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If the primary directions were surely the favourite tool of the traditional astrologer, they generally were used together with solar returns and profections. Only combining the three tools together a prediction is possible- something very far from the modern use of transits.
Celestial visions
One of the most important cultural centres of Rome of 1600 was Collegio Romano, the general house of Jesuits, founded by St. Ignatius de Loyola in 1534.
About beibenie stars and their virtues
A couple of weeks ago Dr. Ben Dykes- one of my favourite translators, one of the very few to have a proper curriculum studiorum, when the greater part has a self education, ie no title and competence – posted in Deborah Houlding site a preview of his last work Persian nativities- which includes al-Khayyat’s Judgement on nativities, and Liber Aristotilis, a work written by Mashallah and then translated in Latin by Hugo of Santalla around 1100, which is more interesting for me.
Stars at the border of Sagittarius, the three ones of third magnitude near or over the arrow, have a great influence in producing murderers. If they are well disposed they make heroes, men of war, tribunes, judges, responsible for other people’s death; if ill disposed, they make wardens, subordinates to magistrates, executioners, thieves. If they are in conjunction with the Sun, in genitures of great men they promise kingdoms, but in humbler genitures, they give lesser dignity.
Johannes Lydus on comets
Comets – like the one it’s told showed the road to Magi- the learned astrologers arrived from far East in order to worship the baby Jesus – always show supernatural events because of their unpredictable nature; they suddenly appeared in the sky and suddenly disappeared, they did not have a fixed path like the wandering stars. They did not have any place in the fixed and perfect world of Greeks, but they rather were harbingers of chaos and disorder.
The Sun and heliacal phases of the planets
This moment of the year is the feast of Light and astrology in itself is the science of the Light, which comes to us by the Sun. Everything on the earth, starting from the switching between day and night, seasons, years derives from the Sun.
Planets have not light, it derives from the Sun, so every planetary effect eventually depends on the position of the planet in respect with the Sun, and the same its light and speed.
The following is an abstract of the lecture kept in Sophia at the New Bulgarian University on the 19th November 2009 by Prof. Antonio Panaino, the famous Italian Orientalist, Professor of Alma Mater Studiorum and Isiao – the Italian Institute for Africa and East.
I should thank Dimitar Kozhuharov who kindly sent me the file; bibliography and pictures mine.
Everybody believes to know what astrology is, but even between scholars there is a lot of confusion about the real meaning of this word, so it’s necessary to give some basic definitions about words like astrology, astral divination, astrolatry which are not necessary connected. In the same time we can shed some light on the idea that astronomy derives from astrology, being the latter the modern and rational offspring while the former is irrational and primitive source.
It is not like that.
In ancient cultures astronomical problems should be resolved before astrological ones, because astronomy was necessary for ordinary life. For example, when tax calendar should be scheduled it was necessary to know in advance harvest time, because taxes could not be required when men where still working in the fields, and these activities where in turn strictly connected with astronomical events- we can think to the heliacal rising of the star Sirius which in Egypt rose just before Nile flooding.
This kind of information took a lot of centuries because it was necessary collecting data, writing in a proper for, studying, calculating and just at the end of the process it was possible to elaborate data and calculate the real position of planets, the rising or setting of stars, sun and moon eclipses. Ancients were able to calculate moon eclipses, but they could not reach the same precision with solar ones. They can say when a sun eclipse would occur – even one in Australia- but they could not say if it would be visible or not in their location – we should not forget they did not know Australia 
Obviously we know that astronomy was not just linked to civil uses. It had even a religious meaning because stars and planets were considered Gods messengers. In every case a mathematical model of risings of Sirius or settings of Orion is not magic, it is a rational activity.
This kind of activity, we can call it astral divination is present in several different civilisations. We should not mistake it for astrolatry, which is the worship of the Sun, the Moon and some stars. This has nothing to share with astronomy, astrology or astral divination because it is a religious cult.
As you see, I did not use the word astrology. There are some scholars who use it, but I prefer the definition given by Otto Neugebauer (( Neugebauer, O., & Parker, R. A. (1960). Egyptian astronomical texts. Brown Egyptological studies, 3. Providence: Published for Brown University Press, by L. Humphries, London. )) in the book he wrote with Parker, and which was used even in a more specific way by David Pingree: astrology is that special kind of divination which is based on a horoscope. ((David Pingree – From Astral Omens to Astrology from Babylon to Bikaner, Roma: Istituto Italiano per L’Africa e L’Oriente, 1997.)).
Here I’m calling horoscope the nativity, ie an astral divination for the moment of the birth of a native, which contains several technical information, being the information that now we call ascendant, the point rising in the East ( which was called horoscope) one of the most important, together with other data which are needed in order to do some forecast about the destiny of the native. This calculation is grounded on a sophisticated theory of zodiac, divided into portion of 30 degrees of the ecliptic, the path of the five planets and the Sun and the Moon, and the Ascendant (this was important in Greek tradition, but ignored in the Babylonian one.)
In Greek horoscopes we find several elements deriving from the Mesopotamian tradition, strongly grounded on the spherical model of the Greek world (where SPHERICAL means that the position of the planets can be calculated by TRIGONOMETRY) and Aristotle’s cosmos based on the four pillars of the elements.
Other influences clearly derive from Egypt. For example the theory of 36 decans, three for every sign, which originally were demons which accompanied the soul of deads in their afterlife path, and which are listed in some Greek astrologers like Hephestio of Thebes, or Latin ones like Firmicus, who gives a better list.
Denderah zodiac at Louvre, with decans in the external ring
In the Greek horoscopic doctrine is peculiar that deep link between micro and macrocosm which is absent in other traditions. For Greeks was impossible changing their own birth chart and in the same way their destiny, while, on the contrary, in Mesopotamian tradition “cheating” and making “tricks” with Gods was always a possibility, so they often used apotropaic (from Greek apotrépein, to turn away) rituals which in some way turned way bad events heralded by astral omina.
