Seven of Disks, Taurus 3 decan, Telos Tarot of 777
Taurus decan 3, in which warm and loving Venus is frustrated by cold indifferent Saturn…”Phase I, in which Doris gets her oats.”
Sign ruled by Venus
Decan ruled by Saturn
Sevens ruled by Venus’
Triplicity ruler Saturn
The image described in Crowley’s 777 for Taurus decan 3 is a challenging one: “A swarthy man with white lashes, his body elephantine with long legs; with him, a horse, a stag, and a calf.” I gave him a scythe for Saturn, which makes him look even more elephantine by its placement. It is also an obvious combination of Saturn and Venus/Empress (ruler of Taurus), the cutting of the grain.
The word “elephantine” is interesting, as while of course it means “like an elephant” I figured it probably had an additional archaic meaning. And when I investigated it, it does, for it also means very large in size, and “ponderously clumsy.” Ponderous suggests a great weight – the burden of Saturn ruling the decan. I suppose one might be clumsy if one was both enormous and long-legged as well as old enough to have white lashes.
I suppose another meaning of “white lashes” could also be scars – it would fit, though is more Martial, as the Taurus 3 decan has associations with bindings, fetters, and slavery. But I chose the other meaning of white eyelashes as I saw him as an old farmer (Saturn, ruler of the decan both in triplicity and Chaldean systems) working the Earth (Taurus, and Venus, ruler of both Taurus and Sevens).
frost pattern Taurus 3 decan image
Where I live, the last frost date now falls near the end of this decan.
The Hermetic title of the Seven of Disks card is Lord of Failure, or originally in the Golden Dawn system, Success Unfulfilled. Crops fail, due to blight or frost. Indeed, against the black background there are patterns that look like frost crystals, or spores. The farmer, to ensure survival, must have a Plan B! This is where the horse, stag, and calf of the description come into play. If his crops (Taurus) fail; does he harvest and replant? Is there still time (Saturn)? The horse in the disk representing his thought-bubble is pulling a plow, perhaps he can plant again. If that fails though, he might have to hunt for food this winter (the stag in the snow) and/or kill off his cattle to eat in the spring (his calf in spring grass). Otherwise, he might die – the skeletons.
Yet the skeletons also represent the Litai, the gods per the 36 Airs of the Zodiac fragment, which you will read about in the section on the gods of the decan in the upcoming book. The seven Litae goddesses shown praying here among the disks are not just old and lame, but skeletal, fitting the Saturnian theme. They alternately could stand in for the Pleiades and Hyades – each a group of seven sisters associated with the decan, and with weeping.
[And now, a word from our sponsor: Plan B is a birth control pill for termination (Saturn) of any possible pregnancy (Venus) after unprotected sex. In some countries, it has a more humorous name: After-D! And now, back to our regularly scheduled program.]
The Ptolemaic god per 777 is Apophis, terrible serpent associated with darkness and natural disasters, who assailed the solar barge in an eternal battle of darkness and light. He is sometimes pictured being dismembered.
RWS image: A man pondering his potato crop that appears to be potentially blighted.
Thoth image: leaden disks marked with Saturn symbols, surrounded by either blighted or frosted plants
Tabula Mundi image: an artistic depiction of the “Tree of Life After the Fall” diagram or the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden, used in the Golden Dawn teachings for the Philosophus grade (Netzach, sphere 7)
Rosetta image: the Minotaur trapped in an underground maze
Each of these shows failures, disasters, and bindings. But what I like about the Telos Tarot of 777 Taurus 3 decan image is that is also shows a way out and ways to cope through thorough preparationand a mature response to the unforeseen, as well as an appeal to higher powers.
This is the Part II update for the Taurus 2 decan which began with the prior post. This decan has been really great so far, and it is only halfway through.
We found this statue above in a pile of composted leaves at the start of the decan. I think it is Joseph holding lilies in one hand and baby Jesus in the other?
The baby seems to be holding a blue globe like the earth! It seems very Six of Disks anyway: found in compost (Earth), holding lilies (Lily is both Venus, ruler of Taurus, and lunar, ruler of the decan), holding a globe (Earth/Disks/Taurus), and Jesus, because all such avatars like Jesus and Buddha are associated with Tiphareth and the Sixes.
So far there have been many markers of the Success associated with the Taurus 2 decan and the Six of Disks:
The seedlings I started back in Aries 2 are the best seedlings I’ve ever grown so that was a success just realized now. I finally got a lot of things right this year, and they are as healthy or healthier than any I’ve ever purchased. So some money savings there and a feeling of satisfaction.
All the brassica seedlings got planted in the garden, mulched, and covered. Plus got in some seeds of root crops (Taurus) carrots and beets.
The weather has co-operated by being overcast and perfect temperature-wise on transplant day, then giving a steady rain at the end of the day. Rain looks to continue for several days here, which is actually perfect for both the transplants settling in and the seeds germinating. Could not ask for a better set up for Success! Also reminds me of the Horae, goddesses of the decan per 36 Airs of the Zodiac, who control timing. The timing for this was perfect!
Prior to the rain though, the first days of the decan were absolutely glorious! The flower bulbs are up, the trees and beginning to leaf, and the fruit trees are flowering, with no frost in sight so fingers crossed for good fruit production this year.
Put out some oranges and the same day the orioles arrived.
Also saw the first hummingbird of the year and put out the hummingbird feeder.
The bats arrived back to their bat house, right around the start of the decan I saw the first guano pellet and knew they had just arrived! I think it was on Beltane or Beltane eve maybe.
Attended a birthday party for three Taurus children of various ages. I shopped at a vintage store for them and got some random and strange yet perfect things that were really well received. The party was also fun, with many friends in attendance.
Also at the vintage store, picked up a garden statue of a gargoyle reading a book – which seems to have hints of both the Hierophant (Taurus) and the Priestess (Moon) as they both often have books.
The Ptolemaic god per 777 is Helitomenos, possibly associated with Helios (solar sixes), and the bounds of sacred spaces. I put the gargoyle in the yard in an area where I have an outdoor crystal garden, which is on a boundary of the property and is one of my sacred spaces.
