First Decan of Taurus (0°–10°)

Mercury working the soil of Venus

The first decan of Taurus runs from 0° to 10° of the sign. In the Chaldean order Mercury follows Venus, so after the Venus face that closes Aries, Mercury takes the first face of Taurus. The triplicity scheme gives the first face of each sign to that sign, so this decan also belongs to Taurus and its ruler, Venus. Venus rules the earth triplicity by day as well. The Moon's exaltation sits at 3° Taurus, the most comfortable degree in the zodiac for the Moon.

The mix is Venus's love of comfort and beauty joined to Mercury's craft and calculation, both working in fixed earth. Taurus wants to keep and enjoy; this face adds the know-how needed to have something to keep in the first place. Planets here tend to think in terms of materials, costs, technique and timing. They also carry the anxiety of the early season, when the seed is in the ground and nothing has come up yet. The next two faces of Taurus bring the Moon and then Saturn.

The ploughman who measures the land

Agrippa, working from the image lists that came into Latin through the Picatrix, gives the first face of Taurus a naked man who is an archer, reaper or farmer. He goes out to sow and plough, to build and settle, and to divide the land by the rules of geometry. It is one of the plainest of the decan images: no crown and no weapon raised in anger, only a person with work to do and the skill to do it.

Each part of the picture fits the rulers. Ploughing and sowing belong to Taurus and to Venus as the planet of fertility. Measurement, surveying and the division of fields belong to Mercury. The nakedness suggests that the farmer starts with nothing but his hands and his knowledge. The Golden Dawn title for the face's card, Lord of Material Trouble, adds the farmer's fear: a bad season, a failed crop, a winter with nothing stored.

Ten-day weeks in a farming year

Egypt's decans were stars that rose in succession through the year, each marking the hours of night for about ten days. They gave a farming civilisation a calendar of ten-day weeks, written on coffin lids from about 2100 BCE. The civil year slowly drifted against the seasons and the stars, so the star tables had to be redrawn over the centuries, and lists made in one era did not fit the next.

The Hellenistic astrologers who joined the decans to the zodiac fixed them to degrees, which ended the drift. This face became the first ten degrees of the earth sign of spring growth. Which of the Egyptian stars once stood for this stretch is uncertain, because the surviving lists disagree in order and spelling, and it is not named here. The page on the Egyptian decan gods explains how those lists were grouped into families.

The Five of Pentacles, Lord of Material Trouble

In the Golden Dawn system the Five of Pentacles is Mercury in Taurus, the first decan of the fixed earth sign, and Book T names it the Lord of Material Trouble. Behind it stand The Magician for Mercury and The Hierophant for Taurus.

The Rider-Waite card shows two poor figures, one on crutches, walking through snow past a lit church window. At first it seems an odd match for a farmer setting out to plough. The link is the risk the farmer runs. Mercury in the slow sign of earth works hard, calculates, and still cannot control the weather. The card shows what happens when resources run out, and also what the figures fail to notice: the window is lit, and shelter is a few steps away. Read through this decan, the card says that skill alone does not make anyone secure. Asking for help is part of good husbandry.

A Sun or several planets in the first decan of Taurus

A Sun here belongs to people born in roughly the last ten days of April. You tend to be practical, steady and good at turning a little into more through care and skill. You notice quality in food, fabric, tools and work. You may also carry a quiet worry about money or security that does not match your real situation, and you can push through hardship rather than admit you need support.

Several planets in this face give a chart a working, hands-on tone. The mind turns toward technique and value, and feelings settle best when the practical side of life is in order. Because Mercury and Venus share this decan, their condition in your chart decides much of its quality. A Moon here sits close to its exaltation degree and is usually read as calm and content once basic needs are met.

Working with the first face of Taurus

Keep a simple record of what you have, what comes in and what goes out, and look at it on a regular day each month, so worry has facts to check against. Learn one practical skill properly, with your hands: cooking, carpentry, gardening, mending. Plant something and tend it through a season. When a lean period comes, name one person or place you could ask for support before things get hard. Rest your body as deliberately as you work it.