Most readers learn the thirty-six pip cards as a grab-bag of small scenes. But the Golden Dawn tied every one of them to a ten-day slice of the zodiac, so the Tarot has a calendar folded inside it. This article traces the decans from Egyptian star clocks to Book T and explains the wheel of signs and planets behind the cards. It reads the Three of Swords, Nine of Swords and Ten of Cups through their decans, lays out October's cards and shows you how to find your own card in your natal chart. Explore every card in our complete guide to the Minor Arcana.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: A popular opinion among mystical tarot readers is that formal (aka “positional”) spreads are too rigid and therefore hamper performance of the fluid, freestyle interpretation those practitioners favor. As a long-time creator of

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Not long ago I read a psychological article that described personality as being innate or instinctual, while character develops gradually over time through repetitive experiences that eventually solidify into a Pavlovian “conditioned response.”

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In my opinion, the one-card pull as a daily reading practice is relatively useless except as a way to show the environmental backdrop or atmosphere of the forthcoming 24-hour period. It is static