Heard from some good friends at a distance that they are going to be able to travel to visit us this fall, which was happy news.
Made plans, got tickets for some fun music events in the near future, which isn’t something we do very often but now there seem to be many all at once coming!
Did shopping for the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday (Moon) and ordered my Mom a generous package of Six large flowering bushes she wanted for her yard.
Got a pot with six Lithops (living stones plants); like six little disks
Bought a bunch of edible flower seeds to start.
Decided to combine Star Wars Day with Cinco de Mayo and after a long day of planting, had an awesome Mexican meal and margaritas served in Star Wars action figure Tiki glasses. It was fun!
Boba Fett Tiki glass: May the Fourth be with you, and Happy Cinco De Mayo to those who celebrate!
Here is a little more about those enigmatic Ptolemaic Egyptian gods in 777, like the Helitomenos of this decan. In a German tome on the decans there are some interesting delineations for each decan, giving the same Ptolemaic gods for the decans as seen in 777. The common source appears to originate from a poem written in the first century AD, that was lost and rediscovered, published in several works in the 1400s. It was also reviewed and published in a work dating to the 1500s, and then the list of gods was also published in Paul Christian’s History and Practice of Magic in 1870.
But I also suspect Crowley could have discovered this information through the work of an English scholar and poet and contemporary of Crowley who published the poem in Crowley’s time, sometime between 1903 and 1930. They shared common connections as poets, both open to homosexuality in conservative times, and through the college where Crowley was educated in the 1890s.
Crowley could also have gotten them from the British Museum’s copies of a text by a Hellenistic Egyptian astrologer, or via one of the works of the 1400s, as mentioned above.
I have more about it in the upcoming book with the names and info for all the related works; it is too much data for here.
Under the section for the Ptolemaic gods of each decan, it gives an image and predictions for those born in each decan. I’m translating these and including them in the book I’m working on because they are very interesting.
In this case, for the Taurus 2 decan and Helitomenos, it says “figure of a rider with a flag in his hand. The child will have luck in war and be elevated by honorary positions.” It sounds very solar – see the RWS Sun card, with the child on horseback carrying a flag.
art for the Prince of Disks, from Telos Tarot of 777
Going back to work now. More to do on the book, and time to start some edible flower seeds. See you in the next decan, Taurus 3!
Sun has crossed over into Taurus Decan 2. The decan is ruled by the Moon, which is exalted in Taurus. There is also an influence of the Sun, as a six, and Venus, ruler of the sign. Overall a pleasant combination, resulting in the Six of Disks, Lord of Material Success.
It’s Beltane Eve, tomorrow is the cross-quarter holiday Beltane aka May Day. It is the halfway point between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice, in the Northern hemisphere. Here the trees are budding, the fruit trees are beginning to flower, and spring bulbs are up. Weather is incredibly gorgeous so far. I’m trying to get in the celebratory mood, but my energy is a bit low at the moment. Maybe it will kick in tomorrow.
This is a card of appreciating what you have. Reflecting on that helps, when I’m feeling down. I feel better already just taking that moment of gratitude.
Telos Six of Disks. Magical image of the decan per 777: A man of like figure with cloven hoofs like an ox.
Note “of like figure” probably is referring back to the figure in the first decan of Taurus, in her flame-singed garb.
The Hellenistic fragmentary text 36 Airs of the Zodiac attributes the Horae to this decan. The Horae were goddesses of proper timing – thus their name referring to “hours.” In some cases, they were a group of twelve who oversaw the hours of the day and the months of the year; these guided the path of Helios through the sky. In other cases, they were in groups of three.
There were actually a few different triads and groupings of Horae. The three seasonal goddesses were associated with Aphrodite (Venus) and Helios (Sun). They oversaw the revolutions of the constellations measuring the agricultural year: Thalo of Spring, Auxo of Summer, and Carpo of Autumn. These are shown by the three phases of a blooming Rose (flower of Venus) in the lower disks.
The other common triad of Horae are associated with law and order contributing to stability: Eirene (Peace), Dike (Justice), and Eunomia, (Good Order and Good Pasture). The three upper disks contain emblems of this triad.
In the top disk, Eirene (Peace), has iconography of the overflowing cornucopia, the celebratory rhyton of ale, and the scepter. Her iconography also seems very Taurean and Venusisan.
Dike (Justice) is shown as the disk with the balancing scales of Justice, which is a symbol of Venus’ other sign Libra. The scales are also featured in the Rider Waite Smith Six of Pentacles card, as the scales that measure out the proper amount of alms, while the figure altruistically shares the bounty with those less fortunate.
The third upper disk shows an open book for Eunomia, Order – a goddess whose name refers to “good laws” – and makes a pun on “fields” for the agricultural motif. The open book also is a symbol of the Priestess, for the Moon as ruler of the decan.
In both the Rosetta deck (above) and the Telos image, there are references to bees and honey. Bees are both solar and lunar, and Venusian.
For your celebrations, should you celebrate, a Beltane cake recipe follows, because cake is ruled by Venus and Taurus loves food. Three ingredients in proportions that relate to each other in parts of three.
Eggs, which correspond to Venus. Honey, which corresponds to both Venus and the Sun, and flour, which has connections to both Venus and the Moon.
If you are inspired to ritually prepare the cake, all the better. The preparation of prasad or blessed food makes the cake a sacred offering that spiritually nourishes the preparer as devotee, and blesses and unifies bonds between those who partake of it. I share more about how to do that in the chapter for this card, but didn’t want to make this post too long. Your intention and good will put into the preparation counts for a lot. Food made with love is always better!
Threefold blessing honey cake
325F oven. 7” generously buttered springform or cake pan (butter corresponds to the Moon!)
· 3 large cold eggs
· 1/3 cup local honey
· 1 cup (128 g) all-purpose flour
You will also need a sprig of fresh rosemary and some additional honey for drizzling.
