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The Sun's face in Mars's water sign ☉ ♏
Second Decan of Scorpio (10°–20°)
The second decan of Scorpio is the Sun's face inside Mars's night sign, with Jupiter as its triplicity ruler through Pisces. It brings light and generosity into Scorpio's depths: power held steady in the dark, trust rebuilt, memory honoured. The Golden Dawn gave it the Six of Cups, the Lord of Pleasure, two children sharing flowers in an old courtyard.
A lamp carried into the deep: Scorpio's intensity warmed by the Sun and softened by Jupiter's good faith.
Gifts
- Warmth that survives hard experience
- Steady presence in difficult moments
- Generosity with time and attention
- Respect for memory and roots
- Ability to rebuild trust
- Insight into what others hide
Shadow
- Living in the past
- Idealising old bonds
- Pride about private pain
- Mixed motives behind kindness
- Nostalgia that blocks change
- Trusting too much after being hurt
Tarot:
Six of Cups
The Sun's face in the middle of Scorpio
The second decan of Scorpio covers 10°–20° of the sign, the steady middle of fixed water. In the Chaldean order this face belongs to the Sun. In the triplicity order it belongs to Pisces, the next water sign, and so to Jupiter, with Neptune as Pisces's modern co-ruler. The Sun has no other dignity in Scorpio, so this face is its one foothold in the sign of depth and secrecy.
The combination is distinctive. Scorpio, ruled by Mars, deals in intensity, crisis and what lies hidden; the Sun brings clarity and dignity; Jupiter adds faith, mercy and a wider view. Astrologers read the decan as light carried into the underworld: the person who can sit with pain without being consumed by it, who keeps warmth after being hurt, and who honours the past without being ruled by it. Water keeps the face emotional and loyal. Its weak point is nostalgia, or a generosity that hides old needs.
The naked pair and the two fighting dogs
Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1533) gives this face a naked man and a naked woman, and a man sitting on the ground with two dogs biting each other in front of him. He reads it as shamelessness, deceit and false dealing, and as stirring up trouble between people. Agrippa's decan list descends largely from the Picatrix and its Arabic sources, where the faces of Scorpio carry a similar weight of quarrels and intrigue.
The image is harsh, and it sits oddly beside the gentle tarot card. Taken together they show the two sides of the decan. The naked pair is exposure, people with nothing hidden; the dogs are the fights that break out when trust fails. The seated man watches it all from the ground. The Golden Dawn named the matching card the Lord of Pleasure, the warmth of real closeness. The old image shows what that closeness is protecting against, and the Sun's face is the light that lets someone see which is which.
A sky painted over the dead
This face was once one of the thirty-six star groups whose dawn risings marked the Egyptian ten-day weeks and the hours of the night. Their lists vary from monument to monument, so no Egyptian star can be tied to 10°–20° of the tropical zodiac with confidence.
The decans' funerary role suits this decan. From the Middle Kingdom coffin lids onward, Egyptians placed the sky over the dead, and later coffins, sarcophagi and burial chambers show the sky goddess Nut arched above the body with the decans travelling across her. Because the decans themselves set, passed through the hidden world and rose again, they were companions and protectors for the dead. By the Roman period, coffins from Thebes could combine Nut, the decans and the Greek zodiac in one painted sky. A light kept company in the dark is close to how astrologers read the Sun's face in Scorpio. More is on the Egyptian decan gods page.
The Six of Cups: the Sun in Scorpio
In the Golden Dawn system this decan is the Six of Cups, the Sun in Scorpio, which Book T calls the Lord of Pleasure. Pamela Colman Smith's Rider-Waite image shows two children in an old courtyard, the taller one offering the smaller a cup filled with white flowers. Six cups of flowers stand around them, and a guard walks away in the background. The scene feels like a memory.
Read with the decan, the card shows the Sun warming Scorpio's waters. Six is a number of harmony in the minor arcana, and the card's pleasure is innocent: kindness offered without calculation, a bond from the past kept alive. The two trumps behind the pip are The Sun and Death, light and ending, which together suggest renewal after loss. Readers in the tradition take the Six of Cups as nostalgia, childhood, old friendship and small gifts, and as a question about which parts of the past nourish and which hold one back.
A Sun or planets in the second decan of Scorpio
With the Sun here, born from roughly 1 or 2 November to the 11th or 12th depending on the year, you have the Sun in its own face, its only dignity in Scorpio. You may combine Scorpio's depth and intensity with a warmth that people find reassuring. You tend to stay steady in hard moments and to give generously to people you trust. Memory matters to you: old friends, family history, the places that shaped you. The growth point is honouring the past while staying open to what is new, and giving without expecting old wounds to be repaid.
Several planets in these degrees give a chart emotional depth with a generous, loyal streak. Jupiter here rules its triplicity-order face and adds faith and good humour to Scorpio's seriousness. Whatever gathers in this decan tends to work best in close relationships, healing, counselling or any role that brings light to hidden things.
