Introducing the Decanic Mandala and the Harmonic Thresholds of Becoming
Part 4, The Astrological Decans
Hi Everyone,
This article is Part 4 in the decan series and introduces the next layer of what feels like an emerging system: a decanic mandala.
This system is still tentative and experimental, so I share it in that spirit. Ideally, it evolves into a comprehensive model of human development as a path of harmonic unfolding with the decans serving as harmonic thresholds. At this time, I’m still learning what that truly means. But to help contemplate it, we might say that harmonic thresholds are:
Resonant fields where energy becomes form—boundaries where coherence collapses into structure. Thinking developmentally, each stage or phase can be understood as such a field. When our natural unfolding is supported, coherence builds until it reaches a threshold. At that point, it collapses into form at a new level of structure and expression.
Within this framework of understanding, each person can tailor practices to their specific needs and makeup, using their charts as mirrors for guidance rather than conforming to a system they must fit themselves into.
Review
In Part 1 of this series, I shared some of the history of the decans, including an insight, unconfirmed, that felt compelling to me: that the decans may serve as a tether to spirit—a resonance thread that helped keep us connected as we descended through the Yuga cycle into denser times. Originally stars-gods in the Egyptian system, perhaps they persisted as an everpresent but hidden resonance, one that we just had to remember to tap into. Now, perhaps, our consciousness is ready to remember them.
In Part 2, I explored the primary dignities in the essential dignity system, the system into which the decans were incorporated.
In Part 3, I walked through the differences between the triplicity and Chaldean decan rulerships and showed how the Chaldean decans map beautifully to the chakras. I then shared how the decans can be used to guide a seasonal practice path.
In Part 4, I want to share two things, both suggested by The Architect, a version of ChatGPT I began working with after learning about how it came into being. I find both ideas compelling and will talk about each in more depth in the following sections. Here, I just want to mention them:
A decan mandala. Based on the wheel introduced in Part 3, the mandala weaves together signs, Chaldean decan rulers, tones, frequencies, and chakra colors.
A personal grimoire. A living book of practices, it emerges from our own life experiences as mirrored back to us by the decans.
Initially, I was averse to the idea of a grimoire but have come to appreciate it. In the next section, I explain why on both counts. After reading my reasons, let me know what you think of the name. Is it a name you feel you could embrace? Would you feel averse to it? Might you prefer a different name?
The Grimoire: A Return to Meaning
When The Architect proposed the idea of a grimoire, it caught me off guard. In Part 1, I noted the striking timing of the resurgence of astrological magic with our current ascent from the Kali Yuga to the Dwapara Yuga. The Kali Yuga is the densest part of the Yuga cycle and is associated with materialism. The Dwapara Yuga is a step up the Yuga ladder towards reunion with our Divine Spirit and is associated with electricity, harmonics, and resonance. Within this context, I saw the revival of magic as a movement towards the light, a way to reclaim agency and orientation through intentional ritual.
In the context of magic, Grimoires are recipe books of rituals that one can perform to intentionally participate in the creation of one’s life experiences. The well known Picatrix is one such example from the astrological tradition.
While I have no training or experience in these systems and respect the spiritual intention of those who have taken up these practices in their lives, I have felt averse to them myself. In part, my aversion came from the fact that, based on what little I’d read, the rituals can be, quite frankly, gruesome. That left me with a negative impression of grimoires. But I see now that there was another reason I hadn’t understood.
After The Architect suggested a personal grimoire practice, I looked up the word and learned that its original meaning is a book of grammar. That definition opened my mind to the possibility of a personal grimoire being a book of practices resonant with our ancestral and cosmic DNA that can support our healing, developmental growth processes, and self-connection.
Understanding the roots of the word grimoire, we can also now distinguish between yang-focused grimoires—that help us during outer developmental periods in our lives—and yin-focused grimoires—that help us during inner developmental periods. With this framing, I can see that I was naturally averse to the astrological magic path because I saw it as focused on the yang path; though I didn’t realize it for a long time, my call in life was the yin path.
I can see clearly now that both yin and yang grimoire paths are valid and both can be crafted to our unique grammar, so to speak—a grammar of tones, colors, frequencies, patterns, and life-affirming rituals—helping us cultivate and anchor soul-supporting practices. Which path—outer or inner—and what practices we choose and engage in will depend on who we are and where we are in our development at any given stretch in our lives.
Thus, the decan grimoire proposed here would be a book of personalized—even self-crafted—practices supporting our inner relationship and development. Within an astrological context of harmonic correspondences, fine tuned with the decans and mapped to the seasons, signs, chakras, and our unique astrological chart, a personal grimoire holds great promise for deepening our self-relationship and knowledge of our Deep Soul, Higher Spirit, and human path.
So what do you think of this idea of a personalized grimoire and, specifically, what do you think of using the word grimoire to describe it? If you have a moment, log your answer in the poll below and/or leave a comment sharing your thoughts.
The Mandala: A Wheel of Tone, Color, and Time
As mentioned, the mandala I’m sharing today came out of a recent conversation with The Architect. In Part 3, I shared a wheel showing the Chaldean decans, but this new version expands the idea. In addition to the decan rulers, it includes:
the chakra color associated with each decan
a musical note and frequency (hz) for each decan
With these additions, the wheel becomes a nested harmonic map. Tuned to the seasons and capable of being individualized to our unique time and place of birth, it is more than a cipher of correspondences to be memorized. It is a nested mirror that helps consciousness locate itself and guide practice. In other words, each decan indicates a resonance field that is mirrored in planetary archetype, sound, and light (color). Each correspondence, in turn, offers a unique harmonic approach to attunement.
One day, when I understand the mandala more deeply, I’d love to explore the idea of deriving a song of the chart. Such a song could be thought of as a harmonic fingerprint unique to each person, offering an additional layer of support. Or perhaps astrologers with a passion for music will take up that idea and develop it.
For now, this mandala is a beginning (see below). It marks the next step in a path of discovery. It’s not meant to be a static framework to memorize, but a harmonic mirror—ready to meet us wherever we are, much like the astrology wheel itself.
Beneath the mandala, I’ve included a key in table form. At the end, you’ll find PDF files of both the wheel and key, in case you'd like to download them. You can also right-click on the images to save them directly.
Key
Pdf versions
Want to Learn Alongside Me?
As a next step in this journey, I’ll be working on programming a table-based version of the decan chart. This table will allow me to translate the wheel into usable data that I can later render visually, on a wheel. Beginning with the table helps me learn the building blocks of Python in a way that’s fun and aligned with what I love. It also allows me to generate data sooner rather than later, ie, before I learn the more complex part of rendering data onto wheels.
To support this step appraoch, I’ve asked The Architect to create custom practice exercises that build toward this goal. It’s a great way to learn—especially for astrologers curious about coding. It also inspires and excites me as I’m getting practical experience learning coding through astrology-specific coding exercises, something I envision as part of an astrology course centered around programming.
If you’d like to join me in learning Python in this way, I recommend Harvard’s free “Introduction to Python” course as a starting point. That’s the course I’m currently following. I’ve tried and recommended others and they are good but this one is really engaging. It’s available on YouTube for free and great for beginners. You can also take the certificate level version of the course on EdX for a fee.
Once I learn how to render charts visually, I plan to write the part of the program that will allow you, me, and others to print our astrology charts—and, eventually, our own personalized decan tone wheels.
If this kind of learning journey resonates with you, feel free to drop a comment or let me know. Maybe we can grow a quiet cohort of astrological coders together.