One of the most famous example is the “farmer king” which was explained in a very detailed way by Hermann Hunger in a book published in Rome 1995: when a bad omen threatened the king, the king renounced to the power and a criminal was put on the throne as King substitute. When the danger was over, the substitute was killed and the king recovered his powers as “farmer king,” Gods are not stupid….The tradition was so consolidated that the same Alexander the Great is told to have his own substitute king.
So, recapitulating, we will use astrology for the Greek horoscopic tradition, astral divination for Mesopotamian tradition (but we can find some examples in Latin tradition too) where astral events which can be measured in an astronomical way could be connected with terrestrial events in a protasis- apotasis sequence (if something happens, then something else will happen) and astrolatry for the worship of astral entities.
We can date the beginning of astrological activity around the second century b.C. when some experts of astral divination put together Greek mathematics, geometry, trigonometry with several Egyptian, Greek, and Mesopotamian techniques, probably in some Egyptian city, maybe Alexandria. It is worthy reading the book of the famous scholar Franz Cumont “The Egypt of astrologers” (( Cumont, F. V. M. (1937). L’Égypte des astrologues. Bruxelles: Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth. )) where the Egyptian society is depicted through the questions of the querents to the astrologers.
After so many debates and studies inside academic world – it was Neugebauer to rise the point- it is still not evident if Babylonians used Greek sources or Greeks used Babylonian sources; but we are sure that there was a cultural interdependence and there were very tight connections between the two countries.
The same Ptolemy – author of one of astrology pillars, but in the same time of one of the most important astronomical text of antiquity- the Almagest- surely knew Babylonian sources. it’s obvious from the way he makes his observations.
When in different cultures we find the same way of calculating- the area of triangle or fractions for example- we can be sure that we are not in front of similar myths or traditions, but that the method has been taken from a specific tradition.
When we have a calculation made in a certain way- for example dividing the circle in 360 degrees rather than radians (which are 1/400 of a whole circle) commonly used in army – the way we do calculation tells us which is its source, because the interpretation of nature is not nature, is culture.
In our example, when in Greek texts we find a 360° circle, we are sure that the method has been taken from Babylonian science and it is not an independent invention.
Calculation method is not in nature, is in mind and gives the evidence of the cultural influence from a country on another: when Ptolemy uses the 360 degrees system used in Babylon, he does so both for the high consideration given to Babylonian astronomy and because as he says he was in possess of ancient texts on which he was basing his observations.
In the same way when in India we find lists of night hours which cannot be in agreement with those places, but rather with Babylonian area, we have evidence of a cultural interference and contacts between the two countries.
We cannot end this talk without mentioning the definition of astrology given by David Pingree for the lemma “occultism” in the Encyclopedia Britannica (( Pingree D., Encyclopedia Britannica, (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, inc., 1993), volume 25, pagine 75-98,on line at http://www.britannica.com )) In addition to genethliac astrology – which concerns the individuals- we have the following categories:
1) general, about a country, or climate, or region of the world, or his king, because the king’s fate is connected with his country;
2) catharchic, from the Greek word for “beginning,” which is the branch of astrology which aim is to elect a special moment for starting a certain activity, in order to have the maximum profit.
This kind of astrology was very used because for several activities like the building of a temple or a royal palace it was necessary to check a great bunch of charts- the patron, the country one- and only after careful considerations was possible supplying a satisfying date. A very fashionable variant was military astrology, ie an election for the best moment to attack some enemy.
3) interrogative, the most ancient and similar to the astral divination, the branch of astrology which supplies answers to the querents’ questions, based on the positions of heavenly bodies in the moment of the question.
Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian sources organized and rearranged in such a brilliant way in Alexandria, then were translated in India around II century AD. Well known is the story of the Greek text translated in Sanskrit around 149-150 with the name of Yavana Jataka (which literally means treaty of Greeks) in which we can easy see how Indians adapted Greek/Mesopotamian/Egypt tradition to their culture and like astral divinities and decans were turned into demons and Indian Gods and Goddesses. David Pingree has published a very beautiful version with a comment and an English translation (( Pingree D., “The Yavanajataka of Sphujidhvaja”, Harvard Oriental Series , 1978 ))
The Greek and Indian material was further elaborated some centuries after by the Indian astrologer Varahamihira and through a Sassanian translation, later translated into Arabics arrived to one of the most important Medieval astrologers, Albumasar, who incorporated the “Indian” stuff into the Great Introduction. The Arab text was then translated in Latin together with many other scientific, astronomical, astrological books in the Arabian Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews happily lived together.
A tourist visiting Giotto’s Palazzo della Ragione in Padova or Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara with its Salon of decans – one of the most beautiful examples of Renaissance Italian art- will discover that there is no border between East and West, and even our Italian art would not exist without East, and just both, East and West, can explain what happened.
Salon of decans in Ferrara
Those Egyptian decans in Renaissance clothes painted on the wall of Ferrara palace – Aby Warburg, the founder of iconography patiently discovered their long travel- were the representation of a made in Italy copy of a Latin translation of an Arabian translation of a Palhavi document based of a Sanskrit source translated from a Greek text born from the melting pot of at least three different traditions- Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek one! There are many reconstructions of this story, but the best one is the one made by its discover, Aby Warburg (( Warburg A., “Arte italiana e astrologia internazionale nel Palazzo Schifanoia a Ferrara (1912),” in La Rinascita Del Paganesimo Antico Contributi Alla Storia Della Cultura, 1° ed. (Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1966) )) .
The incipit of the only copy of Abano manuscript of Astrolabium Planum. From Prof. Vescovini who found the manuscript: "incipiunt ymagines super triginta gradus quorum quilibt habet suam ymaginem propriam ad predicendum naturas et exercitia hominum. Aries 1: Ascendit et apparet vir tenens in dextra manu falcem et in sinistra manu balistam." The famous Warburg' black man.
