A Man Climbing a Steep Hill, a Road Consisting of Steps

The image tradition for this degree goes back to 1925, to a session Marc Edmund Jones held with the clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler in Balboa Park, San Diego, drawing all 360 cards blind and at random. Jones's book followed in 1953, though the phrasing most commonly cited now is Dane Rudhyar's, from his 1973 An Astrological Mandala, a text this page leaves unquoted because it is still under copyright. It falls in the first decan of Capricorn (degrees 1 to 10), and is Capricorn's ninth degree. Its decan is ruled by Jupiter rather than Saturn, which colors the degree with something Capricorn does not supply on its own.

The term ruler here is also Jupiter, so the finer division agrees with the decan rather than adding a separate voice. A picture for this degree also survives from 1898, from Charubel's own independent series, published a generation before Jones's. He recorded a man climbing a steep hill, a road consisting of steps; an angel form at the top giving words of cheer with a golden crown awaiting him. Capricorn opens the earth triplicity's hardest test, initiating through structure, discipline, and long accountability. Taken together, the position, the decan, and the old image give this degree a specific character within Capricorn rather than a generic one.