War in Heaven

Hyeronymus Bosch

 

The recent thoughts of Pablo Ianiszewski F.  in ISCA has motivated me to write, after a long period of silence while busy writing my last book.

I have raised a few points which, if they are not true,  certainly they are worth to be discussed.

In my ancient studies of astrology I tended to see the planets as the primary causation of the facts . Malefic planets caused harm, the benefics, benefits.

But after years, I have approached a non-causal, a more synchronic view of the events. The understanding of this synchronicity, if it can be sought in the celestial configuration, will not occur because the planets cause harm or blessings on earth.

I would like to point out that I agree with my colleague Pablo Ianiszewsky. An excess of  heat or cold is not conducive to the development of life. This is not under discussion.

Probably the fact that some planets are more distant from the Sun, the creator of life, led the astrologers to divide them in their basic characteristics. The more distant from the Sun  the  more malefics would the planets turn out.  Jupiter is an exception, probably because it has an affinity with Sagittarius which  makes a trigon with the Sun, the diurnal luminar, and with Pisces which makes a sextile with the Moon, the nocturnal light. The mix of aspects with luminaries, added to the distance of the Sun, must have influenced the ancients in their classifications in hot, cold, wet and dry.

This ground raises many questions that I do not want to discuss here, but one thing perhaps may be quite interesting to have in mind i.e. that  such classification depends on the human view of the elements, and it changes culturally, as we can see in the Eastern philosophy in which the element wood or metal also have room.

What I really would like to bring about in these few lines is that the intrinsic planetary essence goes far beyond the earth and that we know nothing about the planets, which are beings, each of them having their own inscrutable cosmic purpose and having to seek it far beyond the pettiness of our little world.

My view is that, we, as human inhabitants of this part of the universe, the earth, embedded in one of the hundreds of galaxies, depending essentially of the Sun, the principle of all life, tend to classify the visible planets according to the effect they cause to us.

I remember that Alchabitius saw Saturn esoterically as the first planet to which all the others follow. He says that Saturn is the first to operate on conception after the shedding of semen in the womb, contracting and unifying the matter with which the being is formed. Also in the Poimandres, it is said that the soul descends through the celestial spheres. Rudolf Steiner followed more or less this tone, when he explained that the soul comes from the universe and creates the skeleton through Saturn, until arriving at Venus that beautifies the flesh and finally reaches the Moon, rounding of the forms, shortly before the birth.

Much is supposed, but nothing is known for certain about planets and their intrinsic nature.

I have more and more the impression that the planets are not concerned with events on earth, but with their own interplanetary relationships.

I have raised the hypothesis that the chaotic or harmonic events that we experience have to do with the way the planets treat each other.

Evil derives from the evil way that one planet deals with  the other in a specific structure and this is reflected in efects  on earth, in a specular way, as it happens in the entire universe.

For example, if Mars attacks Jupiter, without mutual reception and especially being in a higher position, that is, considering as the majority of astrologers, that the planet in higher position is the one in the right, events will happen according to the nature of both, but the massacre will be especially bloody for everything that represents justice.

If things go the other way, and Jupiter is in a position above Mars, the result would be the victory over criminals, smashed by justice.

By this I mean that a square, just to name a kind of aspect, has a different meaning if one planet has a superior position in relation to the other. This explains the fact that there are squares that come to good and others that come to evil.

Even the trigons, an aspect of friendship, in a case where a malefic is one making the aspect, can have a paltry result if the malefic is in a superior position.

It is as if one o the planets falls from the high smashing the one beneath him.

I will quote one fresh example, a fact that happened today in my country, when our president, visibly suspected of criminality, was released by the court to follow his mandate, instead of suffering an impeachment.

Let me explain: Jupiter in Libra occupied the the 7th house, Libra, when the Sun entered in Cancer. Saturn, the ruler of the MC,  was cadent and retrograde,  occupying the 9th house.

Jupiter was then in a superior position, so we could imagine that ethics should prevail and this is a possiblle way to understand retrogradation: Saturn was walking towards Jupiter. This movement between planets in strong reception is always surprising, because turns out the lower planet pretty active  in his movement towards the other. Faced with the deep relationship between the two, one planet in the sign of the other, Jupiter ruling Sagittarius and Saturn ruling Libra for exaltation, I predicted in the  beginning of the third quarter of the year that the president would obtain support.

In fact, Saturn, ruler of Midheaven, constrained the law( Jupiter), which weighed against him, and favored Jupiter with  facilities, in the generous Sagittarius way, with which Jupiter has so much affinity.

Had the position of the planets been changed by signs the result would be different.

Brazilien people got a bit disapointed, that is fact. But the result  essentially is neither bad nor good from an universal point of view.

In this way, duality, in my humble opinion, is only one facet of ONE and same thing: that “thing” that human mind does not reach and that in its smallness calls good or evil.

Clélia Romano, DMA ( writed at August the 3rd of 2017)

 

 

 

Some thoughts about malefic and benefic planets

The last Mars / Saturn  conjunction in Sagittarius, on August 24th, 2016, raises some important considerations.

On the same day of the conjunction it happened there was an earthquake in Italy and 240 people were killed.

Here in Brazil the the impeachment trial of President Dilma Rousseff  was initiated by the Senate..

Ordinary people face problems of various kinds, especially those with planets in mutable signs.

In the heavens, most of the planets and luminaries are in Virgo. Virgo is Brazil´s Solar Sign, and the malefics in Sagittarius happen to be on the MC of this country.

Dilma Rousseff, who withdrew from the Presidency, has Mars in Virgo at 4 degrees, the Sun in Sagittarius at 25 degrees, Jupiter and Mercury at 11º and 10º. The malefic conjunction is activating  these points defiantly.

We can imagine that the Senate vote will not be  positive for the president.

I’m reminded of Steven Birtchfield´s words, when he wrote of the Zodiac as “living signs”

I consider it a very appropriate expression and we can observe that in heavens Sagittarius and all double signs are suffering, and the reflection of this is the situation in earth.The universe is a living organism and if one of its parts suffers, the whole body suffers.

Mundane occurrences depend on each natal chart and on the ruler ship of each planet in the signs.

But what strikes me is that we should keep in mind a reorientation.

The allocation off benefic and malefic planets comes  down to us from the Babylonians. However, there are features that go beyond the benefics bringing good things in life and malefics bringing bad experiences.

If we take a malefic and observe how he exercises his malfeasance, we tend to think that it is so called because of causing harmful things in our world. The real evil characteristic of the planet, however, rests in the fact that he treats other planets badly and such treatment, by synchronicity, reflects in our world.

Indirectly the malefic qualities belonging to Saturn and Mars translates into bad events that occur to humans, but in the first instance is the  war in heavens the responsible factor. The opposite effect is caused by the benefics, which treat well and benefit the other planets.

In a way, the idea that planetary relations should be seen from a heavenly point of view and not from the human point of view should always be remembered.

This is a focus  that we must get used to.

Explaining better we can reach the difference between benefics and malefics not because of a human perspective, but because in the first place, the living planets are suffering,  and this is caused by Saturn and Mars, squaring Virgo, afflicting the Sun and the Moon,( at least in the conjunction chart for Brazil), squaring the Nodes and all the planets in Virgo. The living creatures are suffering because Mars and Saturn are malefics, and their suffering causes tragedies on earth, but the point is to give light on WHY a planet is said to be malefic, and the answer is that it is because he cause war in heavens.

Clélia Romano, DMA     August 2016

 

IS THE RUMOR TRUE OR FALSE?

 A  handy table constructed by Clélia Romano   

         according to  W.Lilly Teachings[i]

  Dedicated to my friends and partners

   Steven Birchfield and Peter Clark

                                         

       NO Means false

        YES Means true

 

1– Lord of the ASC in an angle
YES              NO

2– Moon in an angle

YES              NO

3– Dispositor of the Moon in an Angle

YES              NO

4– The dispositor of the Moon in a fixed sign.
YES              NO

5-Moon in a fixed sign?

YES              NO

6 -Moon in fixed Signes, separating from the infortunes and applying to a fortunate Planet, placed in any Angle

YES for a good rumor      NO for bad ones

7-Mercury separating from the an infortune and applying to a fortunate Planet, placed in any Angle

YES for a good rumors       NO for bad ones

8.Lord of the ASC is in a fixed sign?

YES              NO

9-Moon is in a sucedant house?

YES             NO

10- Moon in good aspect with the fortunate Planets, viz.in Sextile or trine of Jupiter, Venus or Sun?

YES ( for the good rumors    NO for bad ones

11-Lord of the ASC is in a sucedent house?

YES              NO

12– Lord of the Asc in good aspect with the fortunate Planets, viz.in Sextile or trine of Jupiter, Venus or Sun?

YES for good rumors             NO for bad rumors

13– Lord Of ASC, afflicted by the infortunes

YES              NO
14-Moon cadent in house (even if strong in the sign)

YES              NO

15– Lord of the Asc. is cadent in house (even if strong in the sign)

YES              NO

16– There are some malefic sitiated in the third of rumors?

YES              NO

17– Third house Lord afflict by malefic

YES              NO

 

 COMPLEMENTARY TABLE

                     NO Means false

                   YES  Means true

 

 

1– Are the angles of the figure in fixed signs?

YES               NO

2 Are the angles of the 4^th and of the 10^th in fixed signs?

YES               NO

3 Third house Lord is in the 3^rd?

YES               NO

4 Third house´s lord is in a fixed sign?

YES               NO

5: Are the Angles of the 4^th and of the 10^th in fixed signs and the Moon is received in them?
YES               NO

 

 

[i] Instruction to use the Table: You have to print it and compare your chart according with each one of the questions above, underlying the answer for each one. After sum up the Columns saying YES and the columns saying NO.

You might compare with the last complementary table to check out your conclusions.

The Native´s Profession According to Medieval Authors

This article is a summary of a chapter of my 2nd book, The Practice of Traditional Astrology that deals with the native´s profession. Since the book is not being translated into English I think it would be useful to summarize it here.

