Decan: 0°-9° Scorpio

Dates 2024: 23-31 October 2024

Ruling planet/luminary: Mars

Zodiac sign: Scorpio ~ Fixed Water 🜄

Tarot card: 5 of Cups

Golden Dawn Title: Lord of Loss in Pleasure

Associated Major Arcana:

The Tower (Mars) & Death (Scorpio)

All is not lost

The 5 of Cups depicts an experience of loss or disappointment, perhaps mixed with shame, regret, denial or loss of pride. This is the lingering fallout after a ‘Tower moment’.

This may be a new wound or the reopening of an old one and is something we all must go through at some point. When we feel cut off or choose to cut ourselves off, from the rest of the world and focus on our misfortune.

For some, the message of 5 of Cups is as simple as “it’s no good crying over spilt milk” but, with the astrological aspect of Mars in Scorpio, the suggestion is that the ‘disappointment’ runs deep. So, for others, this card will speak of terrible loss and grief and should not be trivialised.

The 2 upright cups hold hope for the future, although we cannot see what they hold or what that looks like from our current viewpoint, and the bridge back to ourselves and the world stays open for when we are ready to cross it.

As with previous Decans, I have found it useful to look at some keywords to see what ideas they may spark about the current Decan of Scorpio I.

Scorpio rulership

Scorpio has two planetary rulers. Originally this sign was assigned to the warrier planet Mars and then to Pluto after the discovery of the outer planets. Pluto is lord of the underworld and ruler of sex, death and taxes, and deep-seated emotion.

In Tarot, Pluto rules Judgement XX the card of rebirth. It is interesting how these two cards of Death and rebirth are so inextricably linked in the undeniable cycle of change and transformation.

Prompts for 5 of Cups ~ Mars in Scorpio

When in pain, or in the depths of regret, guilt or shame…

Ask yourself:

• What pain are you holding on to?
• Who do you need to forgive?
• Can you forgive yourself?
• What or who can you focus on in the here and now to help you reconnect with your present and your future hopes?
• What is there to learn from past disappointments?
• How might you adjust future expectations?
• How might you come out of this stronger? How might this change you?

Observations and synchronicities ~ on Scorpio I

I’m making a space here to return to over the coming days of Scorpio I to add any thoughts, ideas and synchronicities as they arise…

Mars in Scorpio sounds like a bad mood. Like a teenager raging through the house and slamming doors as they go. Funny/not funny.

It also feels like a stark reminder, as if we needed one, of what is going on in the world today: war, destruction, death, pain, loss. The greed and ambition that drive men to war and their tolerance of (or appetite for) conflict and ability to cut themselves off from their own humanity, and to deny the humanity of others, as they reach for power. This feels very much like the dark side of Mars in Scorpio and of human nature.

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Notes on the Decan Walk 2024/25

For more information on Decans, Astrology and Tarot and how they all synchronise please read this Substack article by Rebeka Kulcsar-Kurdi and T. Susan Chang’s 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot.

And, if you care to join me for this continuing solar return, you’ll find me on Facebook and Instagram hanging out on the corner of #decanwalk2024 and #decanastrology And I will be following @astroco_op and @tsusanchang

Here’s to another trip around the Sun!