So... I was searching around the internet, increasing my knowledge database on Astrology, when I came across something extremely interesting that I had never heard of before. It was a system called the Decans, which there are supposedly 3 of in everybody's rising sign. Depending on the degree of your rising sign, you will fall under one of the three Decans for that sign. The reason this interested me so much is because I am a Libra rising, and I learned that I am in fact born under the Gemini Decan.. Which is just plain strange considering my close friends and family, and myself, believe me to be like... the perfect fit for the Gemini description. We could never figure out why, because I've had my chart done and I had nothing going on in Gemini except for my Mercury placement. So what exactly is the rep of these so called Decans throughout the Astrological community? Would they really have as much of an impact on my birthchart as to make me turn out like a full-blown Gemini? Thank you for any help!!
Decans are also called faces. Each sign is made up of 30 degrees, and each decan is 10, so there are 3 in each sign. The most popular way the decans are set up are if you take each of the sign in order, starting with Mars since it rules Aries, and then place each of the planets in 10 degree increments in the original planetary order, you just go down the line. Here is an example: Aries - Mars, Sun Venus Taurus - Mercury, Moon, Saturn Gemini - Jupiter, Mars, Sun And so on In this example, if Mars is in the 1st to 10th degrees Aries, then it's dignified by decan, if the Sun is in the 11th to 20th degrees Aries, it's dignified by decan, and so on. This is based on Ptolemy, and there is another method based on Indian astrology that I can't remember that the Arabs also used sometimes. One interesting thing, is if you take the first 7 signs in order, the days of the week match the 2nd decans. So in Aries, the 2nd decan is the Sun, so Sunday, Taurus' 2nd decan is the Moon, so Monday, and Gemini's 2nd decan is Mars, so Tuesday, and so on. In traditional interpretation, if a planet is in its decan, it's not that great. William Lilly in the 17th century compared to a person on the verge of being thrown out on the street, and more recently, Lee Lehman says it denotes an insecurity. For it to be this negative, the planet would have to have the decan as its only dignity, so a planet can have more than one dignity. If a planet is dignified in other ways AND is in its decan, I still say there is an insecurity there, but it's not detrimental. In magic, there are talismans for the decans. I think the spirits invoked in the Goetia are actually the spirits of the decans since there are 36 of them. I just haven't figured out the exact correspondence of them yet.
But I still don't understand whether or not these decans have a strong enough impact on the birthchart to fully effect somebody's personality. In my case, it would explain my Gemini behavior, but what about people who are accurately defined by their sun or rising sign?
Personality is a small part of a chart. Modern astrology places too much emphasis on personality frankly. A birth chart represents your life, and unless you are an unusual person, your life is made up of more than your personality. Yes it can have a major impact. I did a chart once for someone where the ruler of her rising sign was in the 2nd house and was only dignified by decan. Amongst other things, I could see she had a preoccupation with being insecure about money. If the planet ruling your rising sign is dignified by decan and nothing else, then you as a person have a hard time getting what you want out of life I also see it all the time in horary charts, and quite often I see the planet representing the person asking the question is dignified by decan, which shows the condition of that person. It makes sense considering they feel like they need advice on a problem. I especially see this in relationship charts.