Aside that, I have at this time some charts that are not apparently easy to delineate and I want to show that the medieval instructions if well studied can delineate them.

Please refer to Stefen Birtchfield´s article on this same blog, because I will not repeat the same considerations he made and it is important to take them into account.

So in this article we will focus especially on the native profession, the work,

duties and their strength and power to perform actions in the world.

The delineation of the native’s profession according to Medieval sources which will be addressed here reveals a skill that is the native backdrop for a lifetime.

To outline the type of profession that appears in the natal chart following the Medieval technique is quite different from the simplification that occurred in astrology in modern times.

Nowadays if you just outline the ruler of the MC and see if there are planets aspecting this place, people can talk about the profession, when in fact the Medieval procedure is much more complex.

Delineating the ruler of the 10th house and the planets in aspect to it is only part of one of the techniques, a second choice.

Guido Bonatti gives attention mainly   to   the   rising sign not only because it is the   most important house   of the chart,   but   also because   the Ascendant   can show whether the native has the corresponding body to perform some kind of work.

For example, a warrior or a weight charger must have an Ascendant pointing to the necessary body structure to carry out such tasks. Everything must be connected , as the temperament and the primary motivation, until we get to the correct significator.

The chart should be read in conjunction in order to reach some exact point that is the way through which the native will express himself or herself professionally.

In practice we have to determine whether the native conformation of body is masculine, feminine or neutral, if the temperament is mental, emotional, or vital, just as Stefen Birtchfield have observed.

We will not address to these issues here, but just remember that they provide important information.

Bonatti tells us to use the Ascendant in the first place: if there is a planet   there, it should   be used as a significator   of the native ‘s profession. If there are no planets in the first house, we have to look at the 10th house and if there is a planet there it must be considered in relation to the native´s profession as well.

If we do not find planets in the first house or in the 10th house, we look to the fourth house and the seventh house. Planets in 7th house mean that the native has several small jobs or is employed sometimes and not regularly, and his profession is not solid. The 4th House is considered stronger   than   the   seventh   if we are   looking   for   the   professional significator.

So if we have planets in angles we can use them to evaluate and discover the native’s professional choice.

Bonatti says that if there are planets in these four angles we have to make an Almuten of these angles and observe if this planet has dignity in the

10th house as lord of domicile, exaltation, triplicity or term.

If the significator is eastern to the Sun and western in relation to the Moon it strengthens it, but if it does not happen, we still can use it, but it is weaker.

The next step is if no planet was found so far.

In this case we have to observe the planet to whom the Moon will first apply after the SAN, if the nativity is diurnal and if the nativity is nocturnal we have to observe the first planet that will join to the Part of Fortune.

Note also that a planet   can be used if it is coming out of the Sun’s rays,

but further away, no more than 20 degrees, especially if this planet is

Mars, Mercury or Venus .

Notice if this planet or any planet which is in the angles is aspecting the

Moon.

This initial list points to the fact that there are several positions   that are able to indicate a planet as professional significator and if we find a planet with two of these conditions we can use it as the professional significator.

Reviewing what you should consider:

1-   Planet in the 1st or 10th house or in the angles (use whole signs, according to Bonatti ) .

2 – If the planet is eastern   to the Sun and aspects the Moon it has preference.

3 – If it is the first planet aspecting the SAN in a diurnal nativity or the

Part of Fortune in a nocturnal nativity.

4- If a planet is coming out of the sun’s rays, no farther than 20º.

5 – If a planet is eastern to the Sun in a diurnal nativity or western to the

Moon in a nocturnal nativity.

When we find a planet with one of these conditions we should consider it, and outline the native ‘s profession from it , especially if it is Mercury, Venus or Mars and if it has any dignity in the 10th House .

The dignity of face or decan is very weak and is not used.

If one of the three mentioned planets are in aspect to the Sun and Moon ,or even more strongly, if a reception is intervening, means that the native will have a profession and a job , will go ahead and will use it with ease, and the profession will be able to give him enough financial resources.

If we have more of one professional significator, we have to chose the one with more dignity in the place where it is in.

When the chart do not meet any of these conditions and in a diurnal nativity and there   is no planets   aspecting   the Sun or if we are   dealing with a nocturnal nativity and there is no planets aspecting the Moon, or if the Moon is not linked to any planet, the professional significator must be sought by looking to the planet from which the Moon was separated recently or from the master of the house where the Part of Fortune is located or from the one which fits best.

If the planet   that resulted   from all this study is fortunate, in good

condition and even more if it is aspected friendly by Mercury, it means that the native will be good at his profession, versed in the science of numbers and writing or mechanical work, and has good intellect and progress in his professional life.

If Saturn is making a nice aspect to this planet and is in good condition and well prepared, it means that the native can benefit from farmlands and plantations and if Saturn aspects it from the tenth house means that the native will rise to large regencies and responsibilities , but with lots of hard work .

If Jupiter is aspecting the professional planet or if reception intervenes it means that the native will be honest and wise, or a writer, and will rise and live with princes, kings and great men.

If Mars is aspecting the significator or if he is itself the significator it indicates that the native is prone to medicine and surgery, but also to theology and will have a mind that will be applied without difficulty to these things and he will be smart and resourceful.

According to Masha’allah (The Book of Aristotle, translated by Benjamin Dykes, we read that if the Ascendant gives signs of a blind native he will be deprived of having a profession.

In addition   , we should   pay attention to some important points   to disentangle the native profession:

1 – Venus, Mercury and Mars are important because they rule crafts.

2 – The application of the New or Full Moon before the Nativity of these three planets should be considered.

3 – The orientality or westernization of the three planets should   be

considered .

4 – The local of the Part of Kingship   should   be considered. This Part is constructed from Mercury to Mars by day and the result is added to the Ascendant   (ASC + Mars-Mercury) and   from   Mars to   Mercury   in nocturnal nativities (ASC +Mercury-Mars).

5 – The nature of the signs in which the three planets are must be considered.

6 – Consider the angles and planets in them: Ascendant, 10th, 7th house and 4h house.

7 – Consider the signs after the angles and also the sixth sign, as said by

Abu Bakr based in Paul of Alexandria and Rethorius .

Ptolemy, Dorotheus and Hephaistio have prioritized the 10th house, the 4th house and the Ascendant plus the location of the Lot of Fortune checking if Mercury, Venus or Mars was in one of those places . If is not the case, they recommend to look if one of these three was near to the Moon or to the Sun, and if you do not find any planet able to give professions, they warned to observe the sixth house and then the second.

Traditional sources used to   delineate   the native ‘s profession took into account Venus, Mercury and Mars, their houses and terms or whether they were Eastern or Western, or if they are aspected by benefics or harmful planets. The authors took into consideration also the Lot of Work   or   Kingship,   verifying if its ruler   was configured   to Venus, Mercury and Mars .

If Venus , Mercury and Mars are not aspecting the Ascendant or the Midhaeven the native would not have skill or profession.

Masha’allah however has considered Jupiter and Saturn as professional significators. My opinion is that they can bring a new dimension to the profession.

The greatest glories would be coming from the position in angles and the

orientality or westernization of the planet .

The beneficial planets indicate luck and wealth and the evil ones threaten with poverty and starvation.

Abu Bakr said the following, ” The ancients did not concede dominion over the profession other than to 3 planets (Venus , Mercury and Mars ) , and rightly so, because Saturn, Jupiter , the Sun and Moon do not mean professions without the partnership of these planets . The Sun which means royalty and kings , high officials and traders that have slaves below them, so they themselves take care of the king. Saturn is the master of laziness, greed , weight, madness and sadness and so if Saturn is peregrine in the nativity   without a good aspect of the 3 planets that signify professions or if he is aspecting badly that three planets , the native will suffer injuries and be disapproved because of his profession and he will not seek rest for his sake , but because of his misery , and if some planet is helped by Saturn in a powerful aspect , the native can still work the land , channel fill , bury the dead and move from place to place or work in fields and vineyards as a slave miserable or doing trade.

Since that Jupiter is the lord of religion and prayer and so, if he is without the help of other which give professions in certain nativity , that means that the native will be freed from secular things and will mediate those things between God and men, and will let the world behind and will have a poor life.

The Moon is the lady of weakness, fast, light and of low intellect response and his great work is to come and go. It means working with your hands and feet and this according to the reception and respect to the other three planets. If the Moon is not fortunate in a nativity the native will move without good fruits, and if it is strong it means carrying luggage and heavy things or working with the hands. Furthermore, it indicates those who bring discord among others for doing gossip”.

Therefore, Jupiter, Sun, Moon and Saturn are not themselves indicators of professions, each one for a reason, but they can give to the profession a special feature insofar the professional significator was in aspect with them and in good or bad condition, fortunate or not, or if mutual reception intervenes.

To discover the professional significator can be one of the most difficult tasks in astrology.

It often deceive us , because if the significator was for example , Mars , which represent warriors , was close to a star of the nature of Mercury , the native may make war with words. The same if Mars is in water sign and is aspected by Mercury.

Abu Bakr follows Rethorius and Paulus and says that the quality of the significator will reduce or give potential to the profession.

Now I´ll show you two charts , one from a sculptor and the other from a singer;

We do not see Mercury, Venus and Mars in angles. But Rodin, a very important sculptor has Mars in the same sign that the Fortune. So we must look at Mars as a potential significator. Mercury receives it by domicile.

We see also that Mercury is conjunct Venus, in the Fortune´s 4th house, so angular to the Fortune.

The MC domicile master is Venus and if we consider the point of Midheaven we observe that Mars is its domicile lord.

The Asc. is in a earth sign, showing that the primary motivation is the material security.

Mars is the exaltation lord of the Asc. and the lord of the domicile of the Sun: and we are dealing with a diurnal chart.

Creating form in the formless world was the way that the native used to perform his mastership and he was fully recognized by it. We can imagine how much strength someone must have to create a human figure out from a stone.