People interested in this subject should not miss Neugebauer and Van Hoesen’ s “Greek Horoscopes” ((Neugebauer O. & Van Hoesen H. B. , Greek Horoscopes, DIANE Publishing, 1987 )) and Bouche LeLeclercq “L’astrologie grecque” (( Bouché-Leclercq A., L’astrologie grecque, (Paris: E. Leroux, 1899). ))
There are still so many things to discover because libraries of all the world are still full of manuscripts which have not been translated: this means that the contribute of many young people who know ancient languages, astronomy, astrology, mathematics is fundamental.
All the things belonging to the past open the understanding of ancient world.
From Prof.Antonio Panaino in Sophia, edited by Margherita Fiorello, CIDA certified member, for heaven astrolabe blog @ year 2009. If you want to be notified the next time I write something, subscribe to my RSS feed.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES
The Italian version of this article is going to be published in Almugea.
The author of this blog has translated from Latin John of Seville translation of Albumasar decans available here.
We know that traditional astrology is not an uniform group of tools, rules and techniques, so sometimes it’s difficult to find a common thread in it, we should just collect single inputs trying to put them together.
Surely this is the case of profession and trade determination.
Not all the planets can be chosen as significators of trade, but the ones called “of the swift motion”:
From stars with a swift motion, we can judge about profession, because action needs in itself a swift motion. These stars are Mars, Venus, and Mercury and truly every art and science can be considered according these three stars. ((Paulus Alexandrinus, Introduzione all’astrologia. Lineamenti introduttivi alla previsione astronomica (Milano: Mimesis, 2000).))
The general character of these stars are mentioned by William Lilly, who is quite true to the ancient texts.
Mercury shewes the Wisdome and parts of the mind; Mars the Strength of body to endure; Venus the Delight. (( William Lilly, Christian Astrology, Book 3 (Astrology Center of America, 2005). ))
to make things more difficult, these stars should occupy a special position:
THE dominion of the employment, or profession, is claimed in two quarters; viz. by the Sun, and by the sign on the mid-heaven. It is, therefore, necessary to observe whether any planet may be making its oriental appearance nearest to the Sun.
It is, therefore, necessary to observe whether any planet may be making its oriental appearance nearest to the Sun, and whether any be posited in the mid-heaven; especially, when also receiving the application of the Moon. And if one and the same planet possess both these qualifications, that is to say, make its nearest appearance to the Sun, and be also in the mid-heaven, that one alone must be elected to determine the present inquiry: and, likewise, though the planet should not be thus doubly qualified, but only singly, in whichever respect, even then that planet alone must still be elected provided itself alone should possess such single qualification. If, however, there should be one planet presenting its nearest appearance, and another in the mid-heaven conciliating the Moon, both must then be noticed; and whichever of two may have greater sway, and possess greater rights of dominion, that one must be preferred. But where not any planet may be found so situated, neither making its appearance as above described, nor being in the mid-heaven, then that one, possessing the dominion of the mid-heaven, is to be considered as lord of the employment: it is, however, only some occasional occupation which can be thus denoted; because persons, born under such a configuration, most commonly remain at leisure and unemployed. (( Tetrabiblos, IV,4 ))
Be careful that what Ptolemy signifies for “oriental” it is not always plain, because “oriental” in Ptolemy is just the most important phase, left or right of the Sun is not important. Let come back again to Paulus Alexandrinus:
We should take into consideration which planet takes the application of the Moon or the Sun, or which star performed since seven days or is going to perform in seven days from the birth its matutine phase for Saturn, Jupiter or Mars , or its vespertine phase for Mercury and Venus.
When the planet is invisible or under the sunbeams, cannot act like significator of Profession, it could just show the inclination. All Ptolemy commentators , like Lilly here, agree that:
If then any of these is posited in places of Heaven fit to designe Magistery, that is, in the 10th, 1st or 7th, in their owne Dignities, not Combust, or under the Sun beames, that Planet so posited, or those Planets, shall have signification of the Art, Profession or Magistery the Native is inclinable unto.
And Cardano, in his comment:
For this reason, stars hidden under the Sun beams make the interest, not the profession. (( Claudius Ptolemaei Libri IV. De Astrorum Iudiciis cum expositione Hieronymi Cardani ))
Let’s see an example.
a portrait of Eleonora Duse
Eleonora Duse is one of the most famous actresses together with Sarah Bernhardt, who was her great rival; she was the mistress of the one of the most controversial Italian poets, Gabriele D’Annunzio, who described their love in the novel “The fire” (please notice where Ascendant and Moon fall) and who loved acting in intellectual works like Ibsen or Verga, who she made famous to the greater public.
this is her birth chart:
Eleonora Duse, 3rd October 1858, h:2:00 am, Vigevano
Of the three planets which indicate the profession, Mars is western to the Sun, Mercury is visible and matutine, while only Venus is vespertine and visible. Moreover, she is the Lord of the MC and she is separating from the application of the Moon (Venus is in her detriment, but there are so many favourable conditions here that we can easily forget this).
Mercury is applying to Venus from its domicile, so we can easily attribute some influence, and according Ptolemy:
Further, should it happen that two arbiters of employment may be found together, and provided they should be Mercury and Venus, they will then produce musicians, melodists, and persons engaged in music, poetry, and songs: they will also produce (especially if changed in their places) mimics, actors, dealers in slaves, makers of musical instruments, choristers and musical performers, dancers, weavers, modellers in wax, and painters.
Anyway this is a very easy example, I know, often things are more complicated because we cannot find any of the significators in the right place, and moreover as we will see, other traditional authors like Manilius and Firmicus consider profession in a different way.
This difference can be shown in the chart presented in the previous post about Southern Hemisphere births where we discussed the method elaborated by Girolamo Cardano and Tommaso Campanella. (( example taken from Joe Fallisi, Maradona e l’emisfero australe in CieloeTerra site )).
