Pantheism. Deity in nature. A belief that the forces and laws that are manifest in the universe, are God. The Greeks worshipped the faultlessly contoured human body. Modern pantheism more or less deifies electricity as the universal agent that accelerates humanity's progress. Astrology sees God as He who placed the Sun, Moon and planets in the firmament "as signs, and seasons." Gen. 1:14

 

Pantheon. The five great gods of the Pantheon, and the planets with which they were identified, were: Marduk, Jupiter; Ishtar, Venus; Ninib, Saturn; Nebo, Mercury; and Nergal, Mars.

 

Parallel. v. Aspect.

 

Pars fortunae; Part of Fortune. v. Fortuna.

 

Partile. An exact aspect (q.v.).

 

Passive. The Sun and Moon are termed passive, in that they take their coloring from the signs in which they are posited, or the planets with which they are in strongest aspect. Passive Qualities: Moisture and dryness.

 

Pavanna. God of the mental plane represented by the Air Signs.

 

Penumbral Eclipse. Said of eclipses of the Moon, when the Moon approaches closely enough to the Earth's shadow to cause an appreciable diminution of light though it does not directly touch it. These are often termed appulses. They are not generally classed as eclipses, though from their close resemblance to eclipse conditions they often produce effects similar to those attending an actual eclipse. In fact to an observer on the Moon, the Sun would be partially eclipsed by the Earth.

 

Peregrine. Foreign, alien. Said of a planet posited in a sign where it possesses no essential dignity: where it is neither dignified nor debilitated. It is employed in Horary Astrology, where it is usually reckoned as a debility. In a question of a theft, a peregrine planet in an angle or in the second house, is the thief. However, no planet is reckoned peregrine if it be in mutual reception with another.

 

Perigee. v. Orbit.

 

Perihelion. v. Orbit.

 

Periodical Lunation. A Figure cast for the Moon's synodic period, when it returns to the exact degree held at birth. It is often employed for monthly forecasts in a manner similar to the Solar Revolution (q.v.) for annual forecasts. A true Figure for the Moon's periodical return is difficult to construct, because of the Moon's acceleration from hour to hour.

 

Phase. (Obs.) A term formerly used by some authorities for Decanate (q.v.). Originally one-fourth of a Decanate, or 2½ degrees.

 

Phases. Said of the Moon, but also applicable to Mercury and Venus. The phases are crescent, shortly before and after lunation; half-moon, at the quarter when one side is a straight line and the other is convex; gibbous, shortly after the quarters, when both sides are convex; and Full Moon, when the Earth and the Moon are in opposition. The Lunation is hardly a phase, since the Moon is invisible except for a slight glow: the Earth-shine resulting from light reflected back from the Earth. According to Kepler, as the Moon waxes all things swell with moisture, which is decreased at the Lunation, increased at the Full, and powerfully stressed at the quadratures. Direct light is heating; reflected light, moistening.

 

Phenomenon. Any item of experience or reality. Kant divides this into: the noumenon, the thing in itself, which is utterly unknowable; and the phenomenon, which is the object of experience. In c,ccult terminology applied to a cosmical chemical, or psychical impulse, experienced by one who is attuned to Nature's more sensitive forces. Phenomena, pl., is applied to supplementary data in the ephemeris indicating the exact times of eclipses, of the passing of the Nodes and other points in the orbit, of conjunctions, of the lunar ingresses, and similar details.

 

Philosophy. Literally, the love for and the pursuit of knowledge, and its application to daily affairs; in actual usage the knowledge of phenomena as explained by and resolved into reasons and causes, sources and forces and the laws applicable thereto. The philosophical attitude is generally associated with a Jupiter accent.

 

Philosopher's Stone. An imaginary substance through the means of which the ancient alchemists sought to transmit baser metals into gold. Probably an early concept of a catalytic agent. Used in occult terminology to indicate the power by which all life evolves and through which all minds and souls realize a mutual kinship. It signified the highest aspirations and the purest ideologies of altruism.

 

Phoenon. Greek name for Saturn. (q.v.)

 

Pisces. The twelfth sign of the zodiac. v. Signs.

 

Planets, Classifications of.

 

Androgynous planet. Mercury, because both dry and moist.

 

Barren and fruitful. Barren: Mars, Saturn, Uranus. Fruitful: Sun, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Neptune. Moderately fruitful: Mercury.

 

Benefic and Malefic. Benefic: Venus and Jupiter, particularly when not afflicted. Some authorities include the Sun, Moon and Mercury, if favorably aspected. Malefic: The infortunes, Mars and Saturn, and by some modern authorities, Uranus and Neptune, whether afflicted or otherwise. Mercury unfavorably aspected is deemed a malefic with respect to money, law and marriage. Modern authorities consider no planet can be truly termed a malefic, except insofar as its vibrations are improperly applied, and is dependent largely upon its aspects for the nature of its operation.

 

Cold and hot. Cold: The Moon and Saturn; also, according to Sepharial, Mercury and Uranus. Hot: Sun, Mars. Warm: Venus, Jupiter, Neptune.

 

Diurnal and nocturnal. The nocturnal planets are the Moon and Venus, because of their feminine qualities, their cool, moist temperaments, and their passive natures as compared to the Sun and Mars. Also applied to those which at birth were below the horizon, and thereby deemed to represent passive qualities. In this case the diurnal planets are those which at birth were above the horizon, and are thereby considered to represent the more active influences.

 

Dry and Moist. Dry: Sun, Mars, Saturn. Moist: Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus; also, according to Sepharial, Neptune. Mercury is both dry and moist.

 

Electric and Magnetic. Electric: Sun, Mars, Jupiter. Magnetic: Moon, Mercury, Saturn, Neptune. According to Sepharial both Sun and Moon are magnetic.

 

Masculine and Feminine. Masculine: Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Feminine: Moon, Venus and Neptune. Also, planets are said to take on masculine attributes in masculine signs; when in advance of the Sun; or in the oriental quadrants; and feminine attributes in feminine signs; when following the Sun; when on the opposite side of the horizon from the Sun; or when in the occidental quadrants.

 

Morning and Evening. Matitutinal and Nocturnal. This refers particularly to Mercury and Venus, as morning and evening "stars," although all the planets become morning and evening stars at some part of the year, though not all of them are visible to the naked eye. (v. Retrograde.) It must be observed that a planet which is "behind" the Sun in its orbital motion, rises in diurnal motion "before" the Sun. The counter-clockwise motion of the Earth's surface causes objects as uncovered on the Eastern horizon to appear to move in a clockwise direction. Thus the planet which is behind the Sun in orbit, rises in diurnal motion before the Sun.

 

Superior and Inferior. The Major or Superior planets are those that have orbits larger than that of the Earth, and which lie at a greater distance from the Sun. They are: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Also called the Ponderous or Ponderable planets. Their motion appears to us to be slower, due to their greater distance from the Sun. Their effects are more enduring than those of the Minor or Inferior planets. The Minor or Inferior planets are those that have orbits smaller than that of the Earth, and which lie closer to the Sun. They are Mercury and Venus.

 

The order of the planets outward from the Sun is used in a recent work in psychology, in illustration of a memory aid in the form of the sentence: "men very easily make jugs serve usual needy purposes" - the first initial of each word corresponding to that of a planet: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Also the word Vibgyor, for the colors of the Solar spectrum, from the top downwards: Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.

 

Planetary Ages of Man. By the ancients the planets were caned chronocrators, or markers of time. It was presumed that different periods of life are ruled by different planets, as:

 

Planet..................Period.....Ages

Moon - growth...........4 years.....1-4 the mewling babe

Mercury - education....10 years....5-14 the scholar

Venus - emotion.........8 years...15-22 the lover

Sun - virility.........19 years...23-42 the citizen

Mars - ambition........15 years...43-57 the soldier

Jupiter - reflection...12 years...58-69 the judge

Saturn - resignation...30 years...70-99 slippers

 

These appear to correspond to the Seven Ages of Man, as listed by Shakespeare in "As You Like It," which he apparently took from the Chaldeans. Sepharial suggests a slightly altered set of measures, to include the planets of recent discovery:

 

...Planet........Duration of Years...Age Period

...Moon..................7...............0-7

...Mercury...............8...............7-15

...Venus.................9..............15-24

...Sun..................10..............24-34

...Mars.................11..............35-45

...Jupiter..............12..............46-57

...Saturn...............13..............57-70

...Uranus...............14..............70-84

...Neptune..............15..............84-99

...Pluto................16..............99-115

 

From the sign position and aspects to the chronocrators, judgment was formed as to the fortunes of the native and his environment during the period ruled by each planet. Thus an afflicted Moon indicates ill health and an adverse environment in infancy; an afflicted Mercury, retarded education; an afflicted Mars, unfortunate in love; and so on.

 

Planetary Anatomy.

 

Sun: Operates chiefly through the anterior pituitary gland, to affect the circulation of the blood through the heart and the arteries; the tear ducts; the spinal cord.

 

Moon: The substance of the body, as distinguished from the vitality flowing through it; the alimentary canal; the child-bearing female organs and functions; the lymphs; the sympathetic nervous system; the cerebellum, the lower ganglia.

 

Mercury: The thyroid gland; the brain and the cerebro-spinal nervous system; the sense of sight; the tongue and the organs of speech; the hands as instruments of intelligence.

 

Venus: The thymus gland, the sense of touch; the throat, kidneys, and to some extent the generative system. Its influence has been said to operate through the solar plexus, upon the functions of digestion and nutrition. It has an indirect influence upon features, complexion, hair - in so far as those express beauty.

 

Mars: The cortex, or cortical portion of the adrenal gland; the head, externally; the sense of taste; the breasts and the maternal functions, and in part the generative organs; the motor nerves; the excretory organs; the red corpuscles of the blood.

 

Jupiter: The posterior pituitary gland; feet, thighs, liver, intestines, blood plasma, muscles, growth; also control of shoulders and arms, in motions that for effectiveness depend upon good timing.

 

Saturn: The medullary portion of the adrenal gland; the skin and the secretive system; teeth; bones, joints and tendons-particularly the knee and the calf of the leg; the spleen; the organs and sense of hearing.

 

Uranus: The parathyroid gland; the brain and nervous system; the electric and magnetic emanations.

 

Neptune: The pineal gland, the organs of extra-sensory perception; intuitive and psychic receptivity.

 

Pluto. The Pancreas, and the digestive glands; the enzymes which effect catalytic and hydrolitic transformations essential to proper metabolism.

 

Planetary Angels. Sun, Michael; Moon, Gabriel; Mercury, Raphael; Venus, Arnad; Mars, Samael; Jupiter, Zadkiel; Saturn, Cassiel; Uranus, Arvath.

 

Planetary Colors. All authorities, though variously, associate the colors of the spectrum with specific planets. In fact there are almost as many versions as there are authorities. Nevertheless the following planetary associations represent a consensus of opinion:

 

Sun: Orange, gold, deep yellows.

Moon: White, pearl, opal, light, pale blues; iridescent and silvery hues.

Mercury: Insofar as Mercury can be said to have any appropriate colors of its own, slate color, spotted mixtures. Most authorities agree that Mercury generally assumes the color of that planet with which it is in nearest aspect.

Venus: Sky-blue to pale green, lemon yellow; and tints in general as contrasted to colors.

Mars: Red, scarlet, carmine.

Jupiter: Royal purple, violet, some blends of red and indigo, deep blue.

Uranus: Streaked mixtures, checks and plaids like Joseph's coat "of many colors."

Neptune: Lavender, sea-green, mauve, smoke-blue and possibly peculiar shades of gray.

Pluto. Luminous pigments, in unusual shades containing a large percentage of red.

 

Planetary Days. Certain planets are by some deemed to have added strength on, or to exercise rulership over, certain days of the week, which was considered in the assignment of names to the days. (v. P. Hours.)

 

Planetary Flavors. According to Sepharial, these are:

 

Sun: Sweet, pungent.

Moon: Odorless, insipid.

Mercury: Cold, mildly astringent.

Venus: Warm, sweet.

Mars: Sharp astringents, acids, pungent odors.

Jupiter: Fragrant, bland.