It not easy to delineate the native´s profession from this chart, but using the Medieval techniques the chart becomes very clear.

The chart above pertains to the nativity of George Michael , an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Michael rose to superstar, one of the world’s best-selling music artists.

We see the same aspect that we saw in Rodin´s chart, but like a mirrored chart.

The result is the same: fame and money. But this time the Asc is Cancer, which has as primary motivations the necessity of emotional security.

Mars is in the same sign of the Fortune and Mercury and Venus are in the 10th from the Fortune. His temperament is much more sanguine than Rodin´s, which was mostly melancholic.

Both charts shows how important is to look at the Part of Fortune always and especially when we are dealing with the professional significator, one of the most difficult tasks.

At first I thought that the success of George Michael was due to the Sun, in a diurnal chart, having Jupiter and Saturn in masculine signs , working as doriphories, but it is much more plausible that the explanation of his profession stands on the Fortune and the planets angular to them.

We can say that the life of George Michael was easier than the Rodin´s life, and that Rodin´s profession was much harder and heavy, due the hard aspect between Venus and Saturn.

Clélia Romano,DMA

The collective meaning of Jupiter in Leo – A Traditional Approach

The collective meaning of Jupiter in Leo – A Traditional Approach

Clélia Romano, DMA

“This article was published in the Autumn 2014 by
The Quarterly Journal of NCGR-NYC”

 

I know that many readers are not used to a traditional point of view, so my purpose here is to show that classical astrologers using traditional tools are able to give a meaningful and direct reading of a chart.

I´ll begin by saying that the entry of Jupiter into Leo can be seen from a dual perspective.

On the one hand, any planet that leaves his own sign loses a great honor. Jupiter was in its exaltation in Cancer, and now, entering into Leo, a sign of fire, it still has some dignity since it is in its own triplicity. So it is like a man among friends, but it is not the boss anymore.

Jupiter in Leo is preparing to make a square with Saturn, the last of them since its departure from the conjunction back in 2000.
This time Jupiter challenges Saturn. It throws itself on Saturn as a fighter occupying a superior position. Many things must be adjusted at this time. Jupiter, as a representative of what is wise, fair and wealthy will impose its meaning on the Saturnian limitation. In a way it is good news, but it will take its toll by the necessary adjustment.
Previously, when in Cancer, Jupiter applied to Saturn by trine, let´s say trying to convince it with its best manners to be good and behave with a certain  indulgence.

Saturn is in the sign of Mars and at the end of August it experienced the conjunction with its ruler, the worst and most malefic mundane conjunction.
Therefore, the presence of Jupiter in top position in this configuration brings some hope for the troubled times we live in, where the world has forgot the word piety, where virtue and wisdom were put aside in favor of violence.
With the most recent entry of the Sun into Aries, the world lived through a really difficult configuration.
On that day, the Moon and Saturn were both in Scorpio.
The Moon has its fall in Scorpio becoming bloodthirsty, a murderer of her own children—and the presence of Saturn, to which the Moon was adhered, worsened the situation.
At the time, Mars was in Libra, the sign of its detriment, and we know that a malefic in bad celestial condition becomes sharper and destroys everything without a precise objective.
Jupiter in Cancer, the good boy, could not believe in evil things, and patted the head of the Moon, so to speak. After all, she was its dispositor.

So, the entry of Jupiter into the sign of Leo, where it does not take for granted the perpetuation of the heavens´ reign, besides the fact that it is squaring Saturn, can prove to be a hard but necessary lesson in reality.
Now, a short digression on the effects of Jupiter in the natal chart and in the ingress chart of the USA:

Looking over the natal chart of the USA, we note that both Saturn and Jupiter are exalted. This makes discipline and responsibility a matter of honor for the country. Besides that, Jupiter provides good luck in developments related to money and partners’ resources ( be they friends or foes). The exaltation of the radical Jupiter in the 8th House (using whole signs) makes the country too interested in profit and in using third parties to get it. The dispositor of Jupiter, the Moon, is in the sign of Saturn, Aquarius, which counteracts expansionary needs with appropriate responsibilities.

So the drama represented by the entry of the Sun into Aries (i.e. the conjunction of the Moon, as the Ascendant´s Lord, and Saturn, both giving testimony to Cancer) acted in a less dramatic way, because the country has a good radical Saturn and the ingress´s Ascendant was Cancer with Jupiter in it. Even if Jupiter carries its meaning of an 8th house planet, it is a benefic in exaltation conjunct Venus, which is certainly a positive omen.
However, the transiting Mars in Libra in the Aries ingress chart, near the radical Saturn, a place where it was sneaking for months, demanded a big effort to cope with declared and hidden enemies. I refer also to the fact that, in the natal chart, Mars is in 7th house, presaging war and fighting.

Any planet carries for the Solar Revolution its native sense,its topical meaning in the natal chart and in the case of Mars it would not be different.
But since the Aries ingress´s Ascendant for the USA was Cancer and Jupiter was transiting in the same sign of the radical chart, there was some protection and prosperity for the people, and the aggressive mood was properly muffled.

According to Abu Ma’shar and Masha’allah, in the revolution of the years of the world every time that the Ascendant falls in a cardinal sign as Cancer, Aries, Libra and Capricorn we have to cast another mundane chart in the exact minute when the Sun enters the first degree of Libra.

In this case we cast the following chart:

In this chart, if our ancient teachers were not wrong, it appears that the country can only avoid a serious confrontation with declared enemies by relying on the diplomatic skills of its aides. It will be necessary to deal with foreign countries, perhaps of different religions. The chart for September 22nd is certainly much harder for the USA than the one of March 20th, generating much concerns. Mars, a planet symbolizing fight is now occupying the 7th house, the same house he occupies in the natal chart, and Mars is in the sign of the USA´s Ascendant. So, we can expect danger.
The President will be required to have a gift for saying the right words at the right time. Fortunately, such a skill will not fail but there will be a mood of wear and tension.
Referring to Jupiter in Leo, now occupying the 9th house of the USA’s radical chart, we can say that there will be a weakening of domestic prosperity, because the 9th house is a cadent house—so it is weaker, representing other countries, but not money coming from partnership, as was the case with Jupiter in the first ingress chart. This time the attention will be turned to the foreign situation.
This was a brief summary of certain ideas I have on the subject. The future will say to which point I´m right.

August 2014

Freedom or Fate?

An (Almost) Eternal Question                                                                              

This question has tortured the minds of philosophers as well that of people in general. No doubt, to the astrologer, this is a primary issue, since astrology looks for the interaction between the stars in order to predict human destiny.

With the rebirth of modern astrology in the beginning of the last century, several concepts based on the present issue were raised and it was postulated that ancient astrology was based on immutable destiny without any regard on free will.

The fact is that when Astrology was rediscovered  it had considerable differences from the kind of Art it  was practiced since remote ages until the seventeenth century. Based on the rationalism and in a time where there was no traditional  teachers and ancient books where almost lost or not translated in modern languages, such kind of astrology became muck akin of a  kind of psychological astrology and the predictive tool was lost.

Interesting enough. at the same time Freud developed the psychoanalytic theory, dividing the psychic instances in conscious and unconscious. Then, he spoke in Ego, Id and Superego, making it clear that small part of the mind was conscious and that, using his words, the Ego was a poor guy, having to manage and mediate conflicts between the Id, the pure instinct or the repressed impulses, the impositions of the Superego, and the reality.

Therefore  postulated that except the Ego, the major part of the other two psychic instances was unconscious, and even the moral standards have being created in large part by  unconscious influences. Thus instead of brag for having an human Ego the conscious is a poor thing trying to overcome influences that they had no idea from where they come from.

Freud´s theory initially aroused great rejection, especially with regard to sexuality, to which he gave excessive value for the moral standards of his time. But it was also a stroke  against the rationalism since it  limited the psychics  to the top of an iceberg, with the largest was submerged. Such a theory limited human freedom because the man himself has no access to the major part of his own mind, furthermore he is not able to handle with  thinks he do not know. The psychoanalysis as a self study  became the ideal way to gain some awareness and the increase at least in some degree knowledge e some domain of the mind and perhaps a little more of free will or control of internal states of mind.

Freud´s disciple and dear friend, at least in the beginning of the development of the psychoanalysis, Carl G. Jung finished by disagreeing of the master and adopting a kind of spirituality. Because of this, the friendship between them was broken. Jung sought what was common in the human unconscious and his research revealed that the unconscious had certain standards and archetypal myths that had great importance in the formation of the psyche. He believed in a mystical human side that played an important role in human mind.

Jung was all that the new astrology needed to use astrology the in a “younguian” approach: it gave them some legitimacy, but the problem is that they were mixing two distinct disciplines.

I cannot blame them since I was myself during 20 year a modern astrologer and when in 1980 I got interested in reading Morin I was not able to find a book of his in any place. We must remember that  the internet was in its beginning and there was no Google to send us any tip.

Even with the development of the traditional astrology in the end of the last century the majority of the astrologers became loyal to what was inferred by Alan Leo books or Jung, going astray and  currently remaining in a border between the Jungian psychological counseling and a kind of astrology based on recent concepts. The predictions ceased to be of importance because each person was able to “live” using free willing, a subjective manner of dealing with an astral configuration, so we, as astrologers cannot say much about any outcome.

The native is seen as somebody able to “deal” with astrological aspects, instead of being subject of them. There are no malefic planets for example since it depends on how you live them: astrological life become a bless.

As for Freud and Jung, both teachers were right, and they disagreed because they were like blinds, paraphrasing the old saying, looking to different parts of the elephant and describing it just touching only at its part.

This discussion took me back  to my youth and I hope you will not mind this tour. It was 1960 and I was still very young, attending high school. It would  happen  a formal debate in the school on the subject “determinism versus free will.”  I chose to defend the part of the group who advocated determinism, which was considered a kind of heresy.

The teachers looked at me with earnest air. By the way I got used to this behaviour: later in university when I embraced Freud and the psychoanalysis, many thought that if I was not mad I was following mad people. After that, when the psychoanalysis turn out to be the big idea of the moment I already was disappointed with it and quit to embrace spirituality and astrology, only to cope more social disapprove from my pairs.

Back to the my young age: I knew Freud only by listening about him but I defended determinism because I felt that Freud was right, and it was better to be supported by his ideas than to my strong feelings  in the مكتوب  or  Maktub meaning in Arabic that something was written.

Although my thesis was defended with passion, teachers gave cause to the group that advocated free will, simply because it was the obvious and correct while the determinism was a caveman thing.

Today, fifty years elapsed, it ceased to be something to discuss, in my point of view. On these deep waters of existence we are not sure of anything, and only the study of our own personal astrological chart  against the accidents that occurred  in our life, added to some wisdom, can be able to advise a man to choose one or the other way. That is, we do not vote in favor or against fate or free will by choice, but by studying and living and finally comparing both points of view after a experienced life.

Determinism rests on an apparent view that what came to be reaches its destination route accordingly to what was written before. Now, may I ask you what is the “before” if it has no existence in things that just happened and do not exists anymore, are no more in our hands to look at, being only reminded according to our fail and temperamental memory in the present?

Hieraclitus said that we never bath in the waters of the same river. How true are these words!

The future, in turn, is something that is expected, contained and restrained causing anxiety about  what may or may not be happen: the future is an interrogation. How can we change what we do not have?

Seeing past and future against these perspectives how we can construct a basis for an astrological chart interpretation? In which bases predictive astrology can be practiced? How can we know through heavens, planets and houses and according to way they are configured how is the native´s parents, children, finances, honors and adversity, siblings, health, etc.?

The only possible answer is that we see the astrological chart as the present. All is contained there: the past or future, but we do not distinguish what is one or the other.The present contains both.

To score them we developed techniques based on our mental temporalprocesses.

Past and future does not exist in the chart: but our mind based on time tries to put some temporal order on it.

The determinism is created by our own mind because all that exists contains the past and the future. The natal chart is like a seed. The orange seed creates a tree which is able to turn into an orange tree which will be strong and fruitful, or not so much, but it is determined to produce, if able, only oranges and not, even with chemical  amalgamation, other sort of fruits, like bananas.

While classical astrology describes the psychological characteristics of the individual, this is not its main idea. Even taking into account Moon, Ascendant and Mercury, to talk about the person of the native, is only one of the traditional astrologer´s focus.

As we are humans inserted in our memories and expectations we know that the native will or still has been married, prosperous, unfaithful, etc. because this is the present of his chart. Ordering in time all this material requires something very human: the notion of time.

Directions are the way that astrologers use temporality to put the chart in the context of time.
Thinking that this issue of determinism against  free will was of much dispute among philosophers and nowadays, I would like to made some more considerations to endorse my rationale.

At the beginning of Western philosophy the traditional astrology that we have notice emerged among people of Greek language, based on Neoplatonic and Stoic philosophy.

The Greek philosophers when thinking about this kind of matter suggested that the primordial seed being released it is the fate of anything, or hermamene, the organizing principle. Focusing on such seed the laws of necessity acts, the organizational principle,  that I  understand as being the laws of physics, a  unavoidable event in Earth. Perhaps this order provides the temporality phenomena in our world. The interesting part is the existence of Tucké, Fortuna, which provides random experiences. For example, against all odds, you do not take that plane that will explode in the air, or have got good luck in the lottery, where millions lose fortunes. In a humbler picture, you go to the city to buy bread and find a debtor and …you get paid.

Sure, Tuché can act as a misfortune: against all odds the horse you bet loses or even being able to a job you lose the train, arriving later, and other person was contracted, etc.

My question is : in what extent all this  examples were not able to be delineated, predicted. There are people who was doomed to win in games of all sorts. We can hardly think in this kinf of  fact as many coincidences happening to one only persons. In the same way there are others that always lose. Tuché being aspected by its rulership or exaltation lord explains the good fortune, but the Fortune, and at this point I agree to the philosophers, is not able to maintain anything not seeded or not provided in the chart as a whole.

Valens thinks such fortunes are fleeting and illusory and that the nativity at the end follow
its course, based on the radical chart, Hermamene and the Necessity, the physical laws and ordering (directions) happening accordingly to the first chart, the natal chart.

I have myself some dramatic  examples of this kind of thing:  people who were born with an unlucky, poor and sick,  with a good Part of Fortune, aspected by its ruler. This kind of charts happens to rose by Tuché for many years for later be defect in consequence sometimes of the Fortune itself that exposed the native to risks highlighted in the natal chart.

In the Timaeus, Plato’s famous work, it is said that when the Demiurge has created Earth and all that is contained in it, accordingly to the beautiful and love, the elements interfered  and  the order was not perfect. So it is possible that chance or Tuché was one of those things interfering in the order. They, the philosophers, did not think in this way, but my idea is that elements, initially were winds, with no big powers before Dorotheus got fanatic by them. I hardly believe that originally a thing made by the Demiurge was able to be destroyed by confuse elements. Before Dorotheus there was not given such importance to the elements. Anyway  for a reason or another Earth wasn´t an ideal plae to construct the beautifull and the lovely Demiurge´s idea and even  so, he decided “it was good”.

Human beings  need to believe in good luck and hope, there is some of demiurge in them, so they can go on. They prefer to believe in his own power and in his will to overcome the worst of human life: the generation and corruption, the inexorable fate of existence that distresses humanity: we are born, we grow and we die. What power we have about it, except through the interference of the physical laws?

And they are powerful: with our rational minds we have been able to do extraordinary things, but I do not know to what extent this road will be every time a happy one. Our rational mind elevated largely the rank of life, but the fact of maintaining a life that sometimes no longer brings any pleasure perhaps is not a good thing. I refer to exaggeration: people who live to see the point of the third passage of Saturn, and repeat in extreme old age which was already in the birth chart, that is, physical dependence, limitation, contempt of kin or, conversely, if the chart point in this direction, have four or five caregivers and live as babies.

Valens, in Book 5, talks about destiny and about the things that modifies it  apparently, but later what is in the natal chart prevails. He talks also about the directions that attenuate facts postponing them but at last the seed reveals itself.

Let me quote a paragraph taken from the Anthology Book V, which is a translation of the same work by Mark Riley.

“9K;6P. The Reason Why the Same Results Do Not Happen at Twelve-Year Intervals. Why Bad Results Happen Although Good Were Expected and Vice-Versa. Why Great Good or Bad Results Happen Even Though the Distribution is Located in Empty Signs.

It is necessary to inspect the past, the current, and the future chronocrators and to determine if they are passing from propitious to unpropitious, or from malefic to benefic places. <I say this> because often a nativity experiences an anxious period subject to the law and is condemned because of the chronocratorship of malefics. Later, however, when benefics take over and when the overall chronocratorship indicate that the nativity is secure, the nativity experiences a restoration of rank and livelihood through some defenses and the basis of the nativity advances to greater fortune. But whenever the nativity is carried to an inferior overall chronocratorship, and the chronocrators are in accord, then various disputes,accusations, trials, losses, and hatreds are prepared in advance until the nativity meets the crisis which is fated to happen. In the same way, if a cause of good occurs in the sequence of chronocrators, then friendships, associations and ties with the great, stewardships, legacies, and gifts are prepared.

As a result, those who were lowly and weak in their period of crisis are treated as noble, sensible, and charming because of the terms of good fortune. On the other hand, those who are entirely courageous and well educated (at least, according to the basis of the nativity from the beginning) are condemned and are considered coarse, cowardly, and ineffective, and they are oppressed by their inferiors.

These men bear their abasement nobly and yield to the laws of Fate. In the case of ruling nativities, we find that when the chronocrators are making the transition in succession with the others, even though the time of rule has not yet been reached, some men attain noteworthy and profitable rank, others tarry in na opposite, ruinous condition. As a result, for some men bad things become good and a source of safety; for others even apparent good later becomes a cause of evil.

Fate has decreed for each person the immutable working out of events, reinforcing this decree with many opportunities for good or bad consequences. Through the use of these opportunities, two selfbegotten gods, Hope and Fortune, the assistants of Fate, control man’s life and make it possible for him to bear Fate’s decrees by using their compulsion and deception. One of the two <Fortune> manifests herself to everyone through the forecasted outcome, proving herself to be good and kind at one time, at another time dark and grim. Fortune raises some high only to cast them down, and degrades others only to raise them to glory. The other of the two <Hope> is neither dark nor bright; she moves everywhere in disguise and in secret, smiling on everyone like a flatterer, and she displays many attractive prospects which cannot be attained. She controls men by deceiving them: these men, even though they were wronged and were enslaved to their desires, still are attracted to her again, and full of Hope, believe that their wishes will be fulfilled. They believe her—only to get what they do not expect. If Hope ever does offer solid prospects to anyone, she immediately abandons him and goes on to others. She seems to be close to everyone, but she stays with no one. As a result, those ignorant of the prognostic art—or those not willing to engage in it at all—are led away and enslaved to these previously mentioned gods. They endure all blows and suffer punishment along with their pleasures. Some partially attain what they hoped for, their confidence begins to increase, and they await a permanently favorable outcome—not realizing how precarious and slippery are these accidents of Fortune. Others are disappointed in their expectations not just once, but always; they then surrender body and soul to their passions and live shamed and disgraced—or they simply wait, living as slaves to fickle Fortune and deceitful Hope, and they are entirely unable to achieve anything.

.

With these stitched considerations I finish this article,  hoping it have been a useful reflection on what is “a given” and what is “free”.

Btw, each individual should think about why to chose this or that point of view and, if you allow me to observe, if the choice was not inherent in the very chart of yours and already indicated for each one.

Clélia Romano, DMA

August 2014

The Mysteries in Hellenistic astrology

             

The Mysteries in Hellenistic astrology

the original article and some 2014 review

Clelia Romano, DMA Copyright 2007-2014

This article was inspired by the lectures presented by Robert
Schmidt during the Vll Astrological Conclave in Cumberland, July 2007.

