First Decan of Capricorn (0°–10°)

Jupiter's face at the gate of the solstice

The first decan of Capricorn covers 0°–10° of the sign, the opening of cardinal earth. In the Chaldean order the face belongs to Jupiter. In the triplicity scheme, which gives each sign's first decan to the sign itself, it belongs to Capricorn and so to Saturn.

This is a meeting of opposites. Capricorn is Jupiter's fall, the sign opposite its exaltation in Cancer, and the planet of increase sits uncomfortably in the sign of limits. Here, though, Jupiter rules the face, a minor dignity that lets it work from within. Saturn, domicile lord of the sign, takes the triplicity scheme's claim as well. Two slow planets share the decan: one wants to expand, the other to conserve.

The face starts at the winter solstice, the longest night, and the cardinal quality is about beginnings. Astrologers read it as the planning stage of the climb. You count the supplies, decide what can be spared and set out believing the summit is reachable. Jupiter's faith has to justify itself in practical terms, which keeps it honest.

The laden travellers and the Lord of Harmonious Change

Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, printed in 1533, gives this face a woman and a man carrying full bags. He reads it as setting out and rejoicing, gaining and losing, with a note of weakness and meanness in the dealings. His face images come largely from the Picatrix, the Arabic manual of astral magic that reached Latin readers in the thirteenth century, where each face's figure served as a design for talismans.

The full bags are Jupiter's: provisions and gains, enough to make the departure cheerful. The note of loss and meanness is Saturn's, the sign's lord counting what goes out. The Golden Dawn's Book T, from the 1890s, calls the card of this decan the Lord of Harmonious Change. Both images describe goods in motion, coming in and going out, and a traveller who has to keep the balance. Agrippa's version warns that the balance can tip into petty dealing. The Golden Dawn's version shows the balance kept, with the swings of fortune absorbed rather than fought.

From star clock to winter gate

Before the zodiac, Egypt's thirty-six decans were star groups whose dawn risings marked the ten-day weeks of the year, while their risings through the night told the hours. Each was a god, and each was hidden for about seventy days a year, a stay the Book of Nut places in the house of embalming before rebirth in the east. Hellenistic astrologers set the thirty-six under the twelve signs, three apiece, and this one became the opening of Capricorn. Which Egyptian star group lay behind it cannot be said with certainty, as the lists vary from monument to monument. Its new address carried weight, though. The Sun enters it at the winter solstice and crosses it roughly from 22 to 31 December, the days when the light begins, slowly, to return.

The Two of Pentacles: Jupiter in Capricorn

The Golden Dawn gave the Two of Pentacles to this decan: Pentacles for earth, the Two for the first face of the cardinal earth sign, Jupiter for its Chaldean ruler. In the Rider-Waite deck a young man in a tall hat dances while juggling two coins joined by a looping band in the shape of a figure eight. Behind him two ships ride high waves.

Jupiter in Capricorn is growth negotiating with limits, and the juggler shows how it is done: nothing is held still, but nothing is dropped. The waves behind him mean rough conditions, and he dances anyway. In readings the card describes managing several demands, adjusting budgets, keeping commitments in motion and staying flexible. In the Golden Dawn's wider system it stands between Wheel of Fortune, for Jupiter, and The Devil, for Capricorn. The turning wheel and the chain of material ties frame a card about handling change without becoming its prisoner.

A Sun or planets in the first decan of Capricorn

With the Sun here, born roughly between 22 and 31 December, you tend to be practical and hopeful at once. You plan for the long haul, keep several responsibilities moving and stay steady when circumstances shift. Others may see you as serious; those close to you also know a dry, buoyant humour that comes from Jupiter.

Jupiter in fall as face lord gives you a careful sort of optimism. You believe things can improve, provided someone does the work and keeps the accounts. Saturn's double claim gives patience and a feel for structure. The risk lies in balancing so many demands that nothing is ever finished or enjoyed, and in letting worry about scarcity crowd out generosity.

Several planets in this decan give a chart a talent for management, logistics and long-term planning. Jupiter placed here sits in its own face, which tradition counts as some relief from its fall, while Saturn here holds both the sign and the triplicity rulership.

Working with the first decan of Capricorn

Once a week, write down the two or three demands you are juggling and decide which one you will set down for the next few days. The Two of Pentacles works best when the juggling is chosen, not endless. Keep a simple ledger of what comes in and goes out, money, time or energy, and look for the leaks Agrippa's image warns of.

Plan in seasons. Use the turn of the year, when the Sun crosses this face, to set one long-term aim and a first step small enough to take this week. Let some generosity into the budget on purpose, a gift or a donation, so that Jupiter has room to move in Saturn's house. If you read the Tarot, place the Two of Pentacles beside a card for each of your main commitments and see which looks unsteady. Rhythm helps here: dance, walking, anything that teaches balance through the body.