Traditional Astrology: Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos

J. M. Ashmand

• Editorial: Books on Demand
• Año: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783748107828
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Politics & International Relations
• Categoría: Political Freedom

In this little volume will be found the whole of the elements of astrology, and the entire ground-work of those stupendous tomes in folio and quarto on the same subject, which were produced in myriads during the 16th and 17th centuries, for the due mystification of the then world. The present volume is addressed equally to the general reader, as well as to the votary of pure astrology, if any such there be; to the one it offers amusement; for the other, it should contain the most glowing interest. Even to the speculative metaphysician it will furnish food for contemplation; for, in addition to its peculiar hypothesis of cause and effect, it develops many of those apparent incongruities of character so often united in the same individual; and this development, even although adapted to the doctrine of the stars, still merits attention; inasmuch as the phenomena of which it treats (in whatever way they may be produced or regulated) will ever remain in actual existence.

CHAPTER XXIII THE DISPOSITION OF THE TERMS 1

THERE are two methods of disposing the terms of the planets, in reference to the dominion of the triplicities; one is Ægyptian, the other Chaldaic.


But the Ægyptian method preserves no regular distribution, neither in point of successive order nor in point of quantity.


In point of order it is defective, since it, in some instances, allots the first degrees of a sign to the lord of the house, in others to the lord of the triplicity, and in others again to the lord of the exaltation. By selecting examples this failure in order will easily be seen; for instance, if the order were regulated by the government of houses, for what reason should Saturn take the first degrees in Libra, since that sign is the house of Venus? or why should Jupiter take them in Aries, which is the house of Mars? If the government of triplicities were followed, for what reason should Mercury take the first degrees in Capricorn, which is in the triplicity ruled by Venus? If the government by exaltations, why should Mars take the first degrees in Cancer? that sign being the exaltation of Jupiter. And if the order were regulated even by considering the planet which possesses most of these dignities in the sign, for what reason should Mercury take the first degrees in Aquarius, in which sign he rules only by triplicity, and why not Saturn, who has government in it by house, as well as by triplicity? or why in short should Mercury, who does not possess any kind of dominion in Capricorn, receive the first degrees in that sign also? The same want of order is abundantly evident in the rest of the distribution.


An equal irregularity exists in the respective quantities of degrees allotted by the Ægyptians to the several terms of the planets. For it is by no means a proper nor sufficient demonstration of accuracy that the aggregate sum of all the numbers of every single planet amounts to the precise total requiring to be divided into portions of time; 2 since, even if it be admitted that this total, collected from every single star, is correctly asserted by the Ægyptians, it may still be objected that the same total, so collected by them, may be found in many other ways by interchanging the numbers in a sign. There are persons also who contend that in every latitude the same space of time is occupied in ascension by every star; this, however, is manifestly wrong: for, in the first place, these persons are guided by the vulgar opinion of the plane heights of ascension, which is totally foreign to truth, and according to which, in the parallel of Lower Ægypt, the signs of Virgo and Libra would ascend each in thirty-eight degrees and a third, 1 and Leo and Scorpio each in thirty-five degrees; when it is, on the contrary, shown by the Tables, 2 that the latter two signs occupy in their several ascensions more than thirty-five degrees each, but Virgo and Libra less. It should further be observed, that those who support this opinion seem (by so doing) not only to dispute the quantity of the terms most generally received, but to be driven also to the necessity of falsifying many points; since (as it is indispensable to keep to the same total amount of all the terms together) they make use of parts of degrees; but even that contrivance does not enable them to reach the true point.


The old terms, admitted by many persons on the authority of former tradition, are as follows:


THE TERMS ACCORDING TO THE ÆGYPTIANS

Aries			Taurus			Gemini			Cancer			Leo			Virgo
Jupiter	6	6	Ven.	8	8	Mer	6	6	Mars	7	7	Jup.	6	6	Mer.	7	7
Venus	6	12	Mer.	6	14	Jup.	6	12	Ven.	6	13	Ven.	5	11	Ven.	10	17
Mercury	8	20	Jup.	8	22	Ven.	5	17	Mer.	6	19	Sat.	7	18	Jup.	4	21
Mars	5	25	Sat.	5	27	Mars	7	24	Jup.	7	26	Mer.	6	24	Mars	7	28
Saturn	5	30	Mars	3	30	Sat.	6	30	Sa...