Robert Schmidt together with Robert Hand and Robert Zoller created the memorable
project Hindsight. In the beginning of 1990 they began the translation of
Greek and Latin astrological sources to English. The translation was an essential
tool in order that the current astrologers could recover and recall the great
Art and the nobility of the ancient astrology.

It’s impossible to discuss Hellenistic Astrology disregarding some important
philosophical concepts. The Greeks were really great philosophers, and they
had a quite complex insight on the cosmos and human existence.

 Sometimes it’s difficult to understand their way of thinking, but if
we are able to leave aside the analytic mind just like we did when we relinquished
the Cartesian point of view in order to become astrologers, believing that
we can find more in the occult than in the cold way of measuring things, we
will be able to envision the true meaning of the Greek thinking.

We will see some quite unusual and at times weird concepts: there are many
clues in Hellenistic astrology devised to force you into thinking. Hence,
be prepared for unsettling ideas.

Some of them, according to Robert Schmidt´s information, are related
to esoteric aspects that are being revealed through recently discovered ancient
Tablets containing new ways of dealing with the meaning of houses. One of
these Tablets ends with the following words:

“He, Trasyllus, describes how Trimegistus said”

                            The Mystery of the Houses

The houses are divided in angular houses, pos ascensional and and cadents from
the angle. The first ones are called “pivots” by the Greeks and
they work like hinges around which everything revolves.

The post ascentional houses have the function of supporting the house before
they are those through which you enter a cadent house. The cadent house, a house
between worlds, on the other hand has the function of destroying the previous
house, and is like a bridge to the next one.

From where the division of houses came from? The Greeks were the first to describe
the Hõroskopos, the exact point of the Ascendant and this happened in
the second century BC when Hypsicles of Alexandria discovered the mathematical
method for calculating it. At this time appeared the first chart with the respective
horoskopo.

Vettius Valens, in his Anthology written in the 2nd century AC, used whole signs
and also topic division based in Porphyry.

The Hõroskopo is the point from where we depart to describe the other
houses. For the Greeks, however, any point can be used as Hõroskopos.
The chart can depart from a LOT, for example, (the Fortune Lot , the Spirit
Lot, the Eros Lot, etc ) or even any other house can became a Hõroskopos,
a point of departure, the first house to analyze the others under a specific
subject. For example, if the issue is a financial problem, we can depart from
the Lot of Fortune or from the Second House, or use the system of derivative
houses.

The detailed description of this virtuosity in the Hellenist astrology is well
described in the introduction by Robert Hand to the Book ll of Vettius Valens
Anthology

In spite of the determination of the exact position of the Hõroskopos,
the Greeks always used whole signs instead of dynamic houses, even if we have
testimonies of the topic division as well.

What means to use the whole sign systm of houses? Let’s assume the Ascendant
to be at 22º of Cancer. The first house initiates in the beginning of Cancer
and goes as far as its last degree. A planet at 29º of Cancer would be
considered in the first house.

But we haven’t discussed any mysteries yet…so far we just described
some astrological Hellenist statements.

We know the terrestrial houses are 12 and that they have a meaning, according
to their aspects relative to the Ascendant.

The Eight topic houses system coexisted with the current 12 houses system at
that time.

The Greeks had two words for life:

“Zoo”: the physical existence and “Bios”, the life you
live, the livelihood.

And you live your life in Places that the Greeks named Topos or Houses as we
name them nowadays.

The “Hõroskopos ” is the first house and represents “Zoo”,
the physical life. This life is supported by the activity of the Second House.
The issue of the Second House is a Bios´s issue.

Now we will see the explanation of life in a different way.

According to the new material being translated, the life that we live is shared
by the 12th, the 10th and the 8th houses.

This is really a mystery and a weird one, because what kind of life you can
live in the 8th house, the place of death if your life is restricted to being
alive?

In the 10th house, the statement is perfectly understandable because in the
10th is where you live and act without restriction your adulthood.

And the 12th house, a cadent house, “apoclima”, between worlds?!
You are not alive yet, this is prior to our existence! How can we understand
such a weird statement?

I invite you to empty your mind and listen carefully:

The 12th house has a meaning of preparation: at the same time it’s the
apoclima, a decline, a turn backwards from the first, but it is the house where
you choose your Bios, where you’re not living your life, but choosing
the one that you will have to live.

Greek astrology was not reincarnationist but used a lot of Plato’s theory,
and Plato believed in reincarnation.

According to this theory, after the 12th we have the birth of the body, the
First House.

As soon as we live the three houses after the 12th and go directly to the end of
the Second House, which supports the First, we find the abyss of the Third House.
It is an initiation and we have to jump over it. At this moment we don’t
go to the Third, but to the 9th house: it’s the death of our childhood:
the 9th is the 8th of the Second.

The first return of Saturn occurs at this time and it represent the good-bye
to the first youth, in order to enter the adulthood. This event occurs at about
thirty years of age: we reach our maturity.

In the 9th, a cadent house, we prepare for our prime, we get subsidies, guides
and learning to achieve our acts in life. We reach the 10th house , the Praxis,
prepared to act in the public life, having children included, matter of the
10th for the Greeks.

The 11th house is the patronage, the friends and institutions that support our
public life and position.

Additional 30 years are spent in the 9th, 10th and 11th houses. It is the period
between the 30 and 60 years of age.

Once you lived the 11th house it is time for your second initiation: -you’ll
have to jump to the 6th House, the illnesses of the body, which will prepare
you for death, which will happen in the 7th House. Indeed, the setting place
makes opposition to the Ascendant.

The next thirty years of the native life will revolve around this new theme:
the destruction of life.

Back to our initial theme: what kind of activity can we have in the 8th house,
also called “lethargy” and when our body is supposed to be dead?

In this house we have to drink the water of forgetfulness, to forget the life
we lived and our Bios. This is the activity of the 8th: to forget.

So, the 12th House is a preparation for the Bios. We get a Zoo, a body, and
we begin to live our life going straight to the end of the Second House, where
our first thirty years of life are spent.

After this rite of passage that occurs -not by coincidence at the same time
we have the first Saturn´s return -there is a jump from youth to adulthood,
where we will live the next thirty years of our life, in the prime of our adulthood
and living the good houses, the 9th, 10th and 11th. Next, we have the second
Saturn’s return, another jump, this time to a worse place, the illness
of the 6th House which will prepare us for death.

Let’s suppose that someone lived more than 90 years. This person would
jump to the 8th of the 8th: i.e. from the 8th house to the Third (a between-worlds
house), cadent, preparing for the 4th, the Hades, and after this to the 5th,
the fame after death.

In the Hellenistic texts, action is Praxis, and Praxis is matter of the 10th
house, but also of the Third, because Praxis means practice but also means to
transverse spaces and to travel, matters of the Third: the travel to Hades.

From another side, siblings are matter of the Third, but the ruler of the Third,
Mercury, is the same ruler of the 12th in the Thema Mundi [iii], Mercury, means
that brothers and sisters are those who came for the same purposes and with
the same agenda. Our brothers are those who came from the same symbolical womb.

The Third House, between worlds in the Thema Mundi, is represented by the double
sign of Virgo [ii], disposed by Mercury, who is Psycho pomp.

What does the soul have to do in the Third house? It´s suppose to travel
to the underworld, to the Hades.

The 4th house is Nemesis’ house, the reward, the justice, the place where
the soul will be weighed. The Fourth House has its own Lot, the Lot of Nemesis
or Justice, based on the relationship between the Lot of Fortune and Saturn.

Nemesis becomes a contributing cause of fate coming from underground sources.

In the underworld´s house the soul will be weighed and evaluated until
it reaches the 5th house and again, jump to the 12th, where a new beginning
will be prepared.

In the 12th House, after the soul passes by the place of the Necessity it is
ready to live another life and another Bios. Hermes said that the Bios was supported
by the second house and for the Praxis, i.e. the 10th House, but besides this,
for the Third House that is a place of travel and dreams.

The Greeks had a very consistent way of seeing the houses.

We notice that they went clockwise and counterclockwise, and the use of derivative
houses was a rule. Besides this, each house could be used as the “horoskopus”
for the matter it represented.

So, if the Fourth House has to do with Hades, the place where the soul is weighed,
it has to do with both parents as well, and the First House is the 10th of the
Fourth: we are the result of our parent’s action. A house has many meanings,
as we can see, depending on its relation of the other houses.

In the Thema Mundi, our next topic, we will see that the Fourth House has to
do with Saturn and Nemesis, because the Fourth House is Libra in the Thema Mundi,
where Saturn exalts.

The 5th house is the posthumous fame, good or bad, and represents what will
happen to our body or ashes after death. At the same time, the 5th house has
to do with the legacy from the parents.

The meaning of the houses is mixed and it is important to consider everything
that was said, not discarding the news just because they are news. The ideas
are very consistent, and for sure they demanded a lot of dedication from the
ancients sages of Greece ,trying to figure out the human destiny facing the
large cycles and initiations of the life that ends with death, at least regarding
to our Zoo and present by Bios.

 

                                        The Thema Mundi

Now we will take a first tour of the underlying philosophy in the Hellenistic
astrology. We went through a place where the meaning of the houses is virtual,
and each of them can represent the most varied kind of things, including the
journey of the soul to the earth and to the underworld.

To better explain the philosophical issue and the underlying Mystery of the
astrological houses, we will use the Thema Mundi, a hypothetical chart on the
birth of the world.

Such a chart is very ancient and is certainly used before the Christian Era.  Pingree says  in “Essays on Islamic Philosophy and Science”ed. G.F. Hourani that Gayomard, the first persian man had the Ascendent on 19th of Cancer. The myth of creation is not the same as the neoplatonic , but Cancer as the birth of the world seems to be common.  Keyumars, the first man, is named Gayomard in the sacred Zoroastrian text, the Avesta ( 6the century BC).

