Second Decan of Aquarius (10°–20°)

Mercury's double face in the centre of fixed air

The second decan of Aquarius covers 10°–20° of the sign, the centre of fixed air. In the Chaldean order the face belongs to Mercury. In the triplicity scheme it passes to Gemini, the next air sign, which Mercury also rules. This is one of the few decans where both schemes name the same planet.

Mercury has no rulership or exaltation in Aquarius, but it is no stranger here. In the classical triplicity tables it rules the air signs by night, and in this decan it adds the face to that. Aquarius gives Mercury what it rarely has elsewhere: steadiness. The quick mind of Gemini settles into fixed air and becomes systematic, patient and objective. Saturn, the sign's classical lord, keeps the thinking disciplined; Uranus, for modern readers, adds invention.

Astrologers read this face as the scientist's and the engineer's decan, and also the guide's: a mind that can see past the present trouble to a workable way through, and explain it so that others can follow.

The bearded sage and the Lord of Earned Success

Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, printed in 1533, gives this face a man with a long beard. He reads it as understanding, mildness, modesty, freedom and good manners, one of the gentlest descriptions in his whole list. His face images come largely from the Picatrix, the Arabic handbook of astral magic that reached Latin readers in the thirteenth century, where each figure was a pattern for a talisman.

The long beard marks age and learning, Saturn's patience in Mercury's service. This is a teacher, not a debater. The Golden Dawn's Book T, from the 1890s, calls the card of this decan the Lord of Earned Success, a title that fits the old man well: success that comes from long study and steady judgement rather than luck or force. Together the two images describe intelligence used with courtesy. The sage does not win arguments so much as make them unnecessary, by understanding the situation well enough to find a way out of it.

A ten-day god of the Egyptian sky

In Egypt the decans were thirty-six star groups whose dawn risings marked the ten-day weeks of the year and whose risings through the night told the hours. Each was a god, and each vanished for about seventy days a year, a period the Book of Nut describes as a stay in the house of embalming before rebirth on the eastern horizon. Hellenistic astrologers fitted the thirty-six to the zodiac, three per sign, and this decan became the middle of Aquarius. Monument lists differ, so the star group behind this face cannot be named with confidence. What passed into astrology was the ten-day unit and the idea that each had its own character. The Sun crosses this face roughly from 30 January to 8 February.

The Six of Swords: Mercury in Aquarius

The Golden Dawn gave the Six of Swords to this decan: Swords for air, the Six for the middle face of the fixed air sign, Mercury for its Chaldean ruler. In the Rider-Waite deck a ferryman poles a small boat toward a far shore. A cloaked figure and a child sit huddled in it, and six swords stand upright in the bow. The water near the boat is rough, the water ahead smooth.

Mercury is the guide of travellers and souls, and Aquarius is a sign of the future, so the card shows Mercury's double face in action: steering others out of trouble toward a better place. In readings the Six of Swords speaks of transition, moving on, recovery after difficulty and solutions reached by clear thought. The swords are still in the boat; the problems come along, but they no longer sink it. In the Golden Dawn's wider system the card stands between The Magician, for Mercury, and The Star, for Aquarius. Skill and hope together carry the boat across.

A Sun or planets in the second decan of Aquarius

With the Sun here, born roughly between 30 January and 8 February, you tend to think clearly and to stay calm when others panic. You like to understand how things work, and you can explain them in a way people follow. Many people with the Sun here are drawn to science, technology, teaching or any work that helps others through change. The Sun is in detriment in Aquarius by classical measure, which can show as discomfort with the spotlight, and a preference for being useful over being admired.

Mercury's double rule makes this the most intellectual part of Aquarius. The risk is detachment: answering feelings with explanations, or moving on from a problem before others are ready. Agrippa's gentle sage is the model, intelligent and kind at once.

Several planets in this decan give a chart a strong mental and communicative emphasis, and often an interest in systems and networks. Mercury placed here holds its face, its night triplicity and the triplicity scheme's claim through Gemini together, which makes it unusually well supported.

Working with the second decan of Aquarius

When someone brings you a problem, ask first how they feel about it, and only then offer the solution. Mercury here is so quick to see the way out that it can skip the person in the boat. Write down the ideas that arrive in calm moments; this decan does its best thinking away from noise.

Teach or mentor someone through a change you have already made. Your clarity is most useful when it helps another person cross. Keep learning something technical or scientific; a doubled Mercury is restless without fresh material. If you read the Tarot, lay out the Six of Swords and ask which of the swords in the boat you still need to carry. The early February days when the Sun crosses this face suit planning a move, a change of direction or a fresh project.