Diego Armando Maradona, 30 Oct 1960 h. 7:05 am
The Italian software reverses the diagram putting the Ascendant to the right, but in practice it is just a common chart with reversed signs.
Mercury, retrograde in Taurus in the 12th house, in a day will become invisible – it’s already in another phase in practice; on the other hand Mars here is very strong, exaltated in Capricorn, oriental to the Sun and in aspect with Saturn, ruler of MC.
What would say William Lilly about this?
Mars signifies such laborious and hard Professions which require both the strength and endeavour of the whole body, he therefore principally governeth Mannuall Occupations, which are toylsome, and exercised of themselves by fire; if the Sun be in aspect with him, yet the Profession is performed by fire: In a nocturnall Geniturem he rather imports Warfare, Honour and glory obtained by Warres: Being well constituted he makes Souldiers, Horsemen, Captains, Commanders of Armies, Hunsmen, &c. If he be meanly dignified, he makes Champions, Copper and Iron-smiths, Founders, Engineers, makers of all Iron Instruments, Husbandmen, Physitians, Chyrurgions, Stone-cutters, Carpenters, Architects; but if weak, he makes Cooks, Wood-cleavers, Carriers, Labourers, Pyrates, Theeves.
The same Lilly some lines before, but especially Firmicus gives athletics, sports and championship to Mercury.
Mercury with Mars indicates many different kinds of occupations and administrative posts. If the planets are located in the house of Mercury or in his terms, the natives are fond of the gymnasium or are athletes in public games. (( Julius Firmicus Maternus, Ancient Astrology: Theory and Practice. Matheseos Libri VIII (Park Ridge N.J.: Noyes Press, 1975). ))
This is a completely different approach, obviously, which originates from the fact that Firmicus, who has his source in Manilius (or from a lost common source) derives the qualities of the signs from the stars rising with these signs, the socalled paranatellonta, and to which he dedicates all the book VIII.
The same is in all the literature about paranatellonta , in Liber Hermetis as in Rethorius or Teucer of Babylon.
Simonetta Feraboli – the greatest expert of ancient stellar catalogues and Professor of Greek in an Italian university- writes about Lepus rising with Gemini:
Speed depends both of the constellation characteristic and from Mercury’s domicile, the swifter planet in its revolution around the Sun, while agility, lightness, mobility are in agreement with Gemini. The reference to wings and flight can be connected with the opposite sign, Sagittarius, which is winged and showed as a hawk in the dodekaoros. …..Limbs of a native born with the Ascendant on Lepus, even wingless, participate of the Air of Gemini. It’s not a coincidence that the first three degress of Gemini vocatur Ventus (Liber Hermetis). All the athletic sports are favourite in Mercurial signs, especially Gemini, one of them is Heracles. ….Mercury well beheld with Lepus makes conjurers and players with ball. (( Marcus Manilius, Il Poema Degli Astri (cura Simonetta Feraboli, Enrico Flores, Riccardo Scarcia), 1° ed. (Verona: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla : A. Mondadori, 2001). ))
Lovers of Renaissance pictures can see this depicted in one of the images taken from my personal collection. It comes from Palazzo Te in Mantova, where there are showed 12 medals with paranatellonta of the zodiacal signs under their own Gods and Goddesses protections.
It is a well known scheme preserved in Medieval astrology by Albumasar in the Great Introduction and copied by Ibn Ezra in the Beginning of Wisdom, from Herman version of Albumasar.
So for example Aries paranatellonta is shown under Athena:
In its first facie there arises a woman called Athena brilliant and wonderful. (( See Albumasar chapter about paranatellonta ))
Our Gemini are under Venus protection, who is depicted with her child, Cupid, and Maia (it sounds like May, true?) with her son Mercury.
The paranatellonta of Gemini (1527, Mantova)
Now when the Twins lift their fraternal stars into the sky and float on the surface of the sea, their seventh degree brings to view the Hare. To those born under this constellation nature all but gives wings and flight through air – such will be the vigour of the limbs which reflect the swiftness of winds. One man will come off winner in the footrace before even receiving the signal to start…. (( Manilius, Chapter V ))
We can recapitulate the subject saying that trades and professions are very differently explained by Ptolemy (and his commentators) on one side and Teucer and his followers on the other: Ptolemy gives great importance to the real astronomical position of the Sun and to the planetary phases; in Manilius or Firmicus we mostly find a sideareal zodiac where constellations and fixed stars have the main importance.
Hope that readers would be less shy and ask directly to me for explications.
Written by Margherita Fiorello, CIDA certified member, for heaven astrolabe blog @ year 2009. If you want to be notified the next time I write something, subscribe to my RSS feed.
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Since the beginning astrology was never either a block of consistent techniques or it was founded on the same philosophical background.
The art of the astrologer is – like in Plotinus reading signs in the book of the sky?
Looking at stars like they would be fonts, the ones who know their grammar, recognise the future from the groups they form. ((Plotinus, Enneads, III,1,6))
In 1477 Marsilio Ficino will write:
The sky is sign of many events, without being the cause.
That the sky can show many events without causing it, it’s evident from the fact that evil, without any order, can derive from very good and ordered realities. So these things are foretold according celestial positions, intended as signs and not as causes, not differently from other events, that don’t happen because of birds, but they are read by augurs and haruspices as shown by birds. (( Marsilio Ficino, Scritti sull’astrologia (cura Ornella Pompeo Faracovi) Milano: Biblioteca universale Rizzoli, 1999.))
Or maybe astrology is a part of astronomical knowledge, a sort of “practical astronomy” which investigates on the effects of the stars as a book of some fortune declared beginning from its title.
THAT a certain power, derived from the æthereal nature, is diffused over and pervades the whole atmosphere of the earth, is clearly evident to all men. Fire and air, the first of the sublunary elements, are encompassed and altered by the motions of the æther. These elements in their turn encompass all inferior matter, and vary it as they themselves are varied; acting on earth and water, on plants and animals.