The Greeks had contact with astrology as it was practiced by Babylonians and Egyptians and they used the Thema Mundi to construct their own philosophical and astrological understanding,

As we can see the Thema has the rising sign in Cancer and the MC in Aries,
which seems coherent, since Cancer is the universal symbol of generation. The
choice was not random. In the origins of the Persian civilization, astronomers
realized that in the sky in Cancer´s place, instead of constellations
and stars there was a vast black hole, without stars. For some scholars, the
round and big shape of this hole resembled a large crab or a turtle, from which
the idea of the Crab would come. Also the word “to cut” in Arcadian
has some similarity to crab, and “cut” should mean the division
between two sides of the sky, coinciding with the summer solstice in Cancer
divind the year.

The MC in Aries is quite appropriate, also, as the MC is where we develop our
actions to be seen in the world. The 7th House, that has the signification of
Death for opposing to the Ascendant, shows the sign of Capricorn and the IC
, Hades or underworld, is represented by Libra.

The Greeks explained the exaltations of the planets through geometrical drawings.
The trigons and hexagons drawn by the houses regarding the Rising Sign of the
Thema Mundi were regions where planets had their exaltations. Likewise, the
houses considered good for the Zoo had benefic planets in exaltation.

So, the 9th, the 10th and the 11th Houses are considered good places because
they “look” so to the horoskopus.

In the Rising Sign of the Thema Mundi, Cancer, Jupiter, the most benefic planet
has exaltation. In the 9th in the Thema Mundi, where is the sign of Fishes,
which makes a trigon to the horoskopos happens the exaltation of Venus, the
second benefic.

The Fifth House, in the Thema Mundi, is Scorpio and it has no planet in exaltation
in this sign. Though it makes a trigon with the Horoskopo, Scorpio is the fall
of the Moon, ruler of the Rising Sign in the Thema Mundi. Nothing can have exaltation
in the fall of the “horoskopo”´s ruler, it was said.

The two planets that exalt in Pisces and Cancer have to do with the Zoo, the
maintenance of life.

The 10th house is also beneficial to the Ascendant because it is a place where
the Bios works in the world and completes itself: in the Thema Mundi, we have
the sign of Aries, where the Sun exalts linking the action with visibility and
fame.

If the Sun exalts in the 10th, the other luminary, the Moon, exalts in the 11th,
making a hexagon with the Ascendant. In the Thema Mundi we have the Sign of
Taurus, giving support to the 10th house and making a sextile with the ASC.

In order of importance, after the first “pivot”, i.e. after the First
House, we have the 10th house and after the Seventh, Finally we have the 4th
House.

The 7th house is an important house since it is in a “pivot”, but
it is not good for the native. As a matter of fact, it makes an opposition to
the native´s life, represented by the horoskos and because of this, Mars
has his exaltation there, in the sign of Capricorn of the Thema Mundi: it is
the house from where injury comes.

The 7th house, however, even being a not good house for life is not as bad as
the 4th House, the Hades, the worse of the “pivot” houses, so the
exaltation of the biggest malefic, Saturn, is in the 4th of the Thema Mundi,
Libra, where “Bios” and Zoo are still destroyed. Saturn and Libra
weigh the souls in the house of Nemesis, the distribution of the justice.

To Mercury is given the exaltation in Virgo, the Third House, since it’s
a house that makes a sextile with the ASC (using the hexagonal figure)

The third house is the least bad of the cadent houses, and is named the Goddes´s
house.

The 9th is the best of the cadent houses, named the House of God.

With these considerations we hope to have given a small idea of the astrological
Greek philosophy. There are more articles to come up on this subject.

                                            xxxxxxxx

                                                The Cadent Houses and
the Thema Mundi as Inexhaustible Source  of Astrological Knowledge

                                                 Clélia Romano,DMA  copyright 2014

There are articles not worthing to review . Even their eventual failures must
remain , otherwise we can delete some that was written when our memory was fresh
with astrological immersion in some important phase of our life . This is the
case, just now.

However it is important add further clarification that occurs after meditation
on certain topics and our own astrological maturity .

One of the things I could not help to clarify is how much of egyptien philosophy
in embedded on all the abpve explanation: we can´t forg that the sp called
Greek astrology was praticed in Egypt even if transmitted in Greek language.

The egyptien were much more interested in the soul and its destiny after life
than in encarnation, as Nick Campion made clear in the workshop that he gave
in Rio de Janeiro in 2011.

Traditional astrologers as Chris Brennan and Benjamin Dykes have offered a good
hypothesis explaining the position of the planets in the Thema Mundi in the
very house where they have exaltation.

My goal here is only to cover certain gaps relating especially to the cadent
houses , which are difficult to understand especially why they are ruled by
certain planets .

The first houses in each quarter of the chart are called ” pivots ”
or points that act as key points of life .

The houses hereinafter called post- ascensional houses have the function of
giving support to the previous ones. The following are called the cadent houses
or between worlds , and their function is to serve as a bridge to the next house
, the next pivot.

In this sense we can say that the Twelve House is a house where we choose our
incarnate life , where we choose our ” bios” .

Notice that both the 12 House and the 3rd House are ruled by Mercury. For this
reason they have important similarities . At first, Mercury forms a bridge between
the missing and the existing bios, ” chooses ” next life that will
have to be lived and this is quite near in its meaning of a thinking planet.

Mercury is also a psychopomp planet, mediating between what is above and what
is below.

Thus , in the third house , it also makes his role , as it was rumored that
the third house was related to travel and dreams and also to the brethren, children
of the same womb , the symbolic womb represented by the Twelve House .

But we can´t wonder why the 6th House, a house of diseases , has Jupiter
as ruler , just as the 9th : apparently this is not consistent with the maleficient
sense of the house .

My idea is the following: the 6th House is the 9th house from the 10th, which
means praxis, everything that we do. In this case , Jupiter , wisdom , prepares
to face the 7th House, which is the 10th House from the 10th. It is not a coincidence
that the 6th House is ruled by the same lord of the 9th House in Thema Mundi.
This may well be related to the fact that Jupiter represents the wise actions
necessary to accomplish our partnership.

Moreover and more relevant, is the fact that the 7th House is a dangerous one,
being ruled in the Thema Mundi by the malefic Saturn and having the lesser malefic
in exaltation there. Saturn rules also the 8th House , which is a house giving
its support to the 7th, the enemy of life, in other words, representing death.
So what kills is the 7th House and the the 8th House is death already happened
.

It seems to me that in the sixth house we need to prepare ourselves spiritually
for death. First , we get sick , we learn that our life and health is a miracle
, we prepare well or not so well , developing acceptance or another way to look
wisely to what is or was the course of our life and its end, waiting for us
.

It needs wisdom to make a good use of the 6th house! This is my explanation
on why Jupiter has rulership of the 6th House on the Thema Mundi .

The End

Aspects between planets – A comparative study of time and space

This is part of an article published in 2011, reviewed in 2014

Coyright Clélia Romano, DMA

Aspects were seen quite differently by Hellenistic astrologers comparing to the Medieval Arabic point of view.

In Hellenistic astrology the aspects were usually considered from sign to sign, even if we have evidence of a distinction between exact aspects and aspects by sign, and even between applying and separating aspects. The orbs were not used and planets were considered in aspect to the other if they were apart in a  three degrees maximum.

The question of orbs for each planet is a Medieval astrology’s issue. There were controversial points of view on how distant in degrees one planet had to be from the other in order to be able to hurling its rays to it. We noticed that  planets with bigger visibility were supposed to have a bigger orb, as occurs in the case of the Sun and Moon. So orb was not only a question of visibility, but also took into consideration the size of the planet.

Both Hellenistic and Medieval astrology had in common the use of the so called Ptolemy´s aspects. As a matter of fact, this kind of aspects was not a Ptolemy´s invention, since they existed before him. These aspects are: the opposition, the trine, the sextile and the square. The reason why these aspects are considered instead of  any others was based upon the concept which was greatly emphasized by the Greeks, i.e. the relationship between planets have always to take into account if a sign is able to “see” the other. So the notion of giving testimony was underlying the idea of aspect. In other words the notion of aspect by whole sign was never abandoned.

Due to the invisibility, the so called “conjunction” was not considered an aspect, because two planets together are not able to look at each other in the same way that we are not able to look to ourselves, except through a mirror, and in this case we will be using a kind of opposition.

But if the conjunction is not an aspect, the opposite is true: any aspect is a conjunction. Let me explain: to planets in aspect are said in “con iuntio” a Latin word that can mean the carnal relationship. Therefore all aspects are conjunctions, some of them by body, others “by aspect”.

The idea of be together is very important and when the orb of a planet, which is an orb of light, reaches the orb of the other, something like a marriage occurs that can be harmonious or not.

Ptolemy gave a somewhat confusing explanation for the existence of these aspects in his Tetrabiblos, whose real name was Apothelesmatics (a word that means the reason of what is happening)

Ptolemy was a great scholar and he mastered many subjects. He had the opportunity to deal closely with the precious volumes in Alexandria library, which later burned down destroying a huge part not only of the ancient astrological writings but a huge amount of the  human knowledge´s history until that time.

Well, Ptolemy wrote, among other things, a book about music, specifically about harmony, and this book has not survived except fragmentarily. The interesting fact is that the missing part is precisely the part referring to the harmonics and just the point where they referred to astrology! Probably the hand of the Catholic Church had a big influence in this kind of disappearence. Perhaps the Church tried to avoid to see publicized the notion that the harmony of their sacred chants, like all the music, followed the same astrological principles:  the harmony underlying the visible and invisible world.

Now it is necessary to  explain a bit of musical theory, in order to demostrate the same harmony between aspects. I´ll be using the  phonetic scales because I´m used to deal with them.

