Decan Images

The 36 Decan Images

What Are the Decans?

The zodiac's 360 degrees are divided into 36 segments of 10 degrees each — three per zodiacal sign. These segments are called decans (from the Greek dekanos, "ruler of ten") or faces (Latin facies). Each decan has an associated iconographic image: a detailed visual description of a figure or scene that embodies the celestial force active in that 10-degree arc.

In the Picatrix, these images are described with vivid specificity in Book II, Chapters 11-12. They are intended to be engraved on talismans, painted, or sculpted — the image itself is the operative element, serving as a vessel for the celestial force of that decan.

A Critical Distinction: Images, Not Named Spirits

Unlike the 28 lunar mansion lords or the 56 planetary spirits, the decan images in the Picatrix are described but not individually named as spirits. They are presented as what one sees when perceiving the force of that decan — iconographic forms rather than personal entities.

This distinction matters for practice. When working with a decan, the operative element is the image — its visual form, engraved or drawn with the correct materials at the correct time. The magician does not invoke a decan spirit by name (as one would invoke a planetary spirit); instead, the magician reproduces the image and thereby creates a sympathetic link to the celestial force.

Some later traditions (particularly the Golden Dawn and its derivatives) assigned names and personalities to the decans, but this represents a synthesis that goes beyond what the Picatrix itself provides.

Egyptian Origins

The decan system originated in ancient Egypt, where it served as both an astronomical and a religious framework.

The 36 Star Groups

Egyptian astronomers identified 36 star groups (or individual bright stars) that rose heliacally — that is, appeared on the eastern horizon just before sunrise — at roughly 10-day intervals throughout the year. The first and most important of these was Sothis (Sirius), whose heliacal rising in mid-July coincided with the annual Nile flood and marked the Egyptian New Year.

Each of these 36 stars or star groups governed a 10-day "week" (the Egyptians used a 36-week calendar of 360 days, plus 5 epagomenal days). The presiding star-spirit of each decan was understood to have power over that period and to influence events on earth during its reign.

From Timekeeping to Cosmology

The decans served multiple functions in Egyptian practice:

Timekeeping: They were used to track the hours of the night (12 decans visible at any time, one rising each hour)
Funerary art: Decan images appear on coffin lids and tomb ceilings (the "diagonal star clocks" of the Middle Kingdom, c. 2000 BCE)
Medical astrology: Specific decans governed specific body parts, and illness could be diagnosed and treated based on the ruling decan
Protective magic: Decan images were painted on temples and tombs to provide spiritual protection

The earliest surviving decan lists date to the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181-2055 BCE), making the decan system one of the oldest continuous astrological traditions in the world — older than the zodiac itself.

The Indian Transmission

The decan images as they appear in the Picatrix did not travel directly from Egypt to the Arabic world. They passed through a crucial intermediary stage in India, where they were transformed and enriched.

Yavanajataka (269 CE)

The Yavanajataka ("Sayings of the Greeks") is a Sanskrit astrological text translated by Sphujidhvaja in 269 CE from a lost Greek original composed by Yavanesvara around 149 CE. It represents the transmission of Hellenistic astrology — including decan images — into the Indian tradition.

The decan descriptions in the Yavanajataka are recognizably related to the Egyptian originals but have been transformed: figures are re-clothed in Indian garments, carry Indian implements, and reflect Indian iconographic conventions. Importantly, some decan images became more elaborate and narratively complex during this transmission.

Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka (c. 550 CE)

The great Indian astronomer-astrologer Varahamihira (505-587 CE) included decan descriptions in his Brihat Jataka, drawing on both the Yavanajataka tradition and indigenous Indian astrological sources. His descriptions represent a further evolution of the decan images, incorporating elements of Hindu iconography and mythology.

Return to the Arabic World

When Arabic scholars of the 8th-10th centuries translated Indian astronomical and astrological texts (the zij literature and related works), the enriched Indian decan images returned to the Near East. The Picatrix's decan descriptions show clear signs of this round-trip journey: they combine Egyptian structural elements (the 36-fold division, the association with specific celestial zones) with iconographic details that passed through Hellenistic and Indian transformations.

The result is a set of images that are neither purely Egyptian, nor purely Greek, nor purely Indian, but a synthesis produced by centuries of cross-cultural transmission — one of the great examples of intellectual exchange across the ancient world.

Example Decan Descriptions from the Picatrix

The following examples are drawn from Book II, Chapters 11-12. They illustrate the vivid, specific, often enigmatic quality of the decan images. Each description is meant to be translated into a visual image on a talisman.

First Decan of Aries (0-10 degrees)

A dark man with large, restless red eyes, holding a large sword, clothed in white.

This image embodies the explosive, initiating force of early Aries — Mars-ruled fire at its most raw and assertive. The white clothing against the dark complexion creates visual tension that mirrors the decan's nature: barely contained force.

Second Decan of Aries (10-20 degrees)

A woman dressed in green, lacking one leg.

An image of striking strangeness. The green clothing suggests Venus's tempering influence (Venus is the triplicity ruler contributing to this decan in some systems), while the missing leg evokes incompleteness, imbalance, or sacrifice — the cost of Aries' forward drive.

