CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY
TETRABIBLOS
CONTENTS
BOOK I
BOOK II
BOOK III
BOOK IV
THE QUADRIPARTITE MATHEMATICAL TREATISE,
OR
"TETRABIBLOS"
OF
CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY.
BOOK I.
1. Introduction.
OF the means of prediction through astronomy, O
Syrus, two ara the most important and valid. One,
which is first both in order and in effectiveness,
is that whereby we apprehend the aspects of the movements
of sun, moon, and stars in relation to each other and to
the earth, as they occur from time to time; the second
is that in which by means of the natural character of these
aspects themselves we investigate the changes which they bring about
in that which they surround. The first of these, which has its own
science, desirable in itself even though it does not attain the
result given by its combination with the second, has been expounded
to you as best we could in its own treatise by the method of
demonstration. We shall now give an account of the second and less
self-sufficient method in a properly philosophical way, so that
one whose aim is the truth might never compare its perceptions with
the sureness of the first, unvarying science, for he ascribes to it
the weakness and unpredictability of material qualities found in
individual things, nor yet refrain from such investigation as is
within the bounds of possibility, when it is so evident that most
events of a general nature draw their causes from the enveloping
heavens. But since everything that is hard to attain is easily
assailed by the generality of men, and in the case of the two
before-mentioned disciplines the allegations against the first could
be made only by the blind, while there are specious grounds for those
levelled at the second-for its difficulty in parts has made them
think it completely incomprehensible, or the difficulty of escaping
what is known has disparaged even its object as useless-we shall
try to examine briefly the measure of both the possibility and the
usefulness of such prognostication before offering detailed
instruction on the subject. First as to its possibility.
2. That Knowledge by Astronomical Means is Attainable, and How Far.
A very few considerations would make it apparent to all that a
certain power emanating from the eternal ethereal substance is
dispersed through and permeates the whole region about the earth,
which throughout is subject to change, since, of the primary
sublunar elements, fire and air are encompassed and changed by the
motions in the ether, and in turn encompass and change all else,
earth and water and the plants and animals therein. For the sun,
together with the ambient, is always in same way affecting everything
on the earth, not only by the changes that accompany the seasons of
the year to bring about the generation of animals, the productiveness
of plants, the flowing of waters, and the changes of bodies, but also
by its daily revolutions furnishing heat, moisture, dryness, and cold
in regular order and in correspondence with its positions relative to
the zenith. The moon, too, as the heavenly body nearest the earth,
bestows her effluence most abundantly upon mundane things, for most
of them, animate or inanimate, are sympathetic to her and change in
company with her; the rivers increase and diminish their streams with
her light, the seas turn their own tides with her rising and setting,
and plants and animals in whole or in same part wax and wane with her.
Moreover, the passages of the fixed stars and the planets through the
sky often signify hot, windy, and snowy conditions of the air, and
mundane things are affected accordingly. Then, too, their aspects to
one another, by the meeting and mingling of their dispensations, bring
about many complicated changes. For though the sun's power prevails
in the general ordering of quality, the other heavenly bodies aid or
oppose it in particular details, the moon more obviously and
continuously, as for example when it is new, at quarter, or full, and
the stars at greater intervals and more obscurely, as in their
appearances, occultations, and approaches. If these matters be so
regarded, all would judge it to follow that not only must things
already compounded be affected in same way by the motion of these
heavenly bodies, but likewise the germination and fruition of the
seed must be moulded and conformed to the quality proper to the
heavens at the time. The more observant farmers and herdsmen, indeed,
conjecture, from the winds prevailing at the time of impregnation
and of the sowing of the seed, the quality of what will result; and
in general we see that the more important consequences signified by
the more obvious configurations of sun, moon, and stars are usually
known beforehand, evan by those who inquire, not by scientific means,
but only by observation. Those which are consequent upon greater
forces and simpler natural orders, such as the annual variations of
the seasons and the winds, are comprehended by very ignorant men, nay
even by some dumb animals; for the sun is in general responsible for
these phenomena. Things that are not of so general a nature, however,
are comprehended by those who have by necessity become used to making
observations, as, for instance, sailors know the special signs of
storms and winds that arise periodically by reason of the aspects of
the moon and fixed stars to the sun. Yet because they cannot in their
ignorance accurately know the times and places of these phenomena,
nor the periodic movements of the planets, which contribute
importantly to the effect, it happens that they often err. If, then,
a man knows accurately the movements of all the stars, the sun, and
the moon, so that neither the place nor the time of any of their
configurations escapes his notice, and if he has distinguished in
general their natures as the result of previous continued study, even
though he may discern, not their essential, but only their potentially
effective qualities, such as the sun's heating and the moon's
moistening, and so on with the rest; and if he is capable of
determining in view of all these data, both scientifically and by
successful conjecture, the distinctive mark of quality resulting from
the combination of all the factors, what is to prevent him from being
able to tell on each given occasion the characteristics of the air
from the relations of the phenomena at the time, for instance, that
it will be warmer or wetter? Why can he not, too, with respect to an
individual man, perceive the general quality of his temperament from
the ambient at the time of his birth, as for instance that he is such
and suchin body and such and such in soul, and predict occasional
events, by use of the fact that such and such an ambient is attuned
to such and such a temperament and is favourable to prosperity, while
another is not so attuned and conduces to injury? Enough, however;
for the possibility of such knowledge can be understood from these
and similar arguments.
The following considerations might lead us to observe that criticism
of the science on the score of impossibility has been specious but
undeserved. In the first place, the mistakes of those who are not
accurately instructed in its practice, and they ara many, as One
would expect in an important and many-sided art, have brought about
the belief that even its true predictions depend upon chance, which
is incorrect. For a thing like this is an impotence, not of the
science, but of those who practise it. Secondly; most, for the sake
of gain, claim credence for another art in the name of this, and
deceive the vulgar, because they are reputed to foretell many things,
even those that cannot naturally be known beforehand, while to the
more thoughtful they have thereby given occasion to pass equally
unfavourable judgement upon the natural subjects of prophecy. Nor is
ibis deservedly done; it is the same with philosophy-we need not
abolish it because there are evident rascals among those that pretend
to it. Nevertheless it is clear that even though One approach
astrology in the most inquiring and legitimate spirit possible, he
may frequently err, not for any of the reasons state , but because of
the very nature of the thing and his own weakness in comparison with
the magnitude of his profession. For in general, besides the fact that
every science that deals with the quality of its subject-matter is
conjectural and not to be absolutely affirmed, particularly One which
is composed of many unlike elements, it is furthermore true that the
ancient configurations of the planets, upon the basis of which we
attach to similar aspects of our own day the effects observed by the
ancients in theirs, Can be more Or less similar to the modern aspects,
and that, too, at long intervals, but not identical, since the exact
return of all the heavenly bodies and the earth to the same positions,
unless One holds vain opinions of his ability to comprehend and know
the incomprehensible, either takes place not at all or at least not in
the period of time that falls within the experience of man; so that
for this reason predictions sometimes fail, because of the disparity
of the examples on which they are based. As to the investigation of
atmospheric phenomena, this would be the only difficulty, since no
other cause besides the movement of the heavenly bodies is taken into
consideration. But in an inquiry concerning nativities and individual
temperaments in general, One can see that there are circumstances of
no small importance and of no trifling character, which join to
cause the special qualities of those who are born. For differences of
seed exert a very great influence on the special traits of the genus,
since, if the ambient and the horizon are the same, each seed
prevails to express in general its own form, for example, man, horse,
and so forth; and the places of birth bring about no small variation
in what is produced. For if the seed is generically the same, human
for example, and the condition of the ambient the same, those who are
born differ much, both in body and soul, with the difference of
countries. In addition to this, all the aforesaid conditions being
equal, rearing and customs contribute to influence the particular way
in which a life is lived. Unless each One of these things is examined
together with the causes that are derived from the ambient, although
this latter be conceded to exercise the greatest influence (for the
ambient is One of the causes for these things being what they are,
while they in turn have no influence upon it), they can cause much
difficulty for those who believe that in such cases everything can be
understood, even things not wholly within its jurisdiction, from the
motion of the heavenly bodies alone.
Since this is the case, it would not be fitting to
dismiss all prognostication of this character because it can sometimes
be mistaken, for we do not discredit the art of the pilot for its
many errors; but as when the claims are great, so also when they are
divine, we should welcome what is possible and think it enough. Nor,
further, should we gropingly and in human fashion demand everything
of the art, but rather join in the appreciation of its beauty, even
in instances wherein it could not provide the full answer; and as we
do not find fault with the physicians, when they examine a person,
for speaking both about the sickness itself and about the patient's
idiosyncrasy, so too in this case we should not object to astrologers
using as a basis for calculation nationality, country, and rearing,
or any other already existing accidental qualities.
3. That it is also Beneficial.
In somewhat summary fashion it has been shown how prognostication by
astronomical means is possible, and that it can go no further than
what happens in the ambient and the consequences to man from such
causes-that is, it concerns the original endowments of faculties and
activities of soul and body, their occasional diseases, their
endurance for a lang or a short time, and, besides, all external
circumstances that have a directive and natural connection with the
original gifts of nature, such as property and marriage in the case
of the body and honour and dignities in that of the soul, and finally
what befalls them from time to time. The remaining part of our project
would be to inquire briefly as to its usefulness, first distinguishing
how and with what end in view we shall take the meaning of the word
usefulness. For if we look to the goods of the soul, what could be
more conducive to well-being, pleasure, and in general satisfaction
than this kind of forecast, by which we gain full view of things
human and divine? And if we look to bodily goods, such knowledge,
better than anything else, would perceive what is fitting and
expedient for the capabilities of each temperament. But if it does
not aid in the acquisition of riches, fame, and the like, we shall be
able to say the same of all philosophy, for it does not provide any
of these things as far as its own powers are concerned. We should
not, however, for that reason be justified in condemning either
philosophy or this art, disregarding its greater advantages.
To a general examination it would appear that those who find fault
with the uselessness of prognostication have no regard for the most
important matters, but only for this-that foreknowledge of events
that will happen in any case is superfluous; this, too, quite
unreservedly and without due discrimination. For, in the first place.
we should consider that even with events that will necessarily take
place their unexpectedness is very apt to cause excessive panic and
delirious joy. while foreknowledge accustoms and calms the soul by
experience of distant events as though they were present, and
prepares it to greet with calms and steadiness whatever comes. A
second reason is that we should not believe that separate events
attend mankind as the result of the heavenly cause as if they had
been originally ordained for each person by some irrevocable divine
command and destined - to take place by necessity without the
possibility of any other cause whatever interfering. Rather is it
true that the movement of the heavenly bodies, to be sure. is
eternally performed in accordance with divine. unchangeable destiny,
while the change of earthly things is subject to a natural and
mutable rate, and in drawing its first causes from above it is
governed by chance and natural sequence. Moreover, some things
happen to mankind through more general circumstances and not as the
result of an individual's own natural propensities-for example, when
men perish in multitudes by conflagration or pestilence or
cataclysms, through monstrous and inescapable changes in the ambient,
for the lesser cause always yields to the greater and stronger; other
occurrences, however, accord with the individual's own natural
temperament through miner and fortuitous antipathies of the ambient.
For if these distinctions are thus made, it is dear that both in
general and in particular whatever events depend upon a first cause,
which is irresistible and more powerful than anything that opposes
it, must by all means take place; on the contrary, of events that are
not of this character, those which are provided with resistant forces
are easily averted, while those that are not follow the primary
natural causes, to be sure, but this is due to ignorance and not to
the necessity of almighty power. One might observe this same thing
happening in all events whatsoever that have natural causes. For even
of stones, plants, and animals, and also of wounds, mishaps, and
sicknesses, some are of such a nature as to act of necessity,
others only if no opposing thing interferes. One should therefore
believe that physical philosophers predict what is to befall men with
foreknowledge of this character and do not approach their task under
false impressions; for certain things, because their effective causes
are numerous and powerful, are inevitable, but others for the opposite
reason may be averted. Similarly those physicians who can recognize
ailments know beforehand those which are always fatal and those which
admit of aid. In the case of events that may be modified we must give
heed to the astrologer, when, for example, he says that to such and
such a temperament, with such and such a character of the ambient,
if the fundamental proportions increase or decrease, such and such an
affection will result. Similarly we must believe the physician, when
he says that this sore will spread or cause putrefaction, and the
miner, for instance, that the lodestone attracts iron: just as each
of these, if left to itself through ignorance of the opposing forces,
will inevitably develop as its original nature compels, but neither
will the sore cause spreading or putrefaction if it receives
preventive treatment, nor will the lodestone attract the iron if it
is rubbed with garlic; and these very deterrent measures also have
their resisting power naturally and by fate; so also in the other
cases, if future happenings to men are not known, or if they are
known and the remedies are not applied, they will by all means follow
the course of primary nature; but if they are recognized ahead of
time and remedies are provided, again quite in accord with nature and
fate, they either do not occur at all or are rendered less severe.
And in general, since such power is the same whether applied to
things regarded universally or particularly, One would wonder why all
believe in the efficacy of prediction in universal matters, and in
its usefulness for guarding one's interests (for most people admit
that they have foreknowledge of the seasons, of the significance of
the constellations, and of the phases of the moon, and take great
forethought for safeguarding themselves, always contriving cooling
agents against summer and the means of warmth against winter, and in
general preparing their own natures with moderation as a goal;
furthermore, to ensure the safety of the seasons and of their
sailings they watch the significance of the fixed stars, and, for the
beginning of breeding and sowing, the aspects of the moon's light at
its full, and no one ever condemns such practices either as
impossible or useless); but, on the other hand, as regards particular
matters and those depending upon the mixture of the other
qualities-such as predictions of more or less, of cold or of heat,
and of the individual temperament-some people believe neither that
foreknowledge is still possible nor that precautions can be taken in
most instances. And yet, since it is obvious that, if we happen to
have cooled ourselves against heat in general, we shall suffer less
from it, similar measures can prove effective against particular
forces which increase this particular temperament to a
disproportionate amount of heat. For the cause of this error is the
difficulty and unfamiliarity of particular prognostication, a reason
which in most other situations as well brings about disbelief. And
since for the most part the resisting faculty is not coupled with the
prognostic, because so perfect a disposition is rare, and since the
force of nature takes its course without hindrance when the primary
natures are concerned, an opinion has been produced that absolutely
all future events are inevitable and unescapable.
But, I think, just as with prognostieation, even if it be not
entirely infallible, at least its possibilities have appeared worthy
of the highest regard, so too in the case of defensive practice, even
though it does not furnish a remedy for everything. its authority in
some instances at least, however few or unimportant, should be
welcomed and prized. and regarded as profitable in no ordinary sense.
Recognizing, apparently, that these things are so, those who have most
advanced this faculty of the art, the Egyptians, have entirely
united medicine with astronomical prediction. For they would
never have devised certain means of averting or warding off or
remedying the universal and particular conditions that come or are
present by reason of the ambient, if they had had any idea that the
future cannot be moved and changed. But as it is, they place the
faculty of resisting by orderly natural means in second rank to the
decrees of fate, and have yoked to the possibility of prognostication
its useful and beneficial faculty, through what they call their
iatromathematical systems (medical astrology), in order that by means
of astronomy they may succeed in learning the qualities of the
underlying temperatures, the events that will occur in the future
because of the ambient, and their special causes, on the ground that
without this knowledge any measures of aid ought for the most part
to fail, because the same Ones are not fitted for all bodies or
diseases; and, on the other band, by means of medicine, through their
knowledge of what is properly sympathetic or antipathetic in each
case, they proceed, as far as possible, to take precautionary
measures against impending illness and to prescribe infallible
treatment for existing disease.
Let this be, to this point, our summarily stated preliminary sketch.
We shall now conduct our discussion after the manuel of an
introduction, beginning with tbe character of each of the heavenly
bodies with respect to its active power, in agreement with the
physical observations attached to them by the ancients, and in the
first place the powers of the planets, sun, and moon.
4. Of the Power of the Planets.
The active power of the sun's essential nature is found to be heating
and, to a certain degree, drying. This is made more easily perceptible
in the case of the sun than any other heavenly body by its size and
by the obviousness of its seasonal changes, for the closer it
approaches to the zenith the more it affects us in this way. Most of
the moon's power consists of humidifying, dearly because it is close
to the earth and because of the moist exhalations therefrom. Its
action therefore is precisely this, to soften and cause putrefaction
in bodies for the most part, but it shares moderately also in heating
power because of the light which it receives from the sun.
It is Saturn's quality chiefly to cool and, mode. rately, to dry,
probably because he is furthest removed both from the sun's heat and
the moist exhalations about the earth. Both in Saturn's case and in
that of the other planets there are powers, too, which arise through
the observation of their aspects to the sun and the moon, for some of
them appear to modify conditions in the ambient in one way, some in
another, by increase or by decrease.
The nature of Mars is chiefly to dry and to burn, in conformity with
his fiery colour and by reason of his nearness to the sun, for the
sun's sphere lies just below him.
Jupiter has a temperate active force because his movement takes place
between the cooling influence of Saturn and the burning power of Mars.
He both heats and humidifies; and because his heating power is the
greater by reason of the underlying spheres, he produces fertilizing
winds.
Venus has the same powers and tempered nature as Jupiter, but acts in
the opposite way; for she warms moderately because of her nearness to
the sun, but chiefly humidifies, like the moon, because of the amount
of her own light and because she appropriates the exhalations from
the moist atmosphere surrounding the earth.
Mercury in general is found at certain times alike to be drying and
absorptive of moisture, because he never is far removed in longitude
from the heat of the sun; and again humidifying, because he is next
above the sphere of the moon, which is closest to the earth; and to
change quickly from one to the other, inspired as it were by the
speed of his motion in the neighbourhood of the sun itself.
5. Of Beneficent and Maleficent Planets.
Since the foregoing is the case, because two of the four humours are
fertile and active, the hot and the moist (for all things are brought
together and increased by them), and two are destructive and passive,
the dry and the cold, through which all things, again, are separated
and destroyed, the ancients accepted two of the planets, Jupiter and
Venus, together with the moon, as beneficent because of their tempered
nature and because they abound in the hot and the moist, and Saturn
and Mars as producing effects of the opposite nature, one because of
his excessive cold and the other for his excessive dryness; the sun
and Mercury, however, they thought to have both powers, because they,
have a common nature, and to join their influences with those of the
other planets, with whichever of them they are associated.
6. Of Masculine and Feminine Planets.
Again, since there are two primary kinds of natures, male and female,
and of the forces already mentioned that of the moist is especially
feminine-for as a general thing this element is present to a greater
degree in all females, and the others rather in maleswith good reason
the view has been handed down to us that the moon and Venus are
feminine, because they share more largely in the moist, and that the
sun, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are masculine, and Mercury common to
both genders, inasmuch as he produces the dry and the moist alike.
They say too that the stars become masculine or feminine according to
their aspects to the sun, for when they are morning stars and precede
the sun they become masculine, and feminine when they are evening
stars and follow the sun. Furthermore this happens also according to
their positions with respect to the horizon; for when they are in
positions from the orient to mid-heaven, or again from the occident
to lower mid-heaven, they become masculine because they are eastern,
but in the other two quadrants, as western stars, they become feminine.
7. Of Diurnal and Nocturnal Planets.
Similarly, since of the two most obvious intervals of those which
make up time, the day is more masculine because of its heat and
active force, and night more feminine because of its moisture and its
gift of rest, the tradition has consequently been handed down that the
moon and Venus are nocturnal, the sun and Jupiter diurnal, and Mercury
common as before, diurnal when it is a morning star and nocturnal as
an evening star. They also assigned to each of the sects the two
destructive stars, not however in this instance on the principle of
similar natures, but of just the opposite; for when stars of the same
kind are joined with those of the good temperament their beneficial
influence - is increased, but if dissimilar stars are associated with
the destructive Ones the greatest part of their injurious power is
broken. Thus they assigned ,Saturn, which is cold, to the warmth of
day, and Mars, which is dry, to the moisture of night, for in this
way each of them - attains good proportion through admixture and
becomes a proper member of its sect, which provides moderation.
8. Of the Power of the Aspects to the Sun.
Now, mark you, likewise, according to their aspects to the sun, the
moon and three of the planets experience increase and decrease in
their own powers. For in its waxing from new moon to first quarter
the moon is more productive of moisture ; in its passage from first
quarter to full, of heat; from full to last quarter; of dryness, and
from last quarter to occultation, of cold. The planets, in oriental
aspects only, are more productive of moisture from rising to their
first station, of heat from first station to evening rising, of
dryness from evening rising to the second station, of cold from
second station to setting; and it is clear that when they are
associated with One another they produce very many variations of
quality in our ambient, the proper force of each One for the most
part persisting, but being changed in quantity by the force of the
stars that share the configuration.
9. Of the Power of the Fixed Stars.
As it is next in order to recount the natures of the fixed stars
with reference to their special powers, we shall set forth their
observed characters in an exposition like that of the natures of the
planets, and in the first place those of the ones that occupy the
figures in the zodiac itself.
The stars in the head of Aries, then, have an effect like the power
of Mars and Saturn, mingled; those in the mouth like Mercury's power
and moderately like Saturn's; those in the hind foot like that of
Mars, and those in the tail like that of Venus.
Of those in Taurus, the stars along the line where it is cut off have
a temperature like that of Venus and in a measure like that of
Saturn; those in the Pleiades, like those of the moon and Jupiter; of
the stars in the head, the one of the Hyades that is bright and
somewhat reddish, called the Torch, has a temperature like that of
Mars; the others, like that of Saturn and moderately , like that of
Mercury ; those in the tips of the horns, like that of Mars.
Of the stars in Gemini, those in the feet share the same quality as
Mercury and, to a less degree, as Venus; the bright stars in the
thighs, the same as Saturn; of the two bright stars in the heads,
the one in the head in advance the same as Mercury;
it is also called the star of Apollo; the one in the head that
follows, the same as Mars; it is also called the star of Hercules.
Of the stars in Cancer, the two in the eyes produce the same effect
as Mercury, and, to a less degree, as Mars; those in the claws, the
same as Saturn and Mercury; the cloud-like cluster in the breast,
called the Manger, the same as Mars and the moon; and the two on
either side of it, which are called Asses, the same as Mars and the sun.
Of those in Leo, the two in the head act in the same way as Saturn
and, to a less degree, as Mars; the three in the throat, the same as
Saturn and, to a les s degree, as Mercury; the bright star upon the
heart, called Regulus, the same as Mars and Jupiter; those in the hip
and the bright star in the tail, the same as Saturn and Venus; and
those in the thighs, the same as Venus and, to a less degree, Mercury.
Of the stars in Virgo, those in the head and the one upon the tip of
the southern wing have an effect like that of Mercury and, in less
degree, of Mars; the other bright stars of the wing and those on the
girdles like that of Mercury and, in a measure, of Venus; the bright
star in the northern wing, called Vindemiator, like those of Saturn
and Mercury; the so-called Spica, like that of Venus and, in a less
degree, that of Mars; those in the tips of the feet and the train
like that of Mercury and, in a less degree, Mars.
Of those in the Claws of the Scorpion, the ones at their very
extremities exercise the same influence as do Jupiter and Mercury;
those in the middle parts the same as do Saturn and, to a less
degree, Mars.
Of the stars in the body of Scorpio, the bright stars on the forehead
act in the same way as does Mars and in some degree as does Saturn;
the three in the body, the middle one of which is tawny and rather
bright and is called Antares, the same as Mars and, in some degree,
Jupiter; those in the joints, the same as Saturn and, in some degree,
Venus; those in the sting, the same as Mereury and Mars; and the
so-called cloud-like cluster, the same as Mars and the moon.
Of the stars in Sagittarius, those in the point of his arrow have an
effect like that of Mars and the moon; those in the bow and the grip
of his hand, like that of Jupiter and Mars; the cluster in his
forehead, like that of the sun and Mars; those in the cloak and his
back, like that of Jupiter and, to a less degree, of Mercury; those
in his feet, like that of Jupiter and Saturn; the quadrangle upon the
tail, like that of Venus and, to a less degree, of Saturn.
Of the stars in Capricorn, those in the horns act in the same way as
Venus and, in same degree, as Mars; those in the mouth, as Saturn
and, in same degree, as Venus; those in the feet and the belly, as
Mars and Mercury; and those in the tail, as Saturn and Jupiter.
Of the stars in Aquarius, those in the shoulders exert an influence
like that of Saturn and Mercury, together with those in the left arm
and the cloak; those in the thighs, like that of Mercury in a greater
degree and like that of Saturn in a lesser degree; those in the
stream of water, like that of Saturn and, in same degree, like that
of Jupiter.
Of the stars in Pisces, those in the head of the southern Fish act in
the same way as Mercury and somewhat as does Saturn; those in the
body, as do Jupiter and Mercury; those in the tail and the southern
cord, as do Saturn and, in some degree, Mercury; those in the body
and backbone of the northern Fish, as do Jupiter and, in some degree,
Venus; those in the northern part of the cord, as do Saturn and
Jupiter; and the bright star on the bond, as do Mars and, in some
degree, Mercury.
Of the stars in the configurations north of the zodiac, the bright
stars in Ursa Minor have a similar quality to that of Saturn and,
to a less degree, to that of Venus; those in Ursa Major, to that of
Mars; and the cluster of the Coma Berenices beneath the Bear's tail,
to that of the moon and Venus; the bright stars in Draco, to that of
Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter; those of Cepheus, to that of Saturn and
Jupiter: those in Boötes, to that of Mercury and Saturn; the bright,
tawny star, to that of Jupiter and Mars, the star called Arcturus;
the star in Corona Septentrionalis, to that of Venus and Mercury;
those in Geniculator, to that of Mercury; those in Lyra, to that of
Venus and Mercury; and likewise those in Cygnus. The stars in
Cassiopeia have the effect of Saturn and Venus; those in Perseus, of
Jupiter and Saturn; the cluster in the hilt of the sword, of Mars and
Mercury; the bright stars in Auriga, of Mars and Mercury; those in
Ophiuchus, of Saturn and, to some degree, of Venus; those in his
serpent, of Saturn and Mars; those in Sagitta, of Mars and, to some
degree, of Venus; those in Aquila, of Mars and Jupiter; those in
Delphinus, of Saturn and Mars; the bright stars in the Horse, of Mars
and Mercury; those in Andromeda, of Venus; those in Triangulum, of
Mercury.
Of the stars in the formations south of the zodiac the bright star in
the mouth of Piscis Australis has an influence similar to that of
Venus and Mercury; those in Cetus, similar to that of Saturn; of
those in Orion, the stars on his shoulders similar to that of Mars
and Mercury, and the other bright stars similar to that of Jupiter
and Saturn; of the stars in Eridanus the last bright one has an
influence like that of Jupiter and the others like that of Saturn;
the star in Lepus, like that of Saturn and Mercury; of those in
Canis, the others like that of Venus, and the bright star in the
mouth, like that of Jupiter and, to a less degree, of Mars; the
bright star Procyon, like that of Mercury. and, in a less degree,
that of Mars; the bright stars in Hydra, like that of Saturn and
Venus; those in Crater, like that of Venus and, in a less degree, of
Mercury; those in Corvus, like that of Mars and Saturn; the bright
stars of Argo, like that of Saturn and Jupiter; of those in
Centaurus, the ones in the human body, like that of Venus and Mercury,
and the bright stars in the equine body like that of Venus and
Jupiter; the bright stars in Lupus, like that of Saturn and, in less
degree, of Mars; those in Ara, like that of Venus and, to a lesser
degree, of Mercury; and the bright stars in Corona Austrais, like
that of Saturn and Mercury.