The way they were created is interesting: the names of the musical notes came from who named them : it was the Italian Benedictine monk Guido d’ Arezzo . Even in the 11th century , he named the scale to inspire a hymn to St. John the Baptist , composed by another monk , Paolo Deacon , three centuries before. ( See the verses below. )
To understand the logic , just skip the first verse and then take the first syllable of each phrase to recognize the notes – ( Ut ) , Re , Mi , Fa , Sol , La , and S.
The note named “Si” he adapted by combining the first two first letters of Sancte and Iohannes . Five centuries later , bothered by the sound of the first syllable , the musician Giovanni Maria Bononcini increased a change . Excluded Ut and exchanged by “Do”, Dominus ( Lord ) . And with this heavenly blessing he sacramented the name of musical notes .

” Queant Laxis Ut … fibris resonare … mira … gestorum famuli tuorum … solve polluti … labii reatum … Sancte Iohannes . ”

Since antiquity, the default was to use letter scales ( the Latinized system is the exception , incidentally began with the madness of the monk and spread primarily to the Latin countries ) In English-speaking countries , the notes are represented by letters : C , D , E, F , G , A and B (or H), as you know. This is one of the oldest names , which we also use in chords . But the ancient Greek alphabet, for instance, has also been used .

So to mount the Harmonic Field of a tonality ,the triads need to ride with intervals of 3rd between each note of the scale . The third equals two notes after the note you ‘re playing. If you play the note named “Do”, a jump from 3 will lead you to the note Mi , i.e. two notes after you were . Now that we got Mi , give another leap of 3 , and you arrive at the note Sol.
If you look you will see that we use the tonic , together with the third and fifth ascending note, with respect to the tonic . The only detail is that this construction of T > 3 > 5 , can only use notes composing the scale of tone where you are . But this is the basics.

It was import to explain because we can see that playing “Do” +”Mi” +Sol” we have the perfect chord for the ‘DO” scale.

It corresponds to the triplicities. The distance beteween a third and the other correspondes to the sextile.  If you introduces to the perfect chord  the 7th note departing from “Do” you get the opposition, a little disharmonious, bringing some king of tension,but it is still interesting.

But if you press together “Do+”Re”, then you will have a horrible sound, a big and nasty dissonance. That is because “Do+”Re” are very close, as Aries and Taurus, for example. They have nothing to do with the other in terms of elements or modes.

But pressing together “DO+ Mi+Sol” the first, the third and the 5th notes we have the perfect chord, the harmony that happens among the triplicities of water, earth, fire and air.

Hypothetically Ptolemy could have explained harmonies in relation to astrological aspects based in something like that, but we will never know for sure.

Let´s talk now about the orb adopted by traditional astrologers until the 17th century.

In modern astrology the idea of orb is quite different from the traditional point of view.

The orbs are presently related to aspects instead of planets: for example, the orb given by an square aspect and for the opposition are larger than the one of sextiles, considered less strong than the others two. It is true that the sextile aspect is the weaker, but orb has nothing to do with aspect but with planets and visibility.

If you had said to any astrologer before the 17th century that the orb of planets depend  on the aspect they will apply or receive  he would answer: “what are you talking about?” Orbs depend on the the planets and not the other way around!

That’s the main difference between the medieval idea about planetary orbs and the modern astrological construction.

The teachings introduced by Alan Leo after the nineteenth century, were responsible for different orbs to different aspects. Perhaps due to the fact that he began using the so-called minor aspects (semi-sextile, sesqui-square, quintile, etc.) basically knowing that such orbs works in an uncertain way, he may have suggested the use of narrow orbs when working with them.

Anyway this does not make sense, traditionally speaking.

The term orb refers to light and supposes a circle of light surrounding the body of a planet. The moment when a planet is touching or overlapping the orb of another one we can consider that we have an aspect. We can´t forget that within the circle of light is the body of the planet, and this is important when discussing the present issue.

Another word virtually synonymous of “light” is “ray” and it is told that a planet hurls its rays to another.

Why am I talking about orb? Well because time and space are related and a fact that is expected to happen depend on how many degrees a promissor is distant from a significator. According to Masha´allah, on his “On Reception”, translated from the Latin by Robert Hand at first and after by Benhamin Dykes, PHD the fact will happen in the exact time when degree by degree, one planet will touch the other.

In page 107 of his book CA , William Lilly says that each planet has its own arc or radius of combustion, i.e. the quantity of degrees it needs to be distant of the Sun to not be burned. The orb of light has to do with the apparent magnitude of the planet: the lower level is 8 degrees (Venus and Mars), the medium is 12 degrees (Moon) and the highest is 17 degrees (Sun).

So it is really possible that the idea  of orb came from a visibility criterion.

Therefore we can consider that since that planets beyond the orbit of Saturn are not visible, they have no orb.

On Hellenistic times, the fact that planets were in trine (trigon), tetragon (squares) or hexagon (sextiles) by sign, was already enough to show a relationship between them.

It is observed in our practice that although the relationship between those planets is less intense, the aspect by sign has still significance. This is why the Greek authors have given a negative perspective if for example the ruler of a house/sign does not aspect his own domicile. However, aspects by degree are more effective.

Let´s see it closely: what means to aspect? ” What means to aspect? “In Latin the  word used to mean an aspect was aspicere or “to look”. Before the Physics explain the vision phenomena, the Greek philosophers thought that vision was related to the light, generally brought  by the Sun. But in the act of seeing the eye itself  hurl its rays against the light of the object, which in turn send its light back and this process linking eye and object allows vision. 

An object with no light  is not able to see or be seen, since the fire rays departing from the eye in order  to recover  back the rays of the object  needs light. Seeing is an impossibility in this case

This theory has a philosophical importance, since it shows that only the affinity of light, like a communion ,can share visibility. So Gemini can´t see  any place or planet in Taurus, a fixed and earthy sign but in turn  it is able to see Aries, because they have  in common the hot element. In the same way Aries, fire/movable can´t see the light of Taurus, an earthy/ fixed sign, but can see Cancer since they share the cardinality. No matter how you will look at it: you cannot turn signs with no common  elementary properties into friend or enemies: they do not see each other. ” [1]  

This happens also in our society and in our life: a child immediately sees another child in a multitude, a man finds his pair, a teenager another like him… and if nobody see you it is because there is nobody like you in that place.

( to be continued)

---

[1] From “Astrologia Tradicional Na Prática” by Clélia Romano, Author´s Edition, São Paulo, Brazil, 2013

Arabic Astrology and the Art of Divination

Clélia Romano, July 2013

By chance I came across an interesting title “Arabic Astrology”, by the French author Catherine Aubier, M. A. Éditions, 1987, Paris.Thinking that I would meet my old acquaintances authors Masha’allah, Abu Mashar, Abu Ali, etc. to my surprise the author was using a model that had little resemblance to astrology.It dealt with mental constructs equally remote, leading to the prediction and interpretation of psychological and factual issues, describing year by year of a native´s life, their similarity and harmony with other people, the expected evolution from birth to mature age, and much more. All this was done without using any astrological technique.

The title Arabic Astrology was based on the only astrological model used, namely the division into twelve types of persons accordingly to the months of the year when they were born, i.e. a sun sign division. This fact, however, provided only the first of the factors to use in a future equation.

The result of the prior analysis is able to identify twelve kinds of people,each one pertaining to a type of weapon used in medieval times, such as knife, sword, slingshot, bow, Arabic dagger, etc.

The zodiacal sign which corresponded to a weapon received a score; certain number of points that will be summed up on a calculation which in the future will describe who the person is.

For instance, Virgo gets one point, Libra 8 points, Sagittarius, 12, etc.

The planets are not interpreted or even considered, but the parents´ professions receive points ranging growing as the profession is nobler, until you get the number 12, in which case one of the parents was a worldwide remarkable figure.

The next step is to punctuate the native accordingly to the number of inhabitants in the city where he or she was born, as it is considered that a native has more opportunities in big cities than in small ones.

The last two points emphasize the influence of the medium and are “weapons” that act as a potentiating (or not) of the characteristics of the individual given by the sun sign, called the “predestination” weapon.

Adding the three obtained points provide a summary of each person, the so called “weapon of birth”.

Each weapon obtained in this way is described in similar manner as when we describe temperaments in an astrological context.

In order to know the favorable year for certain things for each of the types, it is taught to use the sum of the birth date to the current year. Depending on the numeral some specific accidents for the year are expected.

Now, all this seems extremely unlikely, done for the sake of numbers and guessing, but the fact is that on many important points, as in sinastry and predictions it works fine, as well as in the description of the personality.

In my case, for example, I was born in the sign of Aries who earns two points of predestination and my weapon is the dagger. My family history was among Mace and Ax, because my father was a sales representative. My weapon of luck was the Arc, the highest, because I was born in a city with more than 5000 inhabitants which imply higher chances of growth.

This weapon system demonstrated to be effective in my case, since the sum came to my individual weapon, the Ax, which described many of my psychological characteristics and also the expected difficult years appeared clearly.

The book is worth to read, not only to make predictions, but to realize that there are many possible constructions that can work in order to know ourselves and the future.

The mighty river of divination does not wet exclusively the astrologers´ feet, but of all those asking how things are related to each other.

No art is superior to another if both methods are based in observables phenomena.

The link between the hidden world and facts settles for sympathy among observable phenomena. This observation has been practiced since man is man, from the remotest antiquity, in analogy to the culture and environment of our ancestors, be it geomancy, the game using dog whelk, numerology, the omens, astrology, the I Ching, etc..

Returning to the case of studying the weapon-related people,the medieval society was a feudal society and the used weapons were characteristics of each status degree, the knives being considered a trivial one while the sword and bow, especially the latter was privileged to the nobles. The personal eminence was measured by such weapon prism.

The very being of a person, the personality and the opportunities to develop
was circumscribed within fixed limits represented by the capacity of evolution of each type of weapon. According to it periods of difficulty or ease were anticipated including in which areas in which things would happen.

Interestingly the fixed limit of evolution mixes the concept of fate and free will in a very plausible way.

In the same book Catherine Aubier comes to other methods of divination such as numerology and geomancy, i.e.the design of random points in search of a clear answer.