Beat the eggs and honey until they triple in volume. A mixer at high speed will do this in about ten minutes. Sift in half of the flour and very gently fold into the whipped egg and honey mixture without deflating it. Only mix until the flour is not visible. Then sift in the rest of the flour and fold it in. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Surface will be lightly brown and an inserted toothpick will come out cleanly.
Take your rosemary sprig, break it up a little and put it in a pan with honey covering it, enough to be able to drizzle the entire surface of the cake. Warm the honey until it is infused with the rosemary scent, remove the rosemary and drizzle the honey over the cake before serving. Cut into 6 slices and share with others!
Rosemary is the secret ingredient, as it is ruled by both Venus (Taurus) and the Moon, ruler of the decan. It is a powerful herb of love, growth, wisdom, and protection. It is believed to have originated from the goddess Aphrodite (Venus), who emerged from the sea and rested on a bed of rosemary.
Be thankful for your food daily, bless it before consuming it, and be thankful to the cooks and the farms and the farmers and the earth that produced it. Doing this before every meal, and blessing what you eat, is one of the best things you can do for your spiritual and physical health. Heath is wealth, and one form of material success is surely good health.
Toast your good fortune and health with a celebratory libation served with the honey cake. When you are blessed with material success and resources, share when you can. This will help others but also create the effect of more abundance for you, because of the feedback loop that occurs from giving generously to others. Even when done in small ways, this practice will ensure that your blessings continue.
New Moon in Taurus 1 today, so thought I’d jot down some quick notes for Part II of the Taurus 1 decan which started here, how it is going, reflections, etc. We are about three-quarters through the decan, give or take.
It has been quite busy, lots of work. Here is my view, which sort of resembles the scene in the Telos Five of Disks as I took it from above looking down at some of the garden. Without going up with a drone I cannot capture all the garden beds, but part of the largest one can be seen on the right, and part of a big one on the left, and some little ones, and some not at all. We like plants and making food, but it creates a lot of work.
But it hasn’t been all gardening.
There are other projects being shepherded along, and reflections on the theme of “Worry” in general. Speedy Mercury colliding with the more inert sign of Taurus creates resistance, a sort of grinding of the mental gears where one can fall into the trap of overthinking things.
The Mercury dance here is this: it does help to think and to plan for the future, using your Mercury to alleviate worries for your various material prospects and projects. Until it turns into the strangling feeling of Worry, when thinking (Mercury) is no longer your friend, and just plodding along doing what needs to be done, (Taurus) is the solution. Doing, and creating motion from inertia, is also a function of the Fives and Geburah. (On a humorous note, spell check wants me to change Geburah to Vegeburger! Um, no. Mars (Fives/Geburah) with Taurus is more likely to be a beef burger.)
So some examples of my own these last few days include:
Instead of worrying that it is the wrong moon phase for planting, being the dark waning quarter, we decided to plant potatoes anyway, for practical reasons like a) now is when we have time and b) it was about to give a good, soaking rain. I think of potatoes as a very Taurus-y food – I’ve never met a Taurus Sun or Taurus Moon who didn’t love potatoes! Plus we planted Five kinds of potatoes, which seems to fall into Five ofDisks category.
Instead of worrying that the band won’t like the design I’ve done for their new song single, I’ve just gone ahead and done it and just finished it up so I’m even a few days ahead of their May 1 deadline. I also made a couple different versions of the same design in different color schemes, so they can choose what suits them. Mercury likes choice! Even though they offered to pay I’m giving it to them as a gift, so why worry? And chances are they are going to like it, as it came out exactly as I told them the idea was, which they liked. Will be sending it off to them later today or tomorrow.
Instead of worrying that the tons of little seedlings I’ve started were looking scraggly and crowded, I took the time to patiently transfer hundreds of little tangled plants into larger containers over several days, and given them a good dose of some kelp. This way, by the time we can put them in the garden in the next decan, they will be stockier and (hopefully) able to survive. Weather dependent, which is something beyond my control so why worry?
Instead of worrying that my new mandrake seedlings won’t be happy living under the indoor light set up I had, I invested $100 into a better one. I can always use that better light set up for seedlings next year, as I’ve been laboring under a homemade MacGuyver set up with cheap lights zip tied to some foam board, all balanced on yoga blocks. Money well spent.
Instead of worrying that the book I’m writing for Telos and the decans is becoming far too big, as in I won’t be able to afford to print something this large, I’m just keeping going, adding what I want to add. I can always edit it down later, or save some material for a future book. Instead of stressing about how it will be received, I just keep working. Get the thoughts down, then be more selective and practical later and do some cutting.
But sometimes, Worry arises when there is nothing you can actually do. Like some important financial documents (Taurus=finances/Mercury=documents) recently mailed, still not arriving and showing nothing good happening on their tracking. Mail being excruciatingly slow is definitely a Mercury-Taurus manifestation. Cannot do a darn thing about that, for the moment anyway, but hope that it turns out ok and they won’t need to be recreated and sent again.
In cases where there is nothing you can do, it is best to turn that shit off and stop thinking about it. No sense in losing sleep over something you cannot take action on. That’s why the overheating machine on the Five of Disks in Rosetta has an off switch!
Rosetta Tarot Five of Disks, Taurus 1 decan
Speaking of taking action, I was reminded today that the fifth element of Spirit, as shown by the egg/cracked seed in the central or fifth disk of the Telos Five of Disks, is cognate with the fifth power of the Sphinx, which is “To Go.” Someone in the Decan Walk club on the Tarot Tea and Me forum had asked a question about the Thoth Hierophant and what was on the Horus child’s foot. They thought it was a nail, which certainly would fit for Vau, the Hebrew letter for the Hierophant (Taurus), meaning “nail.” But I think it is supposed to be the ankh sandal strap, referring to the fifth power Ire, To Go.
Since this is a Taurus card, an Earth sign, and a Five (fifth power, Hierophant’s V, etc) , it makes sense that the way to power through the earthly inertia and struggles of Material Worry that come up with this card is to just go forth and do your Will. I thought it was a cool synchronicity that I saw that after writing the examples above of doing just that.