Such, then, are the observations of the effects of the stars
themselves as made by our predecessors.
10. Of the Effect of the Seasons and of the Four Angles.
Of the four seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn, and winter,
spring exceeds in moisture on account of its diffusion after the cold
has passed and warmth is setting in; the summer, in heat, because of
the nearness of the sun to the zenith; autumn more in dryness,
because of the sucking up of the moisture during the hot season just
past; and winter exceeds in cold, because the sun is farthest away
from the zenith. For this reason, although there is no natural
beginning of the zodiac, since it is a circle, they assume that the
sign which begins with the vernal equinox, that of Aries, is the
startingpoint of them all, making the excessive moisture of
the spring the first part of the zodiac as though it
were a living creature, and taking next in order the remaining
seasons, because in all creatures the
earliest ages, like the spring, have a larger share
of moisture and are tender and still delicate. The second age, up to
the prime of life, exceeds in heat,
like summer; the third, which is now past the prime
and on the verge of decline, has an excess of dryness, like autumn;
and the last, which approaches dissolution, exceeds in its coldness,
like winter.
Similarly, too, of the four regions and angles of
the horizon, from which originate the winds from the cardinal points,
the eastern one likewise excels in dryness because, when the sun is
in that region, whatever has been moistened by the night then first
begins to be dried; and the winds which blow from it, which we call
in general Apeliotes, are without moisture and drying in effect. The
region to the south is hottest because of the fiery heat of the
sun's passages through mid-heaven and because these passages, on
account of the inclination of our inhabited world, diverge more to
the south; and the winds which blow thence and are called by the
general name Notus are hot and rarefying. The region to the west is
itself moist, because when the sun is therein the things dried out
during the day then first begin to become moistened; likewise the
winds which blow from this part, which we call by the general name
Zephyrus, are fresh and moist. The region to the north is the
coldest, because through our inhabited world's inclination it is
too far removed from the causes of heat arising from the sun's
culmination, as it is also when the sun is at its lower culmination;
and the winds which blow thence, which are called by the general
name Boreas, are cold and condensing in effect.
The knowledge of these facts is useful to enable One to form a
complete judgement of temperatures in individual instances. For it
is easily recognizable that, together with such conditions as these,
of seasons, ages, or angles, there is a corresponding variation in
the potency of the stars' faculties, and that in the conditions
akin to them their quality is purer and their effectiveness stronger,
those that are heating by nature, for instance, in heat, and those
that are moistening in the moist, while under opposite conditions
their power is adulterated and weaker. Thus the heating stars in the
cold periods and the moistening stars in the dry periods are weaker,
and similarly in the other cases, according to the quality produced
by the mixture.
11. Of Solstitial, Equinoctial, Solid, and Bicorporeal Signs.
After the explanation of these matters the next subject to be added
would be the natural characters of the zodiacal signs themselves, as
they have been handed down by tradition. For although their more
general temperaments are each analogous to the seasons that take
place in them, certain peculiar qualities of theirs arise from their
kinship to the sun, moon, and planets, as we shall relate in what
follows, putting first the unmingled powers of the signs themselves
alone, regarded both absolutely and relatively to one another.
The first distinctions, then, are of the so-called solstitial,
equinoctial, solid, and bicorporeal signs. For there are two
solstitial signs, the first interval of 30° from the summer solstice,
the sign of Cancer, and the first from the winter solstice,
Capricorn; and they have received their name from what takes place in
them. For the sun turns when he is at the beginning of these signs
and reverses his latitudinal progress, causing summer in Cancer and
winter in Capricorn. Two signs are called equinoctial, the One which
is first from the spring equinox, Aries, and the One which begins
with the autumnal equinox, Libra; and they too again are named from
what happens there, because when the sun is at the beginning of these
signs he makes the nights exactly equal to the days.
Of the remaining eight signs four are called solid and four
bicorporeal. The solid signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, are
those which follow the solstitial and equinoctial signs; and they are
so called because when the sun is in them the moisture, heat,
dryness, and cold of the seasons that begin in the preceding signs
touch us more firmly, not that the weather is naturally any more
intemperate at that time, but that we are by then inured to them and
for that reason are more sensible of their power.
The bicorporeal signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces, are
those which follow the solid signs, and are so called because they
are between the solid and the solstitial and equinoctial signs and
share, as it were, at end and beginning, the natural properties of
the two states of weather.
12. Of Masculine and Feminine Signs.
Again, in the same way they assigned six of the
signs to the masculine and diurnal nature and an
equal number to the feminine and nocturnal. An alternating order was
assigned to them because day is always yoked to night and close to it,
and female to male. Now as Aries is taken as the starting-point for
the reasons we have mentioned, and as the male likewise rules and
holds first place, since also the
active is always superior to the passive in power, the signs of Aries
and Libra were thought to be masculine and diurnal, an additional
reason being that the equinoctial circle which is drawn through them
completes the primary and most powerful movement of the whole
universe. The signs in succession after them correspond, as we said,
in alternating order.
Same, however, employ an order of masculine and feminine signs
whereby the masculine begins with the sign that is rising, called
the horoscope. For just as some begin the solstitial signs with the
moon's sign because the moon changes direction more swiftly than the
rest, so they begin the masculine signs with the horoscope because
it is further to the east, some as before making use of the alternate
order of signs, and others dividing by entire quadrants, and
designating as matutinal and masculine signs those of the quadrant
from the horoscope to mid-heaven and those of the opposite quadrant
from the occident to the lower mid-heaven, and as evening and
feminine the other two quadrants. They have also attached other
descriptions to the signs, derived from their shapes; I rafer, for
example, to "four-footed," -. terrestrial,"" commanding,"" fecund,"
and similar appellations. These, since their reason and their
significance are directly derived, we think it superfluous to
enumerate, since the quality resulting from such conformations can
be explained in connection with those predictions wherein it is
obviously useful.
13. Of the Aspects of the Signs.
Of the parts of the zodiac those first are familiar one to another
which are in aspect. These are the ones which are in opposition,
enclosing two right angles, six signs, and 180 degrees; those which
are in trine, enclosing one and one-third right angles, four signs,
and 120 degrees; those which are said to be in quartile, enclosing
one right angle, three signs, and 90 degrees, and finally those that
occupy the sextile position, enclosing two-thirds of a right angle,
two signs, and 60 degrees.
We may learn from the following why only these intervals have been
taken into consideration. The explanation of opposition is
immediately obvious, because it causes the signs to meet on one
straight line. But if we take the two fractions and the two
superparticulars most important in music, and if the fractions
one-half and one-third be applied to opposition, composed of two
right angles, the half makes the quartile and the third the sextile
and trine. Of the superparticulars, if the sesquialter and
sesquitertian be applied to the quartile interval of one right
angle, which lies between them, the sesquialter makes the ratio of
the quartile to the sextile and the sesquitertian that of trine to
quartile. Of these aspects trine and sextile are called harmonious
because they ara composed of signs of the same kind, either entirely
of feminine or entirely of masculine signs; while quartile and
opposition are disharmonious because they are composed of signs of
opposite kinds.
14. Of Commanding and Obeying Signs.
Similarly the names " commanding" and" obeying " are applied to the
divisions of the zodiac which are disposed at an equal distance from
the same equinoctial sign, whichever it may be, because they ascend
in equal periode of time and are on equal parallels. Of these the
ones in the summer hemisphere are called " commanding " and those in
the winter hemisphere " obedient," because the sun makes the day
longer than the night when he is in the summer hemisphere, and
shorter in the winter.
15. Of Signs which Behold each other and Signs of Equal Power.
Again they say that the parts which are equally removed from the same
tropical sign, whichever it may be, are of equal power, because when
the sun comes into either of them the days are equal to the days,
the nights to the nights, and the lengths of their own hours are the
same. These also are said to "behold" One another both for the
reasons stated and because each of the pair rises from the same part
of the horizon and sets in the same part.
16. Of Disjunct Signs.
" Disjunct" and" alien" are the names applied to those divisions of
the zodiac which have none whatever of the aforesaid familiarities
with One another. These are the Ones which belong neither to the
class of commanding or obeying, beholding or of equal power, and
furthermore they are found to be entirely without share in the four
aforesaid aspects, opposition, trine, quartile, and sextile, and are
either One or five signs apart; for those which are One sign apart
are as it were averted from One another and, though they are two,
bound the angle of One, and those that are five signs apart divide
the whole circle into unequal parts. while the other aspects make an
equal division of the perimeter.
17. Of the Houses of the Several Planets.
The planets also have familiarity with the parts of the zodiac,
through what are called their houses, triangles, exaltations, terms,
and the like. The system of houses is of the folIowing nature. Since
of the twelve signs the most northern, which are closer than the
others to our zenith and therefore most productive of heat and of
warmth are Cancer and Leo, they assigned these to the greatest and
most powerful heavenly bodies, that is, to the luminaries, as houses,
Leo, which is masculine, to the sun and Cancer, feminine, to the moon.
In keeping with this they assumed the semicircle from Leo to
Capricorn to be solar and that from Aquarius to Cancer to be lunar,
so that in each of the semicircles One sign might be assigned to each
of the five planets as its own, One bearing aspect to the sun and the
other to the moon, consistently with the spheres of their motion and
the peculiarities of their natures. For to Saturn, in whose nature
cold prevails, as opposed to heat, and which occupies the orbit
highest and farthest from the luminaries, were assigned the signs
opposite Cancer and Leo, namely Capricorn and Aquarius, with the
additional reason that these signs are cold and wintry, and further
that their diametrical aspect is not consistent with beneficence. To
Jupiter, which is moderate and below Saturn's sphere, were as signed
the two signe next to the foregoing, windy and fecund, Sagittarius
and Pisces, in triangular aspect to the luminaries, which is a
harmonious and beneficent configuration. Next, to Mars, which is dry
in nature and occupies a sphere under that of Jupiter, there were
assigned again the two signs, contiguous to the former, Scorpio and
Aries, having a similar nature, and, agreeably to Mars' destructive
and inharmonious quality, in quartile aspect to the luminaries. To
Venus, which is temperate and beneath Mars, were given the next two
signs, which ara extremely fertile, Libra and Taurus.
These preserve the harmony of the sextile aspect; another reason is
that this planet at most is never more than two signs removed from
the sun in either direction. Finally, there were given to Mercury,
which never is farther removed from the sun than One sign in either
direction and is beneath the others and closer in a way to both of
the luminaries, the remaining signs, Gemini and Virgo, which are
next to the houses of the luminaries.
18. Of the Triangles.
The familiarity by triangles is as follows. Inasmuch as the
triangular and equilateral form is most harmonious with itself, the
zodiac also is bounded by three circles, the equinoctial and the
two tropics, and its twelve parts are divided into four equilateral
triangles. The first of these, which passes through Aries, Leo, and
Sagittarius, is composed of three masculine signs and includes the
houses of the sun, oc Mars, and of Jupiter. This triangle was assigned
to the sun and Jupiter, since Mars is not of the solar sect. The sun
assumes first governance of it by day and Jupiter by night. Also,
Aries is close to the equinoctial circle, Leo to the summer solstice
and Sagittarius to the winter solstice. This triangle is preeminently
northern because of Jupiter's share in its government, since
Jupiter is fecund and windy, similarly to the winds from the north.
However, because of the house of Mars it suffers an admixture of the
south-west wind and is constituted Borrolibycon, because Mars
causes such winds and also because of the sect of the moon and the
feminine quality of the occident.
The second triangle, which is the One drawn through Taurus, Virgo,
and Capricorn, is composed of three feminine signs, and consequently
was assigned to the moon and Venus; the moon governs it by night and
Venus by day. Taurus lies toward the summer tropic, Virgo toward the
equinox, and Capricorn toward the winter tropic. This triangle is
made preeminently southern because of the dominance of Venus, since
this star through the heat and moisture of its power produces similar
winds; but as it receives an admixture of Apeliotes because the
house of Saturn, Capricornus, is included within it, it is
constituted Notapeliotes in contrast to the filet triangle, since
Saturn produces winds of this kind and is related to the cast
through sharing in the sect of the sun.
The third triangle is the One drawn through Gemini, Libra, and
Aquarius, composed of three masculine signs, and having no relation
to Mars but rather to Saturn and Mercury because of their houses. It
was assigned in turn to these, with Saturn governing during the day
on account of his sect and Mercury by night. The sign of Gemini lies
toward the summer tropic, Libra toward the equinox, and Aquarius
toward the winter tropic. This triangle also is primarily of eastern
constitution, because of Saturn, but by admixture north-eastern,
because the sect of Jupiter has familiarity with Saturn, inasmuch as
it is diurnal.
The fourth triangle, which is the one drawn through Cancer, Scorpio,
and Pisces, was left to the only remaining planet, Mars, which is
related to it through his house, Scorpio; and along with him, on
account of the sect and the femininity of the signs, the moon by
night and Venus by day are co-rulers. Cancer is near the summer
circle, Scorpio lies close to the winter one, and Pisces to the
equinox. This triangle is constituted preeminently western, because
it is dominated by Mars and the moon; but by admixture it becomes
south-western through the domination of Venus.
19. Of Exaltations.
The so-called exaltations of the planets have the following
explanation. Since the sun, when he is in Aries, is making his
transition to the northern and higher semicircle, and in Libra is
passing into the southern and lower One, they have fittingly assigned
Aries to him as his exaltation, since there the length of the day and
the heating power of his nature begin to increase, and Libra as his
depression for the opposite reasons.
Saturn again, in order to have a position opposite to the sun, as
also in the matter of their houses, look, contrariwise, Libra as his
exaltation and Aries as his depression. For where heat increases
there cold diminishes, and where the former diminishes cold on the
contrary increases. And since the moon, coming to conjunction in the
exaltation of the sun, in Aries, shows her first phase and begins to
increase her light and, as it were, her height, in the first sign of
her own triangle, Taurus, this was called her exaltation, and the
diametrically opposite sign, Scorpio, her depression.
Then Jupiter, which produces the fecund north winds, reaches
farthest north in Cancer and brings his own power to fullness; they
therefore made this sign his exaltation and Capricorn his depression.
Mars, which by nature is fiery and becomes all the more so in
Capricorn because in it he is farthest south, naturally received
Capricorn as his exaltation. in contrast to Jupiter, and Cancer as
his depression.
Venus, however, as she is moist by nature and increases her own
proper power all the more in Pisces, where the beginning of the moist
spring is indicated. has her exaltation in Pisces and her depression
in Virgo.
Mercury, on the contrary, since he is arier, by contrast naturally is
exalted, as it were, in Virgo, in which the dry autumn is signified,
and is depressed in Pisces.
20. Of the Disposition of Terms.
With regard to the terms two systems are most in circulation; the
first is the Egyptian, which is chiefly based on the government of
the houses, and the second the Chaldaean, resting upon the government
of the triplicities. Now the Egyptian system of the commonly accepted
terms does not at all preserve the consistency either of order or of
individual quantity. For in the first place, in the matter of order,
they have sometimes assigned the first place to the lords of the
houses and again to those of the triplicities, and sometimes also to
the lords of the exaltations. For example, if it is true that they
have followed the houses, why have they assigned precedence to
Saturn, say, in Libra, and not to Venus, and why to Jupiter in Aries
and not to Mars? And if they follow the triplicities, why have they
given Mercury, and not Venus, first place in Capricorn? Or if it be
exaltations, why give Mars, and not Jupiter, precedence in Cancer;
and if they have regard for the planets that have the greatest number
of these qualifications, why have they given first place in Aquarius
to Mercury, who has only his triplicity there, and not to Saturn, for
it is both the house and the triplicity of Saturn? Or why have they
given Mercury first place in Capricorn at all, since he has no
relation of government to the sign ? One would find the same kind of
thing in the rest of the system.
Secondly, the number of the terms manifestly has no consistency; for
the number derived for each planet from the addition of its terms in
all the signs, in accordance with which they say the planets assign
years of life, furnishes no suitable or acceptable argument. But even
if we rely upon the number derived from this summation, in accordance
with the downright claim of the Egyptians, the sum would be found
the same, even though the amounts, sign by sign, be frequently
changed in various ways. And as for the specious and sophistic
assertion about them that same attempt to make, namely that the
times assigned to each single planet by the schedule of ascensions
in all the climes add up to this same sum, it is false. For, in the
first place, they follow the common method, based upon evenly
progressing increases in the ascensions, which is not even close to
the truth. By this scheme they would have each of the signs Virgo and
Libra, on the parallel which passes through lower Egypt, ascend in
38 1/3 times, and Leo and Scorpio each in 35, although it is shown by
the tables that these latter ascend in more than 35 times and Virgo
and Libra in less. Furthermore, those who have endeavoured to
establish this theory even so do not seem to follow the usuaIly
accepted number of terms, and are compelled to make many false
statements, and they have even made use of fractional parts of
fractions in the effort to save their hypothesis, which, as we said,
is itself not a true one.
However, the terms most generally accepted on the authority of
ancient tradition are given in the following fashion :
Terms according to the Egyptians.
Aries : Jupiter = 6; Venus = 6; Merkur = 8; Mars = 5; Saturn = 5;
Taurus : Venus = 8; Merkur = 6; Jupiter = 8; Saturn = 5; Mars = 3;
Gemini : Merkur = 6; Jupiter = 6; Venus =5; Mars = 7; Saturn = 6;
Cancer : Mars = 7; Venus = 6; Merkur = 6; Jupiter = 7; Saturn = 4;
Leo : Jupiter = 6; Venus = 5; Saturn = 7; Merkur = 6; Mars = 6;
Virgo : Merkur = 7; Venus = 10; Jupiter = 4; Mars = 7; Saturn = 2;
Libra : Saturn = 6; Merkur =8; Jupiter = 7; Venus = 7; Mars = 2;
Scorpio : Mars = 7; Venus = 4; Merkur = 8; Jupiter = 5; Saturn = 6;
Sagittarius : Jupiter = 12; Venus = 5; Merkur = 4; Saturn = 5; Mars = 4;
Capricornus : Merkur = 7; Jupiter = 7; Venus = 8; Saturn = 4; Mars = 4;
Aquarius : Merkur = 7; Venus = 6; Jupiter = 7; Mars = 5; Saturn = 5;
Pisces : Venus = 12; Jupiter = 4; Merkur = 3; Mars = 9; Saturn = 2;
21. According to the Chaldaeans.
The Chaldaean method involves a sequence, simple, to be sure, and
more plausible, though not so self-sufficient with respect to the
government of the triangles and the disposition of quantity, so that,
nevertheless, one could casily understand them even without a
diagram. For in the first triplicity, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius,
which has with them the same division by signs as with the Egyptians,
the lord of the triplicity, Jupiter, is the first to receive terms,
then the lord of the next triangle, Venus, next the lord of the
triangle of Gemini, Saturn, and Mercury, and finally the lord of the
remaining triplicity, Mars. In the second triplicity, Taurus, Virgo,
and Capricorn, which again has the same division by signs, Venus is
first, then Saturn, and again Mercury, after these Mars, and finally
Jupiter. This arrangement in general is observed also in the
remaining two triplicities. Of the two lords of the same triplicity,
however, Saturn and Mercury, by day Saturn takes the first place in
the order of ownership, by night Mercury. The number assigned to each
is also a simple matter. For in order that the number of terms of
each planet may be less by One degree than the preceding, to
correspond with the descending order in which first place is
assigned, they always assign 8° to the first, 7° to the second, 6° to
the third, 5° to the fourth, and 4° to the last; thus the 30° of a
sign is made up. The sum of the number of degrees thus assigned to
Saturn is 78 by day and 66 by night, to Jupiter 72, to Mars 69,
to Venus 75, to Mercury 66 by day and 78 by night; the total is
360 degrees.
Now of these terms those which are constituted by the Egyptian method
are, as we said, more worthy of credence, both because in the form
in which they have been collected hy the Egyptian writers they have
for their utility been deemed worthy of record, and because for the
most part the degrees of these terms are consistent with the
nativities which have been recorded by them as examples. As these
very writers, however, nowhere explain their arrangement or their
number, their failure to agree in an account of the system might
well become an object of suspicion and a subject for criticism.
Recently. however, we have come upon an ancient manuscript, much
damaged, which contains a natural and consistent explanation of
their order and number, and at the same time the degrees reported in
the aforesaid nativities and the numbers given in the summations were
found to agree with the tabulation of the ancients. The hook was very
lengthy in expression and excessive in demonstration, and its damaged
state made it hard to read, so that I could harely gain an idea of
its general purport; that too, in spite of the help offered hy the
tabulations of the terms, better preserved because they were placed
at the end of the book. At any rate the general scheme of assignment
of the terms is as follows. For their arrangement within each sign,
the exaltations, triplicities, and houses are taken into
consideration. For, generally speaking, the star that has two
rulerships of this sort in the same sign is placed first, even
though it may be maleficent. But wherever this condition does not
exist, the maleficent planets are always put last, and the lords of
the exaltation first, the lords of the triplicity next, and then
those of the house, following the order of the signs. And again in
order, those that have two lordships each are preferred to the one
which has but one in the same sign. Since terms are not allotted to
the luminaries, however, Cancer and Leo, the houses of the sun and
moon, are assigned to the maleficent planets because they were
deprived of their share in the order, Cancer to Mars and Leo to
Saturn; in these the order appropriate to them is preserved. As for
the number of the terms, when no star is found with two prerogatives,
either in the sign itself or in those which follow it within the
quadrant, there are assigned to each of the beneficent planets, that
is, to Jupiter and Venus, 7° ; to the maleficent, Saturn and Mars, 5°
each; and to Mercury, which is common, 6°; so that the total is 30°.
But since some always have two prerogatives for Venus alone becomes
the ruler of the triplicity of Taurus, since the moon does not
participate in the terms there is given to each one of those in
such condition, whether it be in the same sign or in the folIowing
signs within the quadrant, one extra degree; these were marked with
dots. But the degrees added for double prerogatives are taken away
from the others, which.have but one, and, generally speaking, from
Saturn and Jupiter because of their slower motion. these terms is
as follows :
Terms according to Ptolemy.
Aries : Jupiter = 6; Venus = 8; Merkur = 7; Mars = 5; Saturn = 4;
Taurus : Venus = 8; Merkur = 7; Jupiter = 7; Saturn = 2; Mars = 6;
Gemini : Merkur = 7; Jupiter = 6; Venus = 7; Mars = 6; Saturn = 4;
Cancer : Mars = 6; Jupiter = 7; Merkur = 7; Venus = 7; Saturn = 3;
Leo : Jupiter = 6; Merkur = 7; Saturn = 6; Venus = 6; Mars = 5;
Virgo : Merkur = 7; Venus = 6; Jupiter = ; Saturn = 6; Mars = 6;
Libra : Saturn = 6; Venus = 5; Merkur = 5; Jupiter = 8; Mars = 6;
Scorpio : Mars = 6; Venus = 7 ; Jupiter = 8; Merkur = 6; Saturn = 3;
Sagittarius : Jupiter = 8; Venus = 6; Merkur = 5; Saturn = 6; Mars = 5;
Capricornus : Venus = 6; Merkur = 6; Jupiter = 7; Saturn = 6; Mars = 5;
Aquarius : Saturn = 6; Merkur = 6; Venus = 8; Jupiter = 5; Mars = 5;
Pisces : Venus = 8; Jupiter = 6; Merkur = 6; Mars = 5; Saturn = 5;
22. 0f Places and Degrees.
Some have made even finer divisions of rulership than these, using
the terms" places" and" degrees." Defining "place" as the twelfth
part of a sign, or 2 1/2°, they assign the domination over them to
the signs in order. Others follow other illogieal orders; and again
they assign each "degree" from the beginning to each of the planets
of each sign in accordance with the Chaldaean order of terms. These
matters, as they have only plausible and not natural, but, rather,
unfounded, arguments in their favour, we shall omit. The following,
however, upon which it is worth while to dwell, we shall not pass by,
namely, that it is reasonable to reckon the beginnings of the signs
also from the equinoxes and solstices, partly because the writers
make this quite clear, and particularly because from our previous
demonstrations we observe that their natures, powers, and
familiarities take their cause from the solstitial and equinoctial
starting-places, and from no other source. For if other
starting-places are assumed, we shall either be compelled no longer
to use the natures of the signs for prognostications or, if we use
them, to be in error, since the spaces of the zodiac which implant
their powers in the planets would then pass over to others and become
alienated.
23. Of Faces, Chariots, and the Like.
Such, then, are the natural affinities of the stars and the signs of
the zodiac. The planets are said to be in their "proper face" when
an individual planet keeps to the sun or moon the same aspect which
its house has to their houses; as, for example, when Venus is in
sextile to the luminaries, provided that she is occidental to the sun
and oriental to the moon, in accordance with the original arrangement
of their houses. They are said to be in their own "chariots" and
"thrones" and the like when they happen to have familiarity in two
or more of the aforesaid ways with the places in which they are
found; for then their power is most increased in effectiveness by
the similarity and co-operation of the kindred property of the signs
which contain them. They say they "rejoice" when, even though the
containing signs have no familiarity with the stars themselves,
nevertheless they have it with the stars of the same sect; in this
case the sympathy arises less directly. They share, however, in the
similarity in the same way; just as, on the contrary, when they are
found in alien regions belonging to the opposite sect, a great part
of their proper power is paralysed, because the temperament which
arises from the dissimilarity of the signs produces a different and
adulterated nature.
24. Of Applications and Separations and the Other Powers.
In general those which precede are said to "apply" to those which
follow, and those that follow to "be separated" from those that
precede, when the interval between them is not great. Such a
relation is taken to exist whether it happens by bodily conjunction
or through one of the traditional aspects; except that with respect
to the bodily applications and separations of the heavenly bodies it
is of use also to observe their latitudes, in order that only those
passages may be accepted which are found to be on the same side of
the ecliptic. In the case of applications and separation s by aspect,
however, such a practice is superfluous, because all rays always fall
and similarly converge from every direction upon the same point, that
is, the centre of the earth.
From all this then, it is easy to see that the quality of each of the
stars must be examined with reference both to its own natural
character and that also of the signs that include it, or likewise
from the character of its aspects to the sun and the angles, in the
manner which we have explained. Their power must be determined, in
the first place, from the fact that they are either oriental and
adding to their proper motion - for then they are most powerful - or
occidental and diminishing in speed, for then their energy is weaker.
Second, it is to be determined from their position relative to the
horizon; for they are most powerful when they are in mid-heaven or
approaching it, and second when they are exactly on the horizon or
in the succedent plaee; their power is greater when they are in the
orient, and less when they culminate beneath the earth or are in
some other aspect to the orient; if they bear no aspect at all to
the orient they are entirely powerless.
BOOK II.
1. lntroduction.
LET it be considered that thus far we have furnished in brief the
most important details of the tabular exposition needful for the
inquiry into particular prognostications. Let us now add in proper
sequenee the prceedures for dealing in detail with those matters
which lie within the limits of possibility of this kind of
prognostication, holding everywhere to the natural method of
exposition.