Saturn: Cold, sour, astringent.

Uranus: Cold, brackish, astringent.

Neptune: Subtile, seductive.

Pluto. The so-called aromatic flavors, in which solubility releases both taste and aroma.

 

Planetary Forms. According to Sepharial, these are:

 

Sun: Circles, full curves, helical scrolls.

Moon: Irregular curves, crooked lines.

Mercury: Slender curves, short incisive lines.

Venus: Curved lines, rhythmic scrolls.

Mars: Sharp angles and barbs; fine straight lines.

Jupiter: Full generous curves.

Saturn: Cramped forms, straight short lines, sharp, clear-cut outlines.

Uranus: Mixed forms, broken lines.

Neptune: Curved lines, rhythmic curves, nebulous and chaotic forms.

Pluto. Heavy straight lines and sharp angles, in complex combinations.

 

Planetary Hours. Hours. Egyptian astronomy had only seven planets, arranged in this order: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon - based seemingly on the apparent velocities of the bodies. In rotation, each hour of the 24-hour day was consecrated to a planet. If Saturn ruled the first hour, it also ruled the 8th, 15th and 22nd. As Jupiter would then rule the 23rd, and Mars the 24th hour, the first hour of the following day would be ruled by the Sun; and so on. The days thus came to be known by the ruler of the first hour, resulting in our present order of the days of the week. Thus the order of the days of the week, which can be hormonized with no observable cosmic plan, are explainable only by a student of astrology. The hatred of the Jews for the Egyptians after their flight from Egypt is said to have caused them to "demote" Saturn from the rulership of the first day, by beginning the week on Sunday, making Saturn's day the last day of the week. Probably some symbolical association of the Sun with the Hebrew idea of Jehovah, had something to do with it. The evolution of the English names of the days, from the Latin, through the Saxon, resulted as follows:

 

Norse...Latin............French.......Saxon..........English

........Sol..............Le Dimanche..Sun's day......Sunday

........Luna.............Lundi........Moon's day.....Monday

Tyr.....Martis (Mars)....Mardi........Tiw's day......Tuesday

Wotan...Mercurius........Mercredi.....Woden's day....Wednesday

Thor....Jove (Jupiter)...Jeudi........Thor's day.....Thursday

Freya...Veneris (Venus)..Vendredi.....Frigg's day....Friday

........Saturni..........Samedi.......Seterne's day..Saturday

 

Under this system an hour was not uniformly 60 minutes, except at the equinoxes. It was one-twelfth of the interval between sunrise and sunset, by day; and the reverse, by night. A planet favorably aspected suggests that action be initiated during that planet's hour; or if unfavorably aspected, that one should wait for others to act. Wilson goes to some length in expressing doubt as to the efficacy and logic of this system.

 

The astonishing thing about this sequence is the placing of the Sun between Venus and Mars, showing that the ancients realized that in speaking of the Sun they were actually making reference to the position of the Earth as determined by the apparent position of the Sun.

 

Planetary Jewels, or Precious Stones. Here, again, there are almost as many opinions as there are authorities, but the following list expresses a consensus:

 

Sun: Diamond, ruby, carbuncle.

Moon: Crystal, pearl, opal, moonstone; all milk-white stones.

Mercury: Quicksilver, loadstone.

Venus: Emerald and, possibly, sapphire.

Mars: Bloodstone, flint, malachite, red haematite.

Jupiter: Amethyst, turquoise.

Saturn: Garnet, jet, all black stones.

Uranus: Chalcedony, lapis lazuli, jacinth, amber.

Neptune: Coral, aquamarine, ivory.

Pluto: Beryl and, presumably, sardonyx; jade, cloissone enamels, ceramics.

 

It should be realized that all stones, precious and semi-precious, as stones, come more or less directly under Saturn, the overall ruler of all hard minerals. As for many, authorities differ so widely that to settle the question each stone would have to be examined with respect to its mineral components before deciding the planet to which it should rightfully be assigned.

 

Planetary Metals.

 

Sun: Gold

Moon: Silver, aluminum

Mercury: Quicksilver

Venus: Copper, brass

Mars: Iron, steel.

Jupiter: Tin.

Saturn: Lead.

Uranus: Radium, uranium.

Neptune: Lithium, platinum.

Pluto: Tungsten, plutonium.

 

Planetary Motions.

 

Converse. Said of a progressed or directed motion to a point of aspect, in a clockwise direction or opposite to the order of the Signs. The term is frequently employed in a contradictory manner, in the sense of the reverse of the accustomed motion. In the case of a Secondary Progression that would mean a clockwise motion, since the accustomed motion of a planet in orbit is counter-clockwise. In Primary Directions the apparent motion of the planets and the House-cusps is clockwise, resulting from the counter-clockwise motion of the Earth's periphery. The entire doctrine of converse motion is debatable.

 

Direct The true motion of the planets in the order of the Signs, or counter-clockwise, within the Zodiac: a narrow band that parallels the Earth's path around the Sun. As applied to progressed or directed motion it is the opposite of converse motion. As to transits, it is the opposite of retrograde. (q.v.)

 

Diurnal (by day) A diurnal planet is one that was above the horizon at the time for which the Figure was cast. Such planets are said to be less passive. The Diurnal arc of a planet is the time it remains above the Earth, measured either in degrees of Right Ascension, or in Sidereal Time. The opposition arc is the Nocturnal arc. The declination of the body, or its distance from the Equator, is the controlling factor: the greater the declination the higher the body will ascend in the heavens and the longer it will remain above the horizon.

 

Hourly. Subtracting a planet's position on one day, as shown in the ephemeris, from its position on the preceding or following day yields its daily motion.

 

Rapt. Raptus, carried away. The apparent diurnal motion of the heavens, in consequence of the Earth's axial rotation; the manner in which the fixed stars and the planetary bodies are caused to make one complete revolution in 24 hours, is termed their Rapt Motion, in accordance with the ancient theory of the Primum Mobile (q.v.).

 

Re-direct. Said of the reversal to direct motion following the second station of the retrograde.

 

Retrograde. The apparent motion in the Zodiac of certain planets, as viewed from the Earth during certain portions of the year. (q.v.)

 

Slow of Course: slow in motion. Said of any planet whose travel in 24 hours is less than its mean motion. It is reckoned a debility, especially in horary astrology.

 

Stationary. When a planet appears to have no motion, as when changing from retrograde to direct or the reverse, it is said to bc stationary.

 

Stations, in retrograde. Each planet has two stations, or stationary points: (1) the place in its orbit where it becomes stationary before it turns retrograde, abbreviated S.R.; (2) when it again becomes stationary preparatory to resuming its direct motion, abbreviated S.D.

 

Swift in Motion. Planets that at the moment are moving at a speed in excess of their mean motion, are said to be "swift in motion."

 

Planetary Objects and Substances.

 

Sun: Precious metals, diamonds-things valuable and scarce; glistening substances.

Moon: Utensils in common use in the laundry; or in the silversmith's trade. Soft, smooth substances.

Mercury: Papers connected with money; legal documents; books, pictures, writing materials, anything connected with education and communications. Flowing and veined substances.

Venus: Jewelry and ornaments; women's wearing apparel; bed linens; polished reflecting substances.

Mars: Steel; cutlery, and anything that is sharp; instruments of war; sparkling substances.

Jupiter: Men's wearing apparel, merchandisable sweets; horses, domestic pets; common and useful substances, cloth, paper.

Saturn: Land, minerals, agriculture and garden implements; heavy materials; dull and heavy substances; dross.

Uranus: Machinery, old coins and antiques, baths, public institutions; everything uncommon and unusual; radioactive and magnetic substances.

Neptune: Poison, liquids, habit-forming drugs; mysterious and unidentifiable substances.

Pluto. Synthetics, through splitting and recondensing processes; plastics; atomic fission.

 

Planetary Pathology, or physical ailments. Associated with planetary influences are the ailments affecting the portion of the body represented by the Sign position of the planet - at birth, in transit, or by direction; and by the Signs and Houses ruled by the planet.

 

Sun: Ailments of heart and upper spinal region; fevers and breaking down of tissues; organic ailments; fainting spells; diseases of the spleen.

 

Moon: Endocrine imbalance resulting in inflamed glands and defective eyesight; functional ailments and irregularities; allergies; mental instabilities; female disorders; emotional depression that impairs normal functioning; dropsy and excess fluidity; catarrhal infection of the mucous membranes.

 

In matters of health it is generally the significator of the bodily afflictions of its Sign position, as follows:

 

Aries, head

Taurus, neck

Gemini, arms

Cancer, chest

Leo, back and heart

Virgo, abdomen

Libra, loins, kidneys

Scorpio, organs of generation

Sagittarius, thighs

Capricorn, knees

Aquarius, legs

Pisces, feet

 

Mercury: Nervous disorders or debility from excitement, stress, overwork or worry; headaches; losses of memory; salivation; goitre; impaired respiration and sluggish elimination.

 

Venus: Blood impurities that poison the system, resulting in tonsilitis; pustural diseases, as measles or smallpox; sloughing sores and susceptibility to contagion; kidney disease; venereal diseases; poisoning; impaired functioning, resulting from uncontrolled eroticism.

 

Mars: Infectious, contagious and cruptive diseases; fevers, high blood pressure, internal hemorrhages, inflammations producing sharp pains; burns, scalds; inflammatory conditions requiring surgical treatment; hysterical outbursts producing violent reactions due to high temperatures.

 

Jupiter: Maladies arising from surfeit; congestion; chronic acidity and hyperfluidity of functional activity; subnormal blood pressure; apoplexy.

 

Saturn: Inhibited functioning due to fears and morbid conditions; debilities due to accidental falls or subnormal temperatures; depressed vital activity or impaired circulation due to inhibited emotions; rheumatism; melancholia; decayed and abscessed teeth; malnutrition, often from sheer miserliness; skin diseases; atrophy; spinal ailments.

 

Uranus: Inflammations resulting from deposit of precipitated min- erals; fractures, ruptures, lesions, spasmodic disorders.

 

Neptune: Oxygen deficiency; glandular imbalance from unexplainable causes; energy depletion and wasting diseases; anaemia; neuroses; catalepsy, often the result of undirected or undisciplined psychic activity; hypochrondriasis; drug addiction.

 

Pluto. Ailments resulting from deposits of precipitated mineral products in consequence of chronic acidosis; arthritic and arteriosclerotic afflictions.

 

Planetary Pattern. A symmetrical arrangement of two or more planets or sensitive points around a common axis. A Planetary Picture as employed in Uranian Astrology, represents the interactivity of two planets, connected through a third planet or sensitive point at or in hard aspect to their midpoint. In figuring a midpoint between, for example, planets at 2" and 28" of the same sign, one does not subtract, and add half the difference to the longitude of the first planet; but adds and halves, thus: (2 + 28) / 2 = 15° - the midpoint. A third planet or sensitive point which forms a hard angle aspect to this midpoint within a 2° orb completes the planetary pattern, and renders interactive the three planets or points. Two planets equidistant from and on opposite sides of the 0° Cancer-Capricorn axis become Antiscions and form a planetary pattern that is interactivated without the addition of a third.planet. Where a third point falls short of an aspect to the midpoint by a certain number of degrees, a fourth planet that is the same number of degrees on the opposite side of the midpoint will complete the sym- metrical arrangement and activate the pattern. A planetary pattern may also be formed between any two planets and a cardinal degree on this formula: A planet at 10° Leo is 130° (4 X 30 + 10) distant from 0° Aries, and one at 5° Taurus is 35° (30 + 5) distant. The sum of these distances (165°) indicates 15° Virgo as the point of activation by a fourth element. To be effective there must participate in the pattern one of the native's "personal" points: Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Midheaven, and the four cardinal points - 0° of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.

