Tabula Mundi Tarot – an inspired Thoth based tarot deck by M.M. Meleen

DECAN WALK: GEMINI 2, NINE OF SWORDS – Part I

Telos Tarot of 777 Nine of Swords — Gemini decan 2: Nine of Swords

Our decan walk enters Gemini decan 2, with the Sun’s passage through ten to twenty degrees of Gemini.

The tarot card shown above is from Telos Tarot of 777, for the second decan of Gemini, known as the Lord of Cruelty. Crowley’s 777 gives the decan image description as “An eagle headed man, with a bow and arrow. Wears crowned steel helmet.” The crowned steel helmet is a reference to Mars, the decan ruler, as a military headgear made of an alloy of Mars’ metal iron. Likewise, the arrow can be martial, with its purpose of piercing. It is usually associated with Sagittarius, the opposite sign to Gemini. Yet in Gemini, opposites and pairs are a relevant theme.

Gemini the sign is ruled by Mercury, who is said to be gender neutral, or mixed. The decan is ruled by masculine Mars. (In the triplicity system, the decan ruler is Venus, consort of Mars.)

For the Telos Nine of Swords image, I have paired the eagle-headed man with a lion-headed woman, showing them as twinned beings. The eagle-man is shown as hunting with the bow described in the 777 and Picatrix decan descriptions. The lion-woman is stabbing herself with a sword. The sword is both the suit of the card, and the letter Zayin, meaning sword, that corresponds to the Lovers and Gemini.

The full Golden Dawn title of the Nine of Swords is the Lord of Despair and Cruelty which is often more fitting than Cruelty alone. Here the woman takes the form of Despair, while the eagle-headed man is Cruelty.

Cruelty can be directed outward or inward as self-cruelty, which often stems from Despair. The eagle-headed man directs the Cruelty outward with his bow, aiming to wound with a cruelly barbed arrow. The lion-headed woman here directs the abuse inward, impaling herself upon her own sword. The figures stand back-to-back on a raised peak, yet still cannot see their way out of the dark forest. The forest is a forest of pines referring to Attis, who in Ovid’s Metamorphoses transformed himself into a pine tree. Attis represents death and rebirth. In Cybele’s cult ritual, a pine tree was wrapped as a corpse and wreathed in violets to symbolize the body of Attis. The pine is also a symbol of the high view, a reminder to see things clearly, rather than through any haze of self-loathing or hatred.

Lovers Tabula Mundi Tarot — Gemini the Lovers, Tabula Mundi

Tower Tabula Mundi Tarot — Mars the Tower, Tabula Mundi

The Lovers: letter Zayin meaning “sword” and The Tower, letter Peh, meaning “mouth”: divisiveness, and cruel and wounding thoughts and words.

The Rider Waite Smith card: a woman awake in the night, as if from a nightmare or grief
Thoth card: Swords dripping with poison and blood, chaotic background
Tabula Mundi card: the boar’s head from the Tower card (Mars) pierced by a lion-hilted sword, surrounded by the sword-in-stone motif from the Lovers (Gemini)

The Rosetta Tarot card: the swords, with hilts of the Gemini and Mars glyphs, form the sharp teeth of a gaping mouth (Gemini/Mars)

Deities for Gemini decan 2: Cybele and Cyclops

The god form listed in the fragmentary text 36 Airs of the Zodiac is the goddess Cybele, who is often shown accompanied by lions. The word Despair is fitting for Cybele. The word itself begins with “des,” a form of “Dis,” for splitting apart, asunder, and ends with “pair.” Originally a hermaphrodite, Cybele was cruelly split into two by other gods jealous of her power. Her male half died and was reborn as the god Attis. It is a tale of despair as he ultimately had to marry another, and either castrated himself, or had it done at the hands of Cybele, despairing, and become cruel due to his betrayal.

The Cyclops were a race of one-eyed giants. The most famous of the Cyclops is Polyphemus. In one tale Polyphemus loves the sea nymph Galatea, but is rejected due to his ugliness. Lovesick, he longs to reconcile that which divides them, her realm of the sea and his of the earth. Galatea loved another, and Polyphemus crushes him.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus encounters Polyphemus, who eats some of his men. Crafty Odysseus of course tricks him, plying him with strong wine and ultimately blinding him with a sharp stick.

