♎ Libra · 10 to 20 degrees
The second decan of Libra
Libra under Saturn, which is exalted in this sign: judgement rather than agreeableness.
At a glance
| Degrees | 10 to 20 degrees of Libra |
|---|---|
| Face ruler (Chaldean) | Saturn |
| Decanate ruler (modern) | Aquarius (ruler: Uranus, and Saturn traditionally) |
| Golden Dawn card | Three of Swords |
| Element and modality | air, cardinal |
Saturn is exalted in Libra and the tradition reads this decan as the sign at its most principled: fairness held to even when it costs something, and a standard applied to yourself as well.
Associated with the sober end of relationship and with commitments that hold.
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 Saturn. 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 Saturn means →The tarot connection
The Golden Dawn mapped the 36 decans onto the 36 minor arcana pips, two through ten. This decan is the Three of Swords, which is why that card carries Saturn and Libra 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.
Three 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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