 

Jones Patterns Another set of pattern classifications for flash appraisal, as advanced by Marc Edmund Jones, consists of the following: (1) Splash type, in which actual bodies excluding Fortuna and the Moon's Nodes, are scattered around the circle, with no noticeable gaps in the daily rising sequence. (2) Bundle type, afl planets contained within a 120° arc. (3) Locomotive type, all planets within a 240° arc leaving an unoccupied 120° arc. (4) Bowl type, all planets within a 180° arc, leaving one half of the Figure untenanted. (5) Bucket type, approximating the Bowl type, but with one planet in the opposite arc as a bail, thereby transforming the bowl into a bucket. (6) See Saw type, in which the planets are generally polarized around opposite ends of a diameter, leaving two vacant arcs of from 60° to 90° at opposite sides of the continuity. (7) Splay type. Strong and sharp aggregations of planets irregularly spaced.

 

Characteristic qualities of each group, are described as: (1) A well-balanced nature with a capacity for universal interest, whose only genius is that of versatility and the seeming ability to find order in apparent confusion. (2) Apparent self-gathering of interests and unresponsiveness to universal stimuli. (3) A dynamic and practical capacity, which while in a sense, eccentric, lacks extremes of universality or obsession. (4) An extreme degree of self-containment. (5) An effective capacity for some special activity. (6) A consciousness of opposing views in a world of conflict, with success dependent on correct alignment. (7) A purposeful individuality, which chooses its outlet of self-expression and refuses to be pigeon-holed.

 

Planetary Periods, or Cycles.

 

The mean symbolical periods of the various bodies are the length of time between two successive conjunctions of that body with the Sun at the same geocentric longitude, i.e, falling on the same day of a year. In other words the Sun in its apparent annual revolution forms conjunctions with each of the other bodies as viewed from the Earth, each successive annual conjunction with the same body taking place at an advanced point in the Zodiac. After a time these conjunctions themselves form a cycle of conjunctions, beginning on approximately the same degree of the Zodiac, or days of the year. The length of this cycle with reference to a particular planet constitutes the planetary periods. These are:

 

Moon: 19 years, the Cycle of Meton (q.v.).

Mercury: 79 years, with an inconstant mean advance of 1°37' each cycle.

Venus: 8 years, with an inconstant mean advance of 1°32' each cycle.

Mars: 79 years, with an inconstant mean advance of 1°34' each cycle.

Jupiter: 83 years exact.

Saturn: 59 years, with a mean advance of 1°53'

Uranus: 84 years, with a mean advance of 40'

Neptune: 164 years, 280 days; a mean annual motion of 2°10'54"

Pluto. 247.7 years, with a mean annual motion that, because of the extreme ellipticity of its orbit, varies from 1° in Pisces through Gemini, to 2.5° in Virgo through Sagittarius.

 

Ptolemy cites these time-measures as follows: Moon 4y, Mercury 10y, Venus 8y, Sun 19y, Mars 15y, Jupiter 12y, Saturn 30y. Those moderns who use his system add Uranus 90y, Neptune 18oy, Pluto 360y. Lilley alters this, as regards the Moon to 25y, and Mercury to 20y; others assign 27y to Mercury.

 

By means of these periods one is able to arrive at a rough approximation of a planet's position at a given date in a year for which an ephemeris is unavailable; as follows:

 

Example: To determine the longitude of Uranus on October 15th, 1672 (new style), add multiples of 84y and subtract the mean advance. To do this in one operation: assume any year in this epoch, say 1902. From this subtract 1672. This gives an interval of 230 years. Divide this by 84; the result, 2 periods and 62 years. Subtract 62 from 1902, which gives the year 1840: two Uranus periods subsequent to the desired date. To illustrate: the longitude of Uranus, as perceived in the ephemeris for 1940, on October 15th, is 17°09' Pisces. The 40' advance, times the two periods, is 1°20'. Subtract this from 17°09' and you have 15°19' Pisces as the longitude of Uranus on October 15th, 1672 (N.S.).

 

These and additional periods, arranged in tabular form for reference use, are as follows:

 

Planet.......Revolutions..Years.....Remainder.........Other Periods in Years

Moon.............254.......19....Cycle of Meton.......8-372-1040*#

Mercury..........318.......79....+1°37'(a)............7-13-33-46-204*

Venus.............13........8....+1°32'(a)............235-243

Mars..............42.......79....+1°34'...............16-32147-205*

Jupiter............7.......83....+0°1'*

Saturn.............2.......59....+1°53'...............206*

 

* Unusually exact. # Not an eclipse cycle. (a) Inconstant mean advance.

 

The three outer planets are usually computed by other methods: either (a) the first return, in even years, with a plus or minus correction showing excess over 360 degrees; or (b) the net mean annual motion.

 

..Planet..........Period....Remainder...Advance*

..Uranus............84y.......+1°4'.....4°17'55"

..Neptune..........164y.......+0°34'....2°11"55"

..Pluto............245y.......-0°29'....1°28'03"

 

*Mean annual advance, based on mean precession.

 

Planetary Physiology.

 

Consideration of the ruling planet, the Ruler of the ascending Decanate and its aspects, assists at arriving at a judgment as to sub-active and hyper-active functioning, as follows:

 

Sun: Generation of vital force, circulation, physical growth, expansion of areas of sensitivity.

Moon: Impregnation, generation, flow of secretions.

Mercury: Nerve functions, nerve reflexes, volition, coordination of motivity.

Venus: Exosmosis, filtration, venereal functions.

Mars: Rapid energy combustion under stress, bodily distribution of metallic elements.

Jupiter: Cell nutrition and development, flesh building, formation of hemoglobin and red corpuscles.

Saturn: Calcification, congestion, conditions affecting tendons, cartilages and articulation of bones.

Uranus: Electro-magnetic forces, growth of long bones.

Neptune: Functioning of telepathic, psychic or occult faculties; formation of white corpuscles.

Pluto. Balance between the anabolistic and katabolistic phases of metabolism.

 

Planetary Physiques.

 

Sun: Powerful, well formed body, with large bones; large face and forehead, clear complexion; hair, light but inclined to baldness; commanding eyes.

 

Moon: of middle stature, inclined to heaviness; round face, pale complexion; large, soft eyes; short but thick hands and feet; and usually small boned.

 

Mercury: Slender body and face; full forehead, long nose, thin lips; slender, expressive hands; dark hair, thin beard, poor com- plexion, penetrating eyes.

 

Venus: Short but graceful body; inclined to stoutness in advancing years; round face, dark hair, large and wandering eyes; soft voice and vivacious manner.

 

Mars: Strong, stocky body, but not overly tall, military deportment; black or red hair; often curly or wiry; sharp, quick eyes; often very ruddy complexion; when angry face is livid.

 

Jupiter: Large, well-formed body, inclined to become portly in advancing years; wide chest; high forehead; kindly and widely spaced eyes; dark, wavy hair; paternal attitude.

 

Saturn: Slender, angular body, with large bones - back bends with increasing years; stern features; small, beady eyes; dark, curly hair; indifferent complexion.

 

Uranus: Slender body, pleasing appearance; irregular but prepossessing features; usually large light eyes, brilliant and keen; some types ascetic in appearance, often giving the impression of being effeminate.

 

Neptune: Finely organized, slender body; long head, sharp features, often cruel expression; always mysterious; hypnotic eyes; hair retreats from temples.

 

Pluto. Medium stature, of rugged and sturdy build, yet with a delicate skin; soft fine hair on the scalp, but little hair elsewhere on the body.

 

Planetary Psychology.

 

Planetary influences upon the unfolding psyche, are as follows:

 

Sun: Individual faculties; consciousness of Ego, the Individuality as distinguished from the Personality. The vital energy that flows from the Sun through the solar system, enabling life to exist and its activities to be pursued; inspiring men to the consciousness of a destiny to be achieved: the sense of purpose that is recognized by MacDougal and the psychologists of the Purposivistic School; ambitious, with good organizing and executive ability. The solar influence is reflected in an impression of power in reserve; an outspoken and worldly-wise counselor; a strong individuality with an urge toward acquisition of power. Emanates an impression of dignity, grandeur, wisdom, authority, will and lofty spirituality. Restless under restraint, it operates more through inspiration than intellect. A strong paternal instinct. Generous, masterful, honest, truthful and creative; vital, forceful, sanguine, dignified. Power, honor, fame, pride, influence. When frustrated may become ostentatious, despotic, ceremonious, and fond of pomp and ritual.

 

Moon: Higher emotional faculties such as faith, hope and charity, veneration, peace-loving. The instinctive mind, the desire-nature with respect to material things; the external reactions to every-day affairs and to those pertaining to the home and domestic life; moods that fluctuate between the extremes of optimism and pessimism; ideas that are not abstract; ingenuity applicable to concrete purposes and practical ends; a mind that fluctuates and that lacks the ability to concentrate, hence easily influenced; sympathy, not compassion; respect for the old and regard for the young; suavity, kindness; love for animals; strong protective sense, and an inclination to defend those incapable of self-defense; acute maternal instinct not based on sex; modesty, timidity, economy, receptivity, imagination, impres- sionability, changeableness; fond of travel; personal magnetism; psychic qualities; extra-sensory receptivity; lymphatic, changeful, plastic, wandering, romantic, visionary, frivolous, capricious, fanciful, unstable, procrastinating, lazy.

 

Mercury: Concrete mental faculties: perception of size, weight, form, color, order, position, motion; memory, speech, intonation, phonetic inflection; thought, understanding, reason, intelligence; vacillation, hesitancy to face issues; mental waywardness; brilliant and facile but not profound; intellect in the abstract but not the concrete; industrious in acquiring knowledge for its own sake, apart from any practical application or any question of right or wrong; amasses evidence and eloquently cites statistics in support of his thesis; loves argument and debate; cunning, crafty, subtle; a skilled technician enjoying a superficial proficiency; literary, though not a ready writer. Mercury's highest application appears to be in the realm of "pure reason," which, however, knows so much on both sides of a subject it experiences difficulty in drawing a conclusion, or in holding to a conclusion once arrived at. From the planet Mercury we have the word for the element Mercury, and its derivative effect, mercurial. Its mental direction is largely determined by aspecting planets. v. Aspects, planetary.

 

Mercury: Active, excitable, impressionable, nervous, gossipy, worrisome, witty, dextrous.

 

Mercury expressions: Literature, writings, oratory, study, memory. If frustrated may become conceited, profane, unprincipled, tale- bearing, forgetful, addicted to gambling.

 

Venus: Physical faculties: friendship, romantic amativeness; the affections, particularly love and the emotions derived therefrom; aesthetic sense, but not analytical; responsive to beauty whether of person, adornment, art or environment; enjoys elegance, comfort and pleasure; good taste; sex sensitivity, but discriminating; parental instinct; a youthful, almost childlike simplicity of approach and viewpoint; a gracious yet almost patronizing attitude; subject to negative moods and extremes of feeling; given to self-pity in moments of depression; mind highly receptive but largely concerned with social affairs; memory sense frequently unreliable; gentle, amiable, pacific, graceful, cheerful, temperate, passive. When thwarted, inclines to extravagance in self-indulgence; slothful, licentious, sensual, vain, dissolute, and generally abandoned; fond of gaudy apparel. Evolved venusian sensibilities incline to art, music, peace, justice, grace, faithfulness, fruitfulness.

 

Mars: The vital faculties: combativeness, acquisitiveness, desire, enthusiasm, passionate amativeness, courage, ardor in pursuit, not easily rebuffed and seldom discouraged, indiscriminate sexuality, haste, anger, intolerance, fretfulness; a centre of power and energy, whether for good or ill; acute, penetrative mind, largely concerned with physical accomplishment, through direct-action methods, rather than aims, and fitted for enterprises requiring seer-assurance; dynamic force, whether applied constructively or destructively; domineering, brooks no interference and is often ruthless in disregard of others; fearless and unhesitating as to hazardous undertakings and occupations; love of family - and on a wider plane, patriotism; ever ready to protect its own, whether family, country or organization; strong sense of brotherhood with humanity at large, though appearing to be self-centered. Mars is forceful, active, inflammatory, generally careless and destructive, expert, high-spirited. Normally synonymous with force, activity, ambition, pluck, endurance, desire, strife. When thwarted, Mars becomes cruel, egotistical, sarcastic, quarrelsome, coarse, vulgar.