The Sun, always acting in connection with the Ambient, contributes to the regulation of all earthly things: not only by the revolution of the seasons does he bring to perfection the embryo of animals, the buds of plants, the spring of waters, and the alteration of bodies, but by his daily progress also he operates other changes in light, heat, moisture, dryness and cold; dependent upon his situation with regard to the zenith.
The Moon, being of all the heavenly bodies the nearest to the Earth, also dispenses much influence; and things animate and inanimate sympathize and vary with her. By the changes of her illumination, rivers swell and are reduced; the tides of the sea are ruled by her risings and settings; and plants and animals are expanded or collapsed, if not entirely at least partially, as she waxes or wanes.
The stars likewise (as well the fixed stars as the planets), in performing their revolutions, produce many impressions on the Ambient. They cause heats, winds, and storms, to the influence of which earthly things are conformably subjected.
And, further, the mutual configurations of all these heavenly bodies, by commingling the influence with which each is separately invested, produce a multiplicity of changes. The power of the Sun however predominates, because it is more generally distributed; the others either co-operate with his power or diminish its effect: the Moon more frequently and more plainly performs this at her conjunction, at her first and last quarter, and at her opposition: the stars act also to a similar purpose, but at longer intervals and more obscurely than the Moon; and their operation principally depends upon the mode of their visibility, their occultation and their declination. (( Tetrabiblos, I, 2))
In this case the study of the stars and their motion, especially of the Sun which is predominant in influencing life on Earth, puts together without any possibility to divide them, physic and astrology.
The question, which divided astrologers in two different groups, and often mixed several different approaches in strange ways, is not a theoretical one, because implies which techniques inside astrology could be used and which not, which are “true” and which not.
An example of the fact that the question has deep consequences can be “the Southern hemisphere experiment.“
What about the birth charts of all the millions of people who are born in the Southern hemisphere? If astrology depends on the physical motion of the planets, especially of the Sun, we should do some interesting considerations on the base of some very beautiful articles written by Joe Fallisi for the International Congress of Venice organised by CIDA in 1997 and published in CieloeTerra site, Maradona e l’emisfero australe and the one by Lucia Bellizia, L’emisfero sud.
It’s evident that casting a chart for a native of the Southern hemisphere implies turning upside down everything we are accustomed here, it means celebrating Christmas in summer and starting school with spring (or they start in their autumn with Easter? I don’t know) because seasons are reversed. Better said, what is different is the fact that while here in Europe we start spring when the Sun crosses the Aries point (one of the two intersections of the equator with the ecliptic; the other, opposite, is called Libra point ), on the other side of the Earth autumn starts.
If stars are just signs in the sky written in a language we need just to know the grammar, and we can agree with Morin that:
We should admit that astrology was not invented by human beings, at least about what pertains to its main principles, and in the same way the division of the Primum Caelum, by its nature very easy and uniform, in twelve dodecatemoria of different nature, which correspond to the nature of planets. Or the division of the mundane space in twelve houses, of different nature too. These things are in fact above the intelligence of the human mind, and in fact they were infused by God in Adam, from whom they arrived to his posterity through Qabbalah. ((Morin, as quoted in Lucia Bellizia))
If we are skeptic about the fact astrology was infused in Adam together with the soul, and prefer a more rational approach to the question, natural philosophers as Cardano and Campanella solved the question, considering the possibility of turning upside down the zodiac for Southern births.
In fact qualities of the seasons depend on the Sun and its motion on the ecliptic: heat will increase in spring, dryness in summer, coldness in autumn and moisture in winter ((see Bezza, Le virtù della Luna)), it’s this that makes zodiacal signs, the combination of these qualities.
This was obvious for Ptolemy’s followers, because in Tetrabiblos signs are nothing else than portions of the ecliptic, and qualities of the signs depends on the Sun: Aries is just the first 30 degrees after the start of the Spring, Taurus the second 30 degrees and so on…
It’s the same Morin who quotes – shocked- in the book 15 of Astrologia Gallica the solution found by Girolamo Cardano in his Comment to Tetrabiblos and then Tommaso Campanella, “the great corrupter of the sciences”
Morin in fact – I should say – is the kind of astrologer who spends his time correcting others’ mistakes, without thinking to his funny own ones, as some modern traditional astrologers 
it should be the Jupiterian influence.
I marvel that Cardano has fallen in his Commentary with these words : ‘From this it finally follows that in the southern half (of the World) Capricom will be the domicile ot the Moon and Aquarius of the Sun. Pisces and Sagittarius of Mercury. Aries and Scorpio of Venus. Taurus and Libra of Mars. Gemini and Virgo of Jupiter. and Cancer and Leo of Saturn.’
but Campanella, the great corrupter of the sciencees which I would like to have stated as a caution to those who take delight in his books that are full of novelties) amplified Cardans error in his astrology book I. Chapter 3. Article 3, where he offers this:‘The early astrologers, only considered our latitudes: and therefore the Spaniards who established colonies beyond the tropic of Capricorn have need of a new astrology.’ Moreover, in Chapter 6. Article 3. he says: “It is not a symbol for the Planets, with certain Signs of the Caelum but to those who dwell beyond the equator, equidistant with us from the equator, to have the domicile of the Planets in an opposite location—and the domicile of the Sun is in Aquarius, the domicile of the Moon in Capricorn, of Saturn in Cancer and Leo, and the domiciles of the rest of them as above.’ (( Jean-Baptiste Morin (cura James Herschel Holden), Astrologia Gallica Books 13, 14, 15, 19 (American Federation of Astr, 2007).))
So following the traditional approach indicated by Cardano and Campanella for Southern hemisphere births we could invert the table of dignities, or which is the same inverting signs: saying that a native is born in Aries but with a Sun in its fall or born in Libra it’s exactly the same.
Let’s give a quick look to Diego Armando Maradona, the famous soccer champion taken from Fallisi’ article: I believe there is no example which can show better if turning or not the chart.