It is a difficult decan, considering all this. I’ve already found myself saying cruel things when feeling anxiety and despair over the greed, stupidity, and selfishness in the world. I’ve also already had a few bouts with self-hatred, and being overly self-critical, and the decan has just begun! I’m going to try to be kinder to myself and to others, if I can.

But how else could it be used positively? With the associations of Gemini, Swords, and Mars, it would be good for debate and for writing sharp and cutting things, like political commentary or satire. It could definitely be used to spin a situation to your favor by skillful and precise application of words. It would also be good for meditation upon contradictions in order to reconcile them, both within and without.

I’m almost done with the text of the new book on Telos Tarot, which is also a book on magickal applications for the decans. One chapter to go! So during this decan I’ll be heading into the phase of editing the book. Editing often involves the difficult task of cutting out words, which I think is a perfect use of Gemini and Mars.

DECAN WALK: GEMINI 1, EIGHT OF SWORDS Part II

Gemini decan 1, Eight of Swords, Telos Tarot

We are now most of the way through the Gemini 1 decan, which corresponds to the Eight of Swords, Interference, so some Part II updates on the ways this decan has manifested so far are in order.

To recap, Gemini and Eights are Mercury ruled, the Gemini 1 decan is Jupiter ruled.

The first few degrees of the Gemini 1 decan allowed for a sudden great burst of writing for the upcoming book. Gemini, and Swords, are after all associated with words, and decan ruler Jupiter with expansion. I got a ton done in a very short time.

Then things took a different turn. The Memorial Day weekend is a sad time for me, due to the unexpected loss of a sibling on a Memorial Day weekend in years past; one never really gets over getting an unexpected phone call like that.

But work goes on. Gemini 1 decan is the traditional time here for putting in transplants and seeds of warm weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, cucumbers, and eggplants.

Beans and parsley are very Gemini/Mercury. I planted 8 kinds of beans! Also dug up around 80 volunteer parsley plants, that were interfering in the space, taking them out of this bed shown to the left and moving them to another bed before planting all these tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. But they were a lucky break, as I wanted a ton of parsley and could only find singles of it for sale.

So the entire three-day weekend was spent doing that. But around this time, some unexpected snags showed up, mostly correctable with luck or patience, as expected in the Eight of Swords.

For example, after spending a very long day in the hot sun putting in hundreds of plants, we heard a loud humming sound: one of our beehives was swarming. That is when bees decide to take a short trip and change neighborhoods (Gemini things).

We were lucky in a sense, it landed down low in an apple tree where we could reach it to capture it, should we choose to. But it was a snag as it was the last thing we needed at that moment. It landed in a very awkward position on the tree, and we were very hot, tired, and very much not wanting to deal with it. So we did an old beekeepers trick of placing an empty beehive box nearby, which sometimes will entice them to move in, if you are lucky.

Well, the next day, we realized we were not lucky. The bees had moved on, and not to the provided new digs. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. It was our choice not to more actively try to get them.

But that same day, we got another chance: another hive swarmed! This is a common thing to happen when the hive grows overly strong and fast; they get too crowded so they raise a new Queen to move out with a good portion of the workers to start a new colony.

This time we got lucky: it landed in a birch tree, higher up but in a less awkward position to get to. So my husband made the choice to suit up and manually sweep them into the bee box, and give it a go to see if they would accept the new home. This time, they did, so we got a new hive. We only had one extra box anyway, so we could not have caught them both. At least we got one. And there is an old saying:

A swarm in May is worth a field of hay.

A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.

A swarm in July ain’t worth a fly.

So we caught one of two, still in May, which gives them time to build out into a valuable hive that can survive a winter.

Some other little snags happened during this Gemini 1 decan period, all fixable and caught in time. Interestingly, many were delayed failures or at least problems resulting from things done in the Taurus decans.

