The 36 Decans

The Decans are the story of the sun’s movement through the stars

Good resource - Austin Coppock’s book on the subject

The visible lunar cycle of 29.3 days does not fit into the 365.25 days of the solar year. Much to the chagrin of calendar crafters, the lunar cycle falls nearly 10 days short. To bridge the gap between the solar year and the lunar month, a number of cultures, among them the Chinese, Arabian and Hindu, utilized the intercalary or “leap” months, an awkward system which added an extra month to the calendar every three years. In many cultures, the Sun’s cycle was first measured at the periphery of the historical record. For the Egyptians, it was sometime in the late 3rd millennia. This is where the decans first appear, as a division of the year into 36 distinct sections, each with its own associated characteristics and gods. Yet what is interesting about the decanic division into 36 is that it addresses not just the year, the large wheel of solar time, but also the day—the small wheel whose rotation we are constantly privy to. Each of these cycles is cut to 36 by means of marker stars. The rising of each one of these stars in the night sky marked the beginning of a new hour. The decans, and the stars which marked them, were thus a type of stellar clock, allowing the ancient Egyptians to divide the night. This is a significant innovation, for the observant have long used the angle and length of shadows to measure the day, but night offers no such conveniences.

Austin Coppock

The 36 Decans & Fixed Stars

The Secret Fire of the Zodiac. The Lights Behind the Signs.

Origin: • The Decans are 10° subdivisions of the 12 zodiac signs (3 per sign). • Originating in ancient Egyptian astrology, they were time-keepers for night watches and the soul’s journey through the Duat. • Associated with Egyptian gods, Chaldean spirits, and magical intelligences. • Linked to Fixed Stars, each carrying unique mythic, stellar, and archetypal energies.

What They Offer: • Micro-initiations: Refined spiritual lessons that sharpen the soul’s armor. • Zodiacal Temperatures: They nuance the broad energies of the 12 signs. • Time Portals: Each decan corresponds to a 10-day solar window each year. • Star-Fire Codes: Hidden myths, intelligences, and daimonic currents.

• Mapping the 36 Decans to Initiations or Meditations (e.g., through Tarot Minor Arcana or image-based scrying). • Connecting them to Egyptian Netjeru or Greek Daimons: Who governs each? What lesson or boon do they bestow? • Ritual/Study during each Decan’s calendar window: 36 ten-day gates through the year. • Use Austin Coppock’s 36 Faces as a core text. His archetypes are visionary keys.

Images of the Decans from Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy

DECAN	IMAGE	POWER
Aries I	A black man, standing and dressed in white and girded, a large body, red eyes, and with great strength and as if angry.	This image signifies and is made for boldness, strength, loftiness, and immodesty.
Aries II	A woman, indeed dressed in red outer garments, and white [garments] beneath them, stretching out her foot.	This image confers talent, tameness, joy, and beauty.
Aries III	A white man, pale, red hair, and dressed in red, with one hand wearing a golden bracelet and holding forward a staff. His likeness is as if he was restless and angry because he can’t perform the good he wishes.	This image is made for nobility, loftiness of kingdom, and a great dominion.
Taurus I	A nude man digging or ploughing.	This is useful for planting, ploughing, building, plundering, dividing the earth, and for geometrical arts.
Taurus II	A nude man, holding a key in his hand.	This brings power, nobility, and authority over people.
Taurus III	A man, in whose hand is a serpent and an arrow.	This is the image of necessity and usefulness, and also misery and servitude.
Gemini I	A man, in whose hand is a staff as if serving another.	It brings wisdom, science, and art of numbers, and in which there is no usefulness.
Gemini II	A man, in whose hand is a [shepherd’s] pipe, and the other is curved digging the earth.	It signifies infamous and dishonest activities, such as jesters and tricksters, and signifies labors and laborious searches.
Gemini III	A man searching for arms, and a foolish man who holds in his right hand a bird and in the left a flute.	It signifies forgetfulness, anger, boldness joking, trifling and useless words.
Cancer I	A virgin girl, dressed in pretty clothes, wearing a crown on her head.	It is excellent for sharp senses, subtlety of wit, and love of men.
Cancer II	A man dressed in beautiful clothing, or a man and woman sitting at a table playing.	It brings wealth, cheerfulness, joy and love of women.
Cancer III	A man hunting with a lance and horn summoning dogs for the hunt.	This signifies conflicts with men, pursuing those fleeing, hunting, and occupying things by armies and disputes.
Leo I	A man riding on a lion.	It signifies boldness, violence, cruelty, wickedness, desire, and prolonged labor.
Leo II	A man with his hands raised, with a crown on his head, and the form of a man angry and threatening. In his right hand he has a drawn sword and in the left a round shield.	It has the signification over hidden quarrels, unknown victories, over vile men, and occasions of lawsuits and battles.
Leo III	A young man, in whose hand is a whip, and the form of a man angry and threatening. In his right hand he has a drawn sword and in the left a round shield.	This signifies love and fellowship and the lowering of oneself for avoiding battle.
Virgo I	The figure of good maiden and man planting seeds.	This is the signification of gathering riches, a good life, ploughing, planting, and plundering.
Virgo II	A black man, wearing skins, having woolen hair, and holding a satchel.	This signifies gain, the accumulation of substance, and for greed.
Virgo III	A white woman and a deaf or old man, leaning on a stick.	This is the signification of weakness, illness, the loss of members, for the destruction of trees, and the plundering of the earth.
Libra I	The form of an angry man, in his hand is a shepherd’s pipe, and the form of a man reading a book.	The operation of this is for the justice and help of the poor and weak against the evil and powerful.
Libra II	Two men raging and angry, and a man ornately dressed sitting in a chair.	This has the signification for anger, against evil, and a restful and secure life with an abundance of good.
Libra III	A violent man holding a bow, and before him a nude man and another man with one hand holding a loaf of bread, the other a cup of wine.	This has the signification for impious desire, singing, joking, and gluttony.
Scorpio I	A woman with a good face and condition, and two men beating each other.	The operation of this is for decorum, beauty, for quarrels, ambushes, deceptions, slanders, and destruction.
Scorpio II	A nude man and nude woman, and the man is sitting on the ground, and before him are two dogs biting each other.	The operation of this is for shamelessness, deception, deceit, for sending out evil, and quarrels between men.
Scorpio III	A man bent over his knee, and a woman beating him with a staff.	This is the signification of drunkenness, fornication, passion, violence, and lawsuits.
Sagittarius I	A strong man armed with a coat of mail, holding a drawn sword in his hand.	The operation of this is for boldness, militancy and freedom.
Sagittarius II	A lamenting woman entirely covered with clothing.	The operation of this is for sadness and fear of their body.
Sagittarius III	A man similar to a golden color, or an idle man playing with a staff.	This is the signification in following one’s own will and determination, and activities for evil things, quarrels, and horrible things.
Capricorn I	A woman and a black man, bearing full satchels.	The signification of this is for going out and being joyful, for profit and loss by debilities, and for usefulness.
Capricorn II	Two women and a man gazing at a bird flying in the air.	The signification of this is for demanding for what is unable to happen, and for searching for what cannot be known.
Capricorn III	A woman, chaste in body and wise in her work, and a banker gathering money on a table.	This is the significator for prudent government, and for ambitious and greedy substances.
Aquarius I	A prudent man and the form of a woman spinning.	This is the signification for thinking and working for gain in poverty, and for usefulness.
Aquarius II	A man with a luxurious beard.	It has the signification of intellect, clemency, modesty, freedom, and good morals.
Aquarius III	A black man who is angry.	It has the signification of disclosure, insolence and shamelessness.
Pisces I	A man carrying a burden over his back, and dressed well.	It has the signification of journeys, changing one’s place, and anxiety for seeking substance and nourishment.
Pisces II	An ornate woman with a good face.	This is the signification for rest, swiftness, delight, for fornication, and surrounding oneself with women.
Pisces III	A nude man or young man, and near them a beautiful maiden, whose head is decorated in flowers.	This is the signification for rest, swiftness, delight, for fornication, and surrounding oneself with women.

