The Third Decan of Aries

This is the third ten-degree segment of Aries, the cardinal fire sign, spanning 20 to 30 degrees. Its ruler in the Chaldean order of faces is Venus, the planet reached by continuing the sequence of the seven planets, slowest to fastest, around the wheel from Mars at zero Aries. The decan is the oldest stratum of astrological tradition: the thirty-six decans were originally Egyptian stars, painted on Middle Kingdom coffin lids as a calendar and a star-clock, and were folded into the twelve zodiac signs only when Babylonian astrology reached Egypt, three decans to a sign.

The Golden Dawn of 1888 assigned the thirty-six minor arcana to the decans in zodiacal order; this segment bears the Four of Wands, titled Completion or Perfected Work, its Venus attribution taken straight from the face ruler. That tarot correspondence is a modern overlay on the far older decan scheme, useful but not ancient.