 

Jupiter: The abstract and creative faculties: comparison applied in generalizations upon the broader aspects; idealism; powerful sense of the dramatic, and obsessed with the desire to be of service to society; symbolizes a person of sound judgment with an ample store of common sense; optimism, order, harmony; the principle of expansion and growth as expressed in the accumulation of material wealth, but without the miserliness of a marked Saturnian trait. Idealism generosity; a balance of feeling and thought, of heart and mind, that yields optimism, devotion, benevolence, good nature, generosity, temperateness, sociability, hopefulness; peace-loving, law-abiding, philosophical; usually of marked religious tendencies, especially of a ritu- alistic order; convinced of the integrity of his motives and that his judgments are tempered with mercy; love of beauty as applied to grandeur and the sublime, with a leaning toward art, especially sculpture; the ability to overcome opposition with forceful but impersonal arguments; broad vision, open-mindedness; listens to reason.

 

Jupiter creates conditions through which these qualities can bc expressed: health, as physical harmony; law, as social harmony; religion, as spiritual harmony - not as channels of intellect, or the means of making money. It represents judgment, power in the benevolent sense, profit, good fortune, honesty, dignity - or just plain respectability.

 

At its best Jupiter is generous, expansive, genial, temperate, vital, benevolent, respectful, self-controlled; but when frustrated it inclines to pride, dissipation, boastfulness, gambling, extravagance, procrastination, complacency, hypocrisy.

 

Saturn: The concrete creative faculties: asceticism; practical ability to achieve the external expression of thought forms; well ordered mind for the technical and concrete with an emphasis on detail; inclined toward scientific research involving mathematics; the conservative realist who asserts the authority of experience; secretive, noncommittal, noncommunicative; cautious, inhibited and reserved; laconic in expression; apostle of justice meted out with a firm hand, yet fair and impartial, a strong sense of justice - particularly injustice; a slave to customs and conventions, even when railing against them; patient, prudent, constant but jealous, yet not easily offended. Its emphasis on the personal ego and inability to give outward expression to affection, tends to separation and isolation; a serious outlook on life; inclined to learn everything the hard way; avoids strenuous effort or exertion - but generally finds more than his share of it to do. Its strong sense of self-preservation is deliberately purposeful and holds the emotions in check through the exercise of thought and will power, more completely than does any other planet.

 

Where Uranus makes a show of strength when freedom is threatened, and Mars when the passions are aroused, Saturn is cold, slow and deliberate, but inexorable when fully aroused. Plots his way to positions of authority, wherein he discharges his duties with tyrannical conservatism; generally a reactionary, but faithful.

 

Normally fearful, secretive, cautious, defensive, binding, cold, hard, persevering, steadfast; when frustrated Saturn develops avarice, materialism, ultra-conservatism, tradition-bound narrow-mindedness, pessimism and fatalism.

 

Uranus: The iconoclastic tendency: characterized by an aloof, offhand manner and approach; imagination, constructive or otherwise; reacts violently against anything that would deprive him of his free and conscious choice of thought and action. Unbending will, insistent upon independence at any price; not readily amenable to any sort of control, much less to arbitrary authority; strong sense of power and authority; assertiveness, with crushing positiveness; self-reliant; inventive; interest in scientific and religious principles; unconventional, altruistic; perseverance to cope with and conquer material obstacles, yet subject to sudden changes of attitude; organizer, promoter, scientific investigator along materialistic lines; originality, with a tendency to break new ground, start new occupations, advance new ideas, utilize new methods, depart from established customs, and hold in disdain the arbitrary restrictions of conventional morality; strong mechanical sense and executive ability that leans toward construction engineering; unerring ability to sense people's motives, hence often becomes a refractory spirit, more or less alienated from his relatives; moves spontaneously from an inner urge - hence impulsive and generally classed as eccentric.

 

Uranus is deemed a higher octave of Mercury. often fails to know his own mind, but is moved by providential circumstances; often a fatalist who considers his destiny beyond his control.

 

Naturally inclined to be variable, spasmodic, impulsive, prophetic, and heroic, under restriction - even that of an inferiority complex - it becomes eccentric, refractory, bohemian, fanatical, anarchistic, and given to hurling sarcastic invectives at anybody or anything on any pretext and without provocation. Uranus is eminently the planet of science and invention, particularly aviation, electricity, and astrology.

 

Neptune: The Social Unrest; follow-the-trend illusive and intangible emotions, of which we know so little; entertains false hopes and indulges in tricky schemes, yet is highest in human sympathy; loves mystery; acts dictated by powerful but inexplicable motives, directed toward invisible, intangible ends; reacts to harmony, sympathy, symmetry, rhythm, poetry, and the dance, which is the poetry of motion, with a partiality for stringed instruments; also for the morbid and erotic.

 

Neptune pertains to feeling, desire, emotion, imagination. aesthetics, intuition, the psychic faculties or extra-sensory perceptions. When thwarted it becomes psycho-neurotic, theatric, and susceptible to flattery, the power of suggestion, and appearances. On the merest whim it will break a bargain or go back on its word. It exhibits a high regard for uniformity yet often succeeds in enterprises that require more than the average measure of mental effort. Neptune is deemed a higher octave of Venus.

 

Pluto. Sociological Urge. The organized group as the instrument with which to amputate parasitic growths on the body politic, in order to reconstruct society along more altruistic lines. Depending upon the spiritual development they have attained, these individuals become leaders of eleemosynary organizations. Foundations for the advancement of human welfare and relations, professional associations or trade unions through which to achieve better social conditions, or mere racketeers and gang leaders. It affords incentive to great literary or dramatic geniuses who inculcate in their works Plutonian doctrines calculated to bear fruit through the succeeding generation; total disregard for constituted authority or vested rights, except as administered for the good of all; and even at its worst, more likely to be activated by a sense of righteous indignation on behalf of society than by personal vindictiveness.

 

Planetary Significators. In external affairs the solar system bodies exercise influence as follows:

 

Sun: Leaders and persons of authority in government, religious and industrial organizations.

 

Moon: Public life and the fickleness of the public; fluctuations of popularity, changing fortunes; the common people, and the transportation and distribution systems that serve them; the home and home life; the place of residence; the mother, and women generally; in the State, women of title; the ocean, and voyages by water; water and liquids in general, and persons who follow occupations connected with them; places and houses near water; removals, mystery, romance.

 

Mercury: Business matters, letter writing, short travels, the neigh- bors and their gossip; schools, colleges, and all places where teaching and learning are pursued; scientific and literary organizations; printing-works, publishing offices, and all who are occupied at these places; buying, selling, bargaining, trading.

 

Venus: Social activities; women, especially those younger; art, music, literature; beautiful objects, and anything that is prized for its beauty; ornaments; things of luxury and pleasure; jewels, toys, fine clothes, articles of adornment; pictures, flowers, dancing, singing, acting in so far as these express beauty or pleasure, apart from skill or intelligence; all places where these things belong, and where such occupations are carried on; sweethearts, wives, the home and household; conjugal love, as embodying affection rather than passion.

 

Mars: Steel, cutlery, weapons of war, sharp tools, and those who use them, fires, slaughter houses, mortuaries; brick and lime kilns; athletics and sports, in so far as they express courage, enterprise, strength and dexterity.

 

Jupiter: Expansion and growth, and their expression in terms of material wealth; occupations, persons, and places associated with religion, law, and education; public functions and assemblies of a state or official character; charitable and philanthropic movements and institutions; social gatherings, theatres and clothing.

 

Saturn: Restrictions, delay, poverty, defects, darkness, decay; the father; stability in friendship; secrets, misfortunes, sorrows, fatalities; the ultimate uncombined atomic condition of matter; also the state of matter called "earth," and those whose occupations are concerned with it; ascetics of every description, whether religious or not; hermits, misers, and those who fast or starve; workers employed by municipalities or the State; older people; old plans, matters already started; del)ts and their payment; karma; practicality; good advice; widows and widowers; mountainous and hilly places, or open country, especially rocky and uncultivated; caves, ruins; corpses, graves, and churchyards.

 

Uranus: Those who have power and authority over others, either on a large or small scale - from King, Parliament and Prime Minister downwards; the chief, the ruler, the wielder of authority; inventors, discoverers, pioneers and antiquarians.

 

Neptune: Democratic and popular movements, mobs, the common people; mystics, dreamers, visionaries, psychics, mediums; perhaps hospitals and charities.

 

Pluto. Idealistic organizations that attack the social ills; social organizations designed to combat groups of individuals who believe they belong to a privileged class. Ideas that are ahead of their time, that will not bear fruit until readvocated by some disciple thereof in the next generation.

 

Planetary Significators - Horary.

 

In Horary Astrology the solar system bodies are subject to the following interpretations:

 

Sun: The querent - if a man. Rich and powerful relations; the person in authority, from whom an honor or favor is desired; the one capable of saving the querent from embarrassment; goldsmiths, jewelers, reformers, educators.

 

Moon: The querent - if a woman. The mother, or the woman in the case; servants, sailors, navigators, and those in contact with fluids or liquids.

 

Mercury: The bringer of tidings; news of that which is lost; artificers, thieves, ingenious and clever persons, who live by their wits; mathematicians, secretaries, merchants, travelers, teachers, orators, ambassadors.

 

Venus: The person in whom the querent may be interested, particularly if a young woman; embroiderers, perfumers, entertainers, artists, dealers in ornamentation, designers of clothing, interior decorators, lovers of pleasure, managers of places of amusement.

 

Mars: If favorably aspected, a strong and aggressive friend; if unfavorably aspected, a revengeful enemy; surgeons, chemists, soldiers, munition manufacturers; all who use sharp instruments; rough and uncultured persons; thieves, and such as live by violence.

 

Jupiter: The wise friend of the querent upon whom he depends for protection or assistance; a person of advanced years noted for integrity; rich and generous friends or relations; clothiers and dealers in essential commodities; mountebanks, dissipated relatives or friends; the black sheep of the family; counsellors, ecclesiastical dignitaries, judges, lawyers.

 

Saturn: Persons who, through narrowness of outlook, endanger the success of querent; aged and conservative or indigent friends or relatives; day laborers, religious recluses, those engaged in agriculture and mining, paupers, beggars, clowns; sometimes prudent counsellors; if unfavorably aspected, a person with ulterior motive.

 

Uranus: The querent's friend in an emergency; unexpected elements, persons from afar, inventors, electricians, indicators of change; astrologers, humanitarians, psychologists, mental specialists. If favorably aspected, a person bringing new and important propositions. If unfavorably aspected, losses through impostors or unwise speculation.

 

Neptune: Those concerned with the investigation of scientific or metaphysical secrets; profoundly wise and eccentric individuals geniuses, prophets, spiritual counsellors; persons of mysterious origin; those engaged in water pursuits.

 

Pluto. The leader of an organization waging a strike, boycott or lockout, to establish a precedent for some principle; the writer who instigates a reform movement or mass reaction.

 

Planetary Significators - Mundane. In Mundane Astrology, the significance of the solar system bodies is as follows:

 

In a consideration of world affairs, the planets supply the initiating factor, whether personalities or environment; the aspects, its favorable or unfavorable action; the signs, the geographical divisions of the earth's surface to be affected; and the houses, the economic or political conditions of the people to be affected or activated.

 

Sun: Executive heads; governmental and legislative.

 

Moon: The proletariat, particularly the women; crowds; subjects or objects of popular interest; water transport conditions and occupations; land and crops.

 

Mercury: The intelligentsia, the literary world; the transportation and communications industry; the press, educators, speakers, news commentators; change.

 

Venus: Ambassadors of good will and preservers of the peace; artists, musicians; theatres and festivals; births, children; courtship and marriage. Unfavoring aspects bring plagues and pestilences.

 

Mars: Military leaders; surgeons; persons liable to die; engineers; agitators, incendiaries, criminals and crimes of violence; epidemics of infectious and contagious diseases; wars. Commotions are stirred up by Mars aspects to the Sun.

 

Jupiter: judiciary; ecclesiastical heads; industrialists and capitalists; philanthropists and philanthropic movements; influences in support of order; peace, prosperity and plenty. If afflicted, over-production.

 

Saturn: The minor state executives and law enforcement authorities; Civil Service employees; land owners and mine operators; elderly persons; public buildings, national calamities, scarcities.

