The decan cards of the Tabula Mundi

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Nemia
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The decan cards of the Tabula Mundi

Post by Nemia »

One of the most special things about the Tabula Mundi is the addition of decan cards. If you buy the luxurious Babalon edition, the decan cards are included, but for people like me who have the regular edition, there's the possibility to buy the decan cards separately. (I LOVED the additional material M.M. Meleen included, but that's material for a different post!)

I want to introduce these decan cards here because they're the best example for the very intelligent, coherent and creative way Meleen built this deck.

What are the decans? We all know that the zodiac has twelve signs - each of them covers 30 degrees of the wheel of the year (12x30=360 degrees of the wheel). That's more or less ten days of each sign - the year has a bit more days than 360 ;-)

But if you're a Libra, you know that Libra starts on September 23 and ends on October 22. If you separate it into three decans, these are the dates:

Sept 23 - Oct 2nd: first decan
Oct 3rd - Oct 12: second decan
Oct 13 - Oct 22: third decan

Easy, isn't it? Now how are the decans different from each other?

Traditionally, each of the ten degree decans stands under the patronage of a different planet. And even in very ancient times, humans knew how to sort the planets and luminaries, which was closest to earth and which farthest. Everybody who ever watched the night sky over months, you can see that the far away Saturn moves very slowly from constellation to constellation, while you can see Venus and Mercury constantly in different positions. Already in ancient civilzations, the order of the planets according to speed and distance was:

Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon

I have a little mnemo to remember this sequence without thinking about it: SIMSUMM, like a bee's humming (J written as I and V written as U, of course like in Latin). I think of the solar system humming along :-)

So these planets move through the zodiac signs in this ancient order (called Chaldean order). Simsumm, simsumm, simsumm... running through the year.

The sequences starts with the beginning of the astronomical year - in the first decan of Aries. And it starts with Mars who feels at home in Aries. Now when you go simsumm, simsumm through the whole zodiac you will finish again with Mars in the last decan of Pisces. That means the year ends with Mars and starts with Mars - with a push of energy.

Was that explanation understandable? You can see the whole sequence in my own wheel:

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My small wheel (German) that's on my desk all the time.

I used this wheel from the Internet to make my own (can't remember the source!)

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And I made a larger, better looking wheel:

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which I use as focus of my tarot calendar.

So, these are the decans, and now we know that every zodiac sign has three decans, each under another planet.

The minor cards (2 - 10) of the tarot, as you can see on the wheel, are assigned to these decans, in accordance with their elementary correspondences.

All Wands minors are in Fire signs: Aries, Leo and Sagittarius

All Swords minors in Air signs: Gemini, Libra and Aquarius

etc.

We start again in Aries with the 2 of Wands, 3 of Wands, 4 of Wands. Fire cards in Fire sign!

Then we're in Taurus and continue with the 5 of Disks, 6 of Disks and 7 of Disks. Earth cards in Earth sign!

Next comes Gemini and we count on with the 8 of Swords, 9 of Swords and 10 of Swords. Air cards in Air sign!

And now we have to start with a 2 again - since we enter Cancer now, obviously we start with 2 of Cups.

Now you can notice a pattern.

The cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) are associated with the first cards, 2, 3 and 4 of their elementary suit. Cardinal signs usher in the new season - Aries brings spring, Cancer summer, Libra Autumn and Capricorn winter. It's the fresh, dynamic energy of change.

The fixed sign (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) are associated with the middle cards, 5, 6 and 7, of their elementary suit. Fixed signs rule the seasons in their peak, not a trace of the earlier or coming season can be felt. Taurus is the peak of spring, Leo of summer, Scorpio of autumn and Aquarius of winter.

The mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) are associated with the last three cards, 8, 9 and 10, of their elementary suit. Mutable signs carry already the energy of the next season - Gemini prepares the transit from spring to summer, Virgo from summer to autumn, Sagittarius from autumn to winter, and Pisces from winter to spring.

Anthony Louis in Beyond the Basics explains that much better than I do, but I hope it's clear enough! If you didn't know until now what the astrological sigils in the Thoth and other decks mean - this the solution. Crowley/Harris tell us the zodiac sign and the planetary ruler of each card. We're in the first decan of Libra right now, and the Moon rules this decan. That's what you see on the 2 of Swords card: Moon in Libra.

So there is a connection between the minors who belong to one zodiac sign.

No other tarot deck I know of adds decan cards that present the three minors together.

I'll post this introductory explanation now and will start to scan the decan cards :-)

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Nemia
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Aries

Post by Nemia »

Here is the Aries decan card, scanned with the three Aries/Wands minors:

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You can see these cards are "family". And no doubt that they belong to Fire!