It makes me think of the Stele of Revealing, and the HRU hieroglyph there, meaning “coming forth by day” or going forth to do your will amongst the living.
The end lines, the last third of the text on this side of the Stele read:
“the deceased Ankh-f-n-khonsu has left the multitudes and rejoined those who are in the light, he has opened the dwelling-place of the stars (the Duaut); now then, the deceased Ankh-f-n-khonsu has gone forth by day in order to do everything that pleased him upon earth, among the living.”
Crowley’s poetic paraphrase of the same:
The dead man Ankh-f-n-khonsu Hath parted from the darkling crowds, Hath joined the dwellers of the light, Opening Duaut, the star-abodes, Their keys receiving. The dead man Ankh-f-n-khonsu Hath made his passage into night, His pleasure on the earth to do Among the living.
The Five of Disks, Worry, first decan of Taurus, from Telos Tarot of 777.
Magical image of the decan in 777
A woman with long and beautiful hair, clad in flame-coloured robes.
The Sun just entered the first decan of Taurus (April 20th this year).
True to form, for me the first decan of Taurus, the Five of Disks, is all about planning and preparing for planting, plus other planning type scenarios unrelated to planting. We are tilling and weeding garden beds today, deciding what goes where, and worrying about previously planted seeds and seedlings started. Are they thriving, or declining? Do we already need to replant while there is still time? Etc.
I’m a big gardener, so maybe this metaphor does not apply to you literally, But it still might figuratively. The spring is progressing, and in the next decan we hit a crucial point, the cross-quarter holiday Beltane. This decan is in preparation for that. But I also see how I am having to worry and plan for metaphorical seeds as well as literal ones.
My mandrake seeds came up – a notoriously finicky plant I now have to learn how to grow successfully in this climate, which is right on the edge of a zone it can overwinter in, so it will be tricky. I can worry about deciding whether to grow them in pots or risk it outside.
It has been very busy, tilling, transplanting, planting more seeds, replanting previously planted seedlings that were struggling into new pots, planning the garden. But it has also been about continuing writing the book, planning the formatting and deciding when the book will come out.
…and I got a request to design an album cover, or really a design for a song single as people don’t do full albums now as much. I don’t normally take requests and commissions like that but I want to do that one, for reasons. All at once I have a ton of things to Worry about, or at least to consider and plan for. Doing the art is another type of planning and dividing a space.
Picatrix image and significations
A woman with curly hair, who has one son wearing clothing looking like flame, and she is wearing garments of the same sort. Plowing, working on the land, sciences, geometry, sowing, building
Henry Cornelius Agrippa image and significations (Three Books of Occult Philosophy)
A naked man, an archer, harvester or husbandman. To sow, plough, build, people, and divide the earth, according to the rules of geometry
Giordano Bruno image (DeUmbris Idearum)
Someone naked, ploughing, wearing a hat of woven straw, of dark complexion, followed by a rustic or a woman sowing seed.
Varahamihira Vedic image (Brihat Jataka)
A woman with torn ringlets, pot bellied, with fiery clothes, hungry and thirsty, with a penchant for gold and food.
Raphael image and significations
A book, a young man tilling of the ground. Plowing, sowing, building, peopling houses of learning and wisdom in the Earth, and so learning in Geometry.
Ibn Ezra image (The Beginning of Wisdom)
A woman with hair, who has a son, and who wears clothes partly burnt.
Liber Hermetis
It has the whole body of the buried Osiris, adorned with gold and dark tie-strings. It has the head of a bull and a queen’s crown and two elephants’ trunks. In the middle of the horns stands the goddess herself. This rules the climate of the Medes.
The Hierophant (Taurus) from Pharos Tarot
The Five of Disks, first decan of Taurus, is known as the Lord of Material Trouble, or Worry. The sign is Venus-ruled Taurus, the decan ruler is Mercury, and Fives are associated with Geburah, corresponding to Mars.
In the RWS, two barefoot vagrants in raggedy clothes trudge through a snowstorm past a church window. In the Thoth deck, five leaden gears grind against each other, sparking in an inverse pentacle formation. In Tabula Mundi Tarot, the turntable set up of the Magus (Mercury) is locked up by the Hierophant’s (Taurus) lock and key. The electronics are smoking, with five broken records on rotation.
In my Rosetta deck, five gauges show a mercurial machine on the brink of implosion.
Here is another take, a new image for the Five of Pentacles or Disks in the Telos Tarot of 777.
In the Northern Hemisphere, this decan is when we begin to till our gardens and plan and seed our first plantings. We see this agricultural theme in the decan descriptions. Note how many of them mention planting and plowing, as well as dividing the land via geometry.
We wonder: will our seeds bear fruit? We worry: will the weather be conducive or destructive for our harvest? Will there be enough to eat?
In this image the five disks bear the symbols of the five elemental Tattvas. In each is a particular potential elemental agricultural calamity. The triangle of Fire shows the hot sun and drought baking the earth. The circle of Air shows a cold and harsh wind blowing. The crescent of Water shows a flooded field. The square of Earth shows a devouring locust. The central dark egg of Spirit shows a cracked seed. The energy of the Five (Mars/Geburah) cracks open the land and the seed, but will this cracking mean it has successfully sprouted and will grow, or will it perish?
The decan is ruled by Mercury. Mercury is a mathematician. The disks surround a set of Golden Mean calipers, a geometric measuring gauge that divides according to the Golden Ratio. In Agrippa’s image, a husbandman, also known as a farmer or tiller, “goeth forth to sow, plough, build, people, and divide the earth, according to the rules of Geometry.” Many of the decan images speak similarly of related themes.
The image is first based on Crowley’s decan description in 777, but also incorporates ideas from other decan description texts. Per 777: A woman with long and beautiful hair, clad in flame-coloured robes. The Ibn Ezra description mentions a woman with clothes partly burnt, while Picatrix likens her clothes unto fire.
