♊ Gemini · 20 to 30 degrees
The third decan of Gemini
Gemini with the Sun: the intelligence given a centre and something to be about.
At a glance
| Degrees | 20 to 30 degrees of Gemini |
|---|---|
| Face ruler (Chaldean) | Sun |
| Decanate ruler (modern) | Aquarius (ruler: Uranus, and Saturn traditionally) |
| Golden Dawn card | Ten of Swords |
| Element and modality | air, mutable |
The solar face pulls the Gemini mind towards expression rather than accumulation. The tradition reads writing, performance and teaching that is enjoyed as much as done.
Read as the most settled of the three Gemini faces, which is a relative statement in a mutable air sign.
Two systems, two answers
There are two decan rulership systems in circulation and they give different rulers for the same ten degrees. The older face system runs the seven classical planets in Chaldean order around the whole zodiac, and gives this decan to Sun. The modern decanate system gives each decan to one of the three signs of its own element, here Aquarius.
Neither is presented here as the correct one. The tarot attributions follow the face system, most popular modern astrology follows the decanate system, and knowing which one a source is using explains most of the apparent contradictions you will find elsewhere.
What Sun means →The tarot connection
The Golden Dawn mapped the 36 decans onto the 36 minor arcana pips, two through ten. This decan is the Ten of Swords, which is why that card carries Sun and Gemini as its attributions in any Golden Dawn-derived deck.
The pips run by modality rather than in zodiacal order: the cardinal sign of each element takes two to four, the fixed sign five to seven, and the mutable sign eight to ten. It is the detail most often got wrong, including by us until a test caught it.
Ten of Swords on Memento Arcana →Which decan are you?
Your decan is decided by the degree of your Sun, not by the date alone, and the chart gives you the degree of every planet as well.
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