Looking for correlations and directions in a seemingly chaotic world is the brand of esoteric arts and a way to break the human isolation through brotherhood between man and nature.

Such brotherhood is synonymous of a sympathetic and harmonious relationship permeating all the living beings and phenomena.

Through this kind of approach people can be able to reach an understanding of the Biggest Reason behind the build of the world we inhabit, the law that subdued and mixed the elements at least to some extent and the platonic ideal of which this world is a mere copy.

In astrology we realize that everything occurs related to the position of the stars, but the relation is not of causality. Both worlds, the hidden and the visible, heavens and earth, depend mutually, since each one is part of a living system.

Let us remember that the question of power of the big to tame the small is as important as the power of the small to tame the big. We learn this easily from
the behavior of atoms and viruses.

It is curious that astrologers (and other types of students of the occult) sometimes fight by trifles when the panorama of divination is much larger . Many ways, though not all, can lead to the kingdom of God.

The divine engineering comes to light to those who have condition to see, be him or she an astrologer, a palmist, a Tarot reader, etc.

It shines through omens, trees bending to the left or to the right, because of the wind, birds taking north or south when freed, a name that appears on
an outdoor´s advertisement, etc.

It all makes sense to guess for those who pay attention and is able to live between the two worlds.

All this to say that we have in astrology a construction perfected for over two thousand years, but this construction has as much truth as others who also were built using as a basis the sympathy between the divine and the human, no matter which parameters are used: rods , points, coins, shells, viscera etc.

All these forms of divination, if based on elaborate observations, transmitted from generation to generation, are perfected by experience and become prodigious mental constructs. Probably build a model is part of human reason, because we are not able to get directly to the core and essence of things, but just to observe that things work “as if…”

It is possible that even a model based on ants’ behavior could generate guesses if the facts were studied accordingly to relations between the anthill and the human world.

In my opinion as astrologer nothing is more impressive than the vault of heaven, especially as it might have been presented visually in antiquity, away from the light and air pollution of cosmopolitan cities.

Paralleling, astrology is in the level of the Arch, one of the noblest arts of divination.

But this does not make it the only one.

The Myth of Fatalism in Predictive Astrology

 Since my early years I argued that free will was a human illusion, so the most important factor that attracted my attention in Classical astrology was its predictive goal, which only confirmed my suspicions that human destiny was set since the beginning.

However my own astrological practice, study and maturity have led me to revise partially this concept. More and more I opened my mind to a new conceptualization taking into account  philosophical aspects which can apparently explain why not predictable events come to pass and others clearly predicted  simply do not happen.

Initially I attributed to the astrologer the error for such inconsistency.  I went so far as to elaborate complex theories to explain the fact. However, reviewing and studying the beginnings of astrology, the philosophical thinking of Plato and Aristotle conjunctly to other factors, important points came to light and it is possible that such facts, especially the human capacity to interact with destiny, represented the real answer. This article is not intended to be exhaustive in what concerns to imponderable factors and events that are beyond the careful delineation of the chart and  I´ll focus on the native´s enterprise as having the capacity to modify for better or worse the astrological chart.

I -Modern and Traditional Astrology

The focal point of modern psychological astrology is that the astrological chart  is said to describe the psyche of the native. Thus this line of thinking concludes that if a particular event occurs to a person he or she  will tend to react in a specific way that is characterized according to the configurations of the chart. What will happen to a certain person departing from the natal chart and in which period of the life certain event will take place is not possible to be described.

I do not know if all psychological astrologers think alike, but what is common to hear is that the chart describes the psychodynamics of the native, but one cannot tell whether a certain individual in particular, having a certain chart and therefore a particular psychodynamic, will respond to an event in one way or another, as this will depend on the level of awareness and “evolution”  of a particular native, and it cannot be seen on the chart. So, the conclusion is that prediction is impossible to be made. The only thing you can do is describe the psychodynamics of the soul. This can be good for people looking for a certain type of therapy or to understand their internal attributes in general terms.

At the opposite side is traditional astrology which gives a big emphasis to prediction of events. Because of this it is seen as a fatalistic doctrine opposing the modern astrology that values the free will. In other words, the first one is described as emphasizing the outside world , all that happens outside to the native,  and the second the inside world. In my view such a concept is an oversimplification, and it is false, since traditionally we start by characterizing the predicted external events to after being able to know the reaction of the subject to them. We can also start from the inside: the native´s acts can generate external events.

The question of the prediction of events, one of the important goals of traditional astrology needs to be examined carefully, in order to avoid it to be considered simplistically fatalistic, since the predictability of an event presupposes some kind of  predestination. Western astrology was born in the cradle of Hellenic civilization that has a very sophisticated concept of destiny. The Hellenistic astrologers believed that Hermamene, the fate as normally is understood, is inherent to the natal chart. This chart describes the conditions necessary in order to live one´s own destiny or in other words in order to fulfill one´s own bios.

Now, the natal chart is a necessary but not sufficient condition because we find people who have all sorts of favorable conditions in their charts and do not realize it or excel in their lives, while others, whose charts are far less promising, even not being able to go that far, some certainly go far beyond what is promised in the chart. This can be explained by the fact that the native took the right action, made the right choices at the right time.

In certain way we can say that the game between the Part of Fortune, or the Moon, linked to what happens to us externally, versus the Part of the Spirit, or the Sun, linked to our actions, can be the deciding factor to explain this kind of variation. If a native merely copes with what happens to him, he will be using his Part of the Spirit in a very limited way. Indeed, this Part is solar and its main description, as we see in Valens, is action. This intertwining role between the two Parts can make all the difference.

However, there are actions generated deliberately and not in response to an event or as a consequence of events that occurred and such deliberate actions can generate consequences.

So there is not a dividing wall between what is considered internal or external. The game between 1st- to deliberate and act and 2nd-suffering an event and react, are a much more complete model to practice astrology than the model of only to evaluate the native´s soul through the astrological configurations without taking into consideration the dimension of the external world,

Traditional astrology has techniques for assessing the magnitude of the Nativity, which may be repugnant to modern thought and to what is now said to be “politically correct,” since we are judging and comparing people through value judgments and not according their acts.

Ptolemy has a chapter on the Rank of the Nativity and Medieval astrology also dealt extensively with this. In fact you cannot deny that there are charts with more potential than others and on which the biographers huddled for hundreds of years. Such charts must have something special. However, many people possessing such charts do not become as important as one would suppose, and this has to do with two facts, the internal factor which we have already quoted (lack of action) or because the directions are not conductive to business in the time of the action .

For example, in the power struggle between two prominent politicians if the timing of elections coincide with unfortunate primary directions or profections for one of them, this will give victory to the opposing party, no matter how correct was the attitude of the first one when making decisions. The time, therefore, is an external event of prime importance.

II- The Role of the Stoics in the Astrological Fatalism

Stoicism was a philosophical current developed after Plato and Aristotle´s death. The Academy was founded by Plato and after his death in 347 BC several successors occupied the master´s place. The philosophical ideas began to change since in one special moment the Stoic philosophy was adopted by the members. Such philosophical current was in vogue at the time of Valens.

Accordingly to the Stoics human destiny was fixed and freedom consisted in the wisdom to accept the events. The principle was immutable and irrevocable. The Stoics would today be considered within what is called the fatalistic determinism.

Many modern astrologers and even traditional ones believe that classical predictive astrology is based on the belief of an immutable fate, as taught in the Stoic philosophy. There are some reasons for this idea. We read in Valens that we should be a soldier of destiny and in Firmicus Maternus there is a great Stoic introduction when the author states that it is not fair that good people have a life of suffering and other wicked have a bright future, but there is nothing we can do, because it is fate.

However, apart from these authors who lived 300-400 years after the period of the founding of Hellenistic Astrology none of the initial sources of the 2nd or 1st century BC, such as Hermes, Nechepso, Petosiris, Serapio, Critodemus, Abraham, Orfeus, Anubio, none of them said anything about fate or free will. Would they have the same idea of Valens and Firmicus?

Anyway, the old astrologers had been educated in philosophical schools, be they Platonic, Pythagorean or Stoic, but by what is recorded historically we have no reason to believe that they were all stoic and believe in absolute determinism of the astrological chart, even doing predictions. Besides this, the founders of astrology never bothered to give the reason why astrology works. They simply provided astrological practice. So, we do not know if they believe that fate was more or less important than human enterprise.

Plotinus, an author of the third century AD, accepts that planets can be used for predictions, but that parents and education have an equally great power. Moreover, he points out that twins have different destinies, which may mean that environment is also important in the realization of a birth chart.

Indeed, one can hardly be a tyrant being born on a deserted island for more exalted that the magnitude of the chart can be. In this sense other theses were raised, some downright spiritual character, such as the choice made by the soul before incarnating, but such theories go beyond the intent of this article.

Katarché

Doing the right thing at the right time is a gift that some people have, as like a guardian angel blowing into the native ears what to do at a certain time, but others, the majority,  have not.

In ancient times to have the security to act on time and properly people sought guidance in the astrology or in divination. The astrological chart casted to the beginning, the inception of an event or certain activity in an attempt to seize the best time to act was called katarché. This type of astrological technique have been practiced since the beginning of Hellenistic astrology and based on its principles and probably influenced by Indian astrology, the Horary astrology was generated.

Now, if everything were considered as fate by the creators of astrology katharché or electional astrology would never have been conceived.

In conclusion, my direct experience in elective charts led me to believe with no doubt that acts that started at opportune moments, chosen according to a good celestial situation, have conducted to dramatically different results, much better than when those same actions are undertaken in not propitious times.

A simple case concerns a company that wanted to capture informatics specialists. When the announcement in the newspaper or on the internet arrived when the Moon (which participates as a significator in all matters), was in signs like Taurus and Cancer, the candidates for the position were people of best level, and if the Moon was in Cancer, a fertile sign, the number of them grew exponentially.

However nothing would happen if the employer would not had announced.

All this may seem quite simplistic for many, but indeed it represents a whole different vision of astrology and the human life.