“the Book of Raziel, a fundamental Kabbalistic text which discusses a set of 36 angels. In that much other astrological lore is discussed, it is difficult to dismiss the grouping of angels into a tribe of 36 as accidentally analogous to the decans. This likely overlap between the decans and angelology is particularly interesting as a precedent for the 19th century syncretism between the decans and the 72 angels of the Shem ha Mephoresh.” - Austin Coppack

“In some schools of Kabbalah, this arrangement of ten spheres is considered to exist in four worlds—a quaternary division of reality itself. These four worlds have attributed to them the four classical elements—Earth, Air, Water and Fire. If each sphere of light or Sephirah is considered to exist in each of the four worlds we come to a total of 40 spheres, the same number we arrive at if we have four suits of 10 cards apiece, as in the Tarot. As with the Tarot, the first of each set of 10 is then removed, leaving four sets of nine, or thirty six, the number of decans. Thus is each decan associated with one of the Sephirah in one of the four worlds.” - Austin Coppack

Decans based on the Babylonian Star Calendar:

1 - Enki stars (outer ring)

2 - Anu stars (middle ring)

3 - Enlil stars (inner ring)

Aries

Nissanu

1 - MUL. IKU

2 - MUL. DILI. PAT (Venus)

3 - MULAPIN (Andromeda)

Taurus

Allaru

4 - MUL. MUL, Pleides

5 - Mul. SU. GI

6 - MUL-anu-alum

Gemini

Simanu

7 - MUL. SIBA. ZLAN.NA

8 - MUL. URA. A

9 - MUL. MUS (Hydra)

Cancer

Du'uzu

10 - MUL. GAG. SISA

11 - MUL. MAS. TAB. BA

12 - MUL. U. ALTAR (Jupiter)

Leo

Abu

13 - MULPAN

14 - MUL. MAS TAB BA. GAL. GAL.

15 - MUL. MAR. GID. DA (Ursa Major)

Virgo

Ululu

16 - MUL. BIR

17 - MUL. UGA

18 - MUL. SUPA (Arcturus)

Libra

Tasritu

19 - MUL. NIN. MAH

20 - MUL. zibanitum

21 - MUL. ENTE. HA. BAR. GUZ.

Scorpio

Arahsamna

22 - MUL. UR. IDIM.

23 - MUL. GIR. TAB.

24 - MUL. HANIS. (Centauri)

Sagittarius

Kislimu

25 - MUL. galbatanu

26 - MUL. U. KA.TUH.A

27 - MULUZ (Lyra)

Capricorn

Tebilu

28 - MUL. GU. LA

29 - MUL. AL. LUL

30 - MUL. A. MUSEN. (Aquila)

Aquarius

Sabalu

31 - MUL. NU. MUSDA

32 - MUL. SIM. MAH.

33 - MUL. DAMU

Pisces

Addaru

34 - MUL. KU

35 - MUL. KA. A

36 - MUL. Marduk.