The “Chalice of Earth” Taurus Ingress Matrix

Once again, I decided to try getting more interpretive value out of the Golden Dawn’s Chaldean correspondence wheel beyond its card-by-card significance. As an experiment I created matrices of the five cards that are “in play” at the ingress of the Sun into each of the zodiacal signs: the Ace and Princess that relate to the quadrant; the trump card that corresponds to the sign; the minor card that is associated with the decan for the first day of the zodiacal month (usually the 20th or 21st); and the other court card that encompasses that decan.

This concatenation is something I’ve always done mentally in an abstract way, but I thought it would be worthwhile to have a visual presentation. Right now I intend to treat the Ace and the Major Arcana card as describing the higher mental or spiritual outlook for the month; the two court cards as showing the qualities of personality that will prevail; and the minor card(s) as reflecting practical considerations, all modified by the randomly-pulled card(s)-of-the-month; the layout I chose follows that model. (I haven’t determined yet whether I will include the other two decans of the month in the mix; the simplest approach would be to add those cards in series after the “leading” decan card, to be brought into the picture as evolving situational influences.)

Here is the matrix for the zodiacal month of April-May that begins on April 21st, 2022. I created it in the shape of a chalice, with a card-of-the-month (not yet shown) to be drawn on the day of the ingress and placed within the “bowl;” if I decide to include the other decans, I will probably add them as a “stem” to the “chalice” (making it a coupe?) and randomly draw another monthly card for each one to put in the bowl. (However, Mercury will be in Taurus along with the Sun on the 21st, doubling down with the 5 of Disks on what Crowley called “intelligence applied to labour;” it would take a lot to override that influence for the rest of the month.) Independent of the cards, the Sun in Taurus will illuminate and energize the entire array. This may not be the most instructive example because all of the cards are of the same element [Earth], so there are no dual-element nuances to resolve in their interpretation; the same will be true for all of the fixed-sign months.

The idea is that the five-card (or seven-card) overlay will provide a qualitative “tone” for the month with the pulled card(s) showing the nature of the experiences that might be encountered during the period. The card-of-the-month will deliver on its promise to the extent that it and the “matrix” cards are jointly cooperative according to their inherent characteristics and any “dignities” they share (by element, number, rank, orientation, etc). The several “standing” cards already have an established relationship, and the fortuitous one(s) will either “play nice” with them or not, both mutually and collectively. Where they don’t, some challenges arising from “ill dignity” might be anticipated. I plan to use a second deck to populate the random position(s), and will post my example reading for the coming month around the 21st.

Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on April 9, 2022.