The woman here has long and beautiful hair (Venus) and wears the flame-like and singed garments (Geburah/Mars). The color for Geburah in Assiah is Red, flecked Black, which is appropriate both for her singed clothing, and for tilled earth. She is perched on a pillar that looks much like a rusted iron nail, emblematic of both Mars (iron) and Taurus, whose card the Hierophant corresponds to the Hebrew letter Vav, meaning nail. She looks down upon a pastoral scene where the earth has been geometrically divided, for Mercury, ruler of the decan. Men and women plow and plant.
36 Airs of the Zodiac gives the deity of the decan as Charis (“Charity”), representing the youngest of the Charities or Three Graces of mythology. Charis was also named Aglaea, and was an attendant of Aphrodite (Venus, ruler of Taurus). After Aphrodite’s husband, the blacksmith god Hephaestus, left her due to her infidelity with Ares (Mars), it is said Hephaestus married Aglaea. Perhaps this is why the woman of this image has clothes described as burnt.
The Ptolemaic deity per 777 is Serapis – more to come on him, but it certainly fits.
For Taurus I, Serapis, Gundel’s decan book Dekane und Dekansternilder (written in German, but I’m puzzling through it) has this entry: “Figure goading an ox and carrying a gnomon in his hand. The child will be a farmer, architect, mathematician.” The gnomon, from ancient Greek word gnṓmōn, “one that examines” is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow. It is a term used in mathematics and fields involving measurements of time or distance. Interesting as the sundial is a disk with the gnomon being a pointer, sort of like a nail. The word gnomon is also so like gnome, from Greek *genomos “earth-dweller.”
Tabula Mundi Tarot has an image that combines the iconography of the Hierophant (Taurus) and the Magus (Mercury): a smoking turntable with cracked disks on the nail, and the Hierophant’s pillars under lock. The key is in view though…
Earth Day is April 22nd, so almost always in this decan or right at the start of it. I usually celebrate it by walking down the road with a bag picking up trash. Why people throw trash out of their cars is such a mystery, as it is easy enough to just throw it out at home. One year, I picked a back road nearby that has very few houses on it, so people feel free to throw their crap out. I got 13 large black trash bags filled in an area less than a mile long. So it goes…
Also, please take a moment to vote in the COVR 2025 Visionary Awards here as voting ends April 30th, right around when this decan ends and the next one begins.
Apologies to anyone who tried to vote at the link to the previous COVR blog post article – I just realized the voting link I was given by the organization was broken, or I messed something up as neither the guide nor the voting link were working, so I lost a lot of time I guess – so it goes… I’m not going to worry about it, as it is what it is.
The correct pdf guide on the entries and correct public voting links are below.
Voting ends April 30th, which is around when this decan ends and the next one begins. Thanks for anyone who takes a few minutes to fill out a ballot, and thank you for considering Telos Tarot of 777.
This is a update, Part II of decan Aries 3. But also we begin on something that was done as an experiment for the Aries 2 decan, but the effects have become noticeable during Aries 3 decan.
So in Aries 2, I had wanted to test out the Three-fold seed spell on some nasturtium plants, which were related to Aries/Sun planetary influences of that decan, as mentioned in the second post for Aries 2. The spell involves reciting an evocation to a plant three times: once at sprouting, once at the true leaf, stage, and once at maturity. In this case I used the evocation of Kore (Persephone) as given there.
The seeds sprouted and one of them got the first recitation in the Aries 2 decan. One seed was chosen to be the recipient of the recitation, and got both the first evocation read at sprout stage in Aries 2 and the second one at true leaf stage. (The third and final one won’t happen until it reaches maturity.)
Now in Aries 3, you can see the four seeds, two in each of the brown peat paper pots above. The one that got the two recitations and was crowned as “Kore/Persephone” has grown twice as large as the three others done as controls! It is the larger one in the pot on the left that was recited to specifically, while touching the plant. Wild! Plants really do like when you talk to them.
So that was fun! Less fun was finishing and sending off taxes for the deadline this decan. But hey, Completion, and now I can pointedly ignore them again for as long as possible.
In the Comments of Part I of the Aries 3/Four of Wands decan, Constance asked if I could expand on the concept of the “man who wishes to do good but cannot” in Part II. This comes from several of the various decan descriptions and significations. While it is not mentioned in the 777 description, various others do. Bruno’s mentions a longing for wealth, but the others mention only “wanting to do good” which seems different. Certainly it is more difficult to do good without resources. But most who have significant resources seem to only become more vapid and greedy, rather than doers of good.
Some of the descriptions mention a gold bracelet, but some don’t mention gold. One says his bracelets are made of wood and he is a blacksmith.
Picatrix:
A restless man, holding in his hands a gold bracelet, wearing red clothing, who wishes to do good, but is not able to do it. Subtlety, subtle mastery, new things, instruments and similar things
Agrippa:
A white man, pale, with reddish hair, and clothed with a red garment, who carrying on the one hand a golden Bracelet, and holding forth a wooden staff, is restless, and like one in wrath, because he cannot perform that good he would. Wit, meekness, joy and beauty.
Bruno:
A man with reddish hair, wearing ruddy clothing; with a bridle in his left hand, wearing a bracelet and carrying a hardwood walking staff in his right hand. Restless and wrathful, his face shows a longing for wealth which he can neither obtain nor hang on to.
Ibn Ezra:
A yellow man whose hair is reddish, and he is irascible and contentious, and in his hand are bracelets of wood and a wand, and his clothes are red, and he is a blacksmith, and he desires to do good but he cannot.
At first I thought the idea of not being able to do something desired may come from the astrological significations, because Venus rules the decan but is in debilitated (detriment) in the sign of Aries. Both Venus and Mars/Aries have to do with desire, and in detriment perhaps Venus, as personification of desire, does not get her way.
There is also that although we think of Aphrodite (Venus) and Ares (Mars/Aries) as consorts and lovers, they were not married. In fact they were rather a case of opposites attract: she as goddess of Love, him as god of War. The sex was good but perhaps that was all!
Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, against her will, and was unfaithful to him constantly. She didn’t get what she wanted, and neither did Hephaestus. He constantly tried to win her affections, making her beautiful jewelry as he was a very skilled craftsman. But the goddess of love and beauty wanted nothing to do with him. He was rejected by her, and by his own mother, Hera, for being considered unattractive and physically lame, even though clever, inventive, and strong.
Hephaestus is a blacksmith too. I rather think of him as the man in red with the bracelets, who desires to do good, but cannot. Hephaestus was actually considered as one of the “models” for the man in the Telos image. Though I didn’t end up with him on the card, I still think of the figure that way. Hephaestus the master craftsman also fits with “subtlety, mastery, new things, and instruments” as specified in the Picatrix significations.
But Picatrix uses triplicity rulers, in this case Jupiter, so I’m not sure that Venus in detriment is the entirety of why the man cannot do the good he wishes. In the mythology though, Zeus (Jupiter) was the one who gave Aphrodite in marriage to Hephaestus, so hmmmm, food for thought. It may also have something to do with Aries III being a Cadent or dissipating decan of a Cardinal or initiating sign. As are all of the Fours. All are a sort of refuge or resting point, but one that is only temporary, as the disruption of the Five is incoming. Perhaps at this point in the cycle, the man lacks the time to do the good he desires.
You can read a summary of the full mythological tale with all the characters here.
Hephaestus isn’t a listed deity of this decan, but he is there in the Venus/Ares story. As a smith however, he is associated with “force and fire,” much like the Ptolemaic deity listed in 777: Horus.
Speaking of Fire, since this is the last Fire sign decan for a while, in the rest of this decan period I’m hoping to set aside some time to create some talismanic incense experiments. It may take some time to complete, but at least I’ve just given it a start. It seems like a worthy action for this time, since Aries likes fire and burning things, and Venus likes beautiful scents. I may add some of that here at the end of the decan period, but wanted to get this post up during the middle of the Aries 3 decan.
A funny coincidence is that in this decan so far, I read a novel about an affair between a Princess (Venus) and a Gothic warlord in the Roman Empire (Ares/Mars), and read several books in a series about a very tasteful and refined (Venus) dragon soldier (Mars). Yes, that is several books in 5 days. I am a voracious reader and will sacrifice sleep for it.
Brought to you on Mars Day during Venus hour.
Let us know in the comments what you have been up to in Aries III. See you in Taurus season!
Subscribe to the newsletter here to get extras, coupons, catch up reminders about decan walk content , and to be notified when the new book is available (coming soon!) Learn about how to vote in the COVR Visionary Awards here for Telos Tarot of 777, if you think it is the most worthy entry.
A friend told me I should join the Coalition of Visionary Resources, because I make tarot decks and write related books, and it is an organization for publishers of such things.
I finally did, and entered Telos Tarot of 777 in their annual competition this year, called the COVR Visionary Awards. The 2025 COVR Visionary Awards are for books, audio visual stuff, and products like tarot and oracle decks that were published in 2024.
Yes, I entered it myself, as that is the way it works. The prize is just recognition, but it helps to get your work noticed I guess.
The COVR association seems very geared to major publishers though, as it looks like most of the other entries are pretty much by big publishers. I was hoping to enter something like a juried event, but it is decided by voting.
The public can vote, and members can vote. Member voting is done by a separate link and is weighted to count more.
They recommend that members post stuff about their entries to COVR’s social media accounts, with hashtags #covrvisionaryawards #2025covrvisionaryawards #covr #CVAs etc to get the attention of members and their heavier weighted votes.
But those of you that have been around know that I’m not on any social media, so I don’t have high hopes of getting any traction. But you never know if you don’t try. So I am asking you to vote for it, if you look at the tarot entries and decide it is deserving in the tarot category.
For example, the Four of Wands shown above was created during this astrological decan, Aries III, a ten day period from around April 9th thru April 19th. The description in 777 reads A restless man in scarlet robes, with golden bracelets on his hands and arms.
It is a the third decan of Aries, a card that combines the sign Aries, the Emperor, with the planet Venus, the Empress, ruler of the Aries III decan.
It is my creative act of Love and Will that took around four years to bring to Completion through a process of hand drawing, inking, and painting every card during corresponding astrological alignments. All art was done by hand in traditional art media without AI or digital tools.
Check out this year’s entries in their downloadable pdf. Every entry has a link showing each of the works entered.
The tarot deck entries start on Page 17, if you just want to skip to those.
Telos is halfway down page 18. Here is a link to where you can view the pdf to see the entries:
If you happen to be a COVR member they send you a link for member voting. Member links can only be used once. Everyone else votes via the public link, and there is only supposed to be one vote per person via the public link.
Once you know who you want to vote for in each category, the link for public voting is here:
The Prince of Disks has Aries decan III as the hidden side of his nature. He is more commonly known for his Taurus I and Taurus II decans.
Voting begins April 10th (Aries decan III, Completion) and goes through Taurus I and Taurus II. Voting ends April 30th (the last day of Taurus decan II, Success).
Please check out the entries for the COVR Visionary Awards at the link, and consider voting for Telos Tarot of 777 in the Tarot decks category if you think it merits it. Here is the link again for viewing:
Today the Sun entered the third decan of Aries, in tarot the Four of Wands, known as the Lord of Completion, shown above as the original artwork from the Telos Tarot of 777. The magical description of the decan in 777 reads: A restless man in scarlet robes, with golden bracelets on his hands and arms.
The restlessness and scarlet robes are clearly characteristics of Aries and Mars, while the golden bracelets seem more associated with the Venus and Jupiter aspects of the card. Venus is the ruler of this decan of Aries, and Jupiter is associated with the card as it is a Four. Jupiter corresponds to the Fours, through Chesed on the Tree of Life. The Hebrew word Chesed means ‘kindness or love between people’ as well as love and mercy in a devotional sense, and has connotations of ardor and desire. Jupiter also rules the decan in the triplicity system; we see his influence here as well.