First Decan of Taurus (0-10 degrees)

A woman with curling hair, wearing a single garment, with one child who looks like her. She has a fire burning before her.

The domestic and generative force of early Taurus: fertility, continuity, the hearth-fire. The child "who looks like her" emphasizes the reproductive, self-perpetuating quality of Venusian earth.

Third Decan of Cancer (20-30 degrees)

A man holding a serpent in his hand, with a viper on his head. He is leading animals before him.

This decan carries the lunar-Jupiterian quality of late Cancer, but filtered through imagery of serpent-wisdom and animal mastery. The serpent associations connect to healing (the caduceus tradition), while the leadership of animals suggests the taming of instinct by wisdom.

First Decan of Leo (0-10 degrees)

A man with a shaggy head, dressed in filthy clothes, riding a bear. He holds up a large piece of meat in one hand.

An image of raw solar-martial power in its most uncivilized expression — the force of Leo before it has been refined into kingship. The bear-riding figure suggests dominance over savage nature, while the filthy clothes and meat indicate a power that has not yet been civilized.

Second Decan of Virgo (10-20 degrees)

A man with dark skin, covered with hair, wearing a leather belt, and wrapped in a cloak of linen. In his hand he holds a pomegranate.

The pomegranate — fruit of the underworld in Greek tradition, symbol of hidden knowledge and multiplicity within unity — marks this as a decan of concealed wisdom. The leather belt and linen cloak suggest a figure poised between the practical (leather, work) and the refined (linen, priestly garments).

Iconographic Principles

Across the 36 descriptions, several patterns emerge:

Color symbolism: Clothing colors consistently correspond to planetary natures — white for the Moon, green for Venus, red for Mars, gold/yellow for the Sun, dark/black for Saturn, multicolored for Mercury, blue/purple for Jupiter.

Objects carried: Swords, staffs, animals, fruits, vessels, and tools recur as symbolic implements. Each carries planetary meaning — swords for Mars, staffs for authority (Sun/Jupiter), vessels for receptivity (Moon/Venus).

Posture and action: Figures are described standing, sitting, riding, walking, or in specific gestures. The posture indicates the decan's mode of action — active, contemplative, aggressive, receptive.

Animal companions: Bears, serpents, dogs, horses, birds, and other animals appear frequently, linking decans to the animal kingdom's correspondence system.

Physical description: Skin color, hair, body type, and age all carry symbolic weight. Dark figures often appear in Saturn-influenced decans; beautiful figures in Venus-influenced ones; aged figures where Saturn predominates; youthful ones where Jupiter or Venus holds sway.

The Tarot Connection

The Golden Dawn Assignment (19th Century)

In the late 19th century, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn created a systematic correspondence between the 36 decans and the pip cards (2 through 10) of the four Tarot suits. In this system:

The 36 numbered minor arcana cards (four suits x nine cards, excluding Aces) are assigned to the 36 decans in zodiacal order
Each card receives the decan's planetary ruler and zodiacal sign as its astrological attribution
Example: The 2 of Wands = First decan of Aries (Mars in Aries); the 5 of Cups = First decan of Scorpio (Mars in Scorpio)

This correspondence became foundational for 20th-century Tarot interpretation, particularly through the influence of A.E. Waite (the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, 1909), Aleister Crowley (the Thoth Tarot, 1943), and their many successors. Most modern Tarot practitioners who use astrological correspondences are working with the Golden Dawn decan system, whether they know it or not.

What This Is and Is Not

This must be stated clearly: the Golden Dawn's Tarot-decan correspondence is a 19th-century synthesis, NOT something found in the Picatrix.

The Picatrix:

Was composed c. 950-964 CE
Makes no mention of Tarot cards (which did not exist in the Islamic world)
Describes decan images for talismanic purposes, not divinatory ones
Does not assign pip-card-like numbered sequences to its decans

The Tarot:

Emerged in 15th-century Italy as a card game
Was not systematically connected to astrology or Kabbalah until the 18th-19th centuries (Court de Gebelin, Etteilla, Levi)
Received its decan correspondences from the Golden Dawn in the 1880s-1890s

The Golden Dawn's achievement was to map two pre-existing systems (Tarot structure and decan astrology) onto each other, creating a new synthesis. This synthesis is legitimate as a modern magical-divinatory tool, but it should not be retrojected onto the Picatrix or treated as ancient tradition. The Picatrix's decan images and the Tarot's pip cards are independent streams that were braided together 900 years after the Picatrix was written.

Understanding this distinction prevents the common error of interpreting Picatrix decans through Tarot meanings (or vice versa) as though they were originally the same system.

Working with Decan Images

For talismanic purposes within the Picatrix tradition, the decan images are used as follows:

Determine the target decan based on the desired effect and the current celestial configuration
Elect a time when the Sun (or the relevant planet) is in that decan AND well-dignified
Prepare materials corresponding to the decan's planetary ruler (metal, stone, suffumigation)
Engrave or draw the decan image on the talisman at the elected moment
Suffumigate and consecrate the talisman

The image functions as a lens — it focuses the celestial force of that decan into the material object, creating a talisman that radiates the decan's specific influence for as long as the material endures.