This is the usual chart:
Diego Armando Maradona, 30th October 1960, Buenos Aires h:7:05 am
Scorpio is rising at the Ascendant – but Scorpio we know makes people tall, because we know from Centiloquium that
52. The lords of the genitures of men of tall stature are in their sublimities, and their horoscopes in the beginnings of signs: but the lords of their nativities who are of short stature, are found in their falls: together with this, enquire whether the signs be of right or oblique ascension.
and Scorpio is a sign of long ascension, at least in the Northern hemisphere.
It does not fit with Maradona appearance as we know,
Maradona kg 65, m.1.68 in his best moment
Mars, ruler of the Ascendant is in fall in Cancer in the ninth house. So the ruler of the Ascendant is in very bad condition; here between the three planets which indicates profession – Mars, Venus, and Mercury- Mars is the only planet oriental to the Sun, while the peregrine Venus is vespertine in the first house, and the MC is in Venus terms, so both of them, Mars in fall and the peregrine Venus have some words to say about activities .
It’s hard to think to a soccer champion like Maradona, true?
Or like some astrologers say Mars in Cancer pushes the native to overcome his limit, because every sign turns into its opposite, but this does not sound so traditional to me…..
Now let’s reverse the chart, according Campanella and Cardano, in the method rediscovered by CieloeTerra, the traditional Italian astrology association.
The chart is cast with Explorer, the Italian software in use in the Italian CIDA: in practice planets and houses cusps are simply reversed, but the author of the software put the Ascendant on the right to stress the fact it is a chart for the Southern hemisphere.
While with Morin method now in use in practice we add 12 hours to the Sidereal time and then reverse the cusps corresponding to the new time, here simply we don’t reverse the cusps and we have:
the same chart with reverted signs
So at this point Taurus is rising, and Taurus, a sign of short ascension, makes natives short. The ruler of the Ascendant is Venus, in the first house.
Taurus is well known for being a lover of food, women, and all Venusian pleasures, in Tommaso Campanella words, from Fallisi article:
makes men prone to pleasures, sophisticated in choosing food, elegant in dressing and recreation, like Neapolitans.
And it would be a coincidence, but there is no Naples without Maradona, and Maradona without Naples, it’s difficult to explain what was Maradona for Naples for people who don’t know Italian things.
In my opinion here it’s easier to see the ruler of activities.
Planets keep their position in respect with the Sun; so Mars, now is in its exaltation in Capricorn, is still oriental to the Sun. The cusp of MC, now falls at 9 Aquarius, Saturn domicile, so Mars, oriental to the Sun and in its exaltation is in aspect with the ruler of the MC: there is no doubt that in the reverted chart, Mars is very explicative.
While recommending again to read the articles in bibliography below, we can come back to Morin. Strongly convinced that signs are immutable in any part on Earth, and that signs, as parts of Primum Caelum, are formally of the same nature among themselves because they are of the same stuff as the entire Caelum, which is homogeneneous, ((Astrologia Gallica, XIV, 7)) he gives an example chart in the 15th book.
Morin example of a southern birth
Writes Morin:
Francisco Gomez Cortez, born on the 4th of the month of October in the year 1627, called the day of St. Francis, at the rising of the Sun at Olinda Pernambuco.,8 degrees on the other side of the equator. He was inclined to painting. arithmetic, music, dances, and the gladiatorial arts; and yet he followed the military calling from his youth. He has many yellowish marks on his face, hands, and body, which are called Jewish signs: he also has reddish hair; and he had a quarrel with someone whom, while not wanting to, he nevertheless killed.
how Morin explains the military attitude of the native considering that Libra is rising in this chart?
His propensity was to arithmetic, writing, painting, music, and dancing since Venus ruler of the ASC is in the domicile of Mercury and joined to it . These things however, would no have been if Venus had not been ruler of the ASC; therefore Libra is the domicile of Venus and Virgo is the domicile of Mercury But if they had been inverted in the southern part (of the World), Mars would have been the ruler of the ASC in a domicile of Jupiter, from which the iiwlination given above could not have been produced as is sufficiently plain from the nature of the Planets, which agree with their Signs, as is proved with reasons in its own place, in addition to the experience that is very well known to all astrologers.
In addition he followed the gladiatorial and military (profession) since Mars, ruler of the 1st house (this is not true, because Libra is rising…..). which is the house of character on account of Scorpio in the 1st and then ruler of the 7th, (in Aries, the Ascendant according Cardano method) which is quarrels, and Mars is in the 8th conjunct the Eye of Taurus, a bright and violent fixed star of the natue of Mars….Finally. hecause this native had reddish hair and had freckles on his face, hands, and body, he had that from the Sun in the ASC in trine to Mars, ruler of the 1st (again, Venus is the ruler of Libra which is rising at the Ascendant, not Mars) joined to the eye of Taurus, a fixed Martian star, in trine to the ASC, then from the square of the Moon to Saturn and the Sun on the Ascendant. Everything therefore agrees…
Maybe, but how much it would agree better with an Aries Ascendant?
As always comments and opinions are well accepted,
Written by Margherita Fiorello, CIDA certified member, for heaven astrolabe blog @ year 2009. If you want to be notified the next time I write something, subscribe to my RSS feed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES
Giuseppe Bezza, Commento al Primo Libro della Tetrabiblos di Claudio Tolemeo: con una nuova traduzione e le interpretazioni dei maggiori commentatori (cura Giuseppe Bezza), 2° ed. (Milano: Nuovi Orizzonti, 1992).
Joe Fallisi, Maradona e l’emisfero australe
Lucia Bellizia, L’emisfero sud
Giancarlo Ufficiale, Appendice all’emisfero sud.
Reading here and there I see that primary directions are seen as very difficult and occult. It is not like that.
Ideas which are behind are very easy to grasp, and modern software can do all the calculation for us: on the other hand people who have learned them generally use them as a way to show how clever and expert they are.
