feeling sorry for myself and getting stuck between decisions. I can do this by forcing myself to take action. However, that usually only happens when the alternative becomes intolerable. Find a new job or keep being miserable. Leave for the unknown, or stay with a person, or in a place, or in a situation you hate.

A wise saying that I tattooed on a client is: change starts when you’ve had enough. In my experience, astrology and tarot have helped me forge a path and find my blind spots in order to do that. Decans and their tarot cards can help you break that down and I hope this article helped you make sense of this confusing, obscure part of astrology. Happy hooking and blessed be!