 

Uranus: Air and rail transport; labor organizations, strikes and riots; civic organizations; anarchy, explosions, inventions; the electrical and radio industry.

 

Neptune: The little people; social movements; socialized medicine and hospitalization; charities; seditions; socialistic political movements; widespread unrest.

 

Pluto. Organized labor; chain store syndicates; group activities; mob psychology - whether the mob be capitalists drunk with power or unemployed crazed by hunger.

 

Planetary Spirits. In Occultism, the seven highest hierarchies, corresponding to the Christian archangels, which have passed through states of evolution in past cycles.

 

Planetary Vegetation and Herbs. According to Alan Leo, herbs are classified according to planetary influences as follows:

 

Sun: Almond, angelica, ash tree, bay tree, celandine, centaury, chamomile, corn hornwort, eyebright, frankincense and other aromatic herbs, heart trefoil, juniper, male peony, poppy, marigold, mistletoe, olive, pimpernel, rice, rosemary, rue, saffron, St. John's wort, sun dew, tormentil, turnsole, vine, wiper's bugloss; also bay, citrus, and walnut trees.

 

Moon: Adder's tongue, cabbage, chickweed, clary, coral-wort, cuckoo flowers, cucumber, dog-tooth, duck's meat, gourd, hyssop, iris, lettuce, melon, mercury, moonwort, mouse-car, mushrooms, pearlwort, privet, pumpkin, purslain, rattle grass, rosemary, seaweed, spunk, turnips, wallflowers, water arrowhead, watercress, water lily, water violet, white lily, white poppy, white rose, white saxifrage, whitlow grass, wild wallflower, willow, winter green, and all night blooming plants; also maple, olive, palm, and other trees rich in sap.

 

Mercury: Azaleas, bitter sweet, calamint, caraway, carrots, cascara, coraline, dill, elecampane, endive, fennel, hare's foot, hazel, horehound, hound's tongue, lavender, lily of the valley, liquorice, male fern, mandrake, majoram, mulberry, myrtle, olive spurger parsley, pellitory, southernwood, star-wort, trefoil, valerian, wild carrots, winter savory; also hazel, and filbert trees.

 

Venus: Apples, archangel, artichoke, beans, bearberry, bishop's weed, black alder, bubbleholly, burdock, cloves, cock's head, couch grass, cowslip, cranebill, cudweed, daffodils, elder, featherfew, ferns, foxgloves, goldenrod, gooseberry, grapes and other vines, groundsel, kidneywort, lily, little daisy, marshmallows, mint, pennyroyal, pennywort, peppermint, red cherries, roses, sanicle, sea holly, sorrel, spearmint, tansy, throatwort, vervain, violets, wheat; also almond, apple, apricot, ash, cypress, pecan and pomegranate trees.

 

Mars: All-heal, aloes, anemone, arsmart, barberry, basil, box tree, broom, butcher's broom, cactus, capers, catmint, coriander, crowfoot, flax-weed, furze-bush, garden cress, garlic, gentian, ginger, hawthorn, honeysuckle, hops, horse radish, horsetongue, hyssop, leadwort, leeks, madder, masterwort, mousetail, mustard, nettles, onions, peppers, plantain, radish, savin, tobacco, wake-robin, wormwood, and all briars and thistles; also trees with thorns.

 

Jupiter: Agrimony, aniseed, apricots, asparagus, balm, balsam, betony, bloodwort, borage, chestnut, cinquefoil, cloves, currants, daisy, dandelion, hart's tongue, house leek, jessamine, liver wort, mint, myrrh, nailwort, nutmeg, polypody, rhubarb, sage, scurvy grass, small samphire swallow wort, strawberry, sugar cane, thorn apple, wild pinks, wild succory; also ash, almond, birch, fig, lime, linden, mulberry and oak trees.

 

Saturn: Aconite, barley, barren wort, beech, black hellebore, blue bottle, comfrey, crosswort, flaxweed, fleawort, fumitory, gladwin, ground moss, hemlock, hemp, henbane, holly, horsetail, ivy, jew's ear, knap-weed, knotgrass, mandrake, mangel, medlar, moss, navelwort, nightshade, pansies, parsnips, quince, rue, rupture wort, rushes, rye, sciatica wort, senna, shepherd's purse, sloes, Solomon's seal, spinach, tamarisk, vervain, wintergreen. Also cypress, elm, pine, willow and yew trees.

 

Pluto. Modern astrology seldom concerns itself with adding to or even using these classifications. Furthermore, the second-octave planets externalize more on the mental and spiritual plane than the physical, hence no additions to these ancient lists have been made as applicable to Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

 

Planetary Vocations and Avocations. The ruling planet, and the signs in which posited, considered with reference to occupational aptitude, gives the following testimony.

 

Sun: Positions of power, dignity, authority and responsibility, judges, magistrates, law observance authorities; superintendents and directors of public utilities, banks and businesses where huge sums of money are handled; goldsmiths, money lenders, writers, makers of ornaments, as luxuries and for display.

 

Moon: All common employments; persons dealing with public commodities, or holding.inferior positions chiefly in the transit industry; women officials and female occupations, as maids, children's nurses, midwives; those having to do with water, as seamen, fishermen, beavers, longshoremen; dealers in liquids; bath attendants; traveling salesmen, tradesmen, purveyors of food.

 

Mercury: Authors, actors, orators, teachers, inventors, men of science, journalists and those engaged in gathering and disseminating information and in basing of judgment thereon; merchants, book sellers, postal workers, telegraph operators and messengers, or clerks engaged in the communications industry; artisans who exercise skill and intelligence; accountants, civil engineers, lawyers.

 

Venus: All professions connected with music and the fine arts; jewellers, embroiderers, perfumers, botanists; all businesses connected with women and their adornment: domestic servants, dancers and actors who impersonate beauty or grace, apart from skill or intelligence; painters, clothing designers, makers and dealers in toilet accessories.

 

Mars: All military professions; surgeons, chemists, blacksmiths, engineers, merchants, butchers, barbers, carpenters, and those who use cutlery or sharp instruments; workers in iron and steel, and those who make implements of war; bakers, dyers, and au common employments.

 

Jupiter: All professions connected with religion and the law; legislators, physicians, bankers, philanthropists, clothiers and businesses connected with woollen clothing; restaurant workers.

 

Saturn: All conservative businesses and all who deal in land, or in commodities produced by or taken out of the earth; those having to do with places of confinement, or of the dead; common laborers, and those who undertake laborious tasks, or who work underground, or by night. Employments where much labor is necessary to acquire gain. Builders, bridge makers, potters, plumbers, bricklayers, dyers, cattlemen, policemen, scavengers.

 

Uranus: Public figures, not holding office; travelers, inventors, pioneers, discoverers, original thinkers, lecturers; aviators, and those in the development of air transport; electricians, radio technicians, astrologists, scientists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, physical researchers and all new and uncommon occupations.

 

Neptune: Artistic and literary geniuses, philosophers, occultists, occupations connected with water, or liquids.

 

Pluto. Leaders in large organizations and movements, whether socialistic or capitalistic. Writers along sociological lines, or of works in which sociological doctrines are disguised; activities conducted anonymously or under a pseudonym.

 

Planetary Years. The ancients presumed the planets to have definite periods of rulership, at the end of which changes of constitution or environment might be expected to occur to persons or in the places ruled by them. What they called "the shortest years" can be traced to the orbital motions in most cases; but it is difficult to trace a justification for the other groups. They are:

 

...Planet.....Short..Mean..Greater..Greatest

...Saturn......30....43.5.....57......465

...Jupiter.....12....45.......79......428

...Mars........15....40.......66......264

...Sun.........19....69......120.....1460

...Venus........8....45.......82......151

...Mercury.....20....48.......76......450

...Moon........25....66......108......320

 

By the use of the short years one deduces that, for example, if Saturn conjoins the Moon at birth, its opposition will occur at 15 years of age; if Jupiter conjoins any planet it will form its sextile in 2 years from birth. In other words, it was a method whereby, without the aid of an ephemeris, to determine when the planets wig form aspects or directions to the radical places of the Sun and Moon, and they to the radical places of the planets - called "periodical directions." It is principally of value in mundane astrology, when considering world-trends over long epochs.

 

Platic. v. Aspects.

 

Pluto v. Solar System.

 

Point of Life. A progressed point, obtained by advancing 0° Aries at the rate of 7y per Sign. A planet at this point is presumed to affect the native according to its nature and strength. The theory appears to recognize the importance of the equinoctial degree as an individual point, and to associate it somehow with the Uranus motion, and the progressed motion of the Moon.

 

Point of Love. As this represents the position of Venus in a Solar figure, and as Venus never has a greater elongation from the Sun than 48°, this Arabian Point can never be in other than the 11th, 12th, 1st or 2nd Houses.

 

Polar Elevation. The Elevation of the Pole, or the Pole of the Descendant, is relative to the north or south latitude of the place for which a map is erected. Proceeding northward from the Equator the North Pole appears to rise up toward the zenith. The elevation of the Pole at London is 51° 30' - the latitude of the city. The Poles of the Houses increase as they recede from the Imum Coeli and the Mid-heaven, which have no polar elevation, toward the Ascendant and Descendant. The cusps of the intermediate Houses, have polar elevation proportional to the positions at which they cut the Prime Vertical or Circle of Observation - the circle in which a person stands when facing South.

 

The formula whereby to ascertain the Pole of a planet, is one-third of the planet's semi-arc: the difference of elevation of the two cusps:: the planet's cuspal distance: its proportional polar distance. To ascertain the cuspal distance of a planet from the Oblique Ascension of the cusp, subtract the planet's Oblique Ascension or Descension under the pole of that cusp.

 

To find the Oblique Ascension of a cusp - add 30° to the Right Ascension of the Mid-heaven for each successive House eastward.

 

To find the Oblique Descension, subtract 30° for every House westward from the Mid-heaven.

 

Polarity. Literally, that quality or condition in virtue of which a body exhibits opposite, or contrasted, properties or powers, in opposite or contrasted, parts or directions.

 

(1) The opposite point in the zodiac to the Sun position in any nativity may be spoken of as its Sun's polarity; usually employed in the harmonization of two maps.

 

(2) Since opposing signs are said to complement each other, any diameter can be termed a polarity. It is through this principle that Air and Fire signs are deemed more harmonious, since belonging to the same polarity. Similarly with the Water and Earth signs. This polarization of two groups through the polarization of one member of each group is illustrated in Solomon's Seal (q.v.) a six pointed star produced by the juxtaposition of two triangles.

 

(3) In any one nativity, polarity as used by Leo refers to a relationship between the Sun and Moon positions; viz., Sun in Leo, as polarized by the Moon in Libra. The basic thought is probably that a life revolves around an axis which has as one pole its Sun destiny, and the other pole its Moon desires, the character of the polarization dependent upon the degree of harmony or disharmony that exists between the signs positing the two luminaries.

 

Maurice Weymss classifies the polarities as follows:

 

Polarity:....Signs...................Root Instinct....Simple Instinct

Electric:....Aries and Libra.........Food obtaining...Acquisitiveness

Crystalline:.Taurus and Scorpio......Reproductive.....Constructiveness

Energy:......Gemini and Sagittarius..Imitative........Mimicry

Solid:.......Cancer and Capricorn....Precautionary....Acquisitive

Gaseous:.....Leo and Aquarius........Communicative....Sympathy

Liquid:......Virgo and Pisces........Herd.............Service

 

Pole - of the Ascendant;  of the Horoscope. The geographical latitude of the place for which the figure is cast. v. Polar Elevation.

 

Ponderous, or Ponderable planets. v. Planets.

 

Posited. The position actually occupied by a body, in the heavens or in the signs and houses of a geocentric map.

 

Positive sign. An odd-numbered sign. v. Signs, Positive.

 

Practical Natures. Referring to a balance between idealism and the ability to enjoy realities and actualities, and to do whatever has to be done, that is shared in common by those born with the Sun in Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo - respectively the Initiative, Executive and Deductive types of the Practical group.

