Opening The Key Spread: 36 Decanates
Fourth Operation: The Further Development of the Question
The 36 decanates of ten degrees each correspond to the pip cards of the Minor Arcana, excluding the Aces.
The instructions in the Golden Dawn manual require that the cards are shuffled and placed on the table without cutting. The diviner turns the pack face up and searches through the cards until the Significator is found. At this point the Significator and the cards beneath it are placed on top of the remainder. The Significator is placed upon the table, the Deck is turned over and the following 36 cards are dealt out in the order of the picture below.
Card counting commences from position 1, or Ascendant, in the direction of the cards laid out, which means that there is no potential change of direction when a court card is hit. The general rules of noting the majority or lack of a suit, and whether 3 or 4 cards of a sort are present. Once the counting has been completed, the cards are paired together, starting at 1st and 36th, 2nd and 25th, and so on.
The actual interpretation of the 36 positions is left unclear in the text. There are the traditional images of the Decanates derived from Egyptian sources, but these rarely have any use.
There are several candidates:
- Decanate card interpretations
- Goetic Spirits
- Enochian Great Cross in the Watchtowers
Another problem is exactly what the first position represents! We might think this position is 0° Aries (Two of Wands), but the Golden Dawn fixed the start of the Zodiac at 0° Leo, which would be Five of Wands. If we considered the House system, then positions 1-3 would be the first house, 4-6 the second house, and so on. It actually does not matter which zodiac is used elementally, since the first three positions would be fire, the next three earth, then air and finally water, repeating the sequence.
- Two of Wands - Mars: Innovation, passion, fearless
- Three of Wands - Sun: Ego, pride
- Four of Wands - Venus: Love, beauty, artistic ability
- Five of Pentacles - Mercury: Conscious awareness of surroundings, mental
- Six of Pentacles - Moon: Emotional and feeling orientated, domestic
- Seven of Pentacles - Saturn: Serious, disciplined, dutiful
- Eight of Swords - Jupiter: Optimistic, understanding, eager
- Nine of Swords - Mars: Scattered energy
- Ten of Swords - Sun: Individual, hedonistic
- Two of Cups - Venus: Love, collecting objects
- Three of Cups - Mercury: Brothers, sisters, sensitive to the environment
- Four of Cups - Moon: Feelings, home, sensitivity, changeable
- Five of Wands - Saturn: Disciplined, dutiful to lovers
- Six of Wands - Jupiter: Gambler, religious, exaggerates
- Seven of Wands - Mars: Passionate, adventurous
- Eight of Pentacles - Sun: Analytical or critical ego
- Nine of Pentacles - Venus: Perfection in love or beauty
- Ten of Pentacles - Mercury: Literary, conscious, meticulous mind
- Two of Swords - Moon: Feelings for the partner, sensitivity to art
- Three of Swords - Saturn: Duty to partner, disciplined in artistic expression
- Four of Swords - Jupiter: Expansive and generous to partner
- Five of Cups - Mars: Energy, passion, sexual pride, destructive energies
- Six of Cups - Sun: Ego domination, glory seeking
- Seven of Cups - Venus: Possessive in love, secretive liaisons
- Eight of Wands - Mercury: Conscious awareness, communicative
- Nine of Wands - Moon: Feeling lucky, or detached from the environment
- Ten of Wands - Saturn: Disciplined, scientific, religious
- Two of Pentacles - Jupiter: Ambition with integrity, big ideas
- Three of Pentacles - Mars: Ambitious, me first
- Four of Pentacles - Sun: Glory and status
- Five of Swords - Venus: Congenial friendships, beauty
- Six of Swords - Mercury: Creative mind, independence, nerves
- Seven of Swords - Moon: Erratic emotions, feelings for friends
- Eight of Cups - Saturn: Depressive, sacrifice for duty
- Nine of Cups - Jupiter: Spiritual, intellectually sensitive
- Ten of Cups - Mars: Secret actions or aggression, sensitive, passionate
The Chaldean system of ruling planets is ancient, and follows the traditional order of the days of the week. Note that many of the descriptions are close to the usual Tarot card interpretations, such as the Eight of Cups.