Since, then, prognostication by astronomical means is divided into
two great and principal parts, and since the first and more universal
is that which relates to whole races, countries, and cities, which
is called general, and the second and more specific is that which
relates to individual men, which is called genethlialogical, we
believe it fitting to treat first of the general division, because
such matters are naturally swayed by greater and more powerful causes
than are particular events. And since weaker natures always yield to
the stronger, and the particular always falls under the general, it
would by all means be necessary for those who purpose an inquiry
about a single individual long before to have comprehended the more
general considerations.
Of the general inquiry itself, a part, again, is found to concern
whole countries, and a part to concern cities; and further, a part
deals with the greater and more periodic conditions, such as wars,
famines, pestilences, earthquakes, deluges, and the like; and
another with the lesser and more occasional, as for example the
changes in temperature in the seasons of the year, and the variations
of the intensity of storms, heat, and winds, or of good and bad
crops, and so on. But in each of these cases, as is reasonable,
procedure, by entire countries and by more important conditions is
preferred, for the same reason as before. And since in the
examination of these questions these two things particularly are
taken into consideration, the familiarity of the signs of the zodiac
and also of the stars with the several climes, and the significances
of heavenly bodies in their own proper regions at a given time,
manifested through the ecliptical conjunctions of the sun and moon
and the transits of the planets at rising and at their stationary
periods, we shall first explain the natural reason for the aforesaid
sympathies, and at the same time briefly survey the bodily and
ethical peculiarities generally observed to belong to whole nations,
which are not alien to the natural character of the stars and signs
that are familiar to them.
2. Of the Characteristics of the lnhabitants of the
General Climes.
The demarcation of national characteristics is established in part
by entire parallels and angles, through their position relative to
the ecliptic and the sun. For while the region which we inhabit is
in One of the northern quarters; the people who live under the more
southern parallels, that is, those from the equator to the summer
tropic, since they have the sun over their heads and are burned by
it, have black skins and thick, woolly hair, are contracted in form
and shrunken in stature, are sanguine of nature, and in habits are
for the most part savage because their homes are continually
oppressed by heat; we call them by the general name Ethiopians. Not
only do we see them in this condition, but we likewise observe that
their climate and the animals and plants of their region plainly give
evidence of this baking by the sun.
Those who live under the more northern parallels, those, I mean, who
have the Bears over their heads, since they are far removed from the
zodiac and the heat of the sun, are therefore cooled; but because
they have a richer share of moisture, which is most nourishing and
is not there exhausted by heat, they are white in complexion,
straight-haired, tall and well-nourished, and somewhat cold by
nature; these too are savage in their habits, because their
dwellingplaces are continually cold. The wintry character of their
climate, the size of their plants, and the wildness of their animals
are in accord with these qualities. We call these men, too, by a
general name, Scythians.
The inhabitants of the region between the summer tropic and the
Bears, however, since the sun is neither directly over their heads
nor far distant at its noon-day transits, share in the equable
temperature of the air, which varies, to be sure, but has no violent
changes from heat to cold. They are therefore medium in colouring, of
moderate stature, in nature equable, live close together, and are
civilized in their habits. The southernmost of them are in general
more shrewd and inventive, and better versed in the knowledge of
things divine because their zenith is close to the zodiac and to the
planets revolving about it. Through this affinity the men themselves
are characterized by an activity of the soul which is sagacious,
investigative, and fitted for pursuing the sciences specifically
called mathematical. Of them, again, the eastern group are more
masculine, vigorous of soul, and frank in all things, because One
would reasonably assume that the orient partakes of the nature of the
sun. This region therefore is diurnal, masculine, and right-handed,
even as we - observe that among the animals too their right-hand
parts are better fitted for strength and vigour. Those to the west
are more feminine, softer of soul, and secretive, because this
region, again, is lunar, for it is always in the west that the
moon emerges and makes its appearance after conjunction. For this
reason it appears to be a nocturnal clime, feminine, and, in contrast
with the orient, lefthanded.
And now in each of these general regions certain special conditions
of character and customs naturally ensue. For as likewise, in the
case of the climate, even within the regions that in general are
reckoned as hot, cold, or temperate, certain localities and countries
have special peculiarities of excess or defieiency by reason of their
situation, height, lowness, or adjacency; and again, as some peoples
are more inclined to horsemanship because theirs is a plain country,
or to seamanship because they live close to the sea, or to
civilization because of the richness of their soil, so also would one
discover special traits in each arising from the natural familiarity
of their particular climes with the stars in the signs of the zodiac.
These traits, too, would be found generally present, but not in every
individual. We must, then, deal with the subject summarily, in so far
as it might be of use for the purpose of particular investigations.
3. Of the Familiarities between Countries and the Triplicities and Stars.
Now of the four triangular formations recognized in the zodiac, as we
have shown above, the one which consists of Aries, Leo, and
Sagittarius is northwestern, and is chiefly dominated by Jupiter
on account of the north wind, but Mars joins in its government
because of the south-west wind. That which is made up of Taurus,
Virgo, and Capricornus is south-eastern, and again is governed
primarily by Venus on account of the south wind, but conjointly by
Saturn because of the east wind. The one consisting of Gemini, Libra,
and Aquarius is north-eastern and is governed primarily by Saturn
because of the east wind, and conjointly by Jupiter because of the
north wind. The triangle of Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces is
south-western and is governed primarily, because of the west wind,
by Mars, who is joined by Venus as co-ruler on account of the south
wind.
As this is so, and since our inhabited world is divided into four
quarters, equal in number to the triangles, and is divided
latitudinally by our sea from the Straits of Hercules to the Gulf of
Issus and the mountainous ridge adjacent on the east, and by these
its southern and northern portions are separated, and in longitude by
the Arabian Gulf, the Aegean Sea, the Pontus, and the Lake Maeotis,
whereby the eastern and western portions are separated, there arise
four quarters, and these agree in position with the triangles. The
first quarter lies in the north-west of the whole inhabited world; it
embraces Celtic Gaul and we give it the general name Europe. Opposite
this is the south-eastern quarter; this includes eastern Ethiopia,
which would be called the southern part of Greater Asia. Again, the
north-eastern quarter of the whole inhabited world is that which
contains Scythia, which likewise is the northern part of Greater
Asia; and the quarter opposite this and toward the south-west wind,
the quarter of western Ethiopia, is that which we call by the general
term Libya.
Again, of each of the aforesaid quarters the parts which are placed
closer to the centre of the inhabited world are placed in a contrary
fashion with respect to the surrounding quarters, just as are the
latter in comparison with the whole world; and since the European
quarter lies in the northwest of the whole world, the parts about
the centre, which are allied to the opposite angle, obviously are
situated in the south-east part of the quarter. The same holds of
the other quarters, so that each of them is related to two oppositely
situated triangles ; for while the other parts are in harmony with
the general inclination of the quarter, the portions at
the centre [of the world] share in familiarity with the opposite
inclination, and, again, of the stars that govern in their own
triangles, in all the other domiciles they alone govern, but in the
parts about the centre of the world likewise the other group, and
Mercury besides, because he is mid-way between and common to the two
sects.
Under this arrangement, the remainder of the first quarter, by which
I mean the European quarter, situated in the north-west of the
inhabited world, is in familiarity with the north-western triangle,
Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, and is governed, as one would expect, by
the lords of the triangle, Jupiter and Mars, occidental. In terms of
whole nations these parts consist of Britain, (Transalpine) Gaul,
Germany, Bastarnia, Italy, (Cisalpine) Gaul, Apulia, Sicily,
Tyrrhenia, Celtica, and Spain. As One might expect, it is the general
characteristic of these nations, by reason of the predominance of the
triangle and the stars which join in its government, to be
independent, liberty-loving, fond of arms, industrious, very warlike,
with qualities of leadership, cleanly, and magnanimous. However,
because of the occidental aspect of Jupiter and Mars, and furthermore
because the first parts of the aforesaid triangle are masculine and
the latter parts feminine, they are without passion for women and
look down upon the pleasures of love, but are better satisfied with
and more desirous of association with men. And they do not regard the
act as a disgrace to the paramour, nor indeed do they actually become
effeminate and soft thereby, because their disposition is not
perverted, but they retain in their souls manliness, helpfulness,
good faith, love of kinsmen, and benevolence. Of these same countries
Britain, (Transalpine) Gaul, Germany, and Bastarnia are in closer
familiarity with Aries and Mars. Therefore for the most part their
inhabitants are fiercer, more headstrong, and bestial. But Italy,
Apulia, (Cisalpine) Gaul, and Sicily have their familiarity with Leo
and the sun; wherefore these peoples are more masterful, benevolent,
and co-operative. Tyrrhenia, Celtica, and Spain are subject to
Sagittarius and Jupiter, whence their independence, simplicity, and
love of cleanliness. The parts of this quarter which are situated
about the centre of the inhabited world, Thrace, Macedonia, Illyria,
Hellas, Achaia, Crete, and likewise the Cyclades, and the coastal
regions of Asia Minor and Cyprus, which are in the south-east portion
of the whole quarter, have in addition famiIiarity with the
south-east triangle, Taurus, Virgo, and Capricornus, and its
co-rulers Venus, Saturn, and Mercury. As a result the inhabitants of
those countries are brought into conformity with these planets and
both in body and soul are of a more mingled constitution. They
too have qualities of leadership and are noble and independent,
because of Mars; they are liberty-loving and self-governing,
democratic and framers of law, through Jupiter; lovers of music and
of learning, fond of contests and clean livers, through Venus;
social, friendly to strangers, justice-loving, fond of letters, and
very effective in eloquence, through Mercury; and they are
particularly addicted to the performance of mysteries, because of
Venus's occidental aspect. And again, part by part, those of this
group who live in the Cyclades and on the shores of Asia Minor and
Cyprus are more closely familiar to Taurus and Venus. For this reason
they are, on the whole, luxurious, clean, and attentive to their
bodies. The inhabitants of Hellas, Achaia, and Crete, however, have a
familiarity with Virgo and Mercury, and are therefore better at
reasoning, and fond of learning, and they exercise the soul in
preference to the body. The Macedonians, Thracians, and Illyrians
have familiarity with Capricorn and Saturn, so that, though they are
acquisitive, they are not so mild of nature, nor social in their
institutions.
Of the second quarter, which embraces the southern part of Greater
Asia, the other parts, including India, Ariana, Gedrosia, Parthia,
Media, Persia, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, which are
situated in the south-east of the whole inhabited world, are, as we
might presume, familiar to the south-eastern triangle, Taurus, Virgo,
and Capricorn, and are governed by Venus and Saturn in oriental
aspects. Therefore one would find that the natures of their
inhabitants conform with the temperaments governed by such rulers;
for they revere the star of Venus under the name of Isis, and that of
Saturn as Mithras Helios. Most of them, to , divine future events;
and among them there exists the practice of consecrating the
genital organs because of the aspect of the aforesaid stars, which is
by nature generative. Further, they are ardent, concupiscent, and
inclined to the pleasures of love; through the influcnce of Venus
they are dancers and leapers and fond of adornment, and through that
of Saturn luxurious livers. They carry out their relations with women
openly and not in secret, because of the planetsŽ oriental aspect,
but hold in detestation such relations with males. For these reasons
most of them beget children by their own mothers, and they do
obeisance to the breast, by reason of the morning rising of the
planets and on account of the primacy of the heart, which is akin to
the sun's power. As for the rest, they are generally luxurious and
effeminate in dress, in adornment, and in all habits relating to the
body, because of Venus. In their souls and by their predilection they
are magnanimous, noble, and warlike, because of the familiarity of
Saturn oriental. Part by part, again, Parthia, Media, and Persia are
more closely familiar to Taurus and Venus; hence their inhabitants
use embroidered clothing, which covers their entire body except the
breast, and they are as a general thing luxurious and clean.
Babylonia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria are familiar to Virgo and Mercury,
and so the study of mathematics and the observation of the five
planets are special traits of these peoples. India, Ariana, and
Gedrosia have familiarity with Capricorn and Saturn; therefore the
inhabitants of these countries are ugly, unclean, and bestial. The
remaining parts of the quarter, situated about the centre of the
inhahited world, Idumaea, Coelê Syria, Judaca, Phoenicia, Chaldaea,
Orchinia, and Arabia Felix, which are situated toward the north-west
of the whole quarter, have additional familiarity with the
north-western triangle, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, and,
furthermore, have as co-rulers Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury. Therefore
these peoples are, in comparison with the others, more gifted in
trade and exehange; they are more unscrupulous, despicable cowards,
treacherous, servile, and in general fickle, on account of the aspect
of the stars mentioned. Of these, again, the inhabitants of Coelê
Syria, Idumaea, and Judaea are more closely familiar to Aries and
Mars, and therefore these peoples ara in general bold, godless, and
scheming. The Phoenicians, Chaldaeans, and Orchinians have
familiarity with Leo and the sun, so that they are simpler, kindly,
addicted to astrology, and beyond all men worshippers of the sun. The
inhabitants of Arabia Felix are familiar to Sagittarius and Jupiter;
this accounts for the fertility of the country, in accordance with
its name, and its multitudes of spices, and the grace of its
inhabitants and their free spirit in daily life, in exchange, and in
business.
Of the third quarter, which includes the northern part of Greater
Asia, the other parts, embracing Hyrcania, Armenia, Matiana,
Bactriana, Casperia, Serica, Sauromatica, Oxiana, Sogdiana, and the
regions in the north-east of the inhabited world, are in familiarity
with the north-eastern triangle, Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius, and
are, as might be expected, governed by Saturn and Jupiter in oriental
aspect. Therefore the inhahitants of these lands worship Jupiter and
Saturn, have much riches and gold, and are cleanly and seemly in
their living, learned and adepts in matters of religion, just and
liberal in manners, lofty and noble in soul, haters of evil, and
affectionate, and ready to die for their friends in a fair and holy
cause. They are. dignified and pure in their, sexual relations,
lavish in dress, gracious and magnanimous; these things in general
are brought about by Saturn and Jupiter in eastern aspects. Of these
nations, again, Hyreania, Armenia, and Matiana are more closely
familiar to Gemini and Mercury ; they are accordingly more easily
stirred and inclined to rascality. Bactriana, Casperia, and Serica
are skin to Libra and Venus, so that their peoples are rich and
followers of the Muses, and more luxurious. The regions of
Sauromatica, Oxiana, and Sogdiana are in familiarity with Aquarius
and Saturn ; these nations therefore are more ungentle, steril, and
bestial. The remaining parts of this quarter, which lie close to the
centre of the inhabited world, Bithynia, Phrygia, Colchica, Syria,
Commagenê, Cappadocia, Lydia, Lycia, Cilicia, and Pamphylia, since
they are situated in the south-west of the quarter, have in addition
familiarity with the southwestern quarter, Cancer, Scorpio, and
Pisces, and their co-rulers are Mars, Venus, and Mercury; therefore
those who live in these countries generally worship Venus as the
mother of the gods, calling her by various local names, and Mars as
Adonis, to whom again they give other names, and they celebrate in
their honour certain mysteries accompanied by lamentations: They are
exceedingly depraved.. servile, laborious, rascally, are to be found
in mercenary expeditions, looting and taking captives, enslaving
their own peoples, and engaging in destructive wars. And because of
the junction of Mars and Venus in the Orient, since Mars is exalted
in Capricorn, a sign of Venus's triangle, and Venus in Pisces, a
sign of Mars's triangle, it comes about that their women display
entire goodwill to their husbands; they are affectionate, home-keepers,
diligent, helpful, and in every respect laborious and obedient. Of
these peoples, again, those who live in Bithynia, Phrygia, and
Colchica are more closely familiar to Cancer and the moon; therefore
the men are in general cautious and obedient, and most of the women,
through the influenee of the moon's oriental and masculine aspect,
are virile, commanding, and warlike, like the Amazons, who shun
commerce with men, love arms, and from infancy make masculine all
their female characteristies, by cutting off their right breasts for
the sake of military needs and baring these parts in the line of
battle, in order to display the absence of femininity in their
natures. The people of Syria, Commagenê, and Cappadocia are familiar
to Scorpio and Mars; therefore much boldness, knavery, treachery, and
laboriousness are found among them. The people of Lydia, Cilicia, and
Pamphylia have familiarity with Pisces and Jupiter; these
accordingly are more wealthy, commercial, social, free, and
trushvorthy in their compacts.
Of the remaining quarter, which includes what is called by the common
name Libya, the other parts, including Numidia, Carthage, Africa,
Phazania, Nasamonitis, Garamantica, Mauritania, Gaetulia, Metagonitis,
and the regions situated in the south-west of the inhabited world,
are related by familiarity to the south-western triangle, Cancer,
Scorpio, and Pisces, and are accordingly ruled by Mars and Venus in
occidental aspect. For this reason it befalls most of the
inhabitants, because of the aforesaid junction of these planets, to
be governed by a man and wife who are own brother and sister, the
man ruling the men and the woman the women; and a succession of this
sort is maintained. They are extremely ardent and disposed to
commerce with women, so that even their marriages are brought about
by violent abduction, and frequently their kings enjoy the jus primae
noctis with the brides, and among some of them the women are common
to all the men. They are fond of beautifying themselves and gird
themselves with feminine adornments, through the influence of Venus;
through that of Mars, however, they are virile of spirit, rascally,
magicians, impostors, deceivers, and reckless. Of these people,
again, the inhabitants of Numidia, Carthage, and Africa are more
closely familiar to Cancer and the moon. They therefore are social,
commercial, and live in great abundance. Those who inhabit
Metagonitis, Mauritania, and Gactulia are familiar to Scorpio and
Mars; they are accordingly fiercer and very warlike, meateaters, very
reckless, and contemptuous of life to such an extent as not even to
spare One another. Those who live in Phazania, Nasamonitis, and
Garamantica are familiar to Pisces and Jupiter; hence they are free
and simple in their characters, willing to work, intelligent,
cleanly, and independent, as a general rule, and they are worshippers
of Jupiter as Ammon. The remaining parts of the quarter, which are
situated near the centre of the inhabited world, Cyrenaica,
Marmarica, Egypt, Thebais, the Oasis, Troglodytica, Arabia, Azania,
and Middle Ethiopia, which face the north-east of the whole quarter,
have an additional familiarity with the northeastern triangle
Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius, and therefore have as co-rulers Saturn
and Jupiter and, furthermore, Mercury. Accordingly those who live in
these countries, because they all in common, as it were, are subject
to the occidental rulership of the five planets, are worshippers of
the gods, superstitious, given to religions ceremony and fond of
lamentation; they bury their dead in the earth, putting them out of
sight, on account of the occidental aspect of the planets; and they
practice all kinds of usages, customs, and rites in the service of
all manner of gods. Under command they are humble, timid, penurious,
and long-suffering, in leadership courageous and magnanimous; but
they are polygamous and polyandrous and lecherous, marrying even
their own sisters, and the men are potent in begetting, the women in
conceiving, even as their land is fertile. Furthermore, many of the
males are unsound and effeminate of soul, and some even hold in
contempt the organs of generation, through the influence of the
aspect of the maleficent planets in combination with Venus
occidental. Of these peoples the inhabitants of Cyrenaica and
Marmarica, and particularly of Lower Egypt, are more closely familiar
to Gemini and Mercury; on this account they are thoughtful and
intelligent and facile in all things, especially in the seareh for
wisdom and religion; they are magicians and performers of secret
mysteries and in general skilled in mathematics. Those who live in
Thebais, the Oasis, and Troglodytica are familiar to Libra and Venus;
hence they are more ardent and lively of nature and live in plenty.
The people of Arabia, Azania, and Middle Ethiopia are familiar to
Aquarius and Saturn, for which reason they are flesh-eaters,
fish-eaters, and nomade, living a rough, bestial life.
Let this be our brief exposition of the familiarities of the planets
and the signs of the zodiac with the various nations, and of the
general characteristics of the latter. We shall also set forth, for
ready use, a list of the several nations which are in familiarity,
merely noted against each of the signs, in accordance with what has
just been said about them, thus :
Aries: Britain, Gaul, Germania, Bastarnia; in the centre,
Coelê Syria, Palestine, Idumaea, Judaea.
Taurus: Parthia, Media, Persia; in the centre, the Cyclades, Cyprus,
the coastal region of Asia Minor.
Gemini: Hyrcania, Armenia, Matiana; in the centre, Cyrenaica,
Marmarica, Lower Egypt.
Cancer: Numidia, Carthage, Africa; in the centre, Bithynia, Phrygia,
Colchica.
Leo: Italy, Cisalpine Gaul, Sicily, Apulia; in the centre, Phoenicia,
Chaldaea, Orchenia.
Virgo: Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Assyria; in the centre, Hellas,
Achaia, Crete.
Libra: Bactriana, Casperia, Serica; in the centre, Thebais, Oasis,
Troglodytica.
Scorpio: Metagonitis, Mauritania, Gaetulia; in the centre, Syria,
Commagenê, Cappadocia.
Sagittarius: Tyrrhenia, Celtica, Spain; in the centre, Arabia Felix.
Capricorn: India, Ariana, Gedrosia; in the centre, Thrace, Macedonia,
Illyria.
Aquarius: Sauromatica, Oxiana, Sogdiana; in the centre, Arahia,
Azania, Middle Ethiopia.
Pisces: Phazania, Nasamonitis, Garamantica; in the centre, Lydia,
Cilicia, Pamphylia.
Now that the subject at hand has been set forth, it is reasonable to
attach to this section this further consideration - that each of the
fixed stars has familiarity with the countries with which the parts
of the zodiac, which have the same inclinations as the fixed stars
upon the circle drawn through its poles, appear to exert sympathy;
furthermore, that, in the case of metropolitan cities, those regions
of the zodiac are most sympathetic through which the sun and moon,
and of the centres especially the horoscope, were passing at the
first founding of the city, as in a nativity, But in cases in which
the exact times of the foundations are not diseovered, the regions
are sympathetic in which falls the midheaven of the nativities of
those who held office or were kings at the time.
4. Method of Making Particular Predictions.
After this introductory exarnination it would be the next task to
deal briefly with the procedure of the predictions, and first with
those concerned with general conditions of countries or cities. The
method of the inquiry will be as follows: The first and most potent
cause of such events lies in the conjunctions of the sun and moon at
eclipse and the movements of the stars at the time. Of the prediction
itself, one portion is regional; therein we must foresee for what
countries or cities there is significance in the various eclipses or
in the occasional regular stations of the planet, that is, of Saturn,
Jupiter, and Mars, whenever they halt, for then they are significant.
Another division of the prediction is chronological; therein the need
will be to foretell the time of the portents and their duration. A
part, too, is generic; through this we ought to understand with what
classes the event will be concerned. And finally there is the
specific aspect, by which we shall discern the quality of the event
itself.
5. 0f the Examination of the Countries Affected.
We are to judge of the first portion of the inquiry, which is
regional, in the folIowing manner: In the eclipses of sun and moon as
they occur, particularly those more easily observed, we shall examine
the region of the zodiac in which they take place, and the countries
in familiarity with its triangles, and in similar fashion ascertain
which of the cities, either from their horoscope at the time of their
founding and the position of the luminaries at the time, or
from the mid-heaven of the nativity of their then rulers, are
sympathetic to the zodiacal sign of the eclipse. And in whatsoever
countries or cities we discover a familiarity of this kind, we must
suppose that same event will occur which applies, generally speaking,
to all of them, particularly to those which bear a relation to the
actual zodiacal sign of the eclipse and to those of them in which the
eclipse, since it look place above the earth, was visible.
6. Of the Time of the Predicted Events.
The second and chronological heading, whereby we should learn the
times of the events signified and the length of their duration, we
shall consider as follows. lnasmuch as the eclipses which take place
at the same time are not completed in the same number of ordinary
hours in every locality, and since the same solar eclipses do not
everywhere have the same degree of obscuration or the same time of
duration, we shall first set down for the hour of the eclipse, in
each of the related localities, and for the altitude of the pole,
centres, as in a nativity; secondly, how many equinoctial hours the
obscuration of the eclipse lasts in each. For when these data are
examined, if it is a solar eclipse, we shall understand that the
predicted event lasts as many years as the equinoctial hours which we
discover, and if a lunar eclipse, as many months. The nature of the
beginnings and of the more important intensifications of the events,
however, are deduced from the position of the place of the eclipse
relative to the centres. For if the place of the eclipse falls on the
eastern horizon, this signifies that the beginning of the predicted
event is in the first period of four months from the time of the
eclipse and that its important intensifications lie in the first
third of the entire period of its duration; if on the mid-heaven, in
the second four months and the middle third; if upon the western
horizon, in the third four months and the final third. The beginnings
of the particular abatements and intensifications of the event we
deduce from the conjunctions which take place in the meantime, if
they occur in the significant regions or the regions in same aspect
to them, and also from the other movements of the planets, if those
that effect the predicted event ara either rising or setting or
stationary or at evening rising, and are at the same time in same
aspect to the zodiacal signs that hold the cause; for planets when
they are rising or stationary produce intensiflcations in the events,
but when setting, and under the rays of the sun, or advancing at
evening, they bring about an abatement.
7. Of the Class of those Affected.
The third heading is that of generic classiflcation,
whereby One must determine what classes the event
will affect. This is ascertained from the special nature and form of
the zodiacal signs in which happen to be the places of the eclipses
and in which are the heavenly bodies, planets and fixed stars alike,
that govern both the sign of the eclipse and that of the angle
preceding the eclipse. In the case of the planets we discover the
rulership of these regions thus: The One which has the greatest
number of relationships to both the regions aforesaid, that of the
eclipse and that of the angle which follows it, both by virtue of the
nearest visible applications or recessions, and by those of the
aspects which bear a relation, and furthermore by rulership uf the
houses, triangles, exaltations, and terms, that planet alone will
hold the dominance. However, if the same planet is not found to be
both lord of the eclipse and of the angle, we must take together the
two which have the greatest number of familiarities, as aforesaid, to
either one of the regions, giving preference to the lord of the
eclipse. And if several rivals be found on either count, we shall
prefer for the domination the One which is closest to an angle, or is
more significant, or is more closely allied by sect. In the case of
the fixed stars, we shall take the first one of the brilliant stars
which signifies upon the preceding angle at the actual time of the
eclipse, according to the nine kinds of visible aspects defined in
our first compilation, and the star which of the group visible at the
time of the eclipse has either risen or reached meridian with the
angle following the place of the eclipse.
When we have thus reckoned the stars that share in causing the event,
let us also consider the farms of the signs of the zodiac in which
the eclipse and the dominating stars as well happened to be, since
from their character the quality of the classes affected is generally
discerned. Constellations of human form, both in the zodiac and among
the fixed stars, cause the event to concern the human race. Of the
other terrestrial signs, the fourfooted are concerned with the
four-footed dumb animals, and the signs formed like creeping things
with serpents and the like. Again, the animal signs have significance
for the wild animals and those which injure the human race; the tame
signs concern the usefull and domesticated animals, and those which
help to gain prosperity, in consistency with their several forms; for
example, horses, oxen, sheep, and the like. Again, of the terrestrial
signs, the northern tend to signify sudden earthquakes and the
southern unexpected rains from the sky. Yet again, those dominant
regions that are in the form of winged creatures, such as Virgo,
Sagittarius, Cygnus, Aquila, and the like, exercise an effect upon
winged creatures, particularly those which are used for human food,
and if they are in the form of swimming things, upon water
animals and fish. And of these, in the constellations pertaining to
the sea, such as Cancer, Capricorn, and the Dolphin, they influence
the creatures of the sea and the sailing of fleets. In the
constellations pertailling to rivers, such as Aquarius and Pisces.
they concern the creatures of rivers and springs, and in Argo they
affect both classes alike. Likewise stars in the solstitial or
equinoctial signs have significance in general for the conditions of
the air and the seasons related to each of these signs, and in
particular they concern the spring and things which grow from the
earth. For when they are at the spring equinox they affect the new
shoots of the arboreal crops, such as grapes and figs, and whatever
matures with them; at the summer solstice, the gathering and storing
of the crops, and in Egypt, peculiarly, the rising of the Nile; at
the autumn solstice they concern the sowing, the hay crops, and such;
and at the winter equinox the vegetables and the kinds of birds and
fish most common at this season. Further, the equinoetial signs have
signifieance for sacred rites and the worship of the gods; the
solstitial signs, for changes in the air and in political customs;
the solid signs, for foundations and the construction of houses;
the bicorporeal, for men and kings. Similarly, those which are closer
to the orient. at the time of the eclipse signify what is to be
concerning the crops, youth, and foundations ; those near the
mid-heaven above the earth, concerning sacred rites, kings, and
middle age; and those near the occident, concerning change of
customs, old age, and those who have passed away.
