The First Decan of Scorpio

This is the first ten-degree segment of Scorpio, the fixed water sign, spanning 0 to 10 degrees. Its ruler in the Chaldean order of faces is Mars, the traditional ruler of Scorpio, so here the face ruler and the sign's own ruler coincide. The decans are the oldest stratum of astrology, beginning as thirty-six Egyptian star groups whose successive risings served as a calendar and a star-clock, absorbed into the Greek zodiac as ten-degree subdivisions of the signs only later.

The Golden Dawn, from 1888, mapped the numbered minor cards onto the decans in order; this segment carries the Five of Cups, to which they gave the title Disappointment or Loss in Pleasure, its Mars-in-Scorpio attribution taken from the face ruler, Mars in its own dark water sign matching the card's image of spilled cups and regret. That tarot layer is a modern Western overlay on the ancient decan scheme, not a feature of the Egyptian or Hellenistic material.