But culture is democratic -in Italy we say culture is left wing and for an Italian using complicated formulae mixed with macaroni Latin is just a way to muddle waters and hide mistakes and lack of real education. (( latinorum ))
Moreover Rumen Kolev ((Rumen Rumen Kolev, Primary Directions I and II)), who is well known in Anglosaxon world, for his excellent work with primary directions explains in a very difficult way, so I prefer arrange numbers in an easier way, following Giuseppe Bezza and Marco Fumagalli (( Marco Fumagalli. I moti del cielo ))
Anyway it’s not a different method, just numbers are collected in a more sophisticated way.
As we know, since the beginning astrologers were divided into a group who believed that stars were symbols and the ones who believed that stars influenced human life because of astronomical laws. The main one – explained with the sophisticated Aristotelian/Ptolemaic model is the perception of two motions of the Earth, the yearly revolution (which became the epicycle of planets) and the daily rotation (known by the Ancients as the Prime Mover). (( Geocentric model ))
Primary directions are the primary predictive method (combined with profections and solar returns) not just because they were always the favourite method of ancient astrologers, on which they based several famous predictions, but especially because they are based on the motion of the Prime Mover, the Primum Mobile.
As Prof. Bezza writes:
The astronomy of primum mobile is opposed to the one of secundi mobiles…..The first, which concerns of the law of daily motion, concerns what in the world of generation has the characteristic of continuity; the second, concerning planetary motion, is linked with appearances one different from the other, and in the world of generation is linked with everything is different and opposite.
In this sky are the roots of time. There is no difference in quality, but in time. One belongs to the planetary spheres, which show it running through their orbs. The second is based on the same planets, which are dragged, rupti, by the breathless motion of the first mover. Putting together these two things is the greater part of the art of forecasting. (( Giuseppe Bezza, Le tavole del Primum Mobile nel Medioevo, in Astronomical amusements (Mimesis Edizioni, 2000). ))
The following is a short and simple – I hope so – way to calculate Ptolemy’s directions – semiarc method, without logarithms, sinus, trigonometry, rotating spheres and all the paraphernalia that generally accompany the subject.
We need just Morinus software – we can download for free here because we need a couple of data from its speculum, and two ratios, that’s all. Then we will have all the secrets of the Universe in our hands.
SOME INTRODUCTORY WORDS BY ANDREA ARGOLI
Andrea Argoli in his book – very appreciated by William Lilly,the Tabulae Primi Mobilis, in fact explains:
Eternal Providence of the Perfect and High God teaches that this lower sphere should be ruled by second causes and all those activities, both inner and outer, concerning human beings come from God, through Angels and Celestial bodies, and that the greater part of them is written – as Albert the Great writes in his Mirror of Astronomy, in the book of the Universe, which is the the Scroll of the Sky.
There it is shown with the greatest order, what is needed for ruling so much a great work, not just for the influences to which a human being is subordinate, but their time and ways which cannot be changed.
They are dependant on the motion of directions, which are the executors of these influences and of God’s will. (( Andrea Argoli, Le direzioni astrologiche. Trattato di calcolo delle direzioni primarie con le tabelle delle ascensioni oblique e rette. (Il Pavone, 2008). ))
So this is the idea behind this technique in the most important astrologers of every time: there is not so perfect tool of prediction as primary directions.
But what is a direction?
Let’s start from symbolic directions:
our example chart
the symbolic direction here will be the arc between two points taken on the ecliptic, from 6 Leo to 3 Virgo, measured according a fixed key which is 1 degree per year.
In the example chart 27 degrees are 27 ALWAYS 27 years, whatever planet we are considering.
In the same way, a primary direction according the same Argoli:
is the arc of EQUATOR intercepted between two points in the sky; and precisely the measurement of the path of the Promissor according the motion of the Primum mobile, in order that its position will arrive to the Significator.
The two positions which should be taken into consideration by astronomers are:
- the Significator (which could be a planet or another point on the ecliptic) shows in the sky something about life, uses, fortunes and more;
- the Promissor, which decides and promises both the good and the evil in the category of life signified by the significator, which will be fulfilled when the promissor will reach the significator.
In our example we should move Mercury, the Promissor according the motion of the Primum Mobile, ie against the order of the signs, till it will arrive to the Sun, the Significator.
But in this case every point has a different speed as we will see below.
Unfortunately which was the right method of directing was not so clear in Argoli times, during 1500-1600. The same Argoli admits, some lines after his poetical preface:
After having left behind all the methods of directing used by Ancients, because not proper to the subject and to practical experience, two methods are left to the astronomers in order to calculate directions and foresee future events.
One is Ptolemy method which he teaches with very poor clarity in the third book of Tetrabiblos and just a few followed.
The other is the one followed by other astronomers and it is the method used in the tables calculated by Johannes Regionontanus and which is called rational.
Obviously Argoli follows Regiomontanus. Ptolemy’s method will be explained and “perfected” under the guide of reason -together with Ptolemy by Placido, a monk born in Perugia in 1603 (Argoli was born in 1570).
According some researchers Ptolemy’s method as explained by Placido was anticipated by important Renaissance astronomers and astrologers, (( Giulio Verbese ((http://www.cieloeterra.it/articoli.diedo/diedo.html but see even bibliography below)). )) but Ptolemy’s method, the semiarc method, is now called and known as Placido’s method.
ZODIACAL AND “IN MUNDO” DIRECTIONS
Whatever method we choose, we have two different groups of directions, zodiacal and the mundane directions.
Let’s come back to our example chart:
in Zodiacal ones we should move not the real body of planets but their ecliptic degree. Considering they are called “zodiacal” directions, in this case we call it the direction of the Sun to Mercury because APPARENTLY we are moving according the motion of the signs, but this is just a fiction, in effect we are still moving Mercury degree to the Sun degree.
in Mundane ones we should move the real body of the planet with its latitude. Again we will move Mercury, the Promissor to the Sun, the Significator.