To the question, how large a portion of the class involved will the
event affect, the answer is supplied by the extent of the obscuration
of the eclipses, and by the positions relative to the place of the
eclipse held by the stars which furnish the cause. For when they are
occidental to solar eclipses, or oriental to lunar, they usually
affect a minority; in opposition, a half; and the majority, if they
are oriental to solar eclipses or occidental to lunar.
8. Of the Quality of the Predicted Event.
The fourth heading concerns the quality of the predicted event, that
is, whether it is productive of good or the opposite, and of what
sort is its effect in either direction, in accordance with the
peculiar character of the species. This is apprehended from the
nature of the activity of the planets which rule the dominant places
and from their combination both with one another and with the places
in which they happen to be. For the sun and the moon are the marshals
and, as it were, leaders of the others; for they are themselves
responsible for the entirety of the power, and are the causes of the
rulership of the planets, and, moreover, the causes of the strengt
or weakness af the ruling planets. The comprehensive observation of
the ruling stars shows the quality of the predicted events.
We shall begin with the characteristic active powers of the planets,
one by one, first, however, making this general observation, as a
summary reminder, that in general whenever we speak of any
temperament of the five planets one must understand that whatever
produces the like nature is also meant, whether it be the planet
itself in its own proper condition, or one of the fixed stars, or
one of the signs of the zodiac, considered with reference to the
temperament proper to it, just as though the characterizations were
applied to the natures or the qualities themselves and not to the
planets; and let us remember that in the combinations, again, we must
consider not only the mixture of the planets one with another, but
also their combination with the others that share in the same nature;
whether they be fixed stars or signs of the zodiac, by virtue of
their affinities with the planets, already set forth.
Saturn, when he gains sole dominance, is in general the cause of
destruction by cold, and in particular, when the event concerns men,
causes lang illnesses, consumptions, withering, disturbances caused
by fluida, rheumatisms, and quartan fevers, exile, poverty,
imprisonment, mourning, fears, and deaths, especially among those
advanced in age. He is usually significant with regard to those dumb
animals that are of use to man, and brings about scarcity of them,
and the bodily destruction by disease of such as exist, so that the
men who use them are similarly affected and perish. With regard to
weather, he causes fearful cold, freezing, misty, and pestilential;
corruption of the air, clouds, and gloom; furthermore, multitudes of
snowstorms, not beneficial but destructive, from which are produced
the reptiles harmful to man. As for the rivers and seas, in general
he causes storms, the wreck of fleets, disastrous voyages, and the
scarcity and death of fish, and in particular the high and ebb tides
of the seas and in rivers excessive floods and pollution of their
waters. As for the crops of the earth, he brings about want,
scarcity, and loss, especially of those grown for necessary uses,
either through worms or locusts or floods or cloud-hurst or hail or
the like, so that famine and the destruction of men thereby result.
When Jupiter rules alone he produces increase in general, and, in
particular, when the prediction is concerned with men, he makes fame
and prosperity, abundance, peaceful existence, the increase of the
necessities of life, bodily and spiritual health, and, furthermore,
benefits and gifts from rulers, and the increase, greatness,
and magnanimity of these latter; and in general he is the cause of
happiness. With reference to dumb animals he causes a multitude and
abundance of those that are useful to men and the diminution and
destruction of the opposite kind. He makes the condition of the air
temperate and healthful, windy, moist, and favourable to the growth
of what the earth bears; he brings about the fortunate sailing of
fleets, the moderate rise of rivers, abundance of crops, and
everything similar.
Mars, when he assumes the rulership alone, is in general the cause of
destruction through dryness and in particular, when the event
concerns men, brings about wars, civil faction, capture, enslavement,
uprisings, the wrath of leaders, and sudden deaths arising from such
causes; moreover, revers, tertian agues, raising of blood, swift and
violent deaths, especially in the prime of life; similarly,
violence, assaults, lawlessness, arson and murder, robbery and
piracy. With regard to the condition of the air he causes hot
weather, warm, pestilential, and withering winds, the loosing of
lightning and hurricanes, and drought. Again, at sea he causes sudden
shipwreck of fleets through changeable winds or lightning or the
like; the failure of the water of rivers, the drying up of springs,
and the tainting of potable waters. With reference to the necessities
produced upon the earth for human use, he causes a scarcity and loss
of dumb animals and of things which grow from the earth, and the loss
of crops by drying as the result of hot weather, or by locusts, or by
the beating of the winds, or by burning in places of storage.
Venus, when she becomes sole ruler of the event,
in general brings about results similar to those of Jupiter, but with
the addition of a certain agreeable quality; in particular, where men
are concerned, she causes fame, honour, happiness, abundance, happy
marriage, many children, satisfaction in every mutual relationship,
the increase of property, a neat and well conducted manner of life,
paying honour to those things which are to be revered; further, she
is the cause of bodily health, alliances with the leaders, and
elegance of rulers; as to the winds of the air, of temperateness and
settled conditions of moist and very nourishing winds, of good air,
clear weather, and generous showers of fertilizing waters; she brings
about the fortunate sailing of fleets, successes, profits, and the
full rising of rivers; of useful animals and the fruits of the earth
she is the preeminent cause of abundance, good yields, and profit.
Mercury, if he gains the rulership, is, generally speaking, in nature
like whatever of the other planets may be associated with him. In
particular, he is above all stimulating, and in predictions
concerning men is keen and very practical, ingenious in any
situation; but he causes robbery, theft, piracy, and assault, and
furthermore, brings about unsuccessful voyaging when he is in aspect
with the maleficent planets, and occasions diseases of dryness,
quotidian agues, coughs, raising, and consumption. he is the cause of
events taking place which concern the priestly code, the worship of
the gods, the royal revenues, and of change in customs and laws, from
time to time, in consistency with his association with the other
planets on each occasion. With reference to the air, since he is very
dry and swift on account of his nearness to the sun, and the speed of
his revolution, he is particularly apt to arouse irregular, fierce,
and changeable winds, and, as might be expected, thunder, hurricanes,
chasms in the earth, earthquakes, and lightning; sometimes by these
means he causes the destruction of useful animals and plants. At
setting he diminishes waters and rivers, at rising fills them.
Such are the effects produced by the several planets, each by itself
and in command of its own nature. Associated, however, now with one
and now with another, in the different aspects, by the exchange of
signs, and by their phases with reference to the sun, and experiencing
a corresponding tempering of their powers, each produces a character,
in its effect, which is the result of the mixture of the natures that
have participated, and is complicated. It is of course a hopeless
and impossible task to mention the proper outcome of every
combination and to enumerate absolutely all the aspects of whatever
kind, since we can conceive of such a variety of them. Consequently
questions of this kind would reasonably be left to the enterprise and
ingenuity of the mathematician, in order to make the partieular
distinctions.
It is needful to observe what affinity exists between the planets
which govern the prediction and the countries or the cities for which
the event is signified. For if the ruling planets are beneficent,
and have familiarity with the subjects affected, and are not overcome
by planets of the opposite sect, they more powerfully produce the
benefits natural to them; even as, when they bear no familiarity, or
are overcome by their opposites, they are less helpful. But when they
are of the injurious temperament and govern the prediction, if they
have familiarity with the subjects affected or are overcome by the
opposite sect, they do less harm; but if they are neither lords of
the countries nor are overcome by the planets that have familiarity
with those countries, they exert all the more intensely the
destructiveness of their temperament. Usually, however, those men are
affected by the more universal ills who in their own genitures happen
to have the most essential places, by which I mean those of the
luminaries or of the angles, the same as those that furnish the cause
of the general misfortunes, that is, the places of the eclipses or
the places directly opposite. Of these the positions most dangerous
and hardest to avoid are those in which either of their luminaries is
in possession of the very degree of the place of the eclipse, or the
degree opposite.
9. Of the Colours of Eclipses, Comets, and the Like.
For the prediction of general conditions we must also observe the
colours at the time of the eclipses, either those of the luminaries
themselves, or those of the formations that occur near them, such as
rods, halos, and the like. For if they appear black or livid they
signify the effects whieh were mentioned in connection with Saturn's
nature; if white, those of Jupiter; if reddish, those of Mars; if
yellow, those of Venus; and if variegated, those of Mercury. If the
characteristic colour appears to cover the whole body of the luminary
or the whole region surrounding it, the predicted event will affect
most of the parts of the countries; but if it is in any one part, it
will affect only, that part against which the phenomenon is inclined.
We most observe, further, for the prediction of general conditions,
the comets which appear either at the time of the eclipse or at any
time whatever ; for instance, the so-called "beams," "trumpets,"
"jars,"and the like, for these naturally produce the effects peculiar
to Mars and to Mercury - wars, hot weather, disturbed conditions, and
the accompaniments of these; and they show, through the parts of the
zodiac in which their heads appear and through the directions in
which the shapes of their tails point, the regions upon which the
misfortunes impend. Through the formations, as it were, of their
heads they indicate the kind of the event and the class upon which
the misfortune will take effect; through the time which they last,
the duration of the events; and through their position relative to
the sun likewise their beginning; for in general their appearance in
the orient betokens rapidly approaching events and in the occident
those that approach more slowly.
10. Concerning the New Moon of the Year.
Now that we have described the procedure of prediction about the
general states of countries and cities, it would remain to mention
matters of greater detail; I refer to events that happen yearly in
connection with the seasons. In the investigation of this subject it
would be appropriate first to define the socalled new moon of the
year. That this should properly be the beginning of the sun's
circular course in each of his revolutions is plain from the thing
itself, both from its power and from its name. To be sure, One could
not conceive what startingpoint to assume in a circle, as a general
proposition; but in the circle through the middle of the zodiac one
would properly take as the only beginnings the points determined by
the equator and the tropics, that is, the two equinoxcs and the two
solstices. Even then, however, One would still be at a loss which of
the four to prefer. Indeed, in a circle, absolutely considered, no
One of them takes the lead, as would be the case if there were One
startingpoint, but those who have written on these matters have made
use of each of the four, in various ways assuming same one as the
startingpoint, as they were led by their own arguments and by the
natural characteristics of the four points. This is not strange, for
each of these parts has same special claim to being reasonably
considered the startingpoint and the new real. The spring equinox
might be preferred because first at that time the day begins to be
longer than the night and because it belongs to the moist season, and
this element, as we said before, is chiefly present at the beginning
of nativities; the summer solstice because the longest day occurs at
that time and because to the Egyptians it signifies the flooding of
the Nile and the rising of the dog star; the fall equinox because all
the crops have by then been harvested, and a fresh start is then made
with the sowing of the seed of future crops; and the winter solstice
because then, after diminishing, the day first begins to lengthen. It
seems more proper and natural to me, however, to employ the four
starting-points for investigations which deal with the year,
observing the syzygies of the sun and moon at new and full moon which
most nearly precede them, and among these in particular the.
conjunctions at which eclipses take place, so that from the
startingpoint in Aries we may conjecture what the spring will be
like, from that in Cancer the summer, from that in Libra the autumn,
and from that in Capricorn the winter. For the sun creates the
general qualities and conditions of the seasons, by means of which
even those who are totally ignorant of astrology can foretell the
future.
Furthermore, we must take into consideration the special qualities of
the signs of the zodiac to obtain prognostications of the winds and
of the more general natures; and the variations of degree from time
to time are in general again shown by the conjunctions which take
place at the aforesaid points and by the aspects of the planets to
them, and in particular also by the conjunctions and full moons in
the several signs and by the course of the planets. This might be
called monthly investigation.
As it is proper that for this purpose there be enurnerated the
peculiar natural powers of the several signs to influence annual
conditions, as well as those of the several planets, we have already,
in what precedes, explained the familiarity of the planets, and of
the fixed stars of like temperament, with the air and the winds, as
well as that of the signs, as wholes, with the winds and seasons.
It would remain to speak of the nature of the signs, part by part.
11. Of the Nature of the Signs, Part by Part, and their Effect upon the Weather.
Now the sign of Aries as a whole, because it marks the equinox, is
characterized by thunder or hail, but, taken part by part, through
the variation in degree that is due to the special quality of the
fixed stars, its leading portion is rainy and windy, its middle
temperate, and the following part hot and pestilential. Its northern
parts are hot and destructive, its southern frosty and chilly.
The sign of Taurus as a whole is indicative of both temperatures and
is somewhat hot; but taken part by part, its leading portion,
particularly near the Pleiades, is marked by earthquakes, winds, and
mists; its middle moist and cola, and its following portion, near
the Hyades, fiery and productive of thunder and lightning. Its
northern parts are temperate, its southern unstable and irregular.
The sign of Gemini as a whole is productive of an equable temperature,
but taken part by part its leading portion is wet and destructive,
its middle temperate, and its following portion mixed and irregular.
Its northern parts are windy and cause earthquakes; its southern
parts dry and parching.
The sign of Cancer as a whole is one of fair, warm weather; but, part
by part, its leading portion and the region of Praesepe is stifling,
productive of earthquakes, and misty; its middle temperate, and its,
following parts windy. Its northern and southern parts are fiery and
parching.
The sign of Leo as a whole is hot and stifling; but, part by part,
its leading portion is stifling and pestilential, its middle part
temperate, and its following portion wet and destructive. Its
northern parts are unstable and fiery, its southern parts moist.
The sign of Virgo as a whole is moist and marked by thunder-storms;
but, taken part by part, its leading portion is rather warm and
destructive, its middle temperate, and its following part watery. Its
northern parts are windy and its southern parts temperate.
The sign of Libra as a whole is changeable and variable; but, taken
part by part, its leading and middle portions are temperate and its
following portion watery. Its northern parts are windy and its
southern moist and pestilential.
The sign of Scorpio as a whole is marked by thunder and fire, but,
taken part by part, its leading portion is snowy, its middle
temperate, and its following portion causes earthquakes. Its northern
parts are hot and its southern moist.
The sign of Sagittarius as a whole is windy; but, taken part by part,
its leading portion is wet, its middle temperate, and its following
part fiery. Its northern parts are windy, its southern moist and
changeable.
The sign of Capricorn as a whole is moist; but, taken part by part,
its leading portion is marked by hot weather and is destructive, its
middle temperate, and its following part raises rain-storms. Its
northern and southern portions are wet and destructive.
The sign of Aquarius as a whole is cold and watery ; but, taken part
by part, its leading portion is moist, its middle temperate, its
following part windy. Its northern portion brings hot weather and its
southern clouds.
The sign of Pisces as a whole is cold and windy ; but, taken part by
part, its leading portion is temperate, its middle moist, and its
following portion hot. Its northern parts are windy and its southern
watery.
12. Of the Investigation of Weather in Detail.
Now that these facts have been stated in introduction, the method of
dealing with the significations in detail involves the following
procedure. For One method is that which is more generally conceived,
with relation to the quarters, which will demand, as we have said,
that we observe the new moons or full moons which most nearly precede
the solstitial and equinoctial signs, and that, as the degree of the
new moon or of the full moon may fall in each latitude investigated,
we dispose the angles as in a nativity. It will then be neccssary to
determine the rulers of the place of the new moon or full moon and of
the angle that follows it, after the fashion explained by us in the
preceding sections dealing with eclipses, and thus to judge of the
general situation from the special nature of the quarters, and
determine the question of degree of intensification and relaxation
from the nature of the ruling planets, their qualities, and the kinds
of weather which they produce.
The second mode of procedure is based on the month. In this it will
be necessary for us to examine in the same way the new moons or full
moons that take place, in the several signs, observing only this,
that, if a new moon occurs nearest to the solstitial or equinoctial
sign just past, we should use the new moons which take place as far
as the next quadrant, and in the case of a full moon the full moons.
It will be needful similarly that we observe the angles and the
rulers of both the places, and especially the nearest appearances of
the planets, and their applications and recessions, the peculiar
properties of the planets and of their places, and the winds which
are aroused both by the planets themselves and by the parts of the
signe in which they chance to be; still further, to what wind the
latitude of the moon is inclined through the obliquity of the
ecliptic. From all these facts, by means of the principle of
prevalence, we may predict the general conditions of weather and the
winds of the months.
The third step is to observe the even more minutely detailed
indications of relaxation and intensification. This observation is
based upon the configurations of the sun and the moon successively,
not merely the new moons and full moons, but also the half moons, in
which case the change signified generally has its beginning three
days before, and sometimes three days after, the moon's progress
matches that of the sun. It is based also upon their aspects to the
planets, when they are at each of the positions of this kind, or
likewise others, such as trine and sextile. For it is in accordance
with the nature of these that the special quality of the change is
apprehended, in harmony with the natural affinities of the attending
planets and of the signs of the zodiac for the ambient and the winds.
The day by day intensifications of these particular qualities are
brought about chiefly when the more brilliant and powerful of the
fixed stars make appearances, matutine or vespertine, at rising or
setting, with respect to the sun. For ordinarily they modulate the
particular conditions to accord with their own natures, and none the
less too when the luminaries are passing over One of the angles.
For the hour by hour intensifications and relaxations of the weather
vary in response to such positions of the stars as these, in the
same way that the ebb and flow of the tide respond to the phases of
the moon, and the changes in the air-currents are brought about
especially at such appearances of the luminaries at the angles, in
the direction of those winds towards which the latitude of the moon
is found to be inclining. In every case, however, One should draw his
conclusions on the principle that the universal and primary
underlying cause takes precedence and that the cause of particular
events is secondary to it, and that the force is most ensured and
strengthened when the stars which are the lords of the universal
natures are configurated with the particular causes.
13. Of the Significance of Atmospheric Signs.
Observations of the signs that are to be seen around the sun, moon,
and planets would also be useful for a foreknowledge of the
particular events signified.
We must, then, observe the sun at rising to determine the weather by
day and at setting for the weather at night, and its aspects to the
moon for weather conditions of longer extent, on the assumption that
each aspect, in general, foretells the condition up to the next. For
when the sun rises or sets clear, unobscured, steady, and unclouded,
it signifies fair weather; but if its disk is variegated or reddish
or sends out ruddy rays, either directly outward or turned back upon
itself, or if it has the so-called parheliac clouds on one side, or
yellowish formations of clouds, and as it were emits long rays, it
indicates heavy winds and such as come from the angles to which the
aforesaid signs point. If at rising or setting it is dark or livid,
being accompanied by clouds, or if it has halos about it on one side,
or the parheliac clouds on both sides, and gives forth either livid
or dusky rays, it signifies storms and rain.
We must observe the moon in its course three days before or three
days after new moon, full moon, and the quarters. For when it appears
thin and clear and has nothing around it, it signifies clear weather.
If it is thin and red, and the whole disk of the unlighted portion
is visible and somewhat disturbed, it indicates winds, in that
direction in which it is particularly inclined. If it is observed to
be dark, or pale, and thick, it signifies storms and rains.
We must also observe the halos around the moon. For if there is one,
and this is clear, and gradually fading, it signifies fair weather;
if there are two or three, storms; if they are yellowish, and broken,
as it were, storms accompanied by heavy winds; if they are thick and
misty, snowstorms; pale, or dusky, and broken, storms with both
winds and snow; and the more of them there are the more severe the
storms. And the halos that gather ahout the stars, both the planets
and the brilliant fixed stars, signify what is appropriate to their
colours and to the natures of the luminaries which they surround.
As for the fixed stars which are close together in some number, we
must observe their colours and magnitudes. For if they appear
brighter and larger than usual, in whatever part of the sky they may
be, they indicate the winds that blow from their own region. As for
the clusters in the proper sense, however, such as Praesepe and the
like, whenever in a clear sky their clusters appear to be dim, and,
as it were, invisible, or thickened, they signify a downpour of
water, but if they are clear and constantly twinkle, heavy winds.
Whenever, of the stars called the Asses on each side of Praesepe,
the One to the north becomes invisible, it means that the north wind
will blow, and the One to the south, the south wind.
Of occasional phenomena in the upper atmosphere, comets generally
foretell droughts or winds, and the larger the number of parts that
are found in their heads and the greater their size, the more severe
the winds.
Rushing and shooting stars, if they come from one angle, denote the
wind from that direction, but if from opposite angles, a confusion of
winds, and if from all four angles, storms of all kinds, including
thunder, lightning, and the like. Similarly clouds resembling flocks
of wool are sometimes significant of storms. And the rainbows that
appear from time to time signify storms after clear weather and clear
weather after storms. To sum up the whole matter, the visible
phenomena, which appear with peculiar colours of their own in the
atmosphere in general, indicate results similar to those brought
about by their own proper occurrences, in the manner already
explained in the foregoing.
Let us, then, consider that thus far, in outline, there has been
given an account of the investigation of general questions, both
in their more universal aspects and in particular detail. In the
following we shall supply in due order the procedure for the
prediction which follows the genethlialogical form.
BOOK III.
1. Introduction.
As in what precedes we have presented the theory of universal
events, because this comes first and for the most part has power to
control the predictions which concern the special nature of any
individual, the prognostic part of which we call the
genethlialogical art, we must believe that the two divisions have
One and the same power both practicaUy and theoretically. For the
cause both of universal and of particular events is the motion of
the planets, sun, and moon; and the prognostic art is the scientific
observation of precisely the change in the subject natures which
corresponds to parallel movements of the heavenly bodies through the
surrounding heavens, except that universal conditions are greater
and independent, and particular Ones not similarly so. We must not,
however, consider that both divisions employ the same starting
points, from which, hy reckoning the disposition of the heavenly
bodies, we attempt to foretell the events signified hy their aspects
at that time. On the contrary, in the case of the universals we have
to take many starting points, since we have no single one for the
universe ; and these too are not always taken from the subjects
themselves, but also from the elements that attend them and carry
with them the causes; for we investigate practically all the
starting-points presented by the more complete eclipses and the
significant passages of the planets. In predictions affecting
individual men, however, we have both one and many starting-points.
The one is the beginning of the temperament itself, for this we have;
and the many are the successive significances of the ambients which
are relative to this first beginning, though to be sure the single
starting-point is naturally in this case of greatest importance
because it produces the others. As this is so, the general
characteristics of the temperament are determined from the first
startingpoint, while by means of the others we predict events that
will come about at specific times and vary in degree, following
the socalled ages of life.
Since the chronological starting-point of human nativities is
naturally the very time of conception, but potentially and
accidentally the moment of birth, in cases in which the very time of
conception is known either by chance or by observation, it is more
fitting that we should follow it in determining the special
nature of body and soul, examining the effective power of the
conflguration of the stars at that time. For to the seed is given
once and for all at the beginning such and such qualities by the
endowment of the ambient; and even though it may change as the body
subsequently grows, since by natural process it mingles with itself
in the process of growth only matter which is akin to itself, thus
it resembles even more closely the type of its initial quality.
But if they do not know the time of conception, which is usually the
case, we must follow the startingpoint furnished hy the moment of
birth and give to this our attention, for it too is of great
importance and falls abort of the former only in this respect that
by the former it is possible to have foreknowledge also of events
preceding birth. For if One should call the One "source" and the
other, as it were, "beginning," its importance in time, indeed, is
secondary, but it is equal or rather even more perfect in
potentiality, and with reasonable propriety would the former be
called the genesis of human seed and the latter the genesis of a man.
For the child at birth and his bodily form take on many additional
attributes which he did not have before, when he was in the womb,
those very Ones indeed which belong to human nature alone; and even
if it seems that the ambient at the time of birth contributes nothing
toward his quality, at least his very coming forth into the light
under the appropriate conformation of the heavens contributes,
since nature, after the child is perfectly formed, gives the impulse
to its birth under a configuration of similar type to that which
governed the child's formation in detail in the first place.
Accordingly one may with good reason believe that the position of
the stars at the time of birth is significant of things of this
sort, not, however, for the reason that it is causative in the full
sense, but that of necessity and by nature it bas potentially very
similar causative power.
Since it is our present purpose to treat of this division likewise
systematically on the basis of the discussion, introduced at the
beginning of this compendium, of the possibility of prediction of
this kind, we shall decline to present the ancient method of
prediction, which brings into comhination all or most of the stars,
because it is manifold and well-nigh infinite, if One wishes to
recount it with accuracy. Besides, it depends much more upon the
particular attempts of those who make their inquiries directly from
nature than of those who can theorize on the basis of the traditions;
and furthermore we shall omit it on account of the diffieulty in
using it and following it. Those very procedures through which each
kind of thing is apprehended by the practical method, and the active
influences of the stars, both special and general, we shall, as far
as possible, consistently and briefly, in accordance with natural
conjecture, set forth. Our preface shall be an account of the places
in the heavens to which reference is made when particular human
events are theoretically considered, a kind of mark at which One must
aim before proceeding further; to this we shall add a general
discussion of the active powers of the heavenly bodies that gain
kinship with these places by dominating them - the loosing of the
arrow, as it were; but the predicted result, summed up by the
combination of many elements applied to the underlying form, we shall
leave, as to a skilful archer, to the calculation of him who conducts
the investigation. First, then, we shall discuss in proper sequence
the general matters the consideration of which is accomplished
through the time of birth taken as the starting-point, for, as we
have said, this furnishes an explanation of all natural events, but,
if One is willing to take the additional trouble, by the same
reasoning the properties that fall at the time of conception will
also be of aid toward ascertaining the peculiar qualities that apply
directly to the combination.
2. Of the Degree of the Horoscopic Point.
Difficulty often arises with regard to the first and most important
fact, that is, the fraction of the hour of the birth; for in general
only observation by means of horoscopic astrolabes at the time of
birth can for scientific observers give the minute of the hour, while
practically all other horoscopic instruments on which the majority of
the more careful practitioners rely are frequently capable of error,
the solar instruments by the occasional shifting of their positions
or of their gnomons, and the water clocks by stoppages and
irregularities in the flow of the water from different causes and by
mere chance. It would therefore be necessary that an account first
be given how one might, by natural and consistent reasoning, discover
the degree of the zodiac which should be rising, given the degree of
the known hour nearest the event, which is discovered by the method
of ascensions. We must, then, take the syzygy most recently
preceding the birth, whether it be a new moon or a full
moon; and, likewise having ascertained the degree accurately, of both
the luminaries if it is a new moon, and if it is a full moon that of
the one of them that is above the earth, we must see what stars
rule it at the time of the birth. In general the mode of domination
is considered as falling under these live forms: when it is trine,
house, exaltation, term, and phase or aspect; that is, whenever the
place in question is related in One or several or all of these ways
to the star that is to be the ruler. If, then, we discover that One
star is familiar with the degree in all or most of these respects,
whatever degree this star by accurate reckoning occupies in the
sign through which it is passing, we shall judge that the
corresponding degree is rising at the time of the nativity in the
sign which is found to be closest by the method of ascensions. But if
we discover two or more corulers, we shall use the numher of degrees
shown by whichever of them is, at the time of birth, passing through
the degree that is closer to that which is rising according to the
ascensions. But if two or more are close in the numher of degrees,
we shall follow the One which is most nearly related to the centres
and the sect. If, however, the distance of the degree occupied hy the
ruler from that of the general horoscope is greater than its
distance from that of the corresponding mid-heaven, we shall use
this same number to constitute the midheaven and thereby establish
the other angles.