In India, golden bracelets known as “kangan” or “kada” were part of wedding rituals, symbolic of the unbreakable bond between husband and wife. This card with the connection between Venus and Mars, and Jupiter symbolizing law, has associations with weddings, the ceremony between beings who complete each other and join into a legal unit. The four staffs behind the female figure are draped with a wedding garland, and two have the doves of Aphrodite/Venus, holding the arrows of her son Eros, born from her union with Ares/Mars.
The Picatrix description is similar:
“A restless man, holding in his hands a gold bracelet, wearing red clothing, who wishes to do good, but is not able to do it.” It gives the significations as “subtlety, subtle mastery, new things, instruments and similar things.”
Here also is the image Agrippa gives:
“A white man, pale, with reddish hair, and clothed with a red garment, who carrying on the one hand a golden Bracelet, and holding forth a wooden staff, is restless, and like one in wrath, because he cannot perform that good he would.” The significations there are “wit, meekness, joy and beauty.”
Then there are all the various other images:
Giordano Bruno image (De Umbris Idearum)
A man with reddish hair, wearing ruddy clothing; with a bridle in his left hand, wearing a bracelet and carrying a hardwood walking staff in his right hand. Restless and wrathful, his face shows a longing for wealth which he can neither obtain nor hang on to.
Varahamihira Vedic image (Brihat Jataka)
A yellow complexioned man, festooned in cruelty, with artistic skill, a workaholic, unscrupulous, with an irate temperament, with lifted-up stick, clad in purple clothes. This is an armed decanate and human.
Raphael image and significations
The third face of Aries, ascends a young woman sitting on a stool, and playing on a lute. Subtlety in every work, and of meekness, of play, mirth and beauty
Ibn Ezra image (The Beginning of Wisdom)
A yellow man whose hair is reddish, and he is irascible and contentious, and in his hand are bracelets of wood and a wand, and his clothes are red, and he is a blacksmith, and he desires to do good but he cannot.
Liber Hermetis
It is like a woman erect, adorned with linen tied with gold strings tinted a dark rose color. She has a royal gold [crown] on her head. In the middle of her belly there are belly emeralds. She is holding a four headed serpent on the top of a staff. The two heads in the middle are to one side and the [other] two are to the opposite side. This rules the climate of the Lydians.
You can see that I incorporated the staff from Agrippa’s description, and added the female figure and all her accoutrements from the Liber Hermetis text. I wanted both a male and a female figure, as this decan is the very male sign of Aries combined with the very female decan ruler Venus.
As in the Liber Hermetis description, she is standing erect, adorned with the rose gold strings of emeralds, the belly emerald, and the golden crown, and the very intricately specifically described four-fold serpent staff.
She is clearly an Inanna or Ishtar figure, a goddess who is at once like both Aphrodite and Ares. All her jewelry and his bracelets are painted in metallic gold.
Austin Coppock’s 36 Faces chose as a symbol for this decan, “the burning rose,” which is also a combination of Aries (burning) and Venus (rose).
The Ptolemaic Egyptian deity listed in 777 is Horus, who is fiery, fierce, and martial (Mars) and solar (Sun exalted in Aries.)
The deity from the 36 Airs of the Zodiac fragment is Eros, the child of Aphrodite (Venus) and her lover Ares (Mars), appropriate as Mars rules the sign of the card (Aries) and Venus rules this decan.
I think of this decan as ripe for acts of Love and Will, a combination of creativity (Venus) and action (Aries). More to follow in Part II as the decan progresses. I’ll try to post Part II around halfway through the decan this time; in the last decan it came more towards the end as it was a very busy one. The format I’d like to follow if possible for this decan walk is to introduce it in Part I, and update on how it is going or different things done during the decan in Part II, along with additional info, and activities related to the decan.
This is so you can come up with your own interpretations and ideas for the first half, and compare afterward part-way through.
The code DECANWALK2025 is still good through the end of this decan, for 15% off Telos Tarot of 777, at TarotCart.com.
Almost through the middle decan of Aries 2 now, and today the Sun is at 19 degrees of Aries, which is the exact degree of its exaltation.
cropped from Telos Tarot of 777
This has been a very busy period here. I grow several big gardens each year, and this decan is around six weeks out from the last frost date here. It’s still cold out, but the garlic patch has sprouted. In The Book of Rulerships (Lehman), garlic is listed as corresponding to both the Sun and Mars. The Rulership Book (Bills) gives it to Aries and Mars. Either way, it always comes up in this decan, which is all three.
Which means it is time to start by seed, indoors, quite a few crops; not all yet, but the ones that have a 6-8 week germination and growth period before they can be transplanted out. So like Persephone in the crop from the Telos card above, I’m looking at a lot of little sprouting seedlings, and many more dormant in their trays. Lacking a heated greenhouse, I’ve got trays and grow lights all over the house.
I’m waiting for the nasturtium seeds to sprout. While the nasturtium plant is sometimes associated with Venus simply because it has profuse flowers, I consider it a plant for this decan as it is peppery in flavor (Aries/Mars) and comes in all the Sun’s colors of orange, yellow, and red.
Some people know that plants respond to loving intentions, attentions, and sounds. When these little seeds wake up, I’m going to experiment with them by “seeding” them with intention.
Three-fold seed spell:
Choose to ritually plant a seed, infusing it with your magical intention. You might say that you are “seeding” the seed with your magical wish. Have the intention in mind while planting the seed.
Recite an evocation of one of the deities of this decan, such as Persephone, to it three times: when the plant sprouts as the seedling stage shown in the image, when it begins to get true leaves, and a third time as the plant reaches maturity, approaching it formally with your request as if it were the deity. The resulting plant itself can be dried and used as future materia, as it will be imbued with the qualities of this decan and your intention.
It will be even more effective if the seed is of a corresponding plant of the Sun or Aries, and the intention is for a virtuous endeavor like increasing a healthy habit.
For the evocation, you could easily use the Aries II invocation given earlier in the blog (from when the card was first created). But change it to an evocation as follows:
Aries II evocation of Persephone:
A maiden you once were, but now a Queen.
