Your Egyptian Sign or Decan

Why Your Horoscope Now Has a 2000-Year-Old Update

Sep 26, 2024

THERE ARE THREE KINDS OF ARIES, THREE KINDS OF TAURUS and so on. Around 332 BC the Egyptians inspired zodiac signs split into equal thirds.

Wandering around the Ramses II exhibition in Sydney in Autumn 2024, I had one of those ‘Aha!’ moments, as an astrologer, which convinced me to start writing your horoscopes a little differently (below).

This followed the amazing March 2024 reveal of the first complete Ancient Egyptian zodiac. Here, at the Temple of Esna, is also confirmation that the Egyptians used decans - a division of the 30 degrees of every sign into 10 degrees each. Astrologers are just as impressed as archaeologists.

Your New Sign is Your Old Egyptian Sign

The link between character and your decan (or sign bracket) is well known. In fact, my new book, Your Birthday, written with history graduate Rachel Wells, is a long look at personality differences within a sign.

What’s really interesting, inspired by the new discovery at the Temple of Esna last March - is the way prediction can also be split into three forecasts, for every sign. So for Gemini, for example, there are three very different angles on the month ahead, based on the three decans. If you are a Cancerian, you can now read about cycles tailored to your one-third of the sign.

STARING AT THE SARCOPHAGUS OF RAMSES II in Sydney brought home the power of the Egyptians to survive and thrive. Not only are they physically being transported as far as Australia some 2000 years after they were embalmed, their highly specialised astrology is travelling too. So old. So new.

Why Decans Are So Powerful

Whenever there is a deep truth in astrology, we find it in the Tarot too.

Pamela Colman Smith and Arthur E. Waite understood decans and they were used extensively at The Golden Dawn, their famous secret society.

Dividing a sign like Leo, say, into sections of 10 degrees, inspired the Tarot cards you use today, according to T. Susan Chang, author of 36 Secrets.

So, this idea of 36 signs goes back around 2000 years, but also to the year 1909 when Pamela created her famous deck of Tarot cards. Embedded in her system are the Egyptian decans. Press play to see one of my new range of free decan birthday cards. This is Libra First Decan.

The Sabian Symbols and the Decans

Lynda Hill, the world’s leading Sabian Symbols expert, author, lecturer and friend inspired me to look at the 36 decans using this much-loved 1925 oracle.

Oracle decks come and go, but the Sabian Symbols (first channelled by Elsie Wheeler with Dr. Marc Edmund Jones almost 100 years ago) remain.

Based on 360 zodiac sign degrees, they also tell the story of First Decan Virgo, Second Decan Virgo, Third Decan Virgo and so on.

They were invaluable to me when I was writing Your Birthday - as was the Smith Waite Tarot. Press play to see the Pisces Second Decan birthday card.

Free - Animated Decan Birthday Cards

Choose from any of the 36 animated ecard designs on my website, to congratulate a friend on her/his birthday - by decan.

My co-author Rachel Wells researched the flowers and gemstones that accompany each sign, using English folklore. Virgo Second Decan (below) is one of my favourites.

Your Birthday (Running Press/Hachette USA) is on pre-order now ahead of the 15th October release. We hope you like it.