After considering astrologically this Mercurial movement through Scorpio, the sign attached the eighth house of the zodiac, with all its aspects, we now turn to the divinatory art of the Tarot to interpret the meaning of this passage.
The word divination comes from the Latin divinatio, derived from divinus, meaning “divine”, which itself originates from Deus – “God”. Therefore, divination signifies “to become divine” or “to act in accordance with the divine”.
Thus the etymology reveals that to divine does not serve to “predict the future” in the vulgar sense, but to attune oneself to the Divine, to interpret what has already been spoken in the symbolic language of the cosmos. Divinatio is a reading of the divine Word within time, a translation between the human below and the celestial above.
I. The Number and the World
Following the unspoken unity of the Ace, the number Two always brings polarity, reflection, and movement. It is the breath of Chokmah leaving the stillness of Kether. Chokmah corresponds to Wisdom, the sephirot seated at the top of the column of Father/Sun/Abba, the primal impulse that differentiates while still remaining within the Divine current.
When expressed in the world of Assiah, this current enters matter and becomes the dance of forces that sustain equilibrium within form. The Two of Pentacles embodies this oscillation. The juggler in the card maintains relation between the coins, allowing spirit to circulate through the physical.
Assiah, the Kabbalistic world of action and density, requires rhythm. The Pentacles, element of Earth, receive the electric movement of Chokmah and turn it into work, craft, and responsibility. The mind that endures learns movement within limit, translating idea into habit and illumination into labour. The number Two signifies correspondence, the continuous adjustment between that which descends and that which sustains.
II. The Decan of Jupiter
This card is tied to the first decan of Capricorn, from December 22 to December 30. It marks the dawn of solar rebirth, when the light, after touching its nadir at the winter solstice, begins its patient ascent. The Sun always rises again within this sign ruled by Saturn. However, this very same Capricornian decan is ruled by Jupiter.
Hence the newborn solar ray refracts through the generous lens of the greater benefic. Jupiter, diurnal by sect, affirms the return of light within the darkest season. The ruler of the decan stands beside Saturn as mediator between form and faith. Through this union the labour of limitation bears fruit. What seems austere reveals a quiet fertility. And, through perseverance, the hidden gold ripens within the stone.
III. The Meaning For This Transit
When Mercury walks through Scorpio, the intellect enters a domain of secrecy and endurance. The word ferments within the depths, plunged into fixed waters. Ruled by Mars, with a conjunction to happen soon in the same sign, the psyche faces its hidden forces, compelled to give form to shadow. The Two of Pentacles offers the key for this descent. It reveals that the mind preserves itself as long as its movement is measure.
This is the moment when the intellect, represented by the element Air (Aleph), encounters the abyss of Water (Mem), whcih is deep and profoundly initiatory in Scorpio. The card that appears sets the element of Earth in duality, as if indicating that, for this Mercurial ingress, a skillful manifestation in the physical plane of these two elements is required: the swift, airy motion of Hermes Psychopomp and the fixed, martial waters of Scorpio governed by the warlike Ares.
This phase brings a deep trial to the intellect. When Mercury enters Scorpio, it loses its airy lightness and is compelled to think through instinct, to use the mind to probe the unseen rather than merely organise the visible. Rational clarity gives way to emotional intensity and symbolic perception. The intellect is thus undergoing a process of purification: it ceases to be mere reasoning and becomes an instrument of psychic penetration. There is a risk of obsession or fixation (the effect of Scorpio’s fixed water), but also the possibility of perceiving truths once hidden.
The Two of Pentacles expresses this transition in practical terms. It shows that thought now requires dynamic balance. If not governed with rhythm and discipline, mental motion begins to sink. The key lies in keeping the flow between two worlds: the Air of idea and the Water of emotion.
The card teaches that the intellect endures this descent only by learning to move within gravity, like the juggler who sustains two weights in rotation. Each idea must be grounded and each intuition worked through method. When Mercury passes through Scorpio and conjuncts with it, thinking becomes an act of alchemy: the mind turns into living matter and knowledge becomes embodied experience.
Κύριε ελέησον