The Third Decan of Gemini

This is the third ten-degree segment of Gemini, the mutable air sign, spanning 20 to 30 degrees. Its ruler in the Chaldean order of faces is the Sun, reached by continuing the sequence of the seven planets around the thirty-six decans. The decan is the most ancient part of this material, the thirty-six having begun as Egyptian stars used to divide the year into ten-day weeks and the night into hours, absorbed into the Greek zodiac as ten-degree arcs only when Babylonian astrology reached Egypt.

The Golden Dawn of 1888 assigned the thirty-six minor arcana to the decans in zodiacal order; this segment bears the Ten of Swords, titled Ruin, its Sun-in-Gemini planet taken from the face ruler, the tens marking the fullest, and here the most exhausted, expression of the airy suit. The tarot correspondence is a modern overlay on the older decan scheme rather than a feature of the ancient tradition.