Decan walk and Libra II (Second decan of Libra)

Now Saturn comes to the stage as the decan ruler(s)!

The Sun has just started its walk through the second decan ten degrees of cardinal, air sign Libra, and here I am with my humble take on this decan. As the second title explains well, in Libra II, Saturn has whole kingdom of decan rulership to itself. Both in Chaldean/Descending and Triplicity orders, Saturn is the decan ruler. And it’s nice since Saturn is known to be exalted in Libra “Saturn is exalted in Libra, the sign opposite the exaltation of the Sun. Libra signals the start of autumn, a season when temperatures become colder and the days decrease in length. It is thus the ideal sign for exaltation of the coldest planet, Saturn.”* while in the current sky it’s in its sign of fall, Aries and retrograde.

I believe that sometimes building things, creating boundaries, setting up some targets might be easier when the attitude is more towards being harmonious, diplomatic, just and compromising including the opinion people involved in these occurrences rather than focusing only on the subject of ‘I’. We might always run the risk of being disappointed when there is a clash of ideas or when people behave in a more individualistic way despite of all the efforts of treating everyone in an equal way. That could be the reality we might need to face and accept before we roll up our sleeves. That could be the feeling of Saturn in Libra.

Let’s look at some of the resources and what they tell about this decan of Libra.

“Of the second face of Libra — The second decan of Libra has the face of Saturn. Its name is Chusthisis. It causes affliction, adhesion1 and strangury.” is how it is explained in Liber Hermetis.

According to the definition on The Complete Picatrix “There rises in the second face of Libra a black man, a bridegroom having a joyous journey. This is a face of tranquility, joy, abundance and good living. This is its form.”

I was planning to refer to the deity mentioned by Cosmas of Jerusalem. However, with a hunch, I started checking in different sources and three different sources refer to three different deities. As I am not able to confirm it properly yet, I decided to put it aside for the moment.

“in the second face ascend two men furious and wrathful and a man in a comely garment, sitting in a chair ; and the signification of these is to show indignation against the evil, and quietness and security of life with plenty of good things.” says Agrippa in Three books of Occult Philosophy.

Let’s make an introduction to the tarot part of this with a short quote from Dreaming the Decans by T. Susan Chang:

“Shapes take form within the mind

In spite of those constraints which bind.

Facts are notions come to be

Transfixed into reality.”

The Minor Arcana card associated with Libra II is the 3 of Swords. The general image we have is three swords piecing through a heart. How did we come to this point? Let me quote from my Libra I article:

The 2 of Swords from the Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery deck by Robert M. Place

“I like this card. The wisdom of owl, which could be like the inner voice of the blindfolded person on the same card in RWS deck, may be quite important solving an inner fight that is occurring inside our minds. We are trying to resolve it; both sides raised their swords as if in a duel but that need of keeping peace is telling both of the sides to hold their horses before taking any wrong action or saying something that they wouldn’t be able to take back. We may need to move with diplomacy…This could be happening in any type of relationship rather than in our inner world. The point is that either way the owl is looking at us and telling us to breathe in, to breathe out and to find solution in a friendly way without getting ugly, without hurting each other…Otherwise, the pain, the suffering or regret may follow…But are we able to put the volume down of the voice saying ‘Justice, justice’ or ‘It is not fair, I should still go ahead despite of my wish for peace, for a balanced environment…’ A dilemma…What should we do, how should we decide?

How?”

As I mentioned at the beginning, whatever our approach could be, it might be disappointing for some people or for ‘us’ because of the way we get treated despite of our peaceful, friendly efforts. There is no 100% fulfilment at the end of the day.

Looking at this different heart of the 3 of Swords on the wonderful deck ‘The Tarot of Crossed Destinies’ by Andrea Aste, we may say that when there is a heart with a continuing beat, there is still life and there is still hope for moving forward even though our hearts might not be fully functioning or may not look as cheerful as before for a while…

As much as the reality might be hurting us in this moment, we may at the same time have an inner wise voice telling us ‘this shall pass’ pointing at the smaller heart in the ribcage with full of life appearing from the partly damaged bigger heart.

We may still continue building bridges with a peaceful approach but maybe this time with more caution, giving more space to ourselves in the scales of justice, remembering that who we are today is a result of any type of experience we have gone through; embracing the past and going forward in a renewed way with more power.

All the best,

Teri

by Teri Nudelman a.k.a. amethystastrotarot as in Hello from Amethyst! –

*On the Heavenly Spheres by Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro