The Egyptian Lore Behind the Decans of the Zodiac

A Brief Introduction

According to Egyptian mythology, the story tells of primordial gods who rebelled against the sun god Rē. After the gods failed Rē ripped them apart, threw them into the sky and ordered Thoth, god of knowledge and writing, to give each of them rulership over 10 day periods. Although these gods had been defeated, they were still gods in their own right and are what became known as dekanoi (decans) meaning 10ths.

The 36 decans in Egyptian cosmology are referred to as the “ba” aspect of the primordial gods that stood for the physical manifestation of the spirits' intelligences; Ba’s were depicted as human-headed birds to emphasize that they moved freely in the world. 

Ba = ☉ 

The mobile manifestation of spirit, the light of the sky that shapes the zodiac; Rē: god of the sun that travels in his solar ship through the body of Nut 

Ka = ☽ 

The physical manifestation of spirit, the night of the sky that gives space for light and shapes the houses; Nut: goddess of water and fertility 

Akh = ☿ 

The minds effect on the quality of spirit, you at the wheel of Rēs ship; the winged scarab that initiates Rēs journey through Nut that the Hellenistic tradition defined as The Helm… the joy of ☿ that defines the 1H.

These were the aspects of Rē traveling through Nut that the Egyptians understood to define the journey of the soul (the experience) which was composed of; Ba, Ka and Akh and thus the Egyptian philosophies and approaches that influence astrological practices. 

Although some may want to use the position of the sun and planets as a means to figuring out the decans it's important to note that the decanal stars through the sky occurred on an hourly, nightly and weekly basis, starting with the heliacal rise of the star Sirius which shaped the Egyptian calendar. 

This is why in astrology the solar year is what shapes the modalities of the zodiac through the transition of the seasons, as well as the 36 decanal star forces that constitute the 12 month divisions. These 12 months are what form each 30 decanal degrees of a sign during the 360 day calendar reflected in the birth chart.  

The real fun for astrologers is delineating the houses that also stem from these same 12 divisions. 

The Egyptian ☉ god’s path across the ☽ goddess of night’s body is also what shapes the houses as he travels through the 12 spaces of Nut that correspond with the 12 hours of the night sky — a reflection/mirror to the 12 month division of the ☉s journey through the year.

This is also the reason why in the Hellenistic tradition of astrology the 9th house, known as the temple of god (Rē), represents long travel and the place where the ☉ finds joy, given the journey of the ☉.  

The 3rd house being the direct space that compliments (opposition) the journey of the ☉ and the place known as the temple of the goddess (Nut) which represents the spaces that Rē journeys through and thus the significations of direct environment/locality and travel. 

These 3 conceptual spaces of Nut (the sky) and the appearing, rising, culminating and descending cycle of the decanal stars are what shape the rest of the joys and the houses.

The Helm, the joy of Mercury - 1st House

The Goddess, the joy of the Moon - 3rd House

God, the joy of the Sun - 9th House 

 If you wish to learn a more in-depth study of the decans and their history, most of what has inspired this post stems from Travis McHenry’s, “Cult of the Stars”. Although I won’t be going into detail on the shaping of the houses you can find the technicalities that become of this in Chris Brennan’s, “The Planetary Joys and the Origins of the Significations of the Houses and Triplicities,” originally published in the International Society for Astrological Research Journal, Vol. 42, No. 1, April 2013.