 

Precession of Equinox and Pole. The shape of the Earth is that of an ellipsoid: flattened at the poles and bulging at the Equator. The gravitational pull of the Moon, and to a lesser extent of the Sun, on this equatorial bulge is said to create a precessional "couple," which causes the Earth's poles of rotation to gyrate or slightly nod in a conical manner. The periods of these Nutations are diurnal, monthly and annual, in addition to the chief one, of the same period as the precessional motion of the Moon's orbit, as noted by its receding Nodes. These slight periodic perturbations of the Earth's polar axis leave residues which accumulate slowly to cause the Soli-Lunar Precession - a more extensive motion and longer in period, hence a Secular perturbation. Stockwell, taking into account all the changes in the orbits of the Earth and Moon due to the action of the planets, has shown that the mean period of this Soli-Lunar Precession is 25,694.8 years. This is the period of that steady precession of the Poles which causes it to point at different stars. Thus in 2102 A.D. the North Pole will point nearly direct at Polaris. As exactly as we can tell, the North Pole pointed as nearly to Vega as it ever does - 6° away - just one-half of the cycle of Precession before the Mission of Christ. Thus the bulk of evidence of an astronomical character, mentioned under Invariable Plane (q.v.), indicates that a new cycle of Polar Precession started around 25 to 28 A.D.

 

If we measure the backward motion of the line of intersection of the Equator and the Ecliptic on a hypothetical Fixed Ecliptic plane, its motion would be a steady one of the same period as the Pole. This line of intersection is the Equinox, 0° Aries-Libra, which forms the start and midpoint of our Moving Zodiac. It moves backward because the Equator is shifting its position in space, due to the slow gyration or nodding motion of the Precessing Polar Axis.

 

However, the Ecliptic plane is not fixed. The precessing of the Ecliptic with respect to the Invariable Plane, is analogous to the motion of the Earth's Equator with respect to the Ecliptic. In addition it librates, or tilts slowly back and forth, with respect to the Invariable Plane. This has the effect of slightly changing the backward rate of motion of 0° Aries - the Equinox: now speeding it, and again retarding it. The variation is such that the general Precession - the actual as opposed to the Mean motion of the Equinox - can be plus or minus, by 281.2y, that of the Soli-Lunar Precession of 25,694.8y. Thus it can occur at rates of from 25,413.6y to 25,976 1/2 years. Observe that this range of variation includes: the present rate, 25,868y; the period mentioned by Plato, 25,920 years; and that memorialized in the Great Pyramid of the Egyptians, 25,827½y.

 

Another effect of this variation is the lag and lead, plus or minus 3°56', of the variable Equinox with respect to the steady poles. As the line of intersection of Ecliptic and Invariable Plane was at right angles to that of the Equinox at the time of Christ, this discrepancy had its maximum value and the Equinox led the pole. If we count back about 281 years before the three year Mission of Christ ended in the Crucifixion and Resurrection, 28 A.D., we reach early 254 B.C. as the approximate time when the Moving and Fixed Zodiacs coincided. This is in close agreement with the date 255 B.C., given by Gerald Massey, based on his extensive knowledge of Hebraic and Egyptian Culture. This may be regarded as a period of transition, whose midpoint came about 115 B.C., not greatly at variance with the date, 97 B.C., advanced by Rudhyar, and 125 B.C., by Thierens, for the start of the Piscean Age. It indicates that on the basis of actual motion the Aquarian Age commenced about 1906, although the Pole will not reach this point until about 2170 A.D. It is notable in this connection that a Great Cardinal Cross of the major planets, similar to that at the time of Christ, 25 A.D., took place on January 11, 1910, with Mars and Saturn again in Aries, and again opposing Jupiter in Libra; but with the positions of Uranus and Neptune interchanged - ranus in Capricorn, where Neptune had been, and vice versa. Instead of a Full Moon on the Jupiter-Saturn arm of the Cross, there was a new Moon on the Uranus-Neptune arm, conjoining Uranus, the planet of the Aquarian Age, and Mercury and Venus were both in Aquarius and both direct - significant of the New Era now commencing. In 25 A.D. Neptune, the planet of the Piscean Age, had the Capricorn position, with both Mercury and Venus in Pisces, and both Retrograde.

 

The overall pattern seems to piece together a number of factors, and the Precession emerges as a cycle of great vitality (v. Cycles). The entrance of the Equinox into Aquarius and the Great Cross of 1910 thus account for the tremendous changes and readjustments now taking place in this predominantly Uranian cycle of transition in which we live - which gains added importance perhaps, through the fact that only in the past two Centuries have the extra-Saturnian planets been discovered. An additional significator of the crucial importance of the present Era is the fact that the Meta-Galactic Plane, the Milky Way, is crossing the plane of the Equator at 0° Cancer- Capricorn, thus making another Cross with the Equinox. The Cross is the symbol not only of crisis and readjustment, but also of "crossing over" from one phase of evolution into another. Therefore the start (Polar) of the Piscean Age and (Equinoctial) of the Aquarian Age are heralded by rare cosmic crosses that mark the Epoch as of unique significance in the evolution of humanity, wherein Man is stimulated by new energies. - CHARLES A. JAYNE, JR.

 

Precession of the Equinoxes. In a recent astronomical work it is defined as "that westward march of the intersection of the planes of the equator and the ecliptic, caused by the attraction of the sun, moon and planets on the protuberant mass at the earth's equator." In doubting the correctness of this explanation, offered blandly by astronomers as an accepted fact, I maintain that this precession is due to causes similar to those which produce the precession of Moon's node - where there is no equatorial protuberation to which to attribute the phenomenon. More likely it is the result of an oscillatory or undulating motion of the entire plane of the orbit, the rate of oscillation determinable by ratios between such factors as the rate of motion of the body and of the center around which it revolves, and the relative diameters of the intersecting orbits. Although our Sun is presumed to be a member of the Milky Way Galaxy, the theory has been advanced that the Sun is a member of a sub-galaxy that is itself a part of the Milky Way Galaxy. This would mean a revolution of the Sun around the center of the sub-galaxy in a much shorter period than that of the entire Milky Way galaxy.

 

Predictions, in Mundane Astrology. Although predictions, as drawn from a birth Figure, often show a high percentage of correctness, the practice teaches a fatalistic philosophy that denies the gift of Free Will and Self Determination. The high percentage of correctness proves only that a high percentage of people permit themselves to be ruled by the emotions instead of the dominance of the reasoning faculties. It is only in the realm of Mundane Astrology, which deals with the mass reaction of large political or geographical groups, that predicting can be indulged in without inculcating a harmful philosophy.

 

Predictions in Mundane Astrology are certainly no more damaging than those based upon Gallup polls, or the experience and judgment of practical politicians. Even the weatherman is often wrong, yet he stacks up a pretty good average, but in doing so he uses an efficient communications system to get advance warning of movements that must have had their inception in some cosmic condition. Weather predicting is therefore no more and no less legitimate than predictions in Mundane Astrology. Whether based upon an eclipse path, a chart of an ingress or lunation, or a national chart erected for some presumed moment of inception or initiation, and whether or not the predictions are substantiated by ensuing events, the important factor is that, right or wrong, there is no harm done. Mass reactions generally follow cosmic trends, for the same reason that only the minority is ever consistently right. However, when it comes to the individual, astrology cannot be helpful other than by teaching that man has the inherent ability, if he will use it, to negate unfavorable urges and work in harmony with favorable ones. For that reason, the future value of astrology rests upon the willingness of astrologers to discourage anything that smacks of fortune-telling and confine its use to the diagnosis of conditions, and the giving of a formula of prescribed thinking calculated to free the individual from subserviency to mere emotional stimulations.

 

Predictive Astrology. The branch of Astrology that deals with "Directions," the methods by which future influences are ascertained. The consideration of this branch opens up the whole question of Fate versus Free Will, and at once determines the difference between the "exoteric" and the "esoteric" astrologer. The one is a confirmed fatalist who believes himself forever under the bane of Destiny, with an entire life mapped out for him over which he has no control: no re-embodiment of the soul, no continuity of existence and with no sense of purpose - because a cruel or a kind Fate has brought him into existence against his will and imposed upon him an environment he did not choose. The other is sustained by a belief that as a man sows so must he reap. His motto is "Man know thyself," that he may choose to sow in such manner as to reap a harvest of his own enlightened desires. It is from this standpoint that all "Directions" should be made, and all rules based upon the dictum that while the stars may impel they do not compel. This presents Astrology as cosmic conditioning, but over which Man is capable of conscious control.

 

One supposedly historic prediction that is of interest in the epoch of world history in which this is written, dates from about 166o and has been ascribed to Friar Jehan; in which he is reputed, according to CORONET, to have said that in the Twentieth Century "the land of the Black Eagle (Germany) would invade the country of the Cock (France), and that the Leopard (England) would rush to the Cock's aid. The Black Eagle would claw its antagonists almost to defeat but would turn, before finishing them off, to attack the White Eagle (Russia). There would then take place a struggle more terrible than words can tell, where the dead would be piled in mounds as high as cities. The nation of the Black Eagle (also referred to in the prophecy as the country of Luther) would at last succumb and, deprived of all its weapons, would be divided into twenty-two separate states. Then, at long last, would follow the true golden age of mankind."

 

Prenatal Epoch. The theoretical moment of conception. v. Epoch.

 

Prescience. Foreknowledge. An excellent word, used by Ptolemy in the affirmation ... "only prescience by astronomy will afford premonition of such events as happen to men by the influence of the Ambient." It suggests preparedness for the exercise of discretion, rather than the fatalistic terror inspired by a prediction.

 

Primary Directions. Any method, for determining the changing influences of the altered relationship between the cuspal and the planets' places on successive days or years after birth, that is based upon the diurnal rotation of the Earth upon its axis, arc known as Primary Directions. The measure employed is the elapsed time during which one complete degree of Right Ascension (q.v.) passes across the meridian, or approximately 4 minutes of Sidereal Time. The calculations are too complicated and too laborious for the average astrological student. All Primary Arcs which can be formed between the sensitive points in a Nativity during an entire lifetime are formed during some 6 hours after birth, and are produced solely by the rotation of the Earth on its axis: the planets retaining their radical places and thus carried round the heavens to form aspects to the places of the significators. For its reliability the method is dependent upon the correctness of the birth time to within a fraction of a minute, since an error of 4 minutes in the birth time results in an error of a year in the timing of an event.

 

As actually described by the ancients, the planets, by motion of the Primum Mobile (q.v.) are gradually carried round the Earth past the cusps of the Houses, and are brought into sundry successive mundane aspects one with another. The calculation of these aspects and their times of formation is termed "directing"; the result is described as "the directions in force" for the calculated time. The number of degrees and minutes of Right Ascension passing over the meridian between the moment of birth and that when the aspect is complete, constitutes the Arc of Direction, each degree equivalent to one year of life.

 

There are various systems of Primary Directions, their one object to determine the times of events. Ptolemy's system of measurement employed arcs of direction based upon the apparent motion of the heavens about the Earth by virtue of the rotation of the Earth on its axis, in which the body of one planet is brought to the place of another in a proportion of its ascensional or descensional time as measured by its semi-arc. Thus a planet will progress to the Midheaven by degrees of Right Ascension, while one below the horizon will progress to the Ascendant by degrees of Oblique Ascension, which takes cognizance of the latitude of the place of birth. Since a planet must be directed under the Pole (elevation), due to its proportional distance from the meridian, one on the Midheaven has no Pole, while one on the Ascendant has the same Pole as the Ascendant, which is the latitude of the birthplace. All others between the Midheaven and Ascendant, whether above or below the horizon, have a Pole proportionate to their distance therefrom. Ptolemy confined his directions to aspects between the bodies and the places of the planets.

 

Placidus de Titus added mundane aspects. In his system one third of the semi-arc of a planet was equal to the space of one House. In both systems the motions of the planets are due to the motion of the Earth on its axis after birth. The radical positions of the planets, taken in connection with the planet to which direction is made, are held to determine the nature of the event. The Significators - Sun, Moon, Midheaven and Ascendant - were directed to the points where conjunctions or aspects would form to mundane and zodiacal positions.