3. The Subdivision of the Science of Nativities.
After this preface, should any One simply for the sake of order
attempt to subdivide the whole field of genethlialogieal science, he
would find that, of all the natural and possible predictions, One
division concerns solely events preceding the birth, such as the
account of the parents; another deals with events both before and
after the birth, such as the account of brothers and sisters;
another, with events at the very time of the birth, a subject which
is no longer so unitary and simple; and finally that which treats of
post-natal matters, which is likewise more complex in its theoretical
development. Among the subjects contemporary with the birth into
which inquiry is made are those of sex, of twins or multiple births,
of monsters, and of children that cannot be reared. To those dealing
with post-natal events belong the account of the length of life, for
this is not attached to the account of children that cannot be reared;
second, that of the form of the body and that of bodily illnesses and
injuries; next, that of the quality of the mind and illnesses of the
mind; then that which concerns fortune, both in the matter of
possessions and in that of dignities; and after this the account of
the quality of action; then that of marriage and of the begetting of
children, and that of associations, agreements, and friends;
following comes the account of journeys, and finally that of the
quality of death, which is potentially akin to the inquiry about the
length of life, but in order is reasonably placed at the end of all
these subjects. We shall sketch each of these subjects briefly,
explaining, as we said before, together with the effective powers by
themselves, the actual procedure of investigation ; as for the
nonsense on which many waste their labour and of which not even a
plausible account can be given, this we shall dismiss in favour of
the primary natural causes. What, however, admits of prediction we
shall investigate, not by means of Lots and numbers of which no
reasonab]e explanation can be given, but merely through the science
of the aspects of the stars to the places with which they have
familiarity, in general terms, however, which are applicable to
absolutely all cases, that we may avoid the repetition involved in
the discussion of particular cases.
In the first place, we should examine that place of the zodiac which
is pertinent to the specific heading of the geniture which is subject
to query; for example, the mid-heaven, for the query about action, or
the place of the sun for the qucstion about the
father; then we must observe those planets which have the relation of
rulership to the place in question by the five ways aforesaid ; and
if one planet is lord in all these ways, we must assign to him the
rulership of that prediction; if two or three, we must assign it to
those which have the more claims. After this, to determine the
quality of the prediction, we must consider the natures of the
ruling planets themselves and of the signs in which are the planets
themse1ves, and the places familiar to them. For the magnitude of the
event we must examine their power and observe whether they are
active1y situated both in the cosmos itself and in the nativity, or
the reverse; for they are most effective when, with respect to the
cosmos, they are in their own or in familiar regions, and again when
they are rising and are increasing in their numbers; and, with
respect to the nativity, whenever they are passing through the
angles or signs that rise after them, and especially the principal of
these, by which I mean the signs ascendant and culminating. They are
weakest, with respect to the universe, when they are in places
belonging to others or those unrelated to them, and when they are
occidental or retreating in their course; and, with respect to the
nativity. when they are declining from the angles. For the time of
the predicted event in general we must observe whether they are
oriental or occidental to the sun and to the horoscope; for the
quadrants which precede each of them and those which are
diametrically opposite are oriental, and the others, which follow,
are occidental. Also we must observe whether they are at the angles
or in the succedent signs; for if they are oriental or at the angles
they are more effective at the beginning; if they are occidental
or in the succeeding signs they are slower to take action.
4. Of Parents.
The guiding style of the specific inquiry, to which we should adhere
throughout, runs after this fashion. We shall now, therefore, begin,
following the order just stated, with the account of parents, which
comes first. Now the sun and Saturn are by nature associated with the
person of the father and the moon and Venus with that of the mother,
and as these may he disposed with respect to each other and the other
stars, such must we suppose to be the affairs of the parents. Now the
question of their fortune and wealth must be investigated by means of
the attendance upon the luminaries; for when they are surrounded by
planets that can be of benefit and by planets of their own sect,
either in the same signe or in the next following, they signify that
the circumstances of the parents will be conspicuously brilliant,
particularly if morning stars attend the sun and evening stars the
moon, while the luminaries themselves are favourably placed in the
way already described. But if both Saturn and Venus, likewise, happen
to be in the orient and in their proper faces, or at the angles, we
must understand it to be a prediction of conspicuous happiness, in
accordance with what is proper and fitting for each parent. But, on
the other hand, if the luminaries are proceeding alone and without
attendants, they are indicative of low station and obscurity for the
parents, particularly whenever Venus or Saturn do not appeal in a
favourable position. If, however, they are attended, but not by
planets of the same sect, as when Mars rises close after the sun or
Saturn after the moon, or if they are attended by beneficent planets
which are in an unfavourable position and not of the same sect, we
must understand that a moderate station and changing fortunes in life
are predicted for them. And if the Lot of Fortune, of which we shall
make an explanation, is in agreement in the nativity with the planets
which in favourable position attend the sun or the moon, the children
will receive the patrimony intact; if, however, it is indisagreement
or opposition, and if no planet attends, or the maleficent planets
are in attendance, the estate of the parents will be useless to the
children and even harmful.
With regard to the length or the shortness of their life One must
inquire from the other configurations. For in the father's case, if
Jupiter or Venus is in any aspect whatever to the sun and to Saturn,
or if Saturn himself is in an harmonious aspect to the sun, either
conjunction, sextile, or trine, both being in power, we must
conjecture long life for the father; if they are weak, however, the
significance is not the same, though it does not indicate a abort
life. If, however, this condition is not present, but Mars overcomes
the sun or Saturn, or rises in succession to them, or when again
Saturn is not in accord with the sun but is either in quartile or in
opposition, if they are declining from the angles, they merely make
the fathers weak, but if they are at the angles
or rising after them, they make them short-lived or liable to injury:
short-lived when they are upon the first two angles, the orient and
the mid-heaven, and the succedent signs, and liable to injury or
disease when they are in the other two angles, the occident and lower
mid-heaven, or their succedent signs. For Mars, regarding the sun in
the way described, destroys the father suddenly or causes injuries to
his sight; if he thus regards Saturn he puts him in peril of death or
of chills and fever or of injury by cutting and cauterizing. Saturn
himself in an unfavourable aspect to the Still brings about the
father's death by disease and illnesses caused by gatherings of
humours.
In the case of the mother, if Jupiter is in any
aspect whatever to the moon and to Venus, or if Venus herself is
concordant with the moon, in sextile, trine, or conjunction, when
they are in power, they signify long life for the mother. If,
however, Mars regards the moon or Venus, rising after her or in
quartile or in opposition, or if Saturn similarly regards the moon by
herself, when they are diminishing or declining, again they merely
threaten with misfortune or sickness; but if they are increasing or
angular, they make the mothers short-lived or subject to injury.
They make them short-lived similarly when they are at the eastern
angles or the signs that rise after them, and liable to injury when
they are at the western angles. For when Mars in this way regards the
waxing moon, it brings about sudden death and injury of the eyesight
for the mothers; but if the moon is waning, death from abortions or
the like, and injury from cutting and cauterizing. If he regards
Venus, he causes death by fever, mysterious and obscure illnesses,
and sudden attacks of disease. Saturn regarding the moon causes death
and illnesses, when the moon is in the orient, by chills and fever;
when she is in the occident, by uterine ulcers and cancers.
We must take into consideration, also, with reference to the
particular kinds of injuries, diseases, or deaths, the special
characters of the signs in which are the planets which produce the
cause, with which we shall find more appropriate occasion to deal in
the discussion of the nativity itself, and furthermore we must
observe by day particularly the sun and Venus, and by night Saturn
and the moon.
For the rest, in carrying out these particular inquiries, it would be
fitting and consistent to set up the paternal or maternal place of
the sect as a horoscope and investigate the remaining topics as
though it were a nativity of the parents themselves, following the
procedure for the investigation of the general classifications, both
practical and casual, the headings of which will be set forth in the
following. However, both here and everywhere it is well to recall the
mode of mixture of the planets, and, if it happens that the planets
which rule the places under inquiry are not of one kind but
different, or bring about opposite effects, we should aim to discover
which ones have most claims, from the ways in which they happen to
exceed in power in a particular case, to the rulership of the
predieted events. This is in order that we may either guide our
inquiry by the natures of these planets, or, if the claims of more
than one are of equal weight, when the rulers are together, we may
successfully calculate the combined result of the mixture of their
different natures; but when they are separated; that we may assign to
each in turn at their proper times the events which belong to them,
first to the more oriental among them and then to the occidental. For
a planet must from the beginning have familiarity with the place
about which the inquiry is made, if it is going to exercise any
effect upon it, and in general, if this is not the case, a planet
which had no share whatsoever in the beginning can exert no great
influence; of the time of the occurrence of the event, however, the
original dominance is no longer the cause, but the distance of the
planet which dominates in any way from the sun and from the angles
of the universe.
5. Of Brothers and Sisters.
The preeeding may perhaps have made clear the topic of the parents.
As for that of brethren, if here too One examines only the general
subject and does not carry beyond the bounds of possibiIity his
inquiry as to the exact number and other particulars, it is more
naturally to be taken, when it is a question of blood-brethren alone,
from the culminating sign, the place of the mother, that is, that
which contains by day Venus and by night the moon; for in this sign
and that which succeeds it is the place of the children of the
mother, which should be the same as the place of the brethren of the
offspring. If, then, beneficent planets bear an aspect to this place,
we shall predict an abundance of brethren, basing our conjecture upon
the number of the planets and whether they are in signs of a simple
or of a bicofporcal form. But if the malevolent planets overcome them
or oppose them in opposition, they signify a dearth of brethren,
especially if they have the sun among them. If the opposition is at
the angles, and especially at the horoscope, in case Saturn is in the
ascendant, they are the first-born or the first to be reared; in case
it is Mars, there is a small number of brethren by reason of the
death of the others. If the planets which give brethren are in a
favourable mundane position, we must believe that the brethren
thereby given will be elegant and distinguished; if the reverse is
the case, humble and inconspicuous. But if the maleficent planets
overcome those that give brethren, or rise after them, the brethren
will also be short-lived; and the male planets in the mundane sense
will give males, the female females; again, those farther to the east
the first and those farther to the west the later-born. Besides this,
if the planets that give brethren are in harmonious aspect with the
planet that rule!! the place of brethren, they will make the given
brethren friendly, and will also make them live together, if they are
in harmonious aspect with the Lot of Fortune; but if they are in
disjunct signs or in opposition, they wiIl produce quarrelsome,
jealous, and for the most part, scheming brethren. Finally, if one
would busy himself with further inquiries about details concerning
individuals, he might in this case again make his conjecture by
taking the planet which gives brethren as the horoscope and dealing
with the rest as in a nativity.
6. Of Males and Females.
Now that the topic of brethren has been brought before our eyes in
suitable and natural fashion, the next step would be to begin the
discussion of matters directly concerned with the birth, and first to
treat of the reckoning of males and females. This is determined by no
simple theory based upon some one thing, but it depends upon the two
luminaries, the horoscope, and the stars which bear some relation to
them, particularly by their disposition at the time of conception,
but more generally also by that at the time of the birth. The whole
situation must be observed, whether the aforesaid three places and
the planets which rule them are either all or the most of them
masculine, to produce males, or feminine, to produce females, and to
produce females, and on this basis the decision must be made: We must
however distinguish the male and the female planets in the way set
forth by us in the tabular series in the beginning of this
compilation, from the nature of the signs in which they are, and from
the nature of the planets themselves, and furthermore from their
position with reference to the universe, since they become masculine
when they are in the east and feminine in the west; and besides, from
their relation to the sun, for again when they rise in the morning
they are made masculine, and feminine when they rise in the evening.
By means of all these criteria one must conjecture what planet
exercises preponderating control over the sex.
7. Of Twins.
Likewise with regard to the births of two or even more, it is fitting
to observe the same two places, that is, the two luminaries and the
horoscope. For such an event is apt to attend the intermixture
when either two or the three places cover bicorporeal signs, and
particularly when the same is true of the planets that rule them, or
when some are in bicorporeal signs, and some are disposed in pairs or
in larger groups. But when both the dominant places are in
bicorporeal signs and most of the planets are similarly configurated,
then it befalls that even more than tvo are conceived, for the number
is conjectured from the star that causes the peculiar property of the
number, and the sex from the aspects which the planets have with
respect to the sun and the moon and the horoscope for the production
of males or of females, in accordance with the ways stated above. But
whenever such an arrangement of the planets does not include the
horoscopic angle with the luminaries, but rather that of the
mid-heaven, mothers with such genitures generally conceive twins or
even more; and in particular, they give multiple birth, to three
males, by the geniture of the Kings, when Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars
are in bicorporeal signs and bear same aspect to the aforesaid
places; and to three females, by the geniture of the Graces, when
Venus and the moon, with Mercury made feminine, are so arranged; to
two males and One female, by the geniture of the Dioscuri, when
Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus are so ordered, and to two females and a
male, by the geniture of Demeter and Korê, when Venus, the moon, and
Mars are thus ordered. In these cases it generally happens that the
children are not completely developed and are born with certain bodily
marks, and again the governing places may bear certain unusual and
surprising marks by reason of the divine manifestation, as it were,
of such portents.
8. Of Monsters.
The subject of monsters is not foreign to the present inquiry; for,
in the first place, in such cases the luminaries are ,found to be as
far as possible removed from the horoscope or in no way related to
it, and the angles are separated by the maleficent planets. Whenever,
then, such a disposition is observed, for it frequently occurs in
humble and unlucky nativities, even though they are not the genitures
of monsters, One should at once look for the last preceding new or
full moon, and the lord of this and of the luminaries of the birth.
For if the places of the birth, of the moon, and of the horoscope,
all or the majority of them, happen to be unrelated to the place of
the preceding syzygy, it must be supposed that the child will be
nondescript. Now if, under such conditions, the luminaries are found
in four-footed or animal-shaped signs, and the two måleficent planets
are centred, the child will not even belong to the human race, but if
no beneficent planet witnesses to the luminaries, but the maleficent
planets do so, it will be completely savage, an animal with wild and
harmful nature; but if Jupiter or Venus witness, it will be one of
the kinds regarded as sacred, as for example dogs, cats, and the
like; if Mercury witnesses, one of those that are of use to man, such
as birds, swine, oxen, goats, and the like. If the luminaries are
found in signs of human form, but the other planets are disposed in
the same way, what is born will be, indeed, of the human race or to
be classed with humans, but monsters and nondescript in qualitative
character, and their qualities in this case too are to be observed
from the form of the signs in which the maleficent planets which
separate the luminaries or the angles happen to be. Now if even in
this case not one of the beneficent planets bears witness to any of
the places mentioned, the offspring are entirely irrational and in
the true sense of the word nondescript; but if Jupiter or Venus bears
witness, the type of monster will be honoured and seemly, such as is
usually the case with hermaphrodites or the so-called harpocratiacs,
and the like. If Mercury should bear witness, along with the
foregoing, this disposition produces prophets who also make money
thereby; but when alone, Mercury makes them toothless and deaf and
dumb, though otherwise elever and cunning.
9. Of Children that are not Reared.
As the account of children that are not reared is still lacking in
the discussion of matters related to the birth itseIf, it is fitting
to see that in One way this procedure. is connected with the inquiry
concerning length of life, for the question in each case is of the
same kind; but in another way they are distinct, because there is a
certain difference in the actual meaning of the inquiry. For the
question of length of life considers those who in general endure for
perceptible lengths of time, that is, not less than one circuit of
the sun, and such a space is properly understood to be a year; but
potentially also lesser periods than this, months and days and hours,
are perceptible lengths of time. But the inquiry concerning children
that are not reared refers to those who do not attain at all to
"time" thus defined, but perish in something less than "time" through
excess of the evil influence. For this reason the investigation of
the former question is more complex; but this is simpler. For it is
merely the case that if one of the luminaries is angular and one of
the maleficent planets is in conjunetion with it, or in opposition,
both in degrees and with equality of distance, while no beneficent
planet bears any aspect, and if the lord of the luminaries is found
in the places of the maleficent planets, the child that is born will
not be reared, but will at once come to its end. But if this comes
about without the equality of distance, but the shafts of the
maleficent planets succeed closely upon the places of the luminaries,
and there are two maleficent planets, and if they afflict either
one or both of the luminaries either by succeeding them or by
opposition, or if one afflicts one luminary and the other the other
in turn, or if one afflicts by opposition and the other by succeeding
the luminary, in this way too children are born that do not live; for
the number of afflictions dispels all that is favourable to length of
life because of the distance of the maleficent planet through its
succession. Mars especially afflicts the sun by succeeding it, and
Saturn the moon; but conversely in opposition or in superior position
Saturn afflicts the sun and Mars the moon, most of all if they occupy
as rulers the places of the luminaries or of the horoscope. But if
there chance to be two oppositions, when the luminaries are at the
angles and the maleficent planets are in an isosceles configuration,
then the infants are born dead or half-dead. And in such
circumstances, if the luminaries should chance to be removing from
conjunction with one of the beneficent planets, or are in some other
aspect to them, but nevertheless east their rays in the parts that
precede them, the child that is born will live a number of months or
days, or even hours, equal to the number of degrees between the
prorogator and the nearest rays of the maleficent planets, in
proportion to the greatness of the affliction and the power of the
planets ruling the cause. But if the rays of the malefieent planets
fall before the luminaries, and those of the beneficent behind them,
the child that has been exposed will be taken up and will live. And
again, if the maleficent planets overcome the beneficent ones that
bear an aspect upon the geniture, they will live to affliction and
subjection; but if the beneficent planets overcome, they will live
but as supposititious children of other parents; and if one of the
beneficent planets should either be rising or applying to the moon,
while one of the maleficent planets is setting, they will be reared
by their own parents. And the same methods of judgement are to be
used also in cases of multiple births. But if one of the planets that
two by two or in larger groups bear an aspect to the geniture is at
setting, the child will be born half-dead, or a mere lump of flesh,
and imperfect. But if the maleficent planets overcome them, the
infant born subject to this influence will not be reared or will not
survive.
10. Of Length of Life.
The consideration of the length of life takes the leading place among
inquiries about events following birth, for, as the ancient says, it
is ridiculous to attach particular predictions to one who, by the
constitution of the years of his life, will never attain at all to
the time of the predicted events. This doctrine is no simple matter,
nor unrelated to others, but in complex fashion derived from the
domination of the places of greatest authority. The method most
pleasing to us and, besides, in harmony with nature is the following.
For it depends entirely upon the determination of the prorogative
places and the stars that fule the prorogation, and upon the
determination of the destructive places or stars. Each of these is
determined in the following fashion :
In the first place we must consider those places prorogative in which
by all means the planet must be that is to receive the lordship of
the prorogation; namely, the twelfth part of the zodiac surrounding
the horoscope, from 5° ahove the actual horizon up to the 25° that
remains, which is rising in succession to the horizon; the part
sextile dexter to these thirty degrees, called the House of the Good
Daemon; the part in quartile, the mid-heaven; the part in trine,
called the House of the God; and the part opposite, the Occident.
Among these there are to be preferred, with reference to power of
domination, first those which are in the midheaven, then those in
the orient, then those in the sign succedent to the mid-heaven, then
those in the occident, then those in the sign rising before
mid-heaven; for the whole region below the earth must, as is
reasonable, be disregarded when a domination of such importance is
concerned, except only those parts which in the aseendant sign itself
are coming into the light. Of the part above the earth it is not
fitting to consider either the sign that is disjunct from the
ascendant, nor that which rose before it, called the House of the
Evil Daemon, because it injures the emanation from the stars in it to
the earth and is also declining, and the thick, misty exhalation from
the moisture of the earth creates such a turbidity and, as it were,
obscurity, that the stars do not appear in either their true colours
or magnitudes.
After this again we must take as prorogatives the four regions of
greatest authority, Still, moon, horoscope, the Lot of Fortune, and
the rulers of these regions.
Take as the Lot of Fortune always the amount of the number of
degrees, both by night and by day, which is the distance from the sun
to the moon, and which extends to an equal distance from the
horoscope in the order of the following signs, in order that,
whatever relation and aspect the sun bears to the horoscope, the moon
also may bear to the Lot of Fortune, and that it may be as it were a
lunar horoscope.
Of these, by day we must give first place to the sun, if it is in the
prorogative places; if not, to the moon; and if the moon is not so
placed, to the planet that has most relations of domination to the
sun, to the preceding conjunction, and to the horoscope; that is,
when, of the five methods of domination that exist, it has three to
one, or even more; but if this cannot be, then finally we give
preference to the horoscope. By night prefer the moon first, next the
Sun, next the planets having the greater number of relations of
domination to the moon, to the preceding full moon, and to the Lot of
Fortune; otherwise, finally, if the preceding syzygy was a new moon,
the horoscope, but if it was a full moon the Lot of Fortune. But if
both the luminaries or the ruler of the proper sect should be in the
prorogative places, we must take the one of the luminaries that is in
the place of greatest authority. And we should prefer the ruling
planet to both of the luminaries only when it both occupies a
position of greater authority and bears a relation of domination to
both the sects.
When the prorogator has been distinguished, we must still further
adopt two methods of prorogation. The one, that which follows the
order of the following signs, must be used only in the case of what
is called the projection of rays, when the prorogator is in the
orient, that is, between mid-heaven and the horoscope. We must use
not only the method that follows the order of following signs, but
also that which follows the order of leading signs, in the socalled
horimaea, when the prorogator is in places that decline from
mid-heaven.
This being the case, the destructive degrees in the prorogation that
follows the order of leading signs are only the degree of the western
horizon, because it causes the lord of life to vanish; and the
degrees of the planets that thus approach or bear witness merely take
away and add years to the sum of those as far as the setting of the
prorogator, and they do not destroy because they do not move toward
the prorogative place, but it moves toward them. The beneficent stars
add and the maleficent subtract. Mercury, again, is reckoned with the
group to which he bears an aspect. The number of the addition or
subtraction is calculated by means of the location in degrees in
each case. For the entire number of years is the same as the number
of hourly periods of each degree, hours of the day when it is day and
hours of the night when it is night; this must be our reckoning when
they are in the orient, and subtraction must be made in proportion to
their departure therefrom, until at their setting it becomes zero.
In the prorogation which follows the order of following signs, the
places of the maleficent planets, Saturn and Mars, destroy, whether
they are approaching bodily, or project their rays from any place
whatever in quartile or in opposition, and sometimes too in sextile,
upon the signs called "hearing" or "seeing" on grounds of equality of
power; and the sign that is quartile to the prorogative sign in the
order of following signs likewise destroys. And sometimes, also,
among the signs that ascend slowly the sextile aspect destroys, when
it is afflicted, and again among the signs that ascend rapidly the
trine. When the moon is the prorogator, the place of the sun also
destroys. For in a prorogation of this kind the approaches of planets
avail both to destroy and to preserve, since these are in the
direction of the prorogative place. However, it must not be thought
that these places always inevitably destroy, but only when they are
afflicted. For they are prevented both if they fall within the term
of a beneficent planet and if one of the beneficent planets projects
its ray from quartile, trine, or opposition either upon the
destructive degree itself or upon the parts that follow it, in the
case of Jupiter not more than 120, and in that of Venus not over 80;
also if, when both the prorogator and the approaching planet are
present bodily, the latitude of both is not the same. Thus when there
are two or more on each side, assisting and, vice versa, destroying,
we must consider which of them prevails, both by the number of those
that co-operate and by power; by number when one group is perceptibly
more numerous than the other, and with regard to power when some of
the assisting or of the destroying planets are in their own proper
places, and some are not, and particularly when some are rising and
others setting. For in general we must not admit any planet, either
to destroy or to aid, that is under the rays of the sun, except that
when the moon is prorogator the place of the sun itself is
destructive, when it is changed about by the presence of a maleficent
planet and is not released by any of the beneficent ones.
However, the number of years, determined by the distances between the
prorogative place and the destructive planet, ought not to be taken
simply or offhand, in accordance with the usual traditions, from the
times of ascension of each degree, except only when the eastern
horizon itself is the prorogator, or some one of the planets that are
rising in that region. For one method alone is available for him who
is considering this subject in a natural manner - to calculate after
how many equinoctial periods the place of the following body or
aspect comes to the place of the one preceding at the actual time of
birth, because the equinoctial periods pass evenly through both the
horizon and the mid-heaven, to both of which are referred the
proportions of spatial distances, and, as is reasonable, each one of
the periods has the value of one solar year. Whenever the prorogative
and preceding place is actually on the eastern horizon, we should
take the times of ascension of the degrees up to the meetingplace;
for after this number of equinoctial periode the destructive planet
comes to the place of the prorogator, that is, to the eastern horizon.
But when it is actually at the mid-heaven, we should take the
ascensions on the right sphere in which the segment in each case
passes mid-heaven; and when it is on the western horizon, the number
in which each of the degrees of the interval descends, that is, the
number in which those directly opposite them ascend. But if the
precedent place is not on these three limits but in the intervals
between them, in that case the times of the aforesaid ascensions,
descensions, or culminations will not carry the following places to
the places of the preceding, but the periods will be different. For
a place is similar and the same if it has the same position in the
same direction with reference both to the horizon and to the
meridian. This is most nearly true of those which lie upon one of
those semicircles which are described through the sections of the
meridian and the horizon, each of which at the same position makes
nearly the same temporal hour. Even as, if the revolution is upon the
aforesaid arcs, it reaches the same position with reference to both
the meridian and horizon, but makes the periods of the passage of the
zodiac unequal with respect to either, in the same way also at the
positions of the other distances it makes their passages in times
unequal to the former. We shall therefore adopt one method only, as
follows, whereby, whether the preceding place occupies the orient,
the mid-heaven, the occident, or any other position, the
proportionate number of equinoctial times that bring the following
place to it will be apprehended. For after we have first determined
the culminating degree of the zodiac and furthermore the degree of
the precedent and that of the subsequent, in the first place we shall
investigate the position of the precedent, how many ordinary hours it
is removed from the meridian, counting the ascensions that properly
intervene up to the very degree of mid-heaven, whether over or under
the earth, on the right sphere, and dividing them by the amount of
the horary periods of the precedent degree, diurnal if it is
above the earth and nocturnal if it is below. But since the sections
of the zodiac which are an equal number of ordinary hours removed
from the meridian lie upon one and the same of the aforesaid
semicircles, it will also be necessary to find after how many
equinoctial periods the subsequent section will be removed from the
same meridian by the same number of ordinary hours as the precedent.
