Third Decan of Taurus (20°–30°)

Saturn twice over in the last of Taurus

The third decan of Taurus runs from 20° to 30° of the sign. The Chaldean order, after the Moon, starts its sequence again with Saturn, so Saturn rules this face. The triplicity scheme gives the third face of an earth sign to Capricorn, Saturn's own sign, so Saturn rules it there as well. It is one of the few faces in the zodiac with the same planet on both counts; the middle face of Libra is the only other one that Saturn holds this way.

Saturn stands for time, limits, structure and what endures. Taurus stands for growth, the senses and the wish to keep what has been gained. Together they make the slowest stretch of a slow sign. Planets here tend to build carefully and hold on. They understand that some things cannot be hurried, and they can outlast almost anyone. The cost is weight: worry about whether the effort will pay, and a habit of carrying more than is needed. Venus, the sign's ruler, remains in the background, the reminder that Taurus is meant to enjoy what it builds.

The man with the serpent and the dart

Agrippa, following the Arabic image lists that the Picatrix carried into Latin, gives the third face of Taurus a man holding a serpent in one hand and a dart in the other. He calls it the image of necessity and of profit, and also of misery and servitude. It is one of the few decan images whose description admits openly that the gift and the burden come together.

The serpent is an old emblem of the earth and of time that renews itself by shedding. The dart is a tool for getting what one needs, by hunting or by force. Saturn rules both: necessity drives the work, and the work brings gain, and the gain ties the worker to more work. The Golden Dawn title for the face's card, Lord of Success Unfulfilled, adds the Saturnian ending. The effort has been made and the reward has not yet arrived, or has arrived smaller than hoped.

Gods carved on a clock

The decans began in Egypt as thirty-six stars whose risings marked the hours of night, each in service for about ten days. Coffin lids of about 2100 BCE list them, and under Amenhotep III their figures were carved on the outside of an alabaster water clock found at Karnak, usually called the oldest surviving clepsydra. The decans and the instrument that measured time were treated as one thing.

That pairing suits a face ruled twice by Saturn, the planet the later tradition made the lord of time. The Hellenistic astrologers who set the decans under the zodiac gave the last third of Taurus to that planet. Which Egyptian star originally stood for this stretch cannot be said with confidence, since the lists vary between monuments. The page on the Egyptian decan gods describes the Karnak clock and the families of decan lists.

The Seven of Pentacles, Lord of Success Unfulfilled

In the Golden Dawn system the Seven of Pentacles is Saturn in Taurus, the last decan of the fixed earth sign, and Book T titles it the Lord of Success Unfulfilled. Behind it stand The World, the trump of Saturn, and The Hierophant for Taurus.

In the Rider-Waite image a young farmer leans on his hoe and looks at seven pentacles growing on a green bush. He has done the work. Now he is assessing it, and his face is hard to read. The harvest is not ready, and he cannot tell yet whether it will be worth the labour. Read through this decan, the card shows Saturn's discipline inside Taurus's patience: a pause to measure the return on effort and decide whether to keep going. The decan can bring a long wait for results, and the card's lesson is to judge the crop as it stands instead of abandoning it too early or tending a dead plant out of habit.

A Sun or several planets in the third decan of Taurus

A Sun here belongs to people born in roughly the ten days before Gemini begins, the middle of May. You tend to be serious about work and long-term security, willing to wait and build for a result that others would give up on. People rely on you because you stay. You may find it hard to relax until a job is done, and the job is rarely done.

Several planets in this face give a chart weight, endurance and a practical, sometimes austere, approach to money and possessions. The gift is staying power; the difficulty is joylessness, or holding on to a project, a house or a role long after it has stopped feeding you. Because Saturn rules this face on both counts, its own sign, house and aspects show whether the discipline here supports you or presses on you.

Working with the third face of Taurus

Set review dates for long projects, the way the farmer in the Seven of Pentacles stops to inspect the crop, and decide in advance what result would tell you to continue or stop. Build pleasure into the routine, since Venus still rules this sign: a good meal after a hard week, a walk with no purpose. Practise letting go of one possession each season. Give your body slow, steady exercise like walking or strength training. When you notice you are waiting, ask whether you are waiting for the harvest or for permission to rest.