Some plantings done in Taurus and placed under a row cover were being deprived of water, because the row cover was diverting it. Interference. So in spite of all the rain, some were revealed to have perished from drought. Yet it was not a total Failure, as I luckily actually had many spare extra seedlings I had set aside in the greenhouse as a Plan B for just such a contingency, so had enough to replace most of them. The only ones I didn’t have, happened to be ones there was still time to restart from seed. And we learned that a neighborhood farm who didn’t use covers, lost all their brassica seedlings to flea beatles as they were bad this year due to the wet spring. Most of ours were pristine, except for the ones that weren’t getting water through weird water run off pattern, which reminded me of the Telos image!

A major “customer experience upgrade” (hah, yeah right) done by a local bank over a three-day period in the Taurus 3 decan, turned out to be a minor hassle in the Gemini 1 decan. Though of course they marketed it (Gem-Jup) as a big benefit to the customers, it actually ruined our statements to not be monthly cutoffs, changed the online banking, and increased fees in some cases unless one restructured some accounts, because of course it did. It was also intuited that the local bank employees were having a hard time due to fallout from the changes: interference. And of course new online banking protocols added yet more layers of security which, while they are supposed to be good, yadda yadda, are kind of a pain in the ass, and cause an extra step (interference) each and every time one logs on, now you have to run looking for a device. So it goes.

I misunderstood something said by a friend, but figured it out soon enough without it being a problem.

Some people in the neighborhood (neighbors are a Gemini thing) have been escalating the doing of some very annoying things during this decan, involving long, loud, repetitive recitations (words=Gemini). The words are supposedly religious (Jupiter) and in a foreign language (Jupiter) and are Interfering with my ability to enjoy my space when relaxing, or to focus when working. I made a choice to rise above it – for now. If it keeps up I may go all Cruelty and Ruin on them in the next Gemini decans! I want to find out where they live and stand outside their spaces loudly reciting Thelemic poetry, LBRP, and Liber Resh repeatedly for hours, see how they like it! Yeah, I probably won’t unless I lose it, but I think about it.

I also misread some directions due to being distracted, annoyed, and busy, and thus did something wrong setting up an online thing and got locked out. More interference and blockage. Minor snag but nothing a stupid phone call with some hold time couldn’t fix.

A fun thing planned with a friend had to get cancelled when her child was under the weather.

Some former good and unexpected news we had received about a property matter got, not reversed, but put on hold in such a way that means it may not happen, or might happen, or who knows? However it is somewhat blocking our ability to move forward on the matter.

An old dock we helped someone install in the Taurus 3 decan (Failure!) had a partial collapse, so now we have to go rebuild a portion during this decan. Too many speedboats (Gemini?) exceed their size limits, making big waves (Jupiter) that interfered with this very old construction from the 1940s. All the other docks at this location are new aluminum things. This one is a big old wooden monstrosity that we have to roll into place using an old Model T axle. (Gemini-Jupiter!) It is all cobbled together with old boards and cinder blocks, added over the years.

Interferes a little bit with other plans, have to drop everything to go do it, but it is a minor thing. It’s an easy fix, easier than it looks.

There are only about two more days left in this decan, so besides the dock fix I hope to do more writing. Did a lot of that over the last two days, and only stopped to do more writing: this update.

I expect that today or tomorrow I’ll finish the last chapter of the new book!

If there aren’t more snags.

Of course that just means moving on to the next phase of the book, adding stuff, deleting stuff, correcting stuff, making and organizing tables and images, formatting, etc. And making more choices around all that. A lot to it, but it will feel good to be at this next checkpoint within a day or two.

Haven’t noticed much 5th house activity yet, though in whole signs Gemini is my 5th house. It has been mostly work – although we did get together with friends one night. Sleep has been poor; it has been interfered with through my own poor choices of turning towards too much caffeine (Gemini) and alcohol (Jupiter) at times of overwork and minor stresses. All minor stuff though, thankfully!

It is said that the Eight of Wands can mean paying too much attention to insignificant things, so I’m trying not to sweat the small stuff, and just keep on keeping on.