When we have determined these, we shall inquire how many equinoctial
hours at its original position the degree of the subsequent was
removed from the degree at mid-heaven, again by means of ascensions
in the right sphere, and how many when it made the same number of
ordinary hours as the precedent, multiplying these into the number of
the horary periods of the degree of the subsequent; if again the
comparison of the ordinary hours relates to the mid-heaven above the
earth, multiplying into the number of diurnal hours, but if it
re1ates to that be1ow the earth, the number of nocturnal hours. And
taking the results from the difference of the two distances, we shall
have the number of years for which the inquiry was made.
To make this clearer, suppose that the precedent place is the
beginning of Aries, for example, and the subsequent the beginning of
Gemini, and the latitude that where the longest day is fourteen hours
long, and the horary magnitude of the beginning of Gemini is
approximately 17 equinoctial times. Assume first that the beginning
of Aries is rising, so that the beginning of Capricorn is at
mid-heaven, and let the beginning of Gemini be removed from the
mid-heaven above the earth 148 equinoctial times. Now since the
beginning of Aries is six ordinary hours removed from the diurnal
mid-heaven, multiplying these into the 17 equinoctial times, which
are the times of the horary magnitude of the beginning of Gemini,
since the distance of 148 times relates to the mid-heaven above the
earth, we shall have for this interval also 102 times. Hence, after
46 times, which is the difference, the subsequent place will pass to
the position of the precedent. These are very nearly the equinoctial
times of the ascension of Aries and Taurus. since it is assumed that
the prorogative sign is the horoscope.
Similarly, let the beginning of Aries be at midheaven, so that at
its original position the beginning of Gemini may be 58 equinoctial
times removed from the mid-heaven above the earth. Therefore, since
at its second position the beginning of Gemini should be at
mid-heaven, we shall have for the difference of the distances
precisely this amount of 58 times, in which again, because the
prorogative sign is at mid-heaven, Aries and Taurus page through the
meridian.
In the same way let the beginning of Aries be setting, so that the
beginning of Cancer may be at mid-heaven and the beginning of Gemini
may be removed from the mid-heaven above the earth in the direction
of the leading signe by 32 equinoctial periode. Since; then, again
the beginning of Aries is six ordinary hours removed from the
meridian in the direction of the occident, if we multiply this by 17
we shall have 102 times, which will be the distance of the beginning
of Gemini from the meridian when it sets. At its first position also
it was distant from the same point 32 times; hence it moved to the
occident in the 70 times of the difference, in which period also
Aries and Taurus descend and the opposite signs Libra and Scorpio
ascend.
Now let it be assumed that the beginning of Aries is not on any of
the angles, but removed, for example, three ordinary hours from the
meridian in the direction of the 'leading signs, so that the 18th
degree of Taurus is at mid-heaven, and in its first position the
beginning of Gemini is 13 equinoctial times removed from the
mid-heaven above the earth in the order of the following signs. If,
then, again we multiply 17 equinoetial times into the three hours,
the beginning of Gemini will at its second position be distant from
mid-heaven in the direction of the leading signs 51 equinoctial times,
and it will make in all 64 times. But it made 46 times by the same
procedure when the prorogative place was rising, 58 when it was in
mid-heaven, and 70 when it was setting. Hence the number of
equinoctial times at the position between mid-heaven and the occident
differs from each of the others. For it is 64, and the difference is
proportional to the excess of three hours, since this was 12
equinoctial times in the case of the other quadrants at the centres,
but 6 equinoetial times in the case of the distance of three hours.
And inasmuch as in all cases approximately the same proportion is
observed, it will be possible to use the method in this simpler way.
For again, when the precedent degree is at rising, we shall employ
the ascensions up to the subsequent; if it is at mid-heaven, the
degrees on the right sphere; and if it is setting, the descensions.
But when it is between these points, for example, at the aforesaid
interval from Aries,. we shall take first the equinoctial times
corresponding to each of the surrounding angles, and we shall find,
since the beginning of Aries was assumed to be beyond the mid-heaven
above the earth, between mid-heaven and the occident, that the
corresponding equinoctial times up to the first of Gemini from
mid-heaven are 58 and from the occident 70. Next let us ascertain, as
was set forth above, how many ordinary hours the precedent section is
removed from either of the angles, and whatever fraction they may be
of the six ordinary hours of the quadrant, that fraction of the
difference between both sums we shall add to or subtract from the
angle with which comparison is made. For example, since the
difference between the above mentioned 70 and 58 is 12 times, and it
was assumed that the precedent place was removed by an equal number
of ordinary hours, three, from each of the angles, which are one half
of the six hours, then taking also one-half of the 12 equinoetial
times and either adding them to the 58 or subtracting them from
the 70, we shall find the result to be 64 times. But if it was
removed two ordinary hours from either one of the angles, which are
one-third of the six hours, again we shall take one-third of the 12
times of the excess, that is, 4, and if the removal by two hours had
been assumed to be from the mid-heaven, we would have added them to
the 58 times, but if it was measured from the occident we would have
subtracted them from 70.
The method of ascertaining the amount of the temporal intervals ought
in this way consistently to be followed. For the rest, we shall
determine in each of the aforesaid cases of approach or setting, in
the order of those that ascend more rapidly, those which are
destructive, climacteric, or otherwise transitional, according as
the meeting is afflicted or assisted in the way we have already
explained, and by means of the particular significance of the
predictions made from the temporal ingresses of the meeting. For when
at the same time the places are afflicted and the transit of the
stars relative to the ingress of the years of life afflicts the
governing places, we must understand that death is definitely
signified; if one of them is benignant, great and dangerous crises;
if both are benignant, only sluggishness, injuries, or transitory
disasters. In these matters the special quality is ascertained from
the familiarity of the occurrent places with the circumstances of the
nativity. Sometimes, when it is doubtful which ought to take over the
destroying power, there is nothing to prevent our calculating the
occourses of each and then either following, in predicting the
future, the occourses which most agree with past events, or observing
them all, as having equal power, determining as before the question
of their degree.
11. Of Bodily Form and Temperament.
Now that the procedure in the matter of the length of life has been
explained, we Break about the form and character of the body,
beginning the detailed discussion in the proper order, inasmuch as
naturally, too, the bodily parts are formed prior to the soul; for
the body, because it is more material, carries almost from birth the
outward appearances of its idiosyncrasies, while the soul shows forth
the characters conferred upon it by the first cause only afterwards
and little by little, and external accidental qualities come about
still later in time.
We must, then, in general observe the eastern horizon and the planets
that are upon it or assume its rulership in the way already
explained; and in particular also the moon as well; for it is through
the formative power of these two places and of their rulers and
through the mixture of the two kinds, and furthermore through the
forms of the fixed stars that are rising at the same time, that the
conformation of the body is ascertained; the ruling planets have most
power in this matter and the special characters of their places aid
them.
The detailed account, then, as one might report it in simple terms,
is this: First, among the planets, Saturn, if he is in the orient,
makes his subjects in appearance dark-skinned, robust, black-haired,
curly-haired, hairy-chested, with eyes of moderate size, of middling
stature, and in temperament having an excess of the moist and cold.
If Saturn is setting, in appearance he makes them dark, slender,
small, straight-haired, with little hair on the body, rather
graceful, and black-eyed; in temperament, sharing most in the cold
and dry.
Jupiter, as the ruler of the aforesaid regions, when
he is rising, makes his subjects in appearance light of skin, but in
such a way as to have a good colour, with moderately curling hair and
large eyes, tall, and commanding respect; in temperament they exceed
in the hot and the moist. When Jupiter is setting, he makes his
subjects light, to be sure, but not as befare, in such a way as to
give them a good colour, and with lank hair or even bald in front and
on the crown, and of average stature; in temperament they have an
excess of the moist.
Similarly, Mars, when rising, makes his subjects in appearance red
and white of complexion, tall and robust, gray-eyed, with thick hair,
somewhat curly, and in temperament showing an excess of the warm and
dry. When he is setting, he makes them in appearance simply ruddy, of
middle height, with small eyes, not much hair on the body, and
straight yellow hair; their temperament exceeds in the dry.
Venus has effects similar to Jupiter's, but is apt to make her
subjects more shapely, graceful, womanish, effeminate in figure,
plump, and luxurious. On her own proper account she makes the eyes
bright as well as beautiful.
Mercury, in the orient, makes his subjects in appearance sallow, of
moderate height, graceful, with small eyes and moderately curling
hair; in temperament, showing an excess of the warm. In the occident
he makes them, in appearance, of light but not of good colouring,
with straight hair and olive complexion, lean and spare, with
glancing, brilliant eyes, and somewhat ruddy; in temperament they
exceed in the dry.
The luminaries assist each of these when they bear an aspect to them,
the sun tending to a more impressive and robust effect, and the moon,
especially when she is separating from the planets, in general
tending toward better proportion and greater slenderness, and toward
a more moist temperament; but in particular cases her effect is
proportioned to the special quality of her illumination, in
accordance with the system of internixture explained in the beginning
of the treatise.
Again, generally, when the planets are morning stars and make an
appearance, they make the body large; at their first station,
powerful and muscular; when they are moving forward, not
well-proportioned; at their second station, rather weak; and at
setting, entirely without repute but able to bear hardship and
oppression.
Likewise their places, as we have said, take an important part in the
formation of the bodily characters and temperaments. In general
terms, once more, the quadrant from the spring equinox to the summer
solstice makes the subjects well-favoured in complexion, stature,
robustness, and eyes., and exceeding in the moist and warm. The
quadrant from the summer solstice to the autumn equinox produces
individuals with moderately good complexion and moderate height,
robust, with large eyes and thick and curly hair, exceeding in the
warm and dry. The quadrant from the autumn equinox to the winter
solstice makes them sallow, spare, slender, sickly, with moderately
curling hair and good eyes, exceeding in the dry and cold. The
quadrant from the winter solstice to the spring equinox produces
individuals of dark complexion, moderate height, straight hair, with
little hair on their bodies, somewhat graceful, and exceeding in the
cold and moist.
In particular, the constellations both within and outside of the
zodiac which are of human shape produce bodies which are harmonious
of movement and well-proportioned; those however which are of other
than human shape modify the bodily proportions to correspond to their
own peculiarities, and after a fashion make the corresponding parts
like their own, larger and smaller, or stronger and weaker, or more
and less gracefull. For example, Leo, Virgo, and Sagittarius make
them larger; others, as Pisces, Cancer, and Capricorn, smaller. And
again, as in the case of Aries, Taurus, and Leo, the upper and fore
parts make them more robust and the lower and hind parts weaker.
Conversely the fore parts of Sagittarius, Scorpio, and Gemini cause
slenderness and the hind parts robustness. Similarly too Virgo,
Libra, and Sagittarius tend to make them wellproportioned and
graceful, while Scorpio, Pisces, and Taurus bring about awkwardness
and disproportion. So it is with the rest, and it is fitting that we
should observe and combine all these things and make a conjecture as
to the character which results from the mixture, with regard both to
the form and to the temperament of the body.
12. Of Bodily Injuries and Diseases.
Since the subject which comes next is that which treats of the
injuries and diseases of the body, we shall attach here in regular
order the method of investigation devised for this form of query. It
is as follows. In this case also, to gain a general comprehension, it
is necessary to look to the two angles of the horizon, that is, the
orient and the occident, and especially to the occident itself and
the sign preceding it, which is disjunct from the oriental angle.
We must also observe what aspect the maleficent planets bear to them.
For if they, one or both of them, are stationed against the ascending
degrees of the aforesaid places, either bodily on them or quartile or
in opposition to them, we must conclude that the subjects born will
suffer bodily injuries and disease, especially if either one or both
of the luminaries as well chance to he angular in the manner
described, or in opposition. For in that case not only if one of the
maleficent planets is rising after the luminaries, but even if it is
rising before them and is itself angular, it has power to produce one
of the aforesaid injuries or diseases of such kind as the places of
the horizon and of the signs may indicate, likewise what is indicated
by the natures of the afflicting and the afflicted planets, and
moreover by those that bear an aspect toward them. For the parts of
the individual signs of the zodiac which surround the afflicted
portion of the horizon will indicate the part of the body which the
portent will concern, and whether the part indicated can suffer an
injury or a disease or both, and the natures of the planets produce
the kinds and causes of the events that are to occur. For, of the
most important parts of the human hody, Saturn is lord of the right
ear, the spleen, the bladder, the phlegm, and the bones; Jupiter is
lord of touch, the lungs, arteries, and semen; Mars of the left ear,
kidneys, veins, and genitals; the sun of the sight, the brain, heart,
sinews and all the right-band parts; Venus of smell, the liver, and
the flesh; Mercury of speech and thought, the tongue, the bile, and
the buttocks ; the moon of taste and drinking, the stomach, belly,
womh, and all the left-band parts.
For the most part it is a general principle that injuries occur when
the significant maleficent planets are oriental, and diseases,
conversely, when they are setting. The reason for this is that these
two things are distinguished thus - an injury affects the subject
once for all and does not involve lasting pain, while disease bears
upon the patient either continuously or in sudden attacks.
For the purpose of ascertaining particulars, certain configurations
significant of injury or sickness have been specially observed, by
means of the events which generally accompany such positions of the
stars. For blindness in one eye is brought about when the moon by
itself is upon the aforesaid angles, or is in conjunction, or is
full, and when it is in another aspect that bears a relation to the
sun, but applies to one of the star clusters in the zodiac, as for
example to the cluster in Cancer, and to the Pleiades of Taurus, to
the arrow point of Sagittarius, to the sting of Scorpio, to the parts
of Leo around the Coma Berenices, or to the pitcher of Aquarius ;
and whenever Mars or Saturn moves toward the moon, when it is angular
and waning and they are rising, or again when they ascend before
the sun, being themselves angular. But if they are in aspect with
both luminaries at once, either in the same sign or in opposition, as
we said, morning stars with respect to the sun ,and evening stars
to the moon, they will affect both eyes; for Mars brings about
blindness from a blow, a thrust, iron, or burning; when he has
Mercury in aspect, in palaestras and gymnasiums or by felonious
attack. Saturn causes it by suffusion, cold, glaucoma, and the like.
Again if Venus is upon one of the aforesaid angles, particularly the
occident, if she is joined with Saturn or is in aspect with him or
has exchanged houses, and is inferior to Mars or has him in
opposition, the men who are born are sterile, and the women are
subject to miscarriages, premature births, or even to embryotomies,
particularly in Cancer, Virgo, and Capricorn. And if the moon at
rising applies to Mars, and if she also bears the same aspect to
Mercury that Saturn does, while Mars again is elevated above her or
is in opposition, the children born are eunuchs or hermaphrodites
or have no ducts and vents. Since this is so, when the sun also is in
aspect, if the luminaries and Venus are made masculine, the moon is
waning, and the maleficent planets are approaching in the succeeding
degrees, the males that are born will be deprived of their sexual
organs or injured therein, particularly in Aries, Leo, Scorpio,
Capricorn, and Aquarius, and the females will be childless and
sterile. Sometimes those who have such genitures continue not without
injury to the sight also; but those suffer impediment of speech,
lisp, or have difficulty in enunciation who have Saturn and Mercury
joined with the sun at the aforesaid angles, particularly if Mercury
is also setting and both bear some aspect to the moon. When Mars is
present with them he is generally apt to loosen the impediment to the
tongue, after the moon meets him. Again, if the luminaries, together
or in opposition, move toward the maleficent planets upon the
angles, or if the maleficent planets move toward the luminaries,
particularly when the moon is at the nodes or her bendings, or in the
injurious signs such as Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Scorpio, or Capricorn,
there come about deformations of the body such as hunchback,
crookedness, lameness, or paralysis, congenital if the maleficent
planets are joined with the luminaries, but if they are at the
mid-heaven points, elevated above the luminaries or in opposition one
to the other, the deformations will result from serious dangers, such
as falls from a height, the collapse of houses, or the attacks of
robbers or animals. If Mars prevails, the danger is from fire,
wounds, bilious attacks, or robberies; if it is Saturn, through
collapse of buildings, shipwreek, or spasms.
For the most part injuries come about when the moon is near the
solstitial or equinoetial signs, particularly at the spring equinox,
injuries by white leprosy; at the summer solstice, by lichens; at the
fall equinox, by leprosy; at the winter solstice, by moles and the
like. Diseases are likely to result when at the positions already
described the maleficent planets are in aspect, but in the opposite
sense, that is, evening stars with respect to the sun and morning
stars to the moon. For in general Saturn causes his subjeets to have
cold bellies, increases the phlegm, makes them rheumatic, meagre,
weak, jaundiced, and prone to dysentery, coughing, raising, colic,
and elephantiasis; the females he makes also subject to diseases of
the womb. Mars causes men to spit blood, makes them melancholy,
weakens their lungs, and causes the itch or scurvy; and furthermore
he causes them to be constantly irritated by cutting or cautery of
the secret parts because of fistulas, hæmorrhoids, or tumours, or
also burning ulcers, or eating sores ; he is apt to afflict women
furthermore with miscarriages, embryotomies, or corrosive diseases.
Of themselves, they also bring ahout the properties of disease in
agreement with the natures, which have been already discussed, of the
planets in aspect, as they relate to the parts of the body.
Mercury assists them chicfly to prolong the evil effects, when he is
allied with Saturn inclining toward cold and continually stirring
into activity rheumatisms and gatherings of fluid, particularly about
the chest, throat, and stomach. When he is allied with Mars he adds
his force to produce greater dryness, as in cases of ulcerous sore
eyes, eschars, abscesses, erysipelas, savage lichens or skin eruptions,
blaek bile, insanity, the sacred disease, or the like.
Certain qualities of disease are determined by changes among the
zodiacal signs which surround the aforesaid configurations on the two
angles. For in particular Cancer, Capricorn, and Pisces, and in
general the terrestrial and piscine signs, cause diseases involving
eating sores, lichens, scales, scrofula, fistulas, elephantiasis,
and the like. Sagittarius and Gemini are responsible for those that
come about with falling fits or epileptic seizures. And when the
planets are in the last degrees of the signs they cause diseases and
injuries especially in the extremities, through lesions or
rheumatism, from which elephantiasis and, in general, gout in the
feet and hands result. Since this is the case, if no beneficent
planet bears an aspect to the maleficent ones which furnish the
cause, or to the luminaries on the centres, the injuries and diseases
will be incurable and painful; so also, if they bear an aspect but
the maleficent planets are in power and overcome them. But if the
beneficent planets are themselves in the authoritative positions and
overcome the maleficent planets that bear the responsibility for the
evil, then the injuries are not disfiguring and do not entail
reproach and the diseases are moderate and yield to treatment, and
sometimes they may be easily cured, if the beneficent planets are
rising. For Jupiter generally causes the injuries to be concealed by
human aid through riches or honours, and the diseases to be
mitigated; and in company with Mercury he brings this about by drugs
and the aid of good physicians. And Venus contrives that through
pronouncements of the gods and oracles the blemishes shall be, in a
way, comely and attractive, and that the diseases shall be readily
moderated by divine healing; if however Saturn is by, the healing
will be accompanied by exhibition and confession of the disease,
and such like, but if Mercury is joined with her it will be with the
accrual of use and gain, through the injuries and diseases
themselves, to those that have them.
13: Of the Quality of the Soul.
The character, then, of the inquiry into bodily affections would be
of this sort. Of the qualities of the soul, those which concern the
reason and the mind are apprehended by means of the condition of
Mercury observed on the particular occasion; and the qualities of the
sensory and irrational part are discovered from the one of the
luminaries which is the more corporeal, that is, the moon, and from
the planets which. are configurated with her in her separations and
applications. But since the variety of the impulses of the soul is
great, it stands to reason that we would make such an inquiry in no
simple or offhand manner, but by means of many complicated
observations. For indeed the differences between the signs which
contain Mercury and the moon, or the planets that dominate them, can
contribute much to the character of the soul; so likewise do the
aspects to the sun and the angles shown by the planets that are
related to the class of qualities under consideration, and,
furthermore, that peculiar natural quality of each one of the planets
which relates to the movements of the soul. Of the signs of the
zodiac in general, then, the solstitial signs produce souls fitted
for deaIing with the people, fond of turbulence and political
activity, glory-seeking, moreover, and attentive to the gods, noble,
mobile, inquisitive, inventive, good at conjecture, and fitted for
astrology and divination. The bicorporeal signs make souls complex,
changeable, hard to apprehend, light, unstable, fickle, amorous,
versatile, fond of music, lazy, easily acquisitive, prone to change
their minds. The solid signs make them just, unaffected by flattery,
persistent, firm, intelligent, patient, industriens, stern,
selfcontrolled, tenacious of grudges, extortionate, contentious,
ambitious, factious, grasping, hard, inflexible.
Of configurations, positions in the orient and at the horoscope, and
in particular those which are in proper face, produce liberal,
simple, self-willed, strong, noble, keen, open souls. Morning
stations and culminations make them calculating, patient, of good
memory, firm, intelligent, magnanimous, accomplishing what they
desire, inflexible, robust, rough, not readily deceived, critical,
practical, prone to inflict Punishment, gifted with understanding.
Precessions and settings make them easily changed, unstable, weak,
unable to bear labour, emotional, humble, cowardly, deceitful,
bullying, dull, slowwitted, hard to arouse. Evening stations and
position at mid-heaven beneath the earth, and furthermore, in the
case of Mercury and Venus, by day evening settings and by night
morning settings, produce souls noble and wise, but with mediocre
memory, not painstaking nor fond of labour, but investigators of
hidden things and seekers after the unknown, as for example
magicians, adepts in the mysteries, meteorologists, makers of
instruments and machines, conjurors, astrologers, philosophers,
readers of omans, interpretere of dreams, and the like.
When, in addition, the governors of the soul, as we explained at the
beginning, are in their own or familiar houses or sects, they make
the characters of the soul open, unimpeded, spontaneous, and
effective, especially when the same planets rule the two places at
once, that is, when they are configurated to Mercury in any aspect
whatever, and hold the separation or application of the moon ; if
they are not so disposed, however, but are in places alien to them,
it renders the properties of their own natures obscure, indistinct,
imperfect, and ineffective with respect to the active quality of the
soul. The powers, however, of the nature of the planets that
dominate or overcome them are vigorous and injurious to the subjects.
Thus men who, by reason of the familiarity of the maleficent planets,
are unjust and evil, find their impulse to injure one another easy,
unimpeded, secure, and honourable, if those planets are in power; but
if they are overcome by planets of the opposite sect, the men are
lethargic, ineffective, and easily punished. And those again that
through the familiarity of the beneficent planets to the
aforesaid boundaries are good and just, if these planets are not
overcome, are themselves happy and bear a good repute for their
kindness to others, and, injured by none, continue to benefit from
their own justice; if, however, the good planets are dominated by
opposites, simply because of their gentleness, kindness, and
compassion, they suffer from contempt and reproach or even may easily
be wronged by most people.
This, then, is the general method of inquiry as to character. We shall
next briefly consider, in due order, the particular traits resulting
from the very nature of the planets, in this kind of domination,
until the theory of mixture has been treated in its most important
aspects.
If Saturn alone is ruler of the soul and dominates Mercury and the
moon, if he has a dignified position with reference to the universe
and the angles, he makes his subjects lovers of the body,
strongminded, deep thinkers, austere, of a single purpose,
laborious, dictatorial, ready to punish, lovers of property,
avaricious, violent, amassing treasure, and jealous; but if his
position is the opposite and without dignity, he makes them sordid,
petty, mean-spirited, indifferent, mean-minded, malignant, cowardly,
diffident, evil-speakers, solitary, tearful, shameless,
superstitious; fond of toil, unfeeling, devisers of plots against
their friends, gloomy, taking no care of the body.
Saturn, allied with Jupiter in the way described, again in dignified
positions, makes his subjects good, respectful to elders, sedate,
noble-minded, helpful, critical, fond of possessions, magnanimous,
generous, of good intentions, lovers of their friends, gentle, wise,
patient, philosophical; but in the opposite positions, he makes them
uncultured, mad, easily frightened, superstitious, frequenters of
shrines, public confessors of ailments, suspicious, hating their own
children, friendless, hiding within doors, without judgement,
faithless, knavishly foolish, venomous, hypocritical, ineffective,
unambitious, prone to change their minds, stern, hard to speak with
or to approach, cautious, but nevertheless foolish and submissive to
abuse.
Saturn, allied with Mars, in honourable positions makes his subjects
neither good nor bad, industrious, outspoken, nuisances, cowardly
braggarts, harsh in conduct, without pity, contemptuous, rough,
contentious, rash, disorderly, deceitful, layers of ambushes,
tenacious of anger, unmoved by pleading, courting the mob,
tyrannical, grasping, haters of the citizenry, fond of strife,
malignant, evil through and through, active, impatient, blustering,
vulgar, boastful, injurious, unjust, not to be despised, haters of
mankind, inflexible, unchangeable, busy-bodies, but at the same time
adroit and practical, not to be overborne by rivals, and in general
successful in achieving their ends. In the opposite positions he
makes his subjects robbers, pirates, adulterators, submissive to
disgraceful treatment, takers of base profits, godless, without
affection, insulting, crafty, thieves, perjurers, murderers, eaters
of forbidden foods, evildoers, homicides, poisoners, impious, robbers
of temples and of tombs, and utterly depraved.
Allied with Venus in honourable positions Saturn makes his subjects
haters of women, lovers of antiquity, solitary, unpleasant to meet,
unambitious, hating the beautiful, envious, stern in social
relations, not companionable, of fixed opinions, prophetic, given to
the practice of religions rites, lovers of mysteries and initiations,
performers of sacrificial rites, mystics, religions addicts, but
dignified and reverent; modest, philosophical, faithful in marriage,
self-controlled, calculating, cautious, quick to take offence, and
easily led by jealousy to be suspicious of their wives. In positions
of the opposite kind he makes them loose, lascivious, doers of base
acts, undiscriminating and unclean in sexual relations, impure,
deceivers of women and particularly their own kin, unsound,
censorious, depraved, hating the beautiful, fallit-findere,
evil-speakers, drunken, servile, adulterators, lawless in sexual
relations, both active and passive, both natural and unnatural,
and willing to seek them with those barred by age, station, or law,
or with animals, impious, contemptuous of the gods, deriding
mysteries and sacred rites, entirely faithless, slanderous,
poisoners, rogues who will stop at nothing.
Saturn, in familiarity with Mercury, in honourable positions makes
his subjects meddlers, inquisitive, inquirers into matters of law and
custom, fond of the art of medicine, mystics, partakers in concealed
and secret rites, miracle-workers, cheaters, living only for the day,
facile, able to direct business, shrewd, bitter, accurate, sober,
friendly, fond of practical affairs, capable of gaining their ends.
In dishonourable positions he makes them frivolous talkers,
malignant, with no pity in their souls, given to toil, hating their
own kin, fond of torment, gloomy, night-prowlers, layers of ambushes,
traitors, unsympathetic, thieves, magicians, poisoners, forgers,
unscrupulous, unfortunate, and usually unsuccessful.
If Jupiter alone has the domination of the soul, in honourable
positions he makes his subjects magnanimous, generous, god-fearing,
honourable, pleasureloving, kind, magnificent, liberal, just,
highminded, dignified, minding their own business, compassionate,
fond of discussion, beneficent, affectionate, with qualities of
leadership. If he chances to be in the opposite kind of position, he
makes their souls seem similar, to be sure, but with a difference in
the direction of greater humility, less conspicuousness, and poorer
judgement. For example, instead of magnanimity, he endows them with
prodigality; instead of reverence for the gods, with superstition;
instead of modesty, with cowardice; instead of dignity, with conceit;
instead of kindness, with foolish simplicity; instead of the love of
beauty, with love of pleasure; instead of high-mindedness, with
stupidity; instead of liberality, with indifference, and the like.
