The Third Decan of Virgo

This is the third ten-degree segment of Virgo, the mutable earth sign, spanning 20 to 30 degrees. Its ruler in the Chaldean order of faces is Mercury, which rules Virgo itself, so here the face ruler and the sign's own ruler coincide. The decan is the oldest layer of astrology, the thirty-six having begun as Egyptian star groups used to divide the year and the night, absorbed into the zodiac as ten-degree arcs only in the last centuries BCE.

The Golden Dawn, from 1888, mapped the numbered minor cards onto the decans in zodiacal order; this segment carries the Ten of Coins, to which they gave the title Wealth, its Mercury-in-Virgo attribution taken from the face ruler, the tens marking the fullest material expression of the suit, here Mercury at home in the earth sign. That tarot layer is a modern Western overlay on the ancient decan scheme rather than part of the inherited astronomy.