Good governance your gift to lands beneath.
Each Spring you rise again and growth is green.
Obedience to you all souls bequeath.
You warm Earth, and crack seeds embryonic.
Crowned with the Sun you cause the primal surge.
You bear Earth-fire rising from the chthonic.
You wear the vernal bright as sprouts emerge.
Your virtue drew the virile nether lord.
You, Kora, gathered blooms of the flowers.
With horses dark he took you as his ward,
enthroned and crowned with underworld powers.
He fed you pomegranate seeds of six,
and you became the Queen of Spring and Styx.
Other than that, a less fun but I suppose inevitable thing I’ve been having to deal with is bookkeeping for tax filing; the US deadline for this is approaching in the next decan. No one likes it! But I suppose it is “virtuous” though that is debatable. These deities Persephone and Anubis have connections with death. It reminds me of what Benjamin Franklin said: “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
I suppose taxes are a sort of Emperor-Sun thing in a way; The Man (Emperor) and his rules getting to shine a light on and see (Sun) all you have been up to for the last year, at least financially. Last filing date is actually in the next decan though – Aries III, Completion, which at least will get it over with for another year.
Once that task gets wrapped, I’m putting nose back to grindstone on the book project! It’s coming along really well, or it was until I had to drop everything for gardening and tax chores. Gardens and Taxes: quite the life-death juxtaposition there, just like the Aries II decan.
The Sun entered the second decan of Aries today, a Sunday, auspiciously enough, as the second decan of Aries is ruled by the Sun, which is exalted in the sign.
Crowley’s magical description of the decan per 777, Succedent decan of Aries: A green-clad woman, with one leg bare from the ankle to the knee.
The various other images for this decan are mainly of a female figure, though they differ in whether she is clothed in green or red, or white and imperial purple – all regal colors. Yet the tradition I am working with from 777 as the main prompt specifies green, the color of growth and new life. Crowley’s decan image of a green clad woman with one bare leg, is most like that from Picatrix, except the Picatrix image is of a woman in green only having a single leg.
Either way, there is something about the green woman with a single leg showing that is reminiscent of a new green shoot sprouting – which coincidentally is also the shape of the Aries glyph. This sprout/Aries symbol is shown to the left of the green clad woman, and she faces it, the side of increasing life. Her face is turned away from the withered tree on the other side, representing the death inherent in winter. For she is a Persephone figure, and in this decan, the season of Spring has just arisen in the Northern Hemisphere. The juxtaposition of life and death are echoed by the three date palms, a source of food in the otherwise barren desert.
She wears a twelve-pointed crown, a solar reference. Inspired by some of the Liber Hermetis decan description, she also bears the water jug with the ankh symbol of life and the palm frond that represented eternal life in ancient Mediterranean culture. She holds the scepter with three prongs. It has the bifurcated end commonly associated with the Egyptian was-sceptre, though that had the head of a jackal or Set animal. The was-sceptre is a symbol of power over the forces of chaos (Set), and was often associated with Set, the desert god, and with Anubis – the Ptolemaic deity associated with this decan.
The head of this scepter however is three-pronged, both a reference to three wands and to the trishula, the staff of Shiva, Durga, and Chandi. They generally relate to the threefold forces of creation, order, and destruction, but have been also given many other assignments of things that come in triplicate such as past, present, and future or body, mind, and spirit.
The image has three separate references to the three wands: the three palms, the three-pronged wand she carries, and the larger three-part wand design behind the main figure. This design is a composite comprised of three of the major parts of the soul according to ancient Egyptian belief: the ka, the ba, and the akh.
Hieroglyphs for ba, ka, and akh
The kais symbolized by the pair of upraised arms. It represents the individual ego’s life force, the spiritual, creative, and intellectual energies, and the vital essence or that which makes one alive. The ka is the “double” that inhabits the body and is concerned with both the desires of the body and the call of the spirit. It is the individual’s unique essence. According to Egyptologist John Anthony West, “If, during life on earth, the ka has degenerated to the point where it has been divested of all virtue, of everything truly human, then the ka disperses into the various lower animal realms. This is the second death the Egyptian texts speak of with such fear and horror… The perfected man, to achieve immortality, united his ka to his ba; his individual essence to the divine spark within.”
That “divine spark within” is the ba, depicted as a bird with a human head and outspread wings, which is shown on the central prong between the two arms of the three-pronged design. It is sometimes referred to as the soul, but specifically is the animating spark that gives life to the physical body. When it withdraws, the body dies. The word ba was like the word for ‘ram’ and thus was associated with strength and power. It is said to be the “personality” that lives on after death.
The third element, the akh, is represented by the ibis, wearing the Atef crown of the lord of the underworld, on the lotus above the ba. The akh is the radiant shining form that inhabits the physical body and unites the ba and ka. As it is a spirit it can come down from heaven to operate on earth for good or ill. The ank is the intellectual potential of a person, and was identified with thought, and with light. The Akh represents the “effectiveness” of kings, and the character and intelligence that makes up a person – which has a lot to do with the meaning of the Lord of Virtue.
The Sun, from Pharos Tarot
The decan is ruled by the Sun both by Chaldean descending order and by triplicity, and the Sun is exalted in Aries, with the exaltation degree in this decan, adding to the virtue of this card. The Sun is mainly a giver of light and of life on this earth, but its harsh rays in the desert can also bring death. Behind and above all is a sun with six rays – a solar number. The Sun is crowned with a five-pointed crown, for Mars, ruler of the sign Aries; on the crown is the upright triangle of fire. Iin the springtime the solar force awakens the seeds of the Earth, cracking them open with the force of Mars (Aries) so they emerge from sleep under the earth.
Some food for thought: the Hellenistic deity per the 36 Airs of the Zodiac fragmentary text is Kórē or Persephone, and per 777 the Ptolemaic Egyptian god of the decan is Anubis. So we have two guides to the chthonic realms of the Underworld associated with this very solar and life-infused decan.