Jupiter allied with Mars in honourable positions makes his subjects
rough, pugnacious, military, managerial, restless, unruly, ardent,
reckless, practical, outspoken, critical, effective, contentious,
commanding, given to plotting, respectable, virile, fond of victory,
but magnanimous, ambitious, passionate, judicious, successful. In the
opposite position he makes then insolent, undiscriminating, savage,
implacable, seditious, contentious, stubborn, slanderous, conceited,
avaricious, rapacious, quickly changeable, light, readily changing
their minds, unstable, headstrong, untrustworthy, of poor judgement,
unfeeling, excitable, active, querulous, prodigal, gossipy, and in
all ways uneven and easily excited.
Jupiter, allied with Venus, in honourahle positions makes his
subjects pure, pleasure-loving, lovers of the beautiful, of children,
of spectacles, and of the domain of the Muses, singels, fond of those
who reared them, of good character, benefieent, compassionate,
guileless, religious, prone to athletic training, fond of
competition, wise, affectionate, charming in a dignified way,
magnanimous, fair, charitable, fond of learning, of good judgement,
moderate and decorous in matters of love, fond of their kinsfolk,
pious, just, ambitious, seekers after glory, and in general
gentlemanly. In the opposite positions he renders them luxurious,
soft-livers, effeminate, fond of the dance, womanly in spirit, lavish
in expenditure, evil in relations with women, erotic, lascivious,
lecherous, slanderous, adulterous, lovers of ornament, rather saft,
lazy, profligate, given to fault-finding, passionate, adorners of
their persons, womanly minded, infatuated by religious rites,
panderers, frequenters of the mysteries, trustworthy however and not
rascally, but gracious, easy of approach, and cheerful, and inclined
to liberality in misfortune.
Jupiter allied with Mercury in honourable positions makes his
subjects learned, fond of discussion, geometricians, mathematicians,
Facts, orators, gifted, sober, of good intellect, good in counsel,
statesmen, benefactors, managers, good natured, generous, lovers
of the mob, shrewd, successful, leaders, reverent, religious, skilful
in business, affectionate, lovers of their own kin, well brought up,
philosophical, dignified. In the opposite positions he makes them
simple, garrulous, prone to make mistakes, contemptible, fanatical,
religious enthusiasts, speakere of folly, inclined to bitterness,
pretenders to wisdom, fools, boasters, students, magicians, somewhat
deranged, but well informed, of good memory, teachers, and pure in
their desires.
Mars alone, given the domination of the soul, in an honourable
position makes his subjects noble, commanding, spirited, military,
versatile, powerful, venturesome, rash, unruly, indifferent,
stubborn, keen, headstrong, contemptuous, tyrannical, active, easily
angered, with the qualities of leadership. In a position of the
opposite kind he makes them savage, insolent, bloodthirsty, makers of
disturbances, spendthrifts, loud-mouthed, quick-fisted, impetuous,
drunken, rapacious, evil-doers, pitiless, unsettled, mad, haters of
their own kin, impious.
Allied with Venus, in honourable positions, Mars makes his subjects
pleasing, cheerful, friendly, softliving, happy, playful, artless,
graceful, fond of dancing, erotic, artistic, imitative,
pleasure-loving, able to secure -themselves property, masculine, and
given to misconduct in matters of love, but still successful,
circumspect, and sensible, difficult to convict and discreet,
furthermore passionate for both young men and young women,
spendthrifts, quicktempered, and jealous. In contrary positions he
makes them leering, lascivious, profligate, indifferent, slanderers,
adulterers, insolent, liars, deceivers, seducers of those both in
their own families and in those of others, at the same time keen and
insatiate of pleasure, corrupters of women and maidens, venturesome,
ardent, unruly, treacherous, perjurers, easily influenced and of
unsound mind, but sometimes likewise profligate, fond of adornment,
bold, disposed to base practices, and shameless.
Allied with Mercury, in honourable positions Mars makes his subjects
leaders of armies, skilful, vigorous, active, not to be despised,
resourceful, inventive, sophistic, painstaking, rascally, talkative,
pugnacious, tricky, unstable, systematic workers, practising evil
arts, keen-witted, deceitful, hypocritical, insidious, of bad
character, meddlers, inclined to rascality but nevertheless
successful and capable of keeping contract and faith with persons
like themselves, and in general injurious to their enemies and
helpful to their friends. In opposite positions he makes them
spendthrifts, avaricious, savage, venturesome, daring, prone to
change their minds, excitable, easily aroused, liars, thieves,
impious, perjurers, ready to take the offensive, seditious, kindlers
of fires, creators of disturbances in the theatre, insolent,
piratical, burglars, murderers, forgers, villains, wizards,
magicians, sorcerers, homicides.
If Venus alone takes the domination of the soul, in an honourable
position she makes her subjects pleasant, good, luxurious, eloquent,
neat, cheerful, fond of dancing, eager for beauty, haters of evil,
lovers of the arts, fond of spectacles, decorous, healthy, dreamers
of pleasant dreams, affectionate, beneficent, compassionate,
fastidious, easily conciliated, successful, and, in general,
charming. In the opposite position she makes them careless, erotic,
effeminate, womanish, timid, indifferent, depraved, censorious,
insignificant, meriting reproach.
Joined with Mercury, in honorable positions Venus makes them
artistic, philosophical, gifted with understanding, talented, poetic,
lovers of the muses, lovers of beauty, of worthy character,
seekers after enjoyment, luxurious, happy, fond of friends, pious,
sagacious, resourceful, intellectual, intelligent, successful, quick
to learn, self-taught, seekers after the best, imitators of beauty,
eloquent and pleasing in speech, commanding affection, of
well-ordered character, earnest, fond of athletics, upright, of good
judgement, magnanimous; in affairs of love, restrained in their
relations with women but more passionate for boys, and jealous. In
the contrary position she makes them pugnacious, resourceful,
evil-speakers, unstable, of bad intentions, deceivers, agitators,
liars, slanderers, perjurers, thorough rascals, plotters, faithless,
unreliable, adulterators, corrupters of women and children;
furthermore, adorners of their persons, rather effeminate, malicious
in censure and in gossip, garrulous, villains, sometimes feigning
such acts with a view to corruption and sometimes performing them in
earnest, lending themselves to base acts and performing them, and
subjected to all sorts of base treatment.
Mercury, by himself taking the domination of the soul, in an
honourable position makes those who are born under him wise, shrewd,
thoughtful, learned, inventive, experienced, good calculators,
inquirers into natur , speculative, gifted, emulous, beneficent,
prudent, good at conjecture, mathematicians, partakers in mysteries,
successful in attaining their ends. In the opposite position he makes
them utter rascals, precipitate, forgetful, impetuous, lightminded,
fickle, prone to change their minds, foolish rogues, witless, sinful,
liars, undiscriminating, unstable, undependable, avaricious, unjust,
and, in general, unsteady in judgement and inclined to evil deeds.
While the foregoing is true as stated, nevertheless the condition of
the moon itself also makes a certain contribution. For when the moon
happens to be at the bendings of its northern and southern limits, it
helps; with respect to the character of the soul, in the direction of
greater versatility, resourcefulness, and capacity for change; at the
nodes, in the direction of greater keenness, activity, and
excitability; again, at rising and in the increases of its
illumination,. towards greater natural endowments, renown, firmness,
and frankness; and in the waning of its illumination, or its
occultations, towards greater sluggishness and dullness, less
fixity of purpose, greater cautiousness, and less renown.
The sun also aids, when it is familiar with the planet that governs
the temperament of the soul, in an honourable position modifying it
in the direction of justice, success, honour, dignity, and reverence
for the gods, but in the contrary and alien position making it
humbler, more industrious, less conspicuous, more savage, more
obstinate, harsher, with a harder life, and in general less successful.
14. Of Diseases of the Soul.
Since the account of the principal diseases of the soul, in a sense,
follows upon that of the soul's characteristics, it is in general
needful to note and observe the positions of Mercury and the moon
relative to each other, to the angles, and to the planets whose
nature it is to do injury; for if, while they themselves are
unrelated to each other, or to the eastern horizon, they are
overcome, or surrounded, or held in opposition by unfamiliar stars in
injurious aspect, they cause the incidence of various diseases which
affect the soul's character. Their interpretation again is to be
calculated from the previously described qualities of the planets
which are familiar to the places in the sky.
Indeed, most of the more moderate diseases have,
in a way, already been distinguished in what has been
said about the character of the soul, and their increase can be
discerned from the excess of injurious influences; for one might now
with propriety call "diseases" those extremes of character which
either fall short of or exceed the mean. Those affections, however,
which are utterly disproportionate and as it were pathological, which
relate to the whole nature, and which concern both the intelligent
part of the soul and its passive part, are, in brief, to be discerned
as follows.
In most cases those are epileptic in whose genitures the moon and
Mercury are, as we said above, unrelated to each other or to the
eastern horizon, while Saturn by day or Mars by night is angular and
in the aspect previously described. They are violently insane when,
again under the same conditions, Saturn by night and Mars by day
rules the position, particularly in Cancer, Virgo, or Pisces. They
are afflicted by demons and have water on the brain when the
maleficent planets are in this position and control the moon in
phase, Saturn when she is at conjunction, Mars when she is full, and
particularly in Sagittarius and Pisces. When. the maleficent planets
are by themselves and rule the configuration in the manner stated,
the diseases of the rational part of the soul which we have mentioned
as being caused by them are, to be sure, incurable, but latent and
obscure. But if the beneficent planets Jupiter and Venus have some
familiarity to them when they are themselves in the western parts and
the beneficent planets are angular in the east, they make the
diseases curable, but noticeable; if it be Jupiter, curable by
medical treatments, a diet, or drugs; if Venus, by oracles and the
aid of the gods. When the maleficent planets themselves are angular
in the east and the beneficent planets are setting, the diseases
which they cause are both incurable, the subject of talk, and
conspicuous; in epilepsy they involve the victims in continuous
attacks, notoriety, and deadly peril; in madness and seizures, they
cause instability, alienation of friends, tearing off clothes,
abusive language, and the like; in demonic seizures, or water on the
brain, possession, confession, torments, and similar manifestations.
In detail, of the places that possess the configuration, those of the
sun and Mars aid in causing madness, those of Jupiter and Mercury,
epilepsy; those of Venus, divine possession and public confession;
and those of Saturn and the moon, gatherings of water and demonic
seizures.
The morbid perversion of the active part of the soul in its general
nature, therefore, is produced in some such forms as these and is
produced by these configurations of the planets. The corresponding
perversion of the passive portion, as in the former instance viewed
in its extreme cases, is most apparent in excesses and deficiencies
in matters of sex, male and female, as compared with what is natural,
and in inquiry is apprehended in the same fashion as before, though
the sun is taken, together with the moon, instead of Mercury, and the
relation to them of Mars, together with Venus, is observed. For when
these thus fall under observation, if the luminaries are unattended
in masculine signs, males exceed in the natural, and females exceed
in the unnatural quality, so as merely to increase the virility and
activity of the soul. But if likewise Mars or Venus as well, either
one or both of them, is made masculine, the males become addicted to
natural sexual intercourse, and are adulterous, insatiate, and ready
on every occasion for base and lawless acts of sexual passion, while
the females are lustful for unnatural congresses, east inviting
glances of the eye, and are what we call tribades; for they deal with
females and perform the functions of males. If Venus alone is
constituted in a masculine manner, they do these things secretly and
not openly. But if Mars likewise is so constituted, without reserve,
so that sometimes they even designate the women with whom they are on
such terms as their lawful "wives."
But on the other hand, when the luminaries in the aforesaid
configuration are unattended in feminine signs, the females exceed in
the natural, and the males in unnatural practice, with the result
that their souls become soft and effeminate. If Venus too is made
feminine, the women become depraved, adulterous, and lustful, with
the result that they may be dealt with in the natural manner on any
occasion and by any one soever, and so that they refuse absolutely
no sexual act, though it be base or unlawful. The men, on the
contrary, become effeminate and unsound with respect to unnatural
congresses and the functions of women, and are dealt with as pathics,
though privately and secretly. But if Mars also is constituted in a
feminine manner, their shamelessness is outright and frank and they
perform the aforesaid acts of either kind, assuming the guise of
common bawds who submit to general abuse and to every baseness until
they are stamped with the reproach and insult that attend such
usages. And the rising and morning positions of both Mars and Venus
have a contributory effect, to make them more virile and notorious,
while setting and evening positions increase femininity and
sedateness. Similarly, if Saturn is present, his influence joins with
each of the foregoing to produce more licentiousness, impurity, and
disgrace, while Jupiter aids in the direction of greater decorum,
restraint, and modesty, and Mercury tends to increase notoriety,
instability of the emotions, versatility, and foresight.
BOOK IV.
1. lntroduction.
The foregoing may be taken as what can be learned by investigation of
matters antecedent to the nativity and contemporary with it, together
with such of those posterior to the nativity as properly apply to the
constitution of the subject by disclosing the general quality of his
temperament. Among external accidentals, which should be treated next
in order, the discussion of the fortune of both riches and honour
comes first; and as material fortune is associated with the
properties of the body, so honour belongs to those of the soul.
2. Of Material Fortune..
V
V
V
What the subject's material acquisitions will be is to be gained from
the so-called "Lot of Fortune"; that one alone, however, to discover
which we measure from the horoscope the distance from the sun to the
moon, in both diurnal and nocturnal nativities, for the reasons which
we stated in the discussion of the length of life. As it is
constituted in this way, we shall be obliged therefore to take the
lordship of the sign, and observe what is the condition of these
planets with regard to power and familiarity, in the way which we
specified at the beginning. Further, we must consider the planets in
aspect with them, or those of their own or of the opposite sect that
overcome them. For when the planets which govern the Lot of Fortune
are in power, they make the subjects rich, particularly when they
chance to have the proper testimony of the luminaries; thus Saturn
brings riches through building, or agriculture, or shipping ventures,
Jupiter through fiduciary relationships, guardianships, or
priesthoods, Mars through military operations and command, Venus
through gifts from friends or women, and Mercury through eloquence
and trade. And in a special way, when Saturn is associated with
material fortune, if he is in aspect with Jupiter, he is the cause of
inheritances, particularly when this comes about upon the upper
angles and Jupiter is in a bicorporeal sign or holds the application
of the moon. For in that case they are adopted and inherit the
possessions of others; and if the planets of the same sect as the
ruling planets happen themselves to witness to the rulership, they
retain their possessions without loss; but if the planets of the
opposite sect overcome the governing places or rise after them, they
bring, about loss of possessions, and the general time is discovered
by means of the approach of the causative planets to the angles and
the succedent signs.
3. Of the Fortune of Dignity.
It will be needful to determine the questions of dignity and
happiness resulting therefrom from the position of the luminaries and
the familiarity to them of their attendant planets. For if both the
luminaries are in masculine signs and either both of them, or even
one of the two, angular, and particularly if the luminary of the sect
is also attended by the five planets, matutine to the sun and
vespertine to the moon, the children will be kings. And if the
attendant planets are either themselves angular or bear an aspect to
the superior angle, the children born will continue to be great,
powerful, and worldrulers, and they will be even more fortunate if
the attendant planets are in dexter aspect to the superior angles.
But if, while the others are in this position, the sun alone is in a
masculine sign, and the moon is in a feminine one, and one of the
luminaries is angular, they will merely be generals, with power of
life and death. If, however, besides this the attendant planets are
neither angular nor witnessing to the angles, they will be merely
great and will enjoy partial dignities, those which involve the
wearing of chaplets, or those of superintendence or of military
command, and not those of first rank. But if the luminaries are not
angular, and most of the attendant planets are either angular or in
aspect with the angles, they will not attain the more conspicuous
honours but rather civil leadership and moderate advancement in their
careers. If, however, the attendant planets are not associated
with the angles, they are rendered obscure in their actions and
without preferment, and they are entirely humble and miserable in
their fortunes when neither of the luminaries is angular, or in a
masculine sign, or attended by the beneficent planets. The general
outline, then, of the investigation before us involves a gradation of
dignities of this sort. Since there are very many conditions
intermediate between these grades, one must estimate them from the
specific qualities of the luminaries themselves, and the particular
variations in the manner in which they are attended, and the
government of the attendance. For if their attendance consists of
planets of the same sect, or of the beneficent planets, greater
independence and security will attend the dignities; but if it
involves the opposite sect, or the maleficent planets, there will be
dependency and less security. The kind of future honour is to be
divined from the quality of the attending planets; for if Saturn
governs the attendance, he brings about power based on wealth and the
amassing of riches, but Jupiter or Venus that which rests upon
favours, gifts, honours, and magnanimity ; Mars brings power founded
on generalships, victories, and the fears of subordinates, and
Mercury that which depends upon intelligence, education, and the
care and management of affairs.
4. 0f the Quality of Action,
The lord of action is apprehended by two methods, from the sun and
from the culminating sign. For it will be needful to look both for
the planet that has made its morning appearance closest to the sun,
and that which is at mid-heaven, particularly when it occupies the
application of the moon; and if the same star occupies both the
aforesaid positions, this alone must be employed, and similarly if
none occupies one of these places, we must use only the one which
occupies the other of the placcs. And if one planet has made the
nearest morning appearance and another is associated with the
mid-heaven, and with the moon, we must employ them both, giving
preference to the one which by reason of its strength has the greater
number of claims to domination according to the scheme which we have
already set forth. But if not one is found which either has made an
appearance or is at mid-heaven, we must take the lord of the latter
region, with reference however to the occasional pursuits of the
subject, for persons with such genitures are for the most part
inactive.
Thus, then, we shall determine the planet that governs action. The
quality of the action, however, is to be discerned from the character
of the three planets, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, and from that of the
signs through which they happen to be passing. For if Mercury governs
action, to speak generally, he makes his subjects scribes, men of
business, calculators, teachers, merchants, bankers, soothsayers,
astrologers, sacrificers, and in general those who perform their
functions by means of documents, interpretation, and giving and
taking. And if Saturn testifies to him, they will be managers of the
property of others, interpreters of dreams, or frequenters of temples
for the purpose of prophecies and inspiration. If is Jupiter that
witnesses, theywill be law-makers, orators, sophists, who enjoy
familiarity with great persons.
If Venus rules action, she makes her subjects persons whose
activities lie among the perfumes of flowers or of unguents, in wine,
colours, dyes, spices, or adornments, as, for example, sellers of
unguents, weavers of chaplets, innkeepers, wine-merchants, druggists,
weavers, dealers in spices, painters, dyers, sellers of clothing. And
if Saturn testifies to her, she makes them dealers in goods used for
pleasure or adornment, sorcerers, poisoners, panders, and those who
make their living from similar occupations. If Jupiter testifies,
they will be athletes, wearers of the wreath, persons deemed worthy
of honours, and men who derive advancement from women.
Mars, in aspect with the sun, makes his subjects those who use fire
in their crafts, such as cooks, moulders, cauterizers, smiths,
workers in mines; if he is not with the sun, those who work with iron,
such as shipbuilders, carpenters, farmers, quarrymen, stone-dressers,
jewellers, splitters of wood, and their subordinate workers. If
Saturn testifies to him, he produces seamen, drawers of water,
tunnelers, paintere, gamekeepers, cooks, embalmers. If Jupiter
testifies, he produccs soldiers, servants, publicans, innkeepers,
ferrymen, assistants at sacrifice.
Again, when two planets are found to rule action, if Mercury and
Venus take the rulership, they bring about action expressed by the
arts of the Muses, musical instruments, melodies, or poems, and
rhythm, particularly when they have exchanged places. For they
produce workers in the theatre, actors, dealers in slaves, makers of
musical instruments, members of the chorus, makers of strings,
painters, dancers, weavers, and wax-moulders. And again, if Saturn
testifies to them, he produces those in the aforesaid callings, as
well as dealers in feminine finery. If Jupiter testifies, he produces
lawyers, supervisors of counting houses, public officers, teachers of
children, leaders of the populace.
If Mercury and Mars together assume the lordship of action, they
produce sculptors, armourers, makers of sacred monuments, modellers,
wrestlers, physicians, surgeons, accusers, adulterers, evil-doers,
forgers. Ir Saturn testifies to them, they produce murderers,
sneak-thieves, burglars, pirates, cattlethieves, villains. If
Jupiter testifies, they produce men-at-arms, duellists, energetic,
clever persons, busybodies, who meddle in others affairs and thereby
gain their living.
But if Venus and Mars together dominate action, they produce dyers,
perfumers, workers in tin, lead, gold, and silver, farmers, dancers
inarmour, druggists, physicians who employ drugs in their treatments.
If Saturn testifies to them, they produce attendants of sacred
animals, those who bury men, mourners, pipers at funerals, fanatics,
who resort to wherever there are mysteries, laments, and bloody rites.
But if Jupiter testifies, frequenters of temples, interpreters of
omens, bearers of the sacred instruments, superVisors of women,
interpreters of marriages and matches, making their living by such
occupations, and at the same time devoted to pleasure, and
recklass.
Likewise the specific natures of the signs in which are the rulers of
action contribute to the variety of the action. For anthropomorphic
signs are of same assistance to all scientific pursuits or those
useful to man; the quadrupedal assist in those that concern mines,
commerce, building, and carpentry; the solstitial and equinoctial,
those that are interpretative, involve barter, or concern measuring,
agriculture, and religion; the terrestrial and aquatic, activities in
or with liquids, or those that are botanical, or concern
shipbuilding, and furthermore burial, or pickling, or salting.
In a special way, again, if the moon holds the place of action, and
is moving away from conjunction, together with Mercury, in Taurus,
Capricornus, and Cancer, she produces soothsayers, makers of
sacrifices, and adept s in lekanomancy ; in Sagittarius and Pisces
necromancers and those who can arouse daemons; in Virgo and Scorpio
magicians, astrologers, prophets, those who have second sight ; in
Libra, Aries, and Leo persons inspired by the gods, interpreters of
dreams, and exorcists.
So, then, the particular species of action will have to be
conjectured by such means, through combinations; its amplitude must
be discovered from the power of the dominating planets. For when they
are rising or angular the actions which they cause are independent,
but if they are setting or declining from the angles, subordinate;
when beneficent planets overcome them, great, glorious, profitable,
unerring, and gracious; but if maleficent planets overcome them,
mean, inglorious, profitless, and fallible. With Saturn in
opposition, they bring cold and mixtures of colours ; with Mars,
temerity and notoriety;' with both together, utter ruin of action. In
general the period of increase or diminution, again, is calculated by
means of the position, from time to time, of the planets responsible
for the effect relative to the eastern and western angles.
5. Of Marriage.
As the subject of marriage comes next in order to these matters, the
following is the method whereby the lawful association of man and wife
must be investigated. For men it is necessary to observe the position
of the moon in their genitures. For, in the first place, if she
chances to be in the eastern quadrants, she makes men marry young or
marry women younger than themselves; but if she is in the western
quadrants they marry late or marry older women. And if she is under
the rays of the sun and in aspect with Saturn, they do not marry at
all. Then again, if the moon is in a sign of a single figure, or is
applying to one of the planets, she makes them men of one marriage;
but if she is in a bicorporeal or multiform sign, or applies to
several planets in the same sign, she makes them marry more than
once. And if the planets to which she applies, either by propinquity,
or by testimony, are beneficent, the men get good wives; but if they
are maleficent planets, the opposite. If she applies to Saturn, he
makes the wives hardworking and stern ; Jupiter, dignified and good
managers; Mars, bold and unruly; Venus, cheerful, beautiful, and
charming; Mercury, intelligent and keen, Further, Venus with Jupiter,
Såturn, or Mercury makes them thrifty and affectionate to their
husbands and children, but with Mars, easily roused to wrath,
unstable, and unfeeling.
In the case of the wives one must observe the sun in their genitures;
for if he, again, chances to be in the eastern quadrants, he makes
those who have him in this position in their genitures either marry
young or marry men younger than themselves, but in the western
quadrants, he makes them marry late or marry husbands older than
themselves, And if the sun is in a sign of a single figure, or
applies to one of the oriental planets, he makes them marry but
once ; but, again, if he is in a bicorporeal or multiform sign, or in
aspect with several planets in the east, they marry more than once.
If Saturn is similarly in aspect with the sun, they marry sedate,
useful, industrious husbands; if Jupiter is in aspect, dignified and
magnanimous; Mars, men of action, lacking in affection, and unruly;
Venus, neat and handsome; Mercury, thrifty and practical; Venus with
Saturn, sluggish and rather weak in sexual relations; Venus with
Mars, ardent, impetuous, and adulterous; Venus with Mercury,
infatuated with boys. In this connection we mean by eastern
quadrants, in the case of the sun, the signs which precede the rising
sign of the zodiac, and those which precede the setting sign; with
reference to the moon, the signs from new and full moon to the
quarters; and by western quadrants the signs opposite these.
Marriages for the most part are lasting when in both the genitures
the luminaries happen to be in harmonious aspect, that is, in trine
or in sextile with one another, and particularly when this comes
about by exchange; and even more when the husband's moon is in such
aspect with the wife's sun. Divorces on slight pretexts and complete
alienations occur when the aforesaid positions of the luminaries are
in disjunct signs, or in opposition or in quartile. And if the
beneficent planets regard the luminaries when the latter are in
harmonious aspect, they keep the marriage pleasant, agreeable, and
profitable, but if the maleficent planets so regard the luminaries,
the marriage will be quarrelsome, unpleasant, and unprofitable.
Similarly, when the luminaries are in inharmonious positions, the
beneficent planets testifying to the luminaries do not completely
terminate the marriages, but bring about renewals and recollections,
which preserve kindness and affection; but the maleficent planets
cause divorces with abuse and violence. If Mercury alone is with
them, they are involved in notoriety and recriminations; and along
with Venus, in adultery, poisonings, and the like. Marriages which
come about in any other manner whatsoever must be judged by looking
to Venus, Mars, and Saturn. For if they are with the luminaries in
familiarity, we must decide that the marriages also will be domestic
and the relationship lawful. For the marriage relationship will
follow the relation which Venus holds to each of the planets mentioned,
toward Mars, that of persons of the same age, since they have their
exaltations in signs that are in trine to one another; toward Saturn.
that of the older person. since again they have their houses in signs
which are in trine to each other.
Therefore Venus. with Mars, produces merely amorous dispositions, but
if Mercury is present. notoriety also; in the common and familiar
signs, Capricorn and Pisces. unions with brethren or kindred. If in
the case of men Venus is with the moon. she makes them unite with two
sisters or kinsfolk. and if in the case of women Venus is with
Jupiter. with two brothers, or kinsfolk.
Again, if Venus happens to be with Saturn. she produces merely
pleasant and firm unions, but if Mercury is present. they are also
beneficial. But if Mars also is present the marriage will be
unstable. harmful and full of jealousy. And if she is in the same
aspect to them. she brings about marriages with equals in age; but if
she is further to the east than they, marriages with younger men or
women, and if she is further to the west, with older women or men.