Where do the symbols come from and what do they mean? Book M explains the symbols and you can find them yourself when you take a look at the planetary trumps.

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Aries is associated with the Emperor. You can see him in his fiery colours.

The three planetary rulers of the decans are Mars, the Sun and Venus. (Oh again I didn't sort the cards properly, re-arrange them in your heads please!)

Mars is associated with the Tower - the god of war and the disruptive power of the Tower.

Venus is associated with the Empress - the goddess of beauty and love and the feminine force of the Empress.

Sun is associated with the Sun - the vital force of warmth and light.

Mars/Tower influence the 2 of Wands.

Venus/Empress influence the 3 of Wands.

Sun/Sun influence the 4 of Wands.

And now let's take a look again at the decan card for Aries.

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It's like an abstract collage of Emperor symbols (ram's horns, rulers), seasoned with symbolism from the minor cards under the patronage of Mars, Sun and Venus.

If you have good eyes and patience, you can identify them all.

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CharlotteK
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Re: The decan cards

Post by CharlotteK »

I have the regular TM deck and can really appreciate the superior standard it offers in Tarot. I would like to expand my knowledge and abilities to get the best out of the deck as I don't have a Thoth background.

I'm intrigued by your work with the decans but I feel like a bear of little brain right now. Is there a primer or starter text you aware of that could help ease me in? I don't have much experience of astrology either!

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Re: The decan cards

Post by Nemia »

Oh, I thought I had written an explanation everybody can understand :icon_cry:

It's really easy.

Twelve zodiac signs, each of them partnered with a major.

Aries - Emperor, Taurus - Hierophant, Gemini - Lovers, Cancer - Chariot etc

Each of the twelve zodiac signs can be separated into three decans, each of them ruled by a planet (associated with a planetary major) and asociated with a minor card.

Planetary majors: Saturn - Word, Jupiter - Wheel, Mars - Tower, Sun - Sun, Venus - Empress, Mercury - Magician, Moon - High Priestess

You should know these correspondences, and also the basic characteristics of each zodiac sign.

We have four elements, each of them associated with three zodiac signs - and a minor suit.

Fire signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius WANDS

Earth signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn DISKS/COINS

Air signs: Gemini, LIbra, Aquarius SWORDS

Water signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces CUPS

The modalities (cardinal, fixed, mutable) are explained above.

It all works out beautifully. The magic of numbers. 12=3x4

Three modalities, each with four signs

Four elements, each with three signs.

Four seasons, each with three signs.

3+4=7

Seven planets.

That means each zodiac sign is unique.

Put it on a piece of paper, it's simply beautiful, the pulse of time and the skies.

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Aries minors, decans and their planetary rulers

Post by Nemia »

Now let's see how this all pans out, card by card.

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Two of Wands - Mars in Aries - that means the basic influence comes from the Emperor (Aries), and the Tower brings in the power of Mars.

Dominion is the name of this card, it's powerful, aggressive, a strong push that opens the astronomical year. Spring is rushing in, the assertion of light and new energies.


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The Sun is the ruler of the next card, the 3 of Wands. The power of the sun is strong but much more harmonious, less disruptive than Mars/Tower. Do you see the ram's horns in this card? The sprout from the Emperor's head, and they're Aries, the Ram's, symbols.


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After Mars and the Sun comes Venus in the Chaldean order, that means: Venus rules the second minor card in Aries, Venus rules the 4 of Wands. Venus - the Empress - beauty and harmony.

Do you see the beehive in the Emperor's card? The hive is the structure, the frame, the house for the bees. The active bees and honey appear on the Empress. The angular ruler on the Emperor appears on the Four of Wands, too.

Can you see why I love this deck with all my heart?

I always say it reminds me of a tightly, smoothly weaved cloth. You can't pull out a thread, each of them is needed. There is no "oh let's put a symbol here or there" - each symbol has its raison d'etre, and each echoes in other cards, too.

And I didn't even open Book M! Book M is a wonderful text, rich like a pomegranate. I'll open it later - I want to show here the fascinating texture of the deck.

So all these cards are present in Aries and the first Wands cards.

The Emperor/Aries influences all three small Wands minors, and then each Aries decan is influenced also by a planetary ruler.

Was that clear enough?

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Re: The decan cards

Post by Barleywine »

Interesting that you brought this up now, since I just created a new "weekly blueprint" spread and I'm using the Tabula Mundi to test-drive it this morning. (I will be posting the results of each day's pull on my blog to demonstrate the spread.) I'm using both the decan correspondences on the card and the planetary character for the day. For example, today is the "Moon" day of the week, and when I laid out the "situational blueprint" for the week last night, the 4 of Cups (Moon in Cancer) came up for Monday, reversed. It's a nice validation of Yoav Ben-Doav's mantra: "Everything is a sign."

