Ten degrees at a time
The Thirty-Six Decans
Each sign divides into three ten-degree faces. Every face has its own planetary ruler and its own minor arcana card — the oldest bridge between astrology and tarot.
Your own decans
Browse by sign
0°–10° Aries
♂ Mars
Two of Wands
Dominion
Aries in its first face borrows raw initiative — you start before the room is ready.
When the decan runs badly it shows as heat spent on the wrong opponent.
Read the card10°–20° Aries
☉ Sun
Three of Wands
Established Strength
Aries in its second face borrows visible confidence, and the willingness to be seen trying.
When the decan runs badly it shows as performance standing in for substance.
Read the card20°–30° Aries
♀ Venus
Four of Wands
Perfected Work
Aries in its third face borrows ease, taste and the ability to make a thing worth wanting.
When the decan runs badly it shows as peace bought at the price of honesty.
Read the cardAll thirty-six at a glance
| Decan | Ruler | Card | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| ♈ Aries 0°–10° | ♂ Mars | Two of Wands | Dominion |
| ♈ Aries 10°–20° | ☉ Sun | Three of Wands | Established Strength |
| ♈ Aries 20°–30° | ♀ Venus | Four of Wands | Perfected Work |
| ♉ Taurus 0°–10° | ☿ Mercury | Five of Pentacles | Material Trouble |
| ♉ Taurus 10°–20° | ☾ Moon | Six of Pentacles | Material Success |
| ♉ Taurus 20°–30° | ♄ Saturn | Seven of Pentacles | Success Unfulfilled |
| ♊ Gemini 0°–10° | ♃ Jupiter | Eight of Swords | Shortened Force |
| ♊ Gemini 10°–20° | ♂ Mars | Nine of Swords | Despair and Cruelty |
| ♊ Gemini 20°–30° | ☉ Sun | Ten of Swords | Ruin |
| ♋ Cancer 0°–10° | ♀ Venus | Two of Cups | Love |
| ♋ Cancer 10°–20° | ☿ Mercury | Three of Cups | Abundance |
| ♋ Cancer 20°–30° | ☾ Moon | Four of Cups | Blended Pleasure |
| ♌ Leo 0°–10° | ♄ Saturn | Five of Wands | Strife |
| ♌ Leo 10°–20° | ♃ Jupiter | Six of Wands | Victory |
| ♌ Leo 20°–30° | ♂ Mars | Seven of Wands | Valour |
| ♍ Virgo 0°–10° | ☉ Sun | Eight of Pentacles | Prudence |
| ♍ Virgo 10°–20° | ♀ Venus | Nine of Pentacles | Material Gain |
| ♍ Virgo 20°–30° | ☿ Mercury | Ten of Pentacles | Wealth |
| ♎ Libra 0°–10° | ☾ Moon | Two of Swords | Peace Restored |
| ♎ Libra 10°–20° | ♄ Saturn | Three of Swords | Sorrow |
| ♎ Libra 20°–30° | ♃ Jupiter | Four of Swords | Rest from Strife |
| ♏ Scorpio 0°–10° | ♂ Mars | Five of Cups | Loss in Pleasure |
| ♏ Scorpio 10°–20° | ☉ Sun | Six of Cups | Pleasure |
| ♏ Scorpio 20°–30° | ♀ Venus | Seven of Cups | Illusionary Success |
| ♐ Sagittarius 0°–10° | ☿ Mercury | Eight of Wands | Swiftness |
| ♐ Sagittarius 10°–20° | ☾ Moon | Nine of Wands | Great Strength |
| ♐ Sagittarius 20°–30° | ♄ Saturn | Ten of Wands | Oppression |
| ♑ Capricorn 0°–10° | ♃ Jupiter | Two of Pentacles | Harmonious Change |
| ♑ Capricorn 10°–20° | ♂ Mars | Three of Pentacles | Material Works |
| ♑ Capricorn 20°–30° | ☉ Sun | Four of Pentacles | Earthly Power |
| ♒ Aquarius 0°–10° | ♀ Venus | Five of Swords | Defeat |
| ♒ Aquarius 10°–20° | ☿ Mercury | Six of Swords | Earned Success |
| ♒ Aquarius 20°–30° | ☾ Moon | Seven of Swords | Unstable Effort |
| ♓ Pisces 0°–10° | ♄ Saturn | Eight of Cups | Abandoned Success |
| ♓ Pisces 10°–20° | ♃ Jupiter | Nine of Cups | Material Happiness |
| ♓ Pisces 20°–30° | ♂ Mars | Ten of Cups | Perfected Success |
In short
Every ten-degree decan of the zodiac with its Chaldean planetary ruler and Golden Dawn tarot card, plus the decans of your own chart from your birth details.
- The Chaldean sequence never resets at a sign boundary — that is why it looks arbitrary until you write it out in a line.
- If a card title contradicts the sign's reputation, trust the card. Ten of Swords in Gemini is still ruin, however clever the sign is.
- Decans are also a fast way to memorise the minors: thirty-six cards, thirty-six faces, one planet and one sign each.
- Solar-decan birthdays — the first day of a face — often behave like a sign change even when the sign is unchanged.
36
Decans
10°
Each face
7
Rulers
36
Matching cards
The decans are older than the zodiac signs that contain them. Egyptian astronomers of the Middle Kingdom tracked thirty-six star groups that rose in sequence through the night, each governing roughly ten days of the year — the original decanal clock, painted on coffin lids so the dead could tell the hour.
When Hellenistic astrology absorbed Egyptian material, those thirty-six divisions were mapped onto the twelve signs as ten-degree faces. Two rulership schemes survive: the Chaldean order, which walks the seven visible planets in speed sequence, and the triplicity scheme used by later Arabic and medieval writers.
The tarot link is Victorian. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn assigned each decan to one of the thirty-six numbered minor arcana from Two to Ten, and gave each card a title — Dominion, Strife, Victory. Those titles are why the Rider–Waite–Smith minors look the way they do.
Questions Readers Ask
What is a decan?
A ten-degree slice of a zodiac sign. Each sign has three, giving thirty-six decans across the zodiac, each with its own planetary ruler.
How do I find my decan?
Take the exact degree of your Sun. Zero to nine degrees is the first decan, ten to nineteen the second, twenty to twenty-nine the third.
Which tarot card matches my decan?
Each decan carries one minor arcana card from Two to Ten — for example the first decan of Aries is the Two of Wands, 'Dominion'.
Do decans matter more than signs?
No. They are a second layer of detail. Read the sign, then let the decan sharpen the tone.
What changes an astrology interpretation?
A sign description is only one layer of a chart. The planet describes the symbolic function, the sign its style, the house the area of life, and aspects its relationship with other placements. Read these layers together rather than treating a single placement as a complete personality assessment. Astrology is an interpretive tradition, not a scientifically established method of prediction.
Birth time and location matter especially for the Ascendant and houses. If the time is unknown, avoid firm house interpretations and check whether the Moon changed signs that day. Different house systems and tropical or sidereal zodiacs can produce different results; compare charts using the same settings before assuming one is wrong.
Turn a reading into a question you can check against experience. Instead of concluding that a transit guarantees a job change, ask which responsibilities are changing and what practical options you have. Keep decisions about health, money and relationships grounded in evidence and direct conversations.
As a worked example, Venus in a sign offers a symbolic style of relating, while its house points to an area where that theme is explored. An aspect to Saturn might be interpreted as a contrast between affection and responsibility. Write down both possibilities before selecting one: dependable care, or excessive caution. The chart alone cannot decide which describes your life.
Does this interpretation still fit when I consider the whole chart and my actual circumstances?