 

Most Primary Directions can be worked to within 15' of arc, or 3 months' time, by means of Tables of Houses, provided one knows the Poles of the various planets: the degree of elevation in the Nativity in proportion to the latitude of the birthplace.

 

To direct the Ascendant to an aspect with a promittor first bring the longitude of the point of aspect to the horizon. This can bc done roughly from the Table of Houses for the latitude of birth. Observe that the passage of the Midheaven is uniform while that of the Ascendant is irregular.

 

Take the Ascendant degree, find the related Midheaven, then find the degree of the point of aspect and its related Midheaven; whence deduct the difference in time at the rate of 1° per year. That these calculations involve the use of so uncertain a factor as the exact moment of birth is a perpetual hindrance.

 

For that reason resort has been made to easier methods. The method most generally employed is that on which is based a system of so-called Secondary Progressions (q.v.) (v. Directions).

 

Prime Vertical. The vertical circle that lies at right angles to the meridian, and passes through the East point, Zenith, West point and Nadir of any place.

 

Primum Mobile. The first mover, the outermost, or tenth sphere of the ancients, which in its daily motion carried all of the fixed stars. It is purely a Ptolemaic concept, exploded in theory by the Copernican concept of a solar system revolving about the Sun instead of the Earth. From the standpoint of Astrology, which deals with the effect of those apparent motions around the Earth by virtue of the Earth's own motion, the concept is as valid today as it was in Ptolemy's time.

 

Principal Places. The five places in which the luminaries are said to have the most beneficial effects in a Nativity; the hylegiacal places: the 1st, 11th, 10th, 9th and 7th Houses. v. Hyleg.

 

Process. v. Progression.

 

Profections. A term used by Ptolemy to indicate the successional rising of the Signs, hence of the Sun and other Significators, at the rate of one Sign per year, or 2°30' per month. First study the rules for determining the Hyleg, or hylegiacal degree. With that located advance it 30° for each year. Bearing in mind that the year from your third to your fourth birthday is your fourth year, proceed as follows: Assume a Protectional Figure for the year beginning on your 27th birthday with the Hyleg at Pisces 15°. 28 Signs minus 24 - two circles - equals 4 Signs, hence the annual Profection extends from Cancer 15° to Leo 15°. The Moon and the Sun thus become the chronocrators for the 28th year. v. Directions.

 

Prognosis. Originally synonymous with Prediction, usage has attached to it a more conservative meaning, that of "a probability of outcome." Astrologers who adhere to the doctrine of Free-Will, and who seek only to render helpful assistance and wise guidance through a crisis, rather than to mystify and astound, generally prefer this terminology. They do not hesitate to draw forth a complete case-history of everything that might have bearing on the matter under consideration, before passing judgment, in preference to the exhibitionist feat of telling the client what he reads from the chart concerning the past. A recent treatise on a phase of scientific astrology says the "astrological prognosis must be guided by every personal fact or situation of the person in question. The researcher should take into consideration these attendant circumstances and from them deduce the logical results of the indicated astrological conditioning. By this procedure, astrology supplies the factor for psychological analysis that psychology alone could never authoritatively deduce." With utter frankness, the author adds: "There is no infallible certainty in astrological prediction any more than there is in medical or meteorological prognosis. A doctor can only prog- nosticate within limits of probability the course an illness will run, and can err even as the meteorologist in a weather forecast." Medicine achieved respectability through the impersonal approach, and Astrology might with profit emulate the example.

 

Progressed Horoscope. One erected for a date that is as many days after a given birth date as the native's age in years. v. Directions.

 

Progressions. Alterations in the birth chart aiming to show the changing influences that result from motions of the celestial bodies after birth. v. Directions.

 

Progressions vs. Directions. To clarify astrological terminology it is perhaps well to emphasize a distinction between these two terms so often loosely applied to the same process: Directions, to indicate the theoretical advance of some one body or point in a chart, by applying to it an arc of direction for a given period of time, or by measuring the arc between it and some other sensitive point, cuspal point or place formerly tenanted by a planet, and by reducing it to time by some such measure as that employed in the Primary System of Directions. Progressions, indicating the advanced positions of the Ascendant, Midheaven and planets as shown in a Progressed Figure cast for a given date, as employed in the system of Secondary Progressions (q.v.). Alan Leo employs both terms rather indiscriminately, defining Directions as "calculations made from the Nativity for the purpose of ascertaining the time when events will happen. Properly speaking this is predictive Astrology, since it is concerned with the future of the person for whom the calculations are made. Directions are classed under two heads: Primary and Secondary. The former is similar to the small hand of a clock which marks off the hours, while the latter are like the long hand which marks off the exact time."

 

Although Alan Leo wrote an imposing volume on the "Progressed Horoscope" he says in his Dictionary that "the question of the progressed birthday at the rate of a day for a year needs investigation."

 

Progressive Solar Revolution. A map similar to the Solar Revolution (q.v.) erected for the moment of the Sun's return to the exact location it occupied on the equivalent birth hour of a date determined by adding one day to the birth date for each year of life up to the year for which the p.s.r. figure is to be erected. From the computed longitude of the Sun, refer to the ephemeris of the current year for the calculation of the planets' places, and aspects, Transits, eclipses and lunations in important places of the p.s.r. map are deemed by some authorities to have great significance.

 

Prohibition. v. Frustration.

 

Promittor. A planet, to which a significator may be "directed" in order to form an aspect between the "progressed position" of the Significator and the "birth position" of the promittor, whereby certain events or conditions are promised as concerns the significator so directed. The distance the significator must travel to form this aspect is termed the "arc of direction," to be reduced to time, usually at the rate of 1° for a year and 5' for a month.

 

Proper Motion. (1) Said of the motion of planet in space, as compared to any apparent motion which results from any movement of the Earth: either axial rotation, annual revolution, or the motion through space of our entire solar system. (2) Loosely applied to the direct motion of a planet through the signs, in distinction to the diurnal rising and setting caused by the Earth's rotation.

 

Prophecy. The ability to foretell the future. According to occult teachings anyone who is able to prophecy accurately must be psychically equipped to read the Akashic, or astral, records. When there is faulty interpretation it is not the astral light which falters but the adept who is not in tune with the vibratory beam.

 

Proportional Arcs. Additional sensitive degrees proposed by Sepharial on the theory that each planet has a point of influence at the same distance on the opposite side of the radical Sun, Moon, Ascendant and M.C. Thus the p.a. of Venus in 19°, Aries to the Sun in 5° Aries falls upon 21° Pisces where its influence would be felt when a New Moon falls thereon, or the directional Moon or transit of any planet. Each planet has a p.a. to the Ascendant and M.C., making 9 points; also 8 points each for the Sun and Moon, a total of 34. When the influence of the planet is thus brought out it supposedly brings into activity the affairs of the House in which the arc falls. It is an extension of the theory of Converse Directions.

 

Prorogator. A term used by Ptolemy in connection with a method of direction, effected by proportion of horary times - semi-arcs. One must distinguish between the Prorogator, the body directed and the Prorogation or method by which it is directed. The Prorogator is the Apheta or Life Giver, in contrast to the Anareta. By day and in aphetical places, the Sun holds the position of Prorogator; by night the Moon. (v. "Hyleg.")

 

Psychography. In occult terminology it signifies automatic writing in which the hand supposedly transcribes supernal concepts without mental direction.

 

Psychometry. (1) The art of measuring the duration of mental processes; of establishing the time relations between mental phenomena. (2) As employed by occultists it applies to an adept's supposed ability to weigh or determine psychically the qualities of inanimate objects - such as metals, textiles, antiques or potentially active chemicals. It is explained as the reading of the "memory" of innate powers of material things.

 

Psychophobia. Fear of the unseen. Literally a horror of destiny. A psychosomatic manifestation, often of astrological genesis.

 

Ptolemaic Astrology. A correct appraisal of Ptolemy's work might well begin, not with what he knew but with what he did not know. From a careful study of the Tetrabiblos, one must classify his work under three headings: (1) A valid philosophy that treats in theoretical terms of the plausible value of astrology and the benefits it would confer if properly assayed and applied. (2) A compilation of knowledge from "ancient" sources, for which he erected a consistent framework of practice: an excellent piece of editorial work in any day. (3) An attempted scientific explanation of how and why it works in terms of what was then known of astronomy and physics.

 

In the first classification his work is superb. He shows the importance of giving consideration to education and environment as modifying factors in delineation; of continued study to establish the actual factors upon which judgment should be based; and the damage done to all sciences by unprincipled charlatans who use their little knowledge for personal gain. His contributions under this heading are as vital today as when he wrote them.

 

In the second classification he shows that while astrology must have advanced a long way, interpretation had suffered from a lack of knowledge of the mechanics through which it operates, and this knowledge he attempted to supply.

 

It is in this third classification that instead of clarifying issues, he succeeded mainly in introducing a maze of superfluities, complexities and contradictions.

 

Of all the theories which he advanced none has been restated more often in contradictory terms than his Doctrine of Orientality. Even Placidus remarked that "everyone knows how largely and to what little purpose authors have treated of the orientality of the planets." To this James Wilson, in his most personal of dictionaries since the days of the ubiquitous Samuel Johnson, adds that "this may well be the case, when the whole was unintelligible even to these authors themselves." Ironically he says: "Orientality I do not comprehend any better than Ptolemy himself, and therefore can say little on the subject." When Ptolemy speaks of the nearness of Mercury's sphere to that of the Moon, Wilson's comment is to the effect that it doesn't make sense. No wonder.

 

To make sense out of Ptolemy's doctrines one must first reconstruct the firmament as he saw it. Around the Earth were ten spheres; one each for the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, in which the planets "struggle against the primum mobile"; in an eighth sphere, two small circles wherein the beginning of Aries and Libra "trembles and vibrates" - referring no doubt to the then unexplainable phenomenon of precession; in a ninth sphere, "a crystalline or watery heaven in which no star has been discovered"; and around them all, like a steel tire on a wagon wheel, a tenth sphere, the primum mobile, which by its superior force carries all within it in a diurnal rotation from the east through the meridian to the west.

 

Forgetting that which we have since learned, one must realize that all Ptolemy knew about the proper or orbital motions of the bodies was that they struggled ineffectually against the compelling force of the "ambient" - which incidentally is a good word. Every concept in his system is based upon apparent motion - and he did not know that it was merely apparent. Since the Sun's motion is faster than that of any of the major planets, they did indeed separate from the Sun in a clockwise direction, rising and eventually culminating at the midheaven. The minor planets, of course, never got far enough away from the Sun to culminate, so they were differentiated by whether they rose in the morning before the Sun, or set in the evening after the Sun.

 

It is apparent that astrologers, even in his day, realized the increased strength of planets by virtue of elevation into the Twelfth, Eleventh and Tenth Houses; but it is also apparent that in trying to explain it, he attributed this potency to their visible light rather than to gravitation; hence he deemed it essential that the Sun be below the Horizon, so that the planets might "rise and shine" ahead of the Sun. In ascribing extreme potency to the visibility of the planets' rays, he could not know that light itself is only a symptom of energy radiation from the Sun, and that the octave of visible light eventually would be extended to some 30 octaves of invisible infra-red and ultra-violet frequencies, charging an ambient magnetic field that envelops the Earth, and affects the lower Earth as well as the arc of visibility.

 

The Moon was the problem, for with its faster motion it did not separate from the Sun, but eventually the Sun caught up with it. Planets mounted to the Sun in one direction, and to the Moon in the other. Only he stated it more vaguely in saying that oriental and matitudinal planets ascend to the Sun; occidental and vespertine, to the Moon. That is the reason he gave the preferential position for a planet, as oriental of the Sun and occidental of the Moon. In these positions it should find the maximum opportunity to shine before Sunrise, and after Moonset.

 

This picture of a satellitium of planets above the horizon guarded on the East by the Sun and on the West by the Moon, represented an array of power - even though his reasons were somewhat awry. At that, one might be willing to concede something in order to have a waxing Moon; but Ptolemy lacked knowledge of the Moon's proper motion, hence was unable to differentiate between the good qualities of a waxing moon as compared to those conferred upon a weak Fourth Quarter Moon by virtue of the accidental dignity of elevation.