DECAN WALK: GEMINI 1, EIGHT OF SWORDS – Part I

original ink lines for the Gemini 1 decan, Eight of Swords

Crowley’s 777, roughly based on the Picatrix description, gives us a great image to work with for Gemini decan 1: “A beautiful woman with her two horses.”

TWO: Gemini. HORSES: Jupiter, ruler of the decan.

Some inspiration for this illustration was also drawn from Ibn Ezra, who says that the beautiful woman is “standing in the air.” Here she is, standing beautifully poised upon her two steeds, seemingly almost floating.

Gemini decan 1, Eight of Swords
painted version

Welcome to the first decan of Gemini, corresponding to the Eight of Swords otherwise known as Interference, or the Lord of Shortened Force.

Gemini is ruled by Mercury, Eights are ruled by Mercury, and the decan is ruled by Jupiter.

The Eight of Swords, Lord of Interference, is also known as Shortened Force, as in some sort of minor impedance to a trajectory in motion. In the Rider Waite Smith deck, the female figure is bound and blindfolded, surrounded by swords. In the Thoth deck, eight blades of different types form a sort of blocking grid. In Tabula Mundi Tarot, the lion and eagle of the Lovers card are entangled in thread from a bobbin-like circle of swords.

In the Telos Tarot of 777 drawing, there are also eight differing swords, placed directly in front of the rider, forming a hurdle she must leap or go around. Make a choice!

Each gives the impression of a minor snag to deal with or get past. Each sword is a different type. Eight choices: 8 is part of the Fibonacci sequence, so really this represents an infinite number of choices or branches to follow.

Gemini is all about choices, and here with Jupiter’s expansive effect, the number of choices can become overwhelming.

But though Jupiter is not at its best in Gemini, the sign of its detriment, he still brings some measure of luck for getting around obstacles. Especially in combination with dexterous Gemini.

The “36 Airs of the Zodiac” fragment gives the deity as the Tethys, who was portrayed with very Mercurial wings sprouting from her brow, like the woman in the Telos image.

Tethys is a Titan, a daughter of Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Sky). Most just consider her as the consort of Okeanos, the primordial sea of fresh water that surrounds the globe. She is mostly known for being a goddess of waters and the mother of many thousands of other water gods and nymphs, for in the ancient world every freshwater source was home to a minor deity.

Tethys draws from the source, the great world sea, to fill the rivers, for she rules over fresh water and river systems. Fresh water is part of a whole cycle which in a simplified way is how water is drawn up from the oceans into the air and then comes down as fresh rain, that rivers then return to the oceans.

The river system shown in the background of the card shows how rivers split, and split, and split again into infinite streams of water or infinite decision points or choices. Follow one, and at certain points as it branches off, a choice is made and thus other choices are eliminated. First as twins (Gemini) – one must be eliminated – and then so many more choices to follow.

In 36 Faces, Austin Coppock calls this decan “the apple of Eden” – Eve’s infamous choice, to eat from the Tree of Knowledge!

Since Gemini loves knowledge and data, here is a great big table, with plenty of choices of deities to research or other decan images to consider and various errata to ponder.