Working with the second decan of Scorpio
Reconnect with someone from your past whose friendship you valued, and notice whether the bond still nourishes you. Keep a box of memories, letters, photographs or small objects, and look through it once a year with an eye to what you are ready to release. When someone is in crisis, practise staying present; this face's gift is steadiness in the dark. If you read tarot, set the Six of Cups between The Sun and Death and ask what from the past you want to carry forward. Give something small without being asked, as the child in the card does, and pay attention to how it feels to give freely.
The planets in this decan
Sun in Scorpio
The middle face, 10°–20° Scorpio, belongs to the Sun in the Chaldean order and to Pisces by triplicity, ruled by Jupiter and in modern charts Neptune. This is the Sun's own face, its only dignity in Scorpio. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children exchanging flowers in an old courtyard. A Sun here brings warmth and generosity into the depths and can turn painful history into intimacy and healing. Mercury's terms to 19° add a talent for understanding and naming what is hidden.
Moon in Scorpio
The middle face, 10°–20° Scorpio, belongs to the Sun in the Chaldean order and to Pisces, Jupiter's sign and Neptune's in modern charts, in the triplicity order. Solar warmth and Jupiter's kindness warm the fixed waters. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children exchanging flowers in an old courtyard. A Moon here finds renewal in intimacy, nostalgia and healing old memories. Agrippa's figures with two dogs biting each other warn of quarrels. Mercury's terms at 11°–19° add insight.
Mercury in Scorpio
The middle face, 10°–20° Scorpio, belongs to the Sun in the Chaldean order and to Pisces, Jupiter's sign and Neptune's in modern charts, in the triplicity order. Mercury's own terms at 11°–19° fall almost entirely inside it, making this the strongest decan for Mercury in Scorpio. The Sun brings what is hidden into the light, and Pisces adds intuition. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children exchanging flowers in an old courtyard. Mercury here digs into memory and the past and finds warmth there as well as secrets.
Venus in Scorpio
The middle face, 10°–20° Scorpio, belongs to the Sun in the Chaldean order and to Pisces, Jupiter's sign and Neptune's in modern charts, in the triplicity order. The Sun lights the depths: Venus here approaches love with responsibility and strategy, and Pisces adds compassion. Mercury's terms from 11° and Jupiter's from 19° bring insight and generosity. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children exchanging flowers in a garden, a picture of the tenderness and old memories under this Venus's intensity.
Mars in Scorpio
The middle face, 10°–20° Scorpio, belongs to the Sun in the Chaldean order and to Pisces, Jupiter's sign and Neptune's in modern charts, in the triplicity order. The Sun and Jupiter soften Scorpio's armour, and Mars here turns its depth toward healing, memory and loyalty to the past. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children exchanging cups of flowers in an old courtyard. People with Mars in this decan often fight to protect what was precious in childhood or to repair it.
Jupiter in Scorpio
The middle face, 10°–20° Scorpio, belongs to the Sun in the Chaldean order and to Pisces, Jupiter's night home and Neptune's in modern charts, in the triplicity order. Jupiter co-rules this decan, and its own terms start at 19°. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children exchanging flowers in a garden. Jupiter here turns emotional memory into generosity, and the Sun gives it warmth. Agrippa's quarrelling dogs warn of strife and of dealings that need honesty.
Saturn in Scorpio
The middle face, 10°–20° Scorpio, belongs to the Sun in the Chaldean order and to Pisces, Jupiter's sign and Neptune's in modern charts, in the triplicity order. Saturn here is more compassionate and nostalgic, tied to the past and to early memories. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children exchanging flowers in an old courtyard. Saturn in this decan can heal through remembering, and its risk is living too much in what has gone. Mercury's terms at 11°–19° give insight.
Uranus in Scorpio
The middle face, 10°–20° Scorpio, belongs to the Sun in the Chaldean order and to Pisces in the triplicity order, ruled by Jupiter and, in modern charts, by Neptune. The Sun lights the depths and Pisces softens them; Uranus here finds insight through dreams, memory and spiritual search. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children exchanging flowers in an old courtyard. The past is a source of renewal here as well as of pain.
Neptune in Scorpio
From 10° to 20° Scorpio, births from about 1960 to 1966, the face belongs to the Sun in the Chaldean order and to Pisces in the triplicity order: Jupiter's sign, and Neptune's own in modern charts. Neptune here sub-rules itself, which astrologers link to mystical and psychedelic yearning. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children exchanging flowers in an old courtyard. Nostalgia and innocence sit beside the depth, and the dream looks back as often as forward.
Pluto in Scorpio
The second decan, 10°–20° Scorpio, covers births from late 1987 into 1991, the years of Pluto's perihelion. The Sun rules it in the Chaldean order and Jupiter, through Pisces, in the triplicity order, with Neptune as modern co-ruler. The card is the Six of Cups, Lord of Pleasure, children sharing flowers in a garden. This group is read as idealistic about depth work, drawn to healing and spiritual inquiry, sometimes nostalgic for a lost innocence.
Questions to reflect on
- Which memories still nourish me, and which hold me back?
- Whom from my past would I like to thank?
- How do I stay warm after I have been hurt?
- What do I give, and what do I quietly hope to receive in return?
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