My Decan Workshop: TL;DR
An introduction to my decan workshop
Over the new year 2025-2026, I held an online workshop to teach about the decans. In 4+ hours within 3 sessions, I provided historical context, talked about the relationship with tarot and invited participants to weave their decan stories from their own charts. Below is an edited transcript of the first class to give you a sense of what I spoke about. If you’re interested in the full (video) workshop, I’ve got a thank you promotion for all readers at the bottom of this post.
Christa:
“…all we can do is speak authentically about what our heart sings. Sometimes it resonates. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it doesn’t resonate yet. The decans are one of those things that feel magical to me, and they’re also incredibly practical and helpful. I love that crossover, where beauty and light help us translate meaning.
This will be a story and a lecture on the decans. Tonight we’ll focus more on the foundation, but before we get there, we need to orient ourselves historically. Whenever you begin something, it’s good to ask: Where is the dawn? Where is the east? Where do you begin? You have to begin somewhere. So for our purposes, we’ll begin by looking back.
The decans are one way to look into this prism of knowledge. We’ll explore how they’ve been used as far back as we have evidence, beginning with the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Greeks. We’ll also touch on daimons, and how that thread stretches from Egypt to Greece.
Tonight is about laying the astrological foundation and bringing it into the present. Next week we’ll talk more about tarot and how tarot imagery pulls in the stories of the decans. Week three will focus on finding our own context within that historical memory and learning how to actively work with decans in practice.
What I hope you gain from this is simple: that you learn something new, or feel inspired to learn something new. My work in practical astrology is to give you something you can carry with you. Even if you forget most of it, if one thread stays with you and you weave it into your own tapestry, that’s enough…
We’ll begin with the Moirai, the Three Fates, and I’ll read The Myth of Er from Book X of Plato’s Republic. The myth helps frame decans in the context of how we experience astrology and fate.
The number three draws my attention. There’s a comfort in three. A two-legged stool falls over. A three-legged stool stands. A braid requires three strands. Religious structures echo this: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Maiden, Mother, Crone. Three primary colors. Three states of matter. Body, mind, spirit. Plato even describes the soul as having three parts.
There’s something harmonizing about three. It’s structurally satisfying. And the decans reflect this structure: three divisions within each sign. That triplicity is easy to remember. Beginning, middle, end. It’s a pattern our minds recognize.
The Three Fates measure the thread of life. It is chosen, measured, and cut. That’s the story of existence.
So we begin with the fates, and we’ll end with them.
Now, let’s turn to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. When we think of decans, we often think of the Sun moving through them. Apollo, as god of sunlight, becomes relevant here. His twin sister Artemis is the Moon. The Sun and Moon are the first great bifurcation of light in the sky.
At Delphi, Apollo slew the serpent Python, and the temple was built on that site. The Pythia, priestesses of the temple, sat on three-legged stools. Some say over vapors rising from the earth. Some say they inhaled plant smoke. Regardless, they entered altered states and translated Apollo’s messages for humans.
If Apollo is the Sun, the Moon is the translator. In astrology, the Moon translates the sky to us. The Pythia embodied that lunar function.
Carved on the temple were three famous maxims:
Know thyself.
Nothing in excess.
With surety brings disaster.
“Know thyself” is foundational. If you’re drawn to astrology or tarot, you’re already answering that call.
“Nothing in excess” speaks to moderation, the middle way. We experience emotional highs and lows, but the middle vibration sustains us. It harmonizes the extremes.
“With surety brings disaster” warns against rigid certainty. Disaster literally carries the root “star” within it—a separation from the stars. When we become absolutely certain, we risk cutting ourselves off from guidance.
So I say this clearly: I am not an ultimate authority on decans. I’ve studied them, I love them, but I remain curious. Divinatory work requires conviction and humility. Let the fire breathe. Leave space for reinterpretation.
Now let’s orient ourselves cosmologically.
Imagine Earth at the center. Around it, the Moon. Then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn—the seven visible planets. Beyond them, the fixed stars. Between the wandering planets and the fixed stars is a subtle space.
This is where the decans reside.
Are they thresholds? Portals? Divine intelligences? Stories moving through structure?
I think of decans as frameworks through which stories travel.
In ancient Egypt, the firmament was both cosmic structure and divine boundary. It was crossed by the Sun, the stars, and the souls of the dead. The earliest evidence of decans comes from Egypt about 4,000 years ago.
Each decan corresponded to a star or constellation rising just before dawn. These heliacal risings occurred in roughly ten-day intervals, forming a 360-day cycle of 36 decans. They functioned as a night clock and as sacred timing markers in funerary rites.
In that final hour before dawn, a specific star would rise. Priests would perform rituals so that the deceased soul could pass through the firmament under the auspices of that decan deity. It was a liminal moment—twilight as doorway.
Mathematically, a decan is simple: divide 360 degrees by 36. Each decan occupies 10 degrees. Three decans per 30-degree sign.
That’s the structure.
But beyond mathematics, they are stories.
Each decan carries mythic resonance. In Hellenistic astrology, decans became associated with planetary rulers. These rulers function almost like daimons—intermediary spiritual beings acting within divine hierarchies.
Daimons are not inherently benevolent or malevolent. They are neutral forces carrying out roles within a larger cosmic order.
So how do we work with this now?
Begin with your Moon. Find the sign and degree of your Moon in your natal chart. Determine which decan it falls within:
0°00′–9°59′: First decan
10°00′–19°59′: Second decan
20°00′–29°59′: Third decan
Identify the decan ruler. That planetary ruler tells part of your Moon’s story. Then explore its house placement and aspects. You’ve just entered your chart through one focused doorway.
You might also explore your Lot of Spirit, sometimes called the Lot of Daimon, traditionally associated with the Sun. Where does it fall? Which decan holds it? What story does that suggest about your will and purpose?
You don’t need to analyze all 36 decans at once. Start with one. Enter your chart like stepping into a tent from a single flap. No matter where you enter, it’s the same tent.
Decans are a way to subdivide the sky. But they are also narrative thresholds. They are places where divine stories move into human experience.
If decans are anything, they are stories—structures through which divinity speaks through incarnation.
So find one. Sit with it. Ask what story is being told through you.
And begin there…
If you’re curious about the decan workshop, I have it for sale on my ko-fi. For my SubStack subscribers, I’m offering it at 33% off. I’ve never discounted this project because I stand by the work and know that it has exactly the value that I ask for. However, I also value you and want to extend this offer to the readers that support me. If you’d like access to this workshop, go to this link and use the code DECANS33 to get the workshop. You are welcome to share the link and code to your circle of friends. I’m not advertising it to the wider world but also am not interested in gate keeping it. The workshop will find the people who want it, one way or another!
P.S. I am busy building my The Decan Walk publication so haven’t been writing as much over here. That’s just the wave of things. I would encourage you to subscribe to that page if you’re interested in following the decans. There will be a lot of support material but limited to 1 email to subscribers every 10 days.
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