But if Venus and Saturn are also in the common signs. that is, in
Capricorn or Libra, they portend marriages of kin. If the moon is
present with this aforesajd combination when it is at the horoscope
or at mid-heaven, she makes men wed their mothers, or with their
mother's sisters, or their stepmothers, and women wed their sons,
their brothers' sons, or their daughters' husbands. The sun,
particularly if the planets are setting, makes men wed their
daughters, daughters' sisters, or sons' wives, and the women wed
their fathers, fathers' brothers, or stepfathers. But if the
aforesaid aspects chance not to be composed of signs of the same
gender, but are in feminine places, thus they produce depraved
individuals, ready in every way for both active and passive
participation, and in same formations utterly obscene, as for
instance in the forward and hinder parts of Aries, the Hyades, and
the Pitcher, and the hind parts of Leo, and the face of Capricorn.
But if the configuration is angular, on the first two angles, the
eastern and mid-heaven, they make a complete display of their
abnormalities and bring them forward even in public places; on the
last two, that is, the western and northern, they produce spades
and eunuchs or sterile women and those without passages; if Mars is
present, men who have lost their genitals, or the so-called tribades.
In general we shall, in the case of men, investigate through Mars
what will be their disposition with respect to matters of love. For
if Mars is separated from Venus and Saturn, but has the testimony of
Jupiter, he produces men who are cleanly and decorous in love and who
aim only at its natural use. But if he is accompanied by Saturn
alone, he produces men cautious, hesitant, and frigid. If Venus and
Jupiter are in aspect with him, he will produce men easily roused and
passionate, who are, however, continent, hold themselves in check,
and avoid unseemliness. With Venus alone, or if Jupiter also is with
her, but Saturn is not present, he produces lustful, careless men,
who seek their pleasures from every quarter; and if one of the
planets is an evening and the other a morning star, men who have
relations with both males and females, but no more than moderately
inclined to either. But if both are evening stars, they will be
inclined toward the females alone, and if the signs of the zodiac are
feminine, they themselves will be pathics. If both are morning stars,
they will be infected only with love of boys, and if the signs of the
zodiac are masculine, with males of any age. If Venus is further to
the west, they will have to do with women of low degree, slaves, or
foreigners; if Mars is further west, with superiors, or married women,
or ladies of high station.
In the genitures of women one must examine Venus. For if Venus is in
aspect with Jupiter or likewise with Mercury, she makes them
temperate and pure in love. If Saturn is not present, but she is
associated with Mercury, she makes them easily aroused and full of
desire, but generally cautious, hesitant, and avoiding turpitude. But
if Venus is together with Mars only, or is in some aspect to him,
she makes them lustful and depraved and more heedless. If Jupiter too
is present with them, and if Mars is under the sun's rays, they have
commerce with slaves, men of lower classes, or foreigners; but if
Venus is in this position, they consort with men of superior rank, or
masters, playing the part of mistresses or adulteresses; if the
planets are made feminine by their places or aspects, they are
inclined only to take the passive part, but if the, planets are made
masculine they are so depeaved as actively to have commerce with
women. However, when Saturn is brought into association with the
aforesaid configurations, if he is himself made feminine, he is by
himself the cause of licentiousness, but if he is rising and is in a
masculine position, he makes them the objects of censure or lovers of
such; but combination with Jupiter, again, always gives a more seemly
appearance to these faults, and with Mercury makes them more
notorious and unsafe.
6. Of Children.
As the topic of children follows upon that of marriage, we shall have
to observe the planets that are in the mid-heaven or in aspect with
it or with its succedant, that is, the house of the Good Daemon, or,
in default of such planets, those connected with the diametrically
opposite places; and we must take the moon, Jupiter, and Venus to
portend the giving of children, the sun, Mars, and Saturn to indicate
few or no children. Mercury must be taken as common, with whichever
group of planets he chances to be in aspect, and to give children
when he is a morning star, and to take them away when he is an
evening star.
Now, the donative planets, when they are merely in such a position
and are by themselves, give single offspring, but if they are in
bicorporeal and feminine signs, and similarly if they are in the
fecund signs, such as Pisces, Scorpio, and Cancer, they give two or
even more. If they are of a masculine nature, because they are in
masculine signs or in aspect to the sun, they give male children;
but female, if they are of a feminine nature. If the maleficent
planets overcome them, or if they are found in sterile places, such
as Leo or Virgo, they give children, but for no good nor for any
length of time. When the sun and the maleficent planets govern the
aforesaid regions, if they are in masculine signs or in sterile
signs, and if they are not overcome by the beneficent planets, they
signify complete childlessness, but if they are in feminine or fecund
signs or have the testimony of the beneficent planets, they give
offspring, but it will suffer injury and be short-lived. If both the
sects bear some relation to the signs which signify the begetting of
children, there will be losses among the children given, either of
all of them or of a few, depending upon the superiority of the
planets of either sect that bear witness, whichever we find to be
more in number, or greater in power, because they are further to the
east, or are closer to the angles, or are superior, or are succedant.
If, then, the planets which rule the aforesaid signs are rising, and
are givers of children, if they are in their own places, they will
make famous and illustrious the children which are given; but if they
are setting and are in places belonging to the other sect, the
children will be humble and obscure. And if they are found to be in
harmony with the horoscope and with the Lot of Fortune. the children
will be dear to their parents, they will be attractive, and will
inherit their parents estates; if however they are disjunct or
opposed, they will be quarrelsome, trouble-makers, and injurious, and
will not succeed to their patrimony. And similarly, if also the
planets which give children are in harmonious aspect one to another,
the children which they give continue in brotherly affection and
mutual respect; but if they are disjunct or in opposition to one
another, the disposition of the children will he quarrelsome and
scheming. Particular details, again, one could conjecture by using in
each case as a horoscope the planet which gives children, and making
his investigation of the more important questions from the rest of
the configuration, as in a geniture.
7. Of Friends and Enemies.
With regard to friendly dispositions and the opposite, the deeper and
more lasting of which we call sympathies and hostilities, and the
lesser and occasional acquaintances and quarrels, our investigation
will follow this course. In inquiries regarding matters of importance
we must observe the places in both nativities which have the greatest
authority, that is, those of the sun, the moon, the horoscope, and
the Lot of Fortune; for if they chance to fall in the same signs of
the zodiac, or if they exchange places, either all or most of them,
and particularly if the horoscopic regions are about 17° apart, they
bring about secure and indissoluble sympathy, unbroken by any
quarrel. However, if they are in disjunct signs or opposite signs,
they produce the deepest enmities and lasting contentions. If they
chance to be situated in neither of these ways, but merely in signs
which bear an aspect to one another, if they are in trine or in
sextile, they make the sympathies less, and in quartile, the
antipathies less. Thus there come about occasional spells of silence
and of disparaging talk in friendships, whenever the maleficent
planets are passing through these configurations, and truces and
reconciliations in enmities at the ingress of the beneficent planets
upon them. For there are three classes of friendship and enmity,
since men are so disposed to one another either by preference or by
need or through pleasure and pain; when all or most of the aforesaid
places have familiarity with each other, the friendship is compounded
of all three kinds, even as the enmity is, when they are dissociated.
But when the places of the luminaries only are in familiarity, the
friendship will result from choice, which is the best and surest
kind, and in the case of enmity the worst and faithless; similarly,
when the places of the Lots ofFortune are familiar, through need; and
when the places of the horoscopes are familiar, through pleasure or
pain.
One must observe, of the places in aspect, their elevations and how
the planets regard them. To the nativity in which an elevation of the
configurayion occurs, whether it is the same sign as the succedant
place or the one closest to it, must be assigned the greater
authority and direction over friendship or enmity; and to those
nativities in which the regard of the planets is more favourable for
benevolence and power, we must allot the greater benefit from the
friendship and the greater success in the enmity.
In the occasional acquaintances and oppositions that arise from time
to time between individuals, we must pay attention to the movements
of the planets in each of the nativities, that is, at what times the
prorogations of the planets of one nativity reach the places of the
other. For partial friendships and enmities take place in these
times, prevailing at the shortest up to the completion of the
prorogation, and at the longest until same other of the approaching
planets reaches the place. Now if Saturn and Jupiter approach each
other's places they produce friendships through introductions,
agriculture, or inheritance; Saturn and Mars make intentional
quarrels and schemings; Saturn and Venus, associaiions through
kinsfolk, which, however, quickly cool; Saturn and Mercury make
marriage and partnerships for the sake of giving and receiving,
trade, or the mysteries. Jupiter and Mars cause associations through
dignities or the management of property; Jupiter and Venus
friendships through women, religions rites, oracles, or the like;
Jupiter and Mercury associations for learned discussion, based upon
philosophic inclination. Mars and Venus cause associations through
love, adultery, or illegitimate relations, but they are unsure and
flourish only briefly; Mars and Mercury produce enmities, noisy
disputes, and lawsuits which arise through business or poisonings.
Venus and Mercury give associations based upon same art or domain of
the Muses, or an introduction by letter or through women.
Now then we must determine the degree of the intensity or relaxation
of acquaintances and oppositions from the relation between the
places which they assume and the four principal and most
authoritative places, for if they are upon the angles or the Lots of
Fortune or the houses of the luminaries, their portent is the more
conspicuous, but if they are removed from them, they are
insignificant. Whether the association will be more injurious or more
beneficial to the associates is to be determined from the character
for good or bad of the planets which regard the places named.
The special topic or account of slaves and the sympathy or antipathy
of their masters to them is elucidated from the hause of the Evil
Daemon and from the natural suitability of the planets which regard
this place both in the nativity itself and in their ingresses and
oppositions to it, particularly when the lords of the sign are either
in harmonious aspect to the principal places of the nativity, or the
opposite.
8. Of Foreign Travel.
The topic of foreign travel receives treatment by observing the
position of the luminaries to the angles, both of them, but
particularly the moon. For when the moon is setting or declining from
the angles, she portends journeys abroad or changes of place. Mars
too sometimes has a similar force, either when he is setting or when
he himself also has declincd from mid-heaven, when he is in
opposition or quartile to the luminaries. If the Lot of Fortune also
falls among the signe that cause travel, the subjects spend their
whole lives abroad and will have all their personal relations and
business there. If beneficent planets regard the aforesaid places or
succeed them, their activities abroad will be honourable and
profitable and their return quick and unimpeded; but if the
maleficent planets regard them, their journeys will be laborious,
injurious, and dangerous, and the return difficult, although in every
case the mixture of influences is taken into consideration, determined
by the dominance of the planets that bear an aspect to these same
places, as we explained at first.
In general, it happens that, if the luminaries fall in the lower
parts of the eastern quadrants, the travel is to the eastern and
southern parts of the world, but if in the western quadrants or in
the occident itself, to the north and the west; and if the zodiacal
signs which caused the travel chance to be those of a single figure,
either themselves or the planets that rule them, the journeys will be
made at long intervals and upon occasion; but if they are bicorporeal
signs, or of double form, they will travel continuously and for a
very long time. If Jupiter and Venus are the rulers of the places
which govern travel, and of the luminaries, they make the journeys
not only safe but also pleasant; for the subjects will be sent on
their way either by the chief men of the country or by the resources
of their friends, and favourable conditions of weather and abundance
of supplies will also aid them. Often, too, if Mercury is added to
these, profit, gain, gifts, and honour result from this good fortune
of which we have spoken. If Saturn and Mars control the luminaries,
however, and particularly if they are in opposition to each other,
they will make the results useless and will involve the subject in
great dangers, through unfortunate voyages and shipwreck if they are
in watery signs, or again through hard going and desert places; and
if they are in solid signs, through falling from heights and assaults
of winds; in the solstitial and equinoctial signs, through lack of
provisions and unhealthy conditions; in the signs of human form,
through piracy, plots, and robberies; in the terrestrial signs,
through the attacks of beasts, or earthquakes, and if Mercury is
present at the same time, through the weather, dangerous accusations,
and, furthermore, through the bites of reptiles and other poisonous
creatures. The peculiar quality of the events, whether they be
beneficial or harmful that is, the differentiation in the cause is
observed from the government of the places significant of action,
property, body, or dignity, according to our original disposition of
them, and the occasions which will to the greatest degree bring about
these portended events are judged from the time of the ingresses
of the five planets. Such be our general account of the matter.
9. Of the Quality of Death.
Since after all the others the inquiry concerning the quality of
death remains, we shall first determine, through the means furnished
by the discussion of the length of life, whether the destruction
will be accomplished by the projection of a ray or by the descent
of the significator to the occident. For if the destruction should
come about through the projection of rays and occourse, it is fitting
to observe the place of the occourse in order to determine the
quality of the death, but if it occurs by the descent of the
significator to the occident, we must observe the occident itself.
For of whatever quality are the planets that are upon the aforesaid
places, or, if they are not upon them, the first planets to approach
them, such we must understand that the deaths will be, while at the
same time the planets in aspect by their natures contribute to the
complexity of the events, as do also the peculiar characters of the
aforesaid destructive places themselves, both through the signs of
the zodiac and through the nature of the terms.
Now then, if Saturn holds the lordship of death, he brings about the
end through lang illness, phthisis, rheumatism, colliquations, chills
and fever, and splenic, dropsical, enteric, or hysteric conditions,
and such as arise through excesses of cold. Jupiter causes death
through strangulation, pneumonia, apoplexy, spasms, headaches, and
cardiac affections, and such conditions as are accompanied by
irregularity or foulness of breath. Mars kills by means of fevers,
continued or intermittent at intervals of one and a half days, sudden
strokes, nephritic conditions and those that involve the spitting of
blood, hæmorrhages, miscarriages, childbirth, erysipelas, and
pestilences, and such diseases as induce death by fever and
immoderate heat. Venus causes death by stomachic, hepatic, and
intestinal conditions, and furthermore through cancers, fistulas,
lichens, taking poisons, and such misfortunes as come about from
excess or deficiency of moisture. Mercury portends death by madness,
distraction, melancholy, the falling sickness, epilepsy, diseases
accompanied by coughing and raising, and all such ailments as arise
from the excess or deficiency of dryness.
Thus, then, those who depart from life in the way descrihed die
natural deaths, whenever the lords of death happen to be in their own
or in kindred natural characters, and if no planet that is able to
do injury and to make the end more remarkable overcomes them. They
die, however, by violent and conspicuous means whenever both the
evil planets dominate the destructive places, either in conjunction,
or in quartile, or in opposition, or also if one of the two, or both,
seize upon the sun, or the moon, or both the luminaries. The
affliction of the death in this case arises from their junction, its
magnitude from the testimony of the luminaries, and its quality,
again, from the way in which the other planets regard them, and from
the signs in which the evil planets are found.
For if Saturn is in quartile to the sun from a sign of the opposite
sect, or is in opposition, in the solid signs he causes death by
trampling in a mob, or by the noose, or by indurations, and similarly
if he is setting and the moon is approaching him; in the signs that
have the form of animals, he causes death by wild beasts, and if
Jupiter, who is himself afflicted, bears witness to him, death in
public places, or on days of celebration, in fighting with the
beasts; but in the ascendant, in opposition to either of the
luminaries, death in prison. If he is in aspect to Mercury,
and particularly in the neighbourhood of the serpents in the sphere,
or in the terrestrial signs, he makes men die from the bites of
poisonous creatures, and if Venus is present with them, by poisoning
and by feminine plots; but in Virgo and Pisces, or the watery signs,
if the moon is in aspect, by drowning and suffocation in water; in
the neighbourhood of Argo, as the victims of shipwreck ; in the
tropical or four-footed signs, when Saturn is with the sun or is in
opposition to him, or if he is with Mars instead of the sun, by being
caught in the collapse of a house; and if they are in mid-heaven,
above or below the earth, by a fall from a height.
If Mars is quartile or in opposition to the sun or the moon, from a
sign of the other sect, in the signs of human form, he causes the
suhjects to be slaughtered in civil factions or by the enemy, or to
commit suicide, and to die because of women or as murderers of women,
whenever Venus testifies to them; and if Mercury also is in aspect to
these, he causes death at the bands of pirates, robbers, or
criminals; in the mutilated and imperfect signs, or in the Gorgon of
Perseus, death hy decapitation or mutilation; in Scorpio and Taurus,
death through cautery, cutting, or amputation by physicians, or death
in convulsions; at mid-heaven or the opposite point, by being set up
on stakes, and particularly in Cepheus and Andromeda; at the occident
or in opposition to the horoscope, by being burned alive; in the
quadrupedal signs, death hy the collapse of houses, by breaking, or
by crushing; if Jupiter also bears witness to him and is affiicted at
the same time, again the subjects perish conspicuously by
condemnation and through the anger of generals or kings.
If the maleficent planets are together and in this state are in
opposition in same one of the aforesaid significant positions, they
work together all the more for the affliction of the death. In this
case the signification of the quality of the death lies with the one
that chances to occupy the destructive place, or else the fatal
occurrences are multiplied, or doubled, either in quality or in
quantity, whenever both have same relation to the destructive places.
Persons with such genitures are even left without burial, and are
consumed by wild beasts or birds, whenever the maleficent planets
chance to be in signs of such form, if none of the beneficent planets
is witnessing to the lower mid-heaven or to the destructive places.
Deaths occur in foreign lands if the planets that occupy the
destructive places fall in the declining places, and particularly
whenever the moon happens to be in, or quartile to, or in opposition
to, the aforesaid regions.
10. Of the Division of Times.
As we have treated systematically under its several heads the outline
of each kind of inquiry only so far as to explain the general
doctrine, which was our original intention, it would remain to add in
the same manner any observations that should be made about the
division of times, in such manner as to agree with nature and to be
consistent with the specific doctrines which have already been set
forth. So then, as, among all genethlialogical inquiries what.
soever, a more general destiny takes precedence of all particular
considerations, namely, that of country of birth, to which the major
details of a geniture are naturally subordinate, such as the topics
of the form of the body, the character of the soul and the variations
of manners and customs, it is also necessary that he who makes his
inquiry naturally should always hold first to the primary and more
authoritative cause, lest, misled by the similarity of genitures, he
should unwittingly call, let us say, the Ethiopian white or
straight-haired, and the German or Gaul blackskinned and
woolly-haired, or the latter gentle in character, fond of discussion,
or fond of contemplation, and the Greeks savage of soul and
untutored of mind; or, again, on the subject of marriage, lest he
mistake the appropriate customs and manners by assigning, for
example, marriage with a sister to one who is Italian by race,
instead of to the Egyptian as he should, and a marriage with his
mother to this latter, though it suits the Persian. Thus in general
it is needful first to apprehend universal conditions of destiny, and
then to attach to them the particular conditions which relate to
degree. In the same fashion likewise, dealing with the division of
time, one most take as a basis in each single prediction the
differences and special proprieties of the temporal ages, and see to
it that we do not, in the ordinary, simple treatment of matters
incident to the inquiry, carelessly assign to a babe action or
marriage, or anything that belongs to adults, or to an extremely old
man the begetting of children or anything else that fits younger men;
but once and for all let us harmonize those details which are
contemplated in temporal terms with that which is suitable and
possible for persons in the various age-classes. For in the matter of
the agedivisions of mankind in general there is one and the same
approach, which for likeness and comparison depends upon the order
of the seven planets; it begins with the first age of man and with
the first sphere from us, that is, the moon's, and ends with the last
of the ages and the outermost of the planetary spheres, which is
called that of Saturn. And in truth the accidental qualities of each
of the ages are those which are naturally proper to the planet
compared with it, and these it will be needful to observe, in order
that by this means we may investigate the general questions of the
temporal divisions, while we determine particular differences from
the special qualities which are discovered in the nativities.
For up to about the fourth year, following the number which belongs
to the quadrennium, the moon takes over the age of infancy and
produces the suppleness and lack of fixity in its body, its quick
growth and the moist nature, as a rule, of its food, the
changeability of its condition, and the imperfection and
inarticulate state of its soul, suitably to her own active qualities.
In the following period of ten years, Mercury, to whom falls the
second place and the second age, that of childhood, for the period
which is half of the space of twenty years, begins to articulate and
fashion the intelligent and logical part of the soul, to implant
certain seeds and rudiments of learning, and to bring to light
individual peculiarities of character and faculties, awaking the soul
at this stage by instruction, tutelage, and the first gymnastic
exercises.
Venus, taking in charge the third age, that of youth, for the next
eight years, corresponding in number to her own period, begins, as
is natural, to inspire, at their maturity, an activity of the seminal
passages and to implant an impulse toward the embrace of love. At
this time particularly a kind of frenzy enters the soul,
incontinence, desire for any chance sexual gratification, borning
passion, guile, and the blindness of the impetuous lover.
The lord of the middle sphere, the sun, takes over the fourth age,
which is the middle one in order, young manhood, for the period of
nineteen years, wherein he implants in the soul at length the mastery
and direction of its actions, desire for substance, glory, and
position, and a change from playful, ingenuous error to seriousness,
decorum, and ambition.
After the sun, Mars, fifth in order, assumes command of manhood for
the space of fifteen yars, equal to his own period. He introduces
severity and misery into life, and implants cares and troubles in the
soul and in the body, giving it, as it were, same sense and notion of
passing its prime and urging it, before it approaches its end, by
labour to accomplish something among its undertakings that is worthy
of note.
Sixth, Jupiter, taking as his lot the elderly age, again for the
space of his own period, twelve years, brings about the renunciation
of manual labour, toil, turmoil, and dangerous activity, and in their
place brings decorum, foresight, retirement, together with
all-embracing deliberation, admonition, and consolation; now
especially he brings men to set store by honour, praise, and
independence, accompanied by modesty and dignity.
Finally to Saturn falls as his lot old age, the latest period, which
lasts for the rest of life. Now the movements both of body and of
soul are cooled and impeded in their impulses, enjoyments, desires,
and speed; for the natural decline supervenes upon life, which has
become worn down with age, dispirited, weak, easily offended, and
hard to please in all situations, in keeping with the sluggishness of
his movements.
The foregoing, then, may be taken as a preliminary description of the
characteristics of the ages of life, viewed generally and in
accordance with the ordinary course of nature. But as for particulars,
which are to be discovered from the peculiarities of the nativities,
some of them again we shall base upon the general considerations
already set forth, that is, upon the prorogations of greatest
authority, all of them, however, and not one, as in the case of the
space of life. We shall apply the prorogation from the horoscope to
events relating to the body and to journeys abroad; that from the
Lot of Fortune to matters of property; that from the moon to
affections of the soul and to marriage; that from the sun to
dignities and glory; that from the mid-heaven to the other details of
the conduct of life, such as actions, friendships, and the begetting
of children. For thus it will come about that one beneficent or
maleficent star will not be the ruler of all of them on the same
occasion, for usually many contradictory events take place at the
same time. One may, for example, lose a relative and receive an
inheritance, or at once be prostrated by illness and gain some
dignity and promotion, or in the midst of misfortune become the
father of children, or have other experiences of this sort which are
apt to occur. For it is not usual that alike in goodness or badness
of body, soul, property, dignity, and companions, one must by very
necessity be either fortunate, or, again, unfortunate in all these
particulars. This, to be sure, might perhaps happen upon occasions
that are completely blessed or completely unhappy, when the occourses
of all the beneficent planets, or of all the maleficent planets,
converge upon all or the majority of the prorogations. Rarely would
this take place, however, because human nature is imperfectly adapted
to either one of the extremes, but is inclined toward the balance of
good and evil arising from their alternation, We shall, then, make
distinctions among the prorogatory places in the manner descrihed,
and as for the stars whose occourses take place in the prorogations,
we must take into account not only the destructive ones, as in the
case of the length of life, but ahsolutely all of them, and similarly
not those alone that meet the prorogation only bodily, or by
opposition, or in quartile, but also those that are in the trine and
sextile aspects.
In the first place, we must give the rulership of the times in each
prorogation to the star that is actually upon the prorogatory degree
or in aspect to it, or, if this condition does not exist, to the one
that most nearly precedes, until we come to another which is in
aspect with the next following degree in the order of the signs; then
to this as far as the next following, and so on; and the planets
which govern the terms are to be given a part of the rulership. And
again we must assign years to the degrees of the intervals: in the
prorogation from the horoscope a numher equal to the times of
ascension in the latitude concerned; in the prorogation from
mid- heaven, as many as the times of the culminations ; and in the
prorogations from all the others, in proportion to or in accordance
with the nearness of the risings, or settings, or culminations, to
the angles, as we explained in the discussion of the length of life.
We shall discover the general chronocrators, then, in the manner
described, and the annual chronocrators by setting out from each of
the prorogatory places, in the order of the signs, the numher of
years from birth, one year to each sign, and taking the ruler of the
last sign. We shall do the same thing for the months, setting out,
again, the number of months from the month of birth, starting from
the places that govern the year, twenty-eight days to a sign; and
similarly for the days, we shall set out the number of the days from
the day of birth, starting with the places which govern the months,
two and a third days to a sign.
We must also pay attention to the ingresses which are made to the
places of the times, for they play no small part in the prediction of
the times of events; particularly to the ingresses of Saturn to the
general places of the times, and to those of Jupiter to the places of
the years; to those of the sun, Mars, venus, and Mercury to those
of the months, and to the transits of the moon to those of the days.
The reason for this is that the general chronocrators have greater
authority to realize the prediction, while the partial chronocrators
assist or deter, in accordance with the familiarity or unfamiliarity
of their natures, and the ingresses infillence the degree of increase
or diminution in the event. For in general the special quality and
the length of time are signified by the prorogatory place and the
lord of the general times together with the lord of the terms,
because each one of the planets at the very time of the nativity is
made familiar with the places which they happened at first to govern.
Whether the event will be good or bad is discovered from the natural
and composite properties of the chronocrators, whether they are
beneficent or maleficent, and from their original familiarity with
or antipathy to the places which they possess. At what time the
predicted event will be evidenced is shown by the aspects of the
annual and monthly signs to the places which furnish the causes, and
by the aspects of the signs into which the planets are making ingress
and in which the phases of the sun and moon occur to the annual and
monthly signs. For those whose relation to the affected places
under consideration is harmonious from the beginning made in the
nativity, and which in their ingresses are in favourable aspect to
them, exert a good effect upon the species of the matter concerned,
even as they cause evil if they oppose. And those which are
inharmoniously related and of opposite sect cause evil if they are in
opposition or in quartile to the transits, but not in the other
aspects.
And if the same planets are lords of both the times and the
ingresses, the nature of the predicted event is made excessive and
unalloyed, whether it incline to the good or to the bad; all the more
so if they govern the species of the cause not only because they are
chronocrators, but also because they ruled it originally in the
nativity. The subjects are unfortunate or fortunate in all respects
at once, whenever either all or most of the prorogations are found in
one and the same place, or if these are different, whenever all or
most of the occourses occurring at the same times are similarly
fortunate or unforturnate. The character of the investigation of the
times, then, is of this fashion.
Conclusion according to Parisinus 2425:
by the style which agrees with the natural procedures. At this point,
however, the method of attacking, in particular cases, the problem of
the quality of temporal predictions, with a complete account of the
results, which is a complicated matter difficult of explanation,
must, in accordance with our original programme, be left to the
astrologer's good judgement of the matter of temperaments, for
thereby he is able correctly to accommodate to specific instances the
effective force of the stars general nature. Now since the topic of
nativities has been summarily reviewed, it would be well to bring
this procedure also to a fitting close.
Conclusion according to MADProc.Cam.:
We shall, however, omit adding at this point a detailed account of
the kinds of predicted events that happen at the times, on account of
the plan which I stated at the outset, namely that the effective
power which the planets exercise in general situations can be made to
apply similarly and consistently in particular cases also, if the
cause furnished by the astrologer and the cause arising from the
mixture are combined with due skill.