Exploring the soul of the first 10° of Taurus.
Welcome to the first decan of Taurus! Before we jump in, if you want/need a refresher about the decans themselves, check out "Understanding the Decans" and then meet me back here so we can dive head first into this post together. Here's a quick overview of everything we'll be covering about the first decan of Taurus:
Planetary ruler of the decan
Descriptions from Ibn Ezra, the Picatrix, and Agrippa
The tarot card associated with the decan
An exploration of the decan's soul via Sun placement
Again, if you want to know the meaning of the decans themselves, what they are, and how they can be of use to us, then definitely read the first post in this series before continuing on. You babes know I like to teach from a solid foundation, so knowing exactly what the decans are and the rationale behind them will be important in interpreting them. If you're solid on the concept of decans, then let's get started with the planetary ruler.
Planetary Ruler
We made it to the next zodiac sign! Just because we've moved into a new sign doens't mean the Chaldean order skips or changes. Since we left off with Venus, the next planet in the Chaldean order is Mercury. This is our first Mercury decan and in a lot of ways it feels right and in a lot of ways it feels wrong. But that's exactly how I would expect anything having to do with Mercury to be, ambiguous and embodying all facets. Mercury is a psychopomp that can go above and below. I actually find it quite hard to make Mercury uncomfortable because of its elasticity and fondness for duality. The same goes the other way, as Mercury rarely offends any of the other planets or placements. It gives off a very neutral energy and will conform to what's around. Even mythologically speaking, Mercury was never really known to offend the gods. He was a messenger and we all know the phrase "don't shoot the messenger." Mercury ruling the first 10° of fixed Earth indicates that we'll see an anchored body, but an active mind. The overarching energy of Taurus shows concern for the material world, and Mercury will lend its merchant skills to aid those concerns.