Astrology	Gemini, the sign ruled by Mercury
Modality and Element	Mutable Air
Decan degrees Decan ruler	0°- 9° Gemini; Jupiter rules the decan
Triplicity ruler	Mercury
Magical image of the decan in 777	A beautiful woman with her two horses.
Picatrix image and significations	A beautiful woman, a mistress of stitching, two calves and two horses Writing, computation and number, giving and taking, the sciences
Henry Cornelius Agrippa image and significations (Three Books of Occult Philosophy)	A man in whose hand is a rod, and he is, as it were, serving another. Wisdom, and the knowledge of numbers and arts in which there is no profit
Giordano Bruno image (De Umbris Idearum)	A man dressed as a slave, holding a green branch in his right hand. On his face is a happy, even jocular expression
Varahamihira Vedic image (Brihat Jataka)	A female fond of needlework, with a beauty equalling that of Rambha or Helen, without any issues, with a penchant for ornamentation, with lifted hands & in menses.
Raphael image and significations	A young man girt with a girdle. Of writings, of giving and receiving money, of petition, and wisdom in unprofitable things.
Ibn Ezra image (The Beginning of Wisdom)	A beautiful woman standing in the air, and she can sew.
Liber Hermetis	An armed man having an ass’s face, holding a sword in his right hand. This rules the climate of the 3 Trojans.
Liber Hermetis name	Manuchos
Egyptian name (777)	Thesogar
Ancient Egyptian name (Budge)	Mestcher-Saḥ
Greco-Egyptian name	Θosalk
Aristobulos name	Farsan
Testament of Solomon name	Sphandor
Apotelesmatics Greek name	Thosolk
Mathêsis Latin name	Thesogar
Sacred Book of Hermes to Asclepius image	It looks like a man with the head of a donkey. He holds a small key in his right hand, and his left is dropped. He is covered in wrappings down to his knees.
Sacred Book of Hermes to Asclepius name	Xokhá [Xocha]
SBHA stone	diamond
SBHA plant	orchid
SBHA dietary taboo	electric rays
Angel of the decanate per 777	Sagarash
Goetic demons Day/Night	Amon/Sabnock
Nakshatras/Manazil (lunar mansions) per 777	20 ° – 30 ° Hak’ ah
Associated minors	King-Knight of Swords
“36 Airs of the Zodiac” fragment	Thetys (Tethus)
Ptolemaic Egyptian deity (777)	Tautus/Taautus
Perfume suffumigation	Mastick
Body correspondence	Shoulders, lungs; sometimes arms and hands
Some materia	Jupiter: Yellow sapphire, Topaz, Tin, Oak, Cherry, Beech, Maple, balsam, mace, nutmeg, clove, dandelion, borage See also Gemini: Agates, and things of Mercury
Talismanic application Arabic Picatrix	Talismans tailored to promote someone losing his mind and becoming deranged are made in the first durayjan of Gemini for Mercury.
Talismanic application Latin Picatrix	The first face of Gemini is if Mercury, in which an image is made to harm the senses and intellect.

I’m curious to see if either 4th house themes or 5th house themes arise for me during the Sun’s passage through Gemini 1. In my chart, using the Placidus and Koch house systems, Gemini decan 1 is all in house 4. In Equal, it is in both house 4 and 5, which I’m going to try to watch to see if there is a shift when the Sun enters the degree that crosses into house5. In whole signs, it is all house 5. So it will be an interesting experiment, and test of house systems, which Gemini loves.

Gemini, from Johfra Bosschart’s Zodiac series. Sadly these posters are no longer being made, or I’d include a link, as they are super cool. You can find them on Ebay for lots of money.

DECAN WALK: TAURUS 3, SEVEN OF DISKS Part II

This is Part II to the Decan Walk post for the third decan of Taurus and the Seven of Disks, introduced in Part I.

As of today we are about 85% through this decan. Though the Seven of Disks is called “Success Unfulfilled” or “Failure,” there have been no real failures to report as of yet. Except for ordering a pair of gardening shoes that happened to be in one of the colors of Taurus (olive green) and they are just, really ugly (Saturn), more so than I thought they might be, and too loose but functional enough that I kept them anyway. They will not be worn in public; I guess this is a fashion (Venus) failure (Saturn).

Gardening-wise, it appears to be one of the best springs ever, though we just hit a bit of a colder snap, ironically as today is the new “last frost date” for this region. No frost predicted, just nighttime temperatures in the low 40s, so I’m holding off on planting out some of the things that prefer heat like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, beans, and cukes.

But while the weather this year has been so great for the garden, there is a bit of a concern. Today, May 19th, is now our last frost date here, but it used to be May 29th, then it was 27th, then 25th…now the 19th. Our gardening “zone” even changed, from 6a to 5b. Seems undeniably a sign of the planet getting warmer.

But what is more concerning is this. Though the last frost date here is now May 19th, we have not had temperature lows of under 35 degrees since early April, I think at the end of the Aries 2 decan, maybe beginning of Aries 3 decan, and not an actual frost since before that. I looked back at a weather tracker to be certain, as it seemed so very strange. I can’t remember any year ever like this, and I’ve been gardening for a long time. It is either an anomaly, which of course happens, or very….concerning.