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Taurus

Post by Nemia »

Here is the decan card of Taurus:

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and here are the decan card and the three minors associated with Taurus:

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You can see on the decan card the sigils of the three planets ruling the Taurus decans:

Mercury, Moon and Saturn

(we went from far away to close to Earth with Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon - and then start the Chaldean order again with faaar away Saturn)

Mercury rules the 5 of Disks, the Moon 6 of Disks and Saturn 7 of Disks.

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But let's see which major is associated with Taurus - it's the Hierophant.

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That's not an intuitive fit like Aries and the Emperor.

Taurus is the bull, one of the dominant constellations in the sky, it's the fixed sign of spring and associated with Earth, and Taurus is ruled by Venus as goddess of earthly love - all this says sensuality, down-to-earth beauty and all the other things Taurus is associated with.

The Hierophant is neither spring nor sensuality - but he has the Taurus respect for tradition, stubbornness, and a belief in continuity. So there is a partial fit, and much depends on the cards surrounding Hierophant whether he will bless and celebrate with Venus/Taurus, or judge and resist change with Taurus/Earth/Pope.

The planets that rule Taurus minors (Mercury, Moon, Saturn) are associated with majors, too: Mercury with the Magician, Moon with the High Priestess and Saturn with the World.



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Chaldean order and weekdays

Post by Nemia »

Barleywine wrote: 25 Sep 2017, 07:31 Interesting that you brought this up now, since I just created a new "weekly blueprint" spread and I'm using the Tabula Mundi to test-drive it this morning. (I will be posting the results of each day's pull on my blog to demonstrate the spread.) I'm using both the decan correspondences on the card and the planetary character for the day. For example, today is the "Moon" day of the week, and when I laid out the "situational blueprint" for the week last night, the 4 of Cups (Moon in Cancer) came up for Monday, reversed. It's a nice validation of Yoav Ben-Doav's mantra: "Everything is a sign."
Oh yes, the Chaldean order is the backbone of our week.

Image

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Put the planets in the Chaldean order in a circle, inscribe a seven pointed star, and when you follow it, you get our week.

SUNday, MOONday, TUES(Mars)day (based on the Germanic god of war), Wednesday/MERCredi (Mercury), THURS(Thor is Jupiter)day, FRI(Freya is Venus), SATUR(n)day.

It all works out, it all works out. Our ancestors knew it all, we forgot it, tarot can remind us.

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Taurus minors with planetary rulers

Post by Nemia »

So now let's look at the three minor cards associated with Taurus, with their planetary rulers.

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Here we have my birth decan (I'm born in very late April), the first decan of Taurus. It is ruled by Mercury, and the card associated with Mercury is the Magician. Five is a difficult number (for kabbalistical reasons), and you can see how the positive, dynamic power of the Magician as DJ can't get anything done in earthy Taurus. The stagnating, dissatisfied energy turns into worry, the feeling of powerlessness.

There is also an inner conflict between the instable nr. 5 and the staying power of the fixed signs - the same is true for the Sevens, and we see difficult Fives and Sevens everywhere in the tarot. No matter which planet rules.

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If you could see how Mercury and Taurus don't really get warm with each other, you can see in the second decan how happy a union can be! The moon is exalted in Taurus (meaning it feels at home there even if it doesn't rule; every zodiac sign has a ruler and exalted planets that feel at home there, and also planets that are in detriment there, i.e. feel horribly there).

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The Pomegranates come from the High Priestess (associated with the moon as planet in astrology), but they also appear in the Empress - who rules Taurus. The two keys are symbols of the pope and the Hierophant. You can see the Sun and the Moon and the Earth. There is cosmic harmony and the wonderful renewal of spring.

As we saw with Taurus and Hierophant, the cards and astrology don't always fit ideally.

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The couple Saturn and the World is another example. Saturn is nearly always negative as influence in the decans - the leaden pressure (lead is the Saturnine metal) of this slow planet doesn't let the energies flow freely.

But the World is a beautiful card with a mostly positive influence in readings.

Seven disks is a difficult card (again, also kabbalistical reasons) but incorporates symbols from the World/Universe card. The beautiful tetramorph heads that are active depictions of the four fixed constellations of the sky (one of the details I love most in the whole deck) turn into threatening masks.

I'll have to finish for today, but I hope you can see how RICH this deck is.

And I didn't even crack open the book! It answers all your questions and explains what you sees.

I see the Tabula Mundi as study guide and psychopomp into the world of esoteric teachings.

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Re: The decan cards of the Tabula Mundi

Post by Charlie Brown »

Study aside, have you used the extra decan cards at all for readings?
Charlie Brown
—“I’ve developed a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time.”

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