The second decan of Aquarius

The middle ten degrees of Aquarius, where both traditions agree on Mercury and the ideas start moving.

The technical picture

Degrees: 10 to 20 degrees of Aquarius
Sun here roughly: January 29 to February 8. The boundary shifts by about a day with the leap cycle, so a birthday within a day of either end needs a calculated chart.
Sign ruler: Saturn, over all three decans
Traditional face ruler: Mercury, from the Chaldean order
Modern triplicity ruler: Mercury, by way of Gemini
Do they agree: Yes. Both traditions give this decan to Mercury, which is true of only nine of the thirty-six.

The core of this decan

Ideas here want circulating. Mercury rules these degrees in both schemes, and the effect is that the principles the sign holds become things to be explained, argued, written down and passed on. Planets in this decan are quick, and quicker than the opening decan by some margin. The thinking is inventive and it is genuinely interested in being understood.

How it differs from the rest of the sign

The first decan of Aquarius forms a position and would rather not discuss it. This one cannot stop discussing it. That makes it the most sociable third of the sign in an intellectual sense, though not necessarily a warm one, and it moves considerably faster than the other two. Against the third decan, which is concerned with the people affected, this one is concerned with the argument itself.

The two rulers

Mercury takes these degrees either way you count. That is one of the nine agreements. The face system reaches it by continuing the Chaldean count; the modern one because the second decan of an air sign takes Gemini. When two unrelated methods land on the same planet the assignment tends to be doing something real, and here it produces the most mentally restless ten degrees of a sign otherwise known for holding still.

Where the friction is

An argument that can always be made is an argument that never has to be settled. A planet in these degrees can generate positions faster than it examines them, and the fluency makes it hard to notice which ones were ever tested. Contrariness is close by. The habit of taking the other side is useful until it becomes automatic, and by then it is difficult to tell from independent thought.

Working with it

Ask whether you disagree or are simply taking the other side, honestly, since this decan does both and they feel identical. It helps to finish one line of thinking before starting the next, because the fragments here are individually good and collectively very little. And check an idea against a fact occasionally rather than against another idea.

Questions to sit with

Do you disagree, or are you taking the other side out of habit?
Which of your good ideas have you never tested against anything?
What did you start thinking about and abandon when the next thing arrived?

The other decans of Aquarius

The rulers involved

Start here

Find which decan your own planets fall in.

Educational and reflective. This describes tendencies, not predictions, and is not medical, legal, financial, or psychological advice.

Drafted from an expert brief, reviewed by a practising astrologer with 30 years of experience, and grounded in computed chart data.