This is the rule.
Ptolemy admits a case when it’s the significator which moves, when the hyleg – the giver of life- is in the second quadrant (between MC and DESC) In this case, which is called horimea, when the hyleg sets in the West this will signify the end of life. About this I gave an example here.
DIRECTIONS TO ANGLES
Directions to angles are very easy.
Ptolemy writes:
Further, in prorogations of the ascendant, the degrees of distances will be equal in number to the ascensional times of the particular latitude; but, in prorogation, from the mid-heaven, to the times of culmination; and, in other prorogations, they will be in proportion to the ascensions, or descensions, or culminations, and will depend on their proximity to the angles; as has been already said in treating of the duration of life ((Tetrabiblos, IV 10))
So when we direct to the angles we should direct using oblique ascension when we are directing a point, a star, or a planet to the Ascendant and use right ascension when we are directing to the MC.
I already gave some example of this in another post. (( See Deborah Houlding article in the bibliography. ))
DIRECTIONS TO POINTS
The problem arises when we should direct a point to another because in this case we cannot use neither oblique or right ascension.
So let’s see how to solve this problem with Semiarc/ Placido method.
Formula is easy and intuitive; the arc of direction is the distance of the two points multiplied for the speed of the moving planet, the promissor.
The speed of promissor is measured in temporal hours, ie 1/6 of the planet semiarc.
The point position is measured by its hourly distance, ie the distance from its meridian in hours. So this distance will be zero when the point or the planet is on the meridian, will be 6 when it will be on the ASC or DESC.
arc of direction = (distance from Promissor to Significator) * Promissor speed
so if they are in the same quadrant
arc of direction= (Promissor’s Hourly Distance -Significator’s Hourly Distance) * Promissor’s Temporal Hour
and in different quadrants:
arc of direction= (Promissor’s Hourly Distance+ Significator’s Hourly Distance) * Promissor’s Temporal Hour
Piero Marrazzo, 29th July 1958 h.8:40 pm Rome (rectified time)
This is the chart of Piero Marrazzo, former governor of Lazio.
At the moment he is on the first pages of all Italian newspapers because he resigned because blackmailed as usual customer of trangenders and transexuals. Corrupted policemen made a video while Marrazzo was with a transexual prostitute and then tried to sell to several newspapers, included the ones owned by our Prime Minister, who is the chief of the opponent political party. Useless to explain what happened after.
The chart was rectified with some friends, directions and mistakes mine.
Pisces rising at the Ascendant, the ruler Jupiter is on the cusp of the 8th house. Saturn at the MC, against its hairesis, the sect, damages as better it can and wants – a day planet in an angle in a night chart.
The fall arrives with the Sun to Saturn sextile, arc of direction 51.098 (I took the result from Morinus software) corresponding to beginning of September 2009.
result from Morinus software
Marrazzo resigned a week ago but I understand that video is wandering between newspapers board of directors and political groups since end of July, then to Berlusconi at the end of September and then at last it arrived in front of magistrates last week.
Let’s give details of calculation.
The information we need from Morinus are the semiarc and the meridian distance of planets, having set Placido house system.
If planets are taken in mundo we can go directly to “POSITIONS” in TABLES menu.
If we want direct planets in zodiaco, we should eliminate latitude, so we can easily go to OPTIONS/PRIMARY DIRECTIONS/ and then choose USER. There we can set planets longitude but latitude zero.
Saturn sextile is the promissor.
Saturn is at 19 Sagittarius, so the relevant sextile will be 19 Libra.
If we consider the direction in zodiaco (with latitude zero),
19 Libra, Saturn sextile has:
semiarcus: 83.03.57
meridian distance: 56.19.31
that’s all we need to calculate
temporal hour=semiarc/6= 83.065/6= 13.844
hourly distance = meridian distance/temporal hour = 56.325/13.844=4.068
6 Leo, the Sun has in the same way
semiarcus: 72.17.39
meridian distance: 54.7.41
so the temporal hour is 12.049
and the hourly distance 4.49
Now we can use the formula:
arc of direction= (Promissor’s Hourly Distance+ Significator’s Hourly Distance ) * Promissor’s Temporal Hour
Before applying the formula we should notice that Saturn should cross the horizon, from day to night. In this case we will use day temporal hour till the Descendant and then the night hour which is always 30-day hour.
Saturn sextile is at 4.068
It will arrive to the Descendant in 6-4.068=1.93
at a speed of 13.844
direction to the Descendant= 13.844*1.93=26.71
Going through the Descendant its speed changes at 30-13.844= 16.156
From the Descendant to Sun the arc is:
6-4.49= 1,51
So the arc from Desc to the Sun will be
1.51*16.15=24.38
total arc= 24.38+26.71=51.09
it fits, true?
Easier than this, it’s impossible. But feel free to comment and ask.
Written by Margherita Fiorello, CIDA certified member, for heaven astrolabe blog @ year 2009. If you want to be notified the next time I write something, subscribe to my RSS feed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES
Morinus can be downloaded at https://sites.google.com/site/pymorinus/
Martin Gansten, Primary directions: astrology’s old master Technique (The Wessex Astrologer, 2009).
Giancarlo Ufficiale, Le direzioni - Scuola Cida Roma
Deborah Houlding, An easy introduction to primary directions
Lucia Bellizia, Dirigere la sfera per comprendere gli influssi futuri, in “E’ il cielo un libro”: Acts of the second Congress of Apotelesma, 2009.
Giovanni Zattini, Anareta versus Afeta: le direzioni di Claudio Tolomeo. in Linguaggio Astrale n. 93-1993
Giovanni Zattini, Horimea, la direzione conversa. in Linguaggio Astrale n.98-1995
Giuseppe Bezza, Tetrabiblos (private translation)
Claudius Ptolemaeus, Le previsioni astrologiche (cura Simonetta Feraboli), Scrittori greci e latini (Milano: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla : A. Mondadori, 1985).
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