It has however made my life easier this year, as I have not had to do much carting inside and back outside of seedling trays, which normally is an ongoing thing at this time of year. And with the abundant rain, have not had to water things much either, which is also normally an ongoing chore this time of year here, getting things to germinate or get established, as soil is very gravelly and dries out fast.

But the state of Man is toil through effort and endurance here on earth. There has been lots of other toiling away going on, plus some obligations to fulfill, which is a typical manifestation of Saturn who rules the decan.

But there have also been a lot of short trips and family stuff. I attribute this to this decan falling across my 3rd and 4th houses of the horoscope natally, with the end of the decan right on the nadir. So during this decan, we did have a lot of stuff that seemed very 4th house of family, especially parents, and home:

helped one parent plant large shrubberies
helped another parent rebuild and put out a heavy wooden dock
visits to and from other family members
got more garden beds ready to plant
weeding and seeding things
expanded an existing herb garden and redid its pathway, which had been taken over by mint

But all that was also done around some trips and other more 3rd house things:

went to see a concert with Puscifer, Perfect Circle, and Primus, semi-locally (my ears rang for two days)
went to the Brimfield Antique Show and Flea Market which might be the largest in the world – and got absolutely poured on and drenched in a flood
went to see the remastered Pick Floyd Live at Pompeii movie, and visited some little shops on the way that were new to us
heard from a cousin (cousins and siblings are 3rd house things)
did a requested edit to the text on the design I did for a band’s song release. It qualifies as Venus/Saturn I think, as it was adding black outlines (Saturn) to the text of the art (Venus), and I think of 3rd house as having to do with editing

As these things and the visits to the various family things were all drives of around 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half, they qualify for the “short distance travels” of the 3rd house.

It will be interesting to watch when the Sun moves into Gemini decan 1 and my 5th house if themes of the fifth house apply. Thinking back, in Aries season there were indeed some themes of the related houses that came up.

As a result of all this, I lost some time I would have normally spent toiling on the book, but buckled back down to it yesterday, and will go back to it now going forward.

For magical purposes, I also planted a special type of grass at the very start of this decan called Job’s Tears, which is a very good correspondence to Venus/Saturn both as a plant correspondence and the history and stories about it, and it makes seeds that are used to make rosaries and malas. I’ll be making a Saturn mala with it eventually.

It takes a long time to sprout, (14-28 days) which is also very Venus/Saturn, as Saturn is time, and long times, and Venus is multiples of 7, But it has only been around nine days and I see the first few tiny shoots coming up already, so I don’t think it will be a failure. I did however reserve half of the seeds for replanting, just in case, as a Plan B.

DECAN WALK: TAURUS 3, SEVEN OF DISKS Part I

Telos Tarot of 777 Seven of Disks art — 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).

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 preparation and a mature response to the unforeseen, as well as an appeal to higher powers.

To be continued in Part II.

DECAN WALK: TAURUS 2, SIX OF DISKS – Part II

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.

The Hierophant card from Telos Tarot of 777 © M.M. Meleen — The Hierophant card © 2020-2025 M.M. Meleen

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!

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DECAN WALK: TAURUS 2, Six of Disks

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.

May you meet with Success.

DECAN WALK: TAURUS 1 Five of Disks, Part II

Telos Tarot of 777 Five of Disks, Taurus 1 decan

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 of Disks 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.

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DECAN WALK: TAURUS 1, FIVE OF DISKS Part I

The Five of Disks, first decan of Taurus from Telos Tarot of 777 art

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 (De Umbris 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.

2025 COVR Visionary Awards Voter’s Guide

Voting link: 2025 COVR Visionary Awards

Voting link address: https://covr.surveysparrow.com/s/2025-cva/tt-JHWkt

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.

Have a Happy Earth Day! More to come later…

DECAN WALK: ARIES 3, FOUR OF WANDS – Part II

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!

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