 

When it came to the Sun itself, there must be a reason why it too was more powerful in the quadrant between the Ascendant and the Midheaven, so to it was given another variety of orientality - that to the Horizon, im mundo. It was more powerful in the three houses through which it culminated to the Midheaven, but since it must do the same thing in the other half of the Earth as it descended into the west and proceeded to rise on the other side, the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth were also oriental Houses. Therefore as regards the Sun, it was oriental "of the horizon," or im Mundo, in the north-west quadrants as it was in the south-east, and occidental in the other two quadrants.

 

It is strange how truth persists in defiance of all efforts to explain it - or explain it away. Sepharial says a planet is oriental when it rises after the Sun - that one needs only to look at the Sun in the midheaven and he can see which is the oriental side. He neglects to note that one has but to picture the Sun at the IC to see that it then becomes oriental on the other side. What Sepharial particularly overlooked was the fact that Ptolemy knew nothing about proper motion, and that before the Sun did not mean before it in orbital motion in the order of the signs, but before it in rising as it comes above the horizon and mounts to the Midheaven. All that Ptolemy meant by oriental he said again when he described a planet as matutine. Wilson tried to remedy this by suggesting that it was matutine for three signs and oriental for the next three signs, but obviously it cannot be farther removed from the Sun than 90º, or it would rise before the Sun, not in the morning but before midnight of the night before; or it would not set until after midnight, which would be the next day after today's sunset. Naturally this problem does not arise in connection with Mercury and Venus, which never get that far away from the Sun.

 

Evidently oriental was intended to apply to the major planets and the Moon; while matutine and vespertine, which meant the same thing, were intended to apply to the inferior planets; but Ptolemy lost himself in his own words, and by using both terms in abandoned redundancy managed to leave posterity in a hopeless muddle in its efforts to find some difficult explanation for a very simple thing. Both Wm. Lilly and Alan Leo list all of the houses from the IC to the MC as oriental, yet Leo goes on to add that the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth are the oriental Houses - which calls forth from Wilson the scornful observation that a planet can thus be oriental and occidental at one and the same time.

 

The fact is that none of these terms are of value today, simply because we have better ways of stating the same thing. Truth born of experience, despite anyone's efforts to explain it, and aided by Copernicus, has led us to an inescapable correlation between the Geocentric and the Solar Houses, until today we recognize that a planet in the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Geocentric Houses enjoys the same added strength by elevation that Ptolemy tried to describe in his use of the terms Matutine, and oriental im Mundo; also that in the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Solar Houses they enjoy the strength that he expressed by his terms "oriental of the Sun." Venus matutine is now Venus in the Eleventh or Twelfth Solar House; Vespertine, in the First or Second Solar House. Sun or planets oriental of the horizon, or im Mundo, are now expressed as in either the Tenth, Eleventh or Twelfth Geocentric House, as the case may be. A planet "oriental of the Sun" is better located by its Solar House position, either the Tenth, Eleventh or Twelfth.

 

Another peculiar symptom of the power Ptolemy attached to visi- bility is seen in his classifications of Beholding Signs or signs of Equal Power, and those of Commanding and Obeying. The Beholding Signs, those of equal power, were those whose cusps were equidistant from the Meridian. Both are either visible or invisible, hence equally strong or equally weak. On the other hand, the Commanding and Obeying Signs were equidistant from the Equator, hence one was in the light and the other in darkness, because of which the one above the horizon was Commanding and the other Obeying. Furthermore it has often been overlooked that this distinction applied only when the respective Signs were occupied by planets that were thereby configurated, and that the distinction was only a means of determining which end of the aspect was the more powerful. of course, the elevated planet is the stronger by virtue of House position - which has naught to do with Sign position. That the presence of the Sun in a Commanding Sign made it longer, hence conferred upon the Sign a right to be considered a Commanding Sign, seems particularly naive; and one wonders what would happen if the Sun chanced to be in a Sign of rapid ascension below the horizon. Naturally it would make it smaller, but what privileges would that confer or deny? Since the Signs are of equal size, what he really meant was a House, for only a House could be "longer."

 

He classifies Sextiles and Trines as harmonious because they join Signs that are either both male or both female. The square is inharmonious because it joins Signs "of different natures and sexes." The oriental quadrants are masculine; the occidental, feminine. He overlooks the fact that the explanation he gives for his pairs of Commanding and Obeying sextiles and trines would with better logic describe the opposition polarities which in modern practice are found to possess such validity. The 144 so-called polarities between Sun and Moon, the importance of which was given emphasis by Alan Leo, found no place in his system. Truly astrology has made great advances since he gave it the initial impetus that has projected it so powerfully into our modern world.

 

It seems that Ptolemy, finding a lot of scattered truths and sundry devices for applying them, devoted his ingenuity to an effort to hook them all together into a unified system. In this it appears that in a sense he was a precursor of Freud, in that he seemed bent on reducing everything to terms of sex. of course, this may not be literally true, for his eternal harping on masculine and feminine had to do not so much with sex as with the polarity of positive and negative and the reciprocal action that presumably takes places between adjacent Signs, whereby each even-numbered Sign complements the preceding odd-numbered Sign. That he called them masculine and feminine instead of positive and negative, or active and passive, was a matter of terminology in keeping with the symbolism of his epoch. Even the positive-negative terminology is not ideal, for it still supports his concept that the even-numbered Sign is the underdog who helps the preceding odd-numbered Sign to make good on his positiveness, hence is in an unfortunate position. Nevertheless, since Fortunate and Unfortunate is a classification that exactly parallels what today we prefer to speak of as positive and negative, these and many similarly unnecessary terms that only serve to create confusion might well be discarded.

 

There is some doubt today as in his day, as to whether this basic distinction is a valid one, for Ptolemy himself reports that many of the astrological savants of his time rejected the distinction. Nevertheless, it was essential to his thesis, so he persisted, for only by this could he justify and explain his system of essential dignities, whereby to arrive at a delineation of untenanted Signs and Houses. These Signs are not wholly untenanted, for from time to time they are actuated by transits, and these concern themselves not at all with the presumed ruler of the territory they transit - but Ptolemy knew naught about Transits.

 

Since the Sun and Moon rose to the greatest third-dimensional elevation in North declination in Cancer and Leo, he assigned to them the Sun and Moon as Rulers. The Moon, because she was moist, was a female, so he gave her the feminine even-numbered Sign; and since the Sun was dry, hence masculine, he got the odd-numbered masculine Sign. The planets then had to have two Houses each, so they could configurate with both Sun and Moon; hence Mercury, which never gets farther away from the Sun than one Sign, he allocated to Gemini and Virgo, a feminine one for his night house, since the moist night must of course be feminine, and a dry masculine one for his day House. Venus, which never gets farther away from the Sun than two Signs, necessarily came next; followed by Mars and then Jupiter - all on the same theory. To Saturn, which was far away and hence out in the cold, was assigned the remaining two Signs - but again a moist female one for his night home and a dry masculine one for his day throne. From this arrangement came the Solar semicircle, and the Lunar - planets in Aquarius to Cancer "mounting" to the Moon in the order of the Signs, and those in Capricorn clockwise to Leo, mounting to the Sun against the order of the Signs.

 

After that came masculine and feminine quadrants, Signs and Houses, and masculine and feminine planets, whereby any House, whether or not tenanted, could be delineated by joining them up in sundry ways through this consideration of sex.

 

The idea that a female is moist is repugnant, and has nothing to do with planets moving in cycles. He started by classifying adjacent Signs into pairs according to sex "as the male is coupled with the female" - yet throughout his entire application of the sex principle he reversed his logic to emphasize the unfavorable influence to which a male planet is subjected when tenanting a female area - and the reverse.

 

It is small wonder that Wilson, a man of strong opinions but penetrating vision, said of the Ptolemy classification of planets as masculine and feminine that "it is an idle distinction, and no more founded on reason than his essential dignities." Pointing out that Placidus also differed with Ptolemy in the matter, he remarks that "this is not to be wondered at, when he differed so much in opinion with himself." Then he adds, as a sage piece of advice: "I would advise the student to give himself no trouble about the sex of the planets, but to study their influence."

 

Ptolemy's emphasis on heat and cold, moisture and dryness, may be valid, but can only be accepted when verified by scientific demonstration. Arrived at by a loose symbolic analogy tied in with sex, they are unworthy of perpetuation in our modern terminology. Actually they mean nothing to today's astrology, for through the accumulated testimony of research, experiment, and observation, we have learned how each planet's influence externalizes; and whether it does so because its moist nature makes it female, or the reverse, is of no consequence. Certainly we must reject any such contradictory reasoning as that which makes Jupiter beneficent because of its heat, and Mars malefic because of its excess of dryness, yet on that reasoning Mars should become beneficent when below the horizon, for there it becomes nocturnal, hence feminine.

 

He said also that in the parts of the Earth "where the Sun's heat is most strongly felt, the inhabitants are more, disposed after his image." Perhaps that, rather than the hookworm, explains the lazy South. A fair sample of the wangling by which rulership of the Trigons were awarded, is that the west should be ruled by Mars, "who delights in West winds because they scorch the Egyptians," and that the North should be ruled by Jupiter, "who brings the fruitful showers from that quarter" - to which Wilson suggests that "it would be no bad policy were the Europeans to assign him the government of the South, which would enable him to accommodate them in a similar way." His further complaint against this jockeying for position, as described by Ptolemy, is that "Instead of considering the heavenly bodies as ponderous masses of matter operating by their sympathetic attraction on each other, they are represented as school boys always quarreling and fighting about their playthings."

 

One need not go so far as to eliminate the entire matter of rulerships, but the Ptolemy explanations cannot well be the explanation. If the rulership system of Essential Dignities is valid, it is merely because of a discovered similarity of influence that renders one planet more congenial in a certain Sign than in any other, whence in congenial surroundings one can expect it to function more advantageously. To expand Wilson's advice: knowledge of the Signs and planets, of the aspects between them, and of the dominions of the Houses, is of supreme importance. Superior to Ptolemy's sex method of arriving at the strength of aspects in different portions of the Figure, is our present method of considering first the Signs which condition the planets, then the Houses which are joined by means of the aspect. In fact, this is what Ptolemy attempted to do, with the limited knowledge at his command. His emphasis on the importance of knowledge concerning the motions of the planetary orbs, of correct place-time identification of the event for which a Figure is to be cast, and of the then concurrent configurations, "improved by an acquaintance with the nature of the bodies and their effective influences" as contributory to a proper prescience of Destiny and Disposition - is something every practicing astrologer might well take to heart. To apply his advice in the light of today's knowledge would leave us with a greatly simplified terminology, for into the discard would go a host of words for things we are now able to describe in terms that at one and the same time are simpler and more comprehensive.

 

It is not intended to make light of the contributions of Ptolemy, for his philosophy has been a beacon through the ages, while his work as a compiler has saved to us much knowledge that might otherwise have been lost. As to the third category, as initially set forth, it is not reasonable to expect that correct explanations of and justifications for observed operations should come from a man, however brilliant, who did not know that the planets had a proper motion as they revolved about the Sun, as well as an apparent motion by virtue of the Earth's rotation; who did not know that his Primum Mobile was a mirage; and who had never been initiated into any of the mysteries that have been unveiled to us by the telescope, the microscope, the spectroscope, the X-ray and the cyclotron. The contributions he made to learning, in view of the meagre tools at his command, inspires only veneration for those scientists who lived in an age when men still had time to think. The fact that a man of his intellectual attainments found nothing fallacious in the premise that human life and destiny may be influenced by the motions and cycles of the planets, and their reflected solar radiations as transmitted to the Earth, indicates a measure of scientific open- mindedness that is somewhat conspicuous by its absence among many of today's unimaginative and materialistic-minded scientific pedants.

 

Astrology has persisted in spite of all attempts to explain it; but in accordance with Ptolemy's sound philosophy it is every astrologer's duty to avail himself, with the utmost of understanding, of all knowledge that is applicable to the science, whereby to arrive at the true and correct explanations which alone can bring the improved technic that will enhance Astrology's value to society.

 

Pyrois. Greek name for Mars, referring to its fiery nature.