Book 4

1. Preface

The matters that can be examined before birth, those that belong to the birth itself, and further those things after birth that pertain to the constitution and reveal the general quality of the temperament — these are roughly all that we have treated. Of the things that befall a person from outside, and that ought to be examined in their order, the account of acquisitive and dignitary fortune comes first; and just as acquisitive fortune is bound up with the conditions of the body, so dignitary fortune is bound up with those of the soul.

2. Concerning acquisitive fortune

What the nature of a person's possessions will be must be taken from what is called the Lot of Fortune — but only from this one Lot, by which we always project the distance from the Sun to the Moon, measuring it from the Ascendant for those born by day as well as for those born by night, for the reasons we gave in our discussion of the times of life. When it has been established in this way, one must observe by taking the rulership of the twelfth-part in which it falls, and noting how these rulers stand in power and in familiarity, in the manner we defined at the outset; and further the planets that are configured with them or that dominate them, whether of the same or of the contrary sect. For when those that have taken the rulership of the Lot are powerful, they make men wealthy in possessions, and especially when they happen to be properly attested by the luminaries. But Saturn does this through buildings or agriculture or shipping; Jupiter through trusteeship or guardianships or priesthoods; Mars through military service and commands; Venus through gifts from friends or women; Mercury through eloquence and trade. And in particular, Saturn, when allied to acquisitive fortune, if he is configured with Jupiter, brings about inheritances, and especially when this occurs at the upper angles, with Jupiter in a bicorporeal sign or holding the application of the Moon; for then men are also adopted into another's family and inherit the estates of strangers. And if the planets of the same sect as the rulers happen themselves to bear witness to the rulerships, they preserve possessions undiminished; but if those of the contrary sect dominate the governing places or rise after them, they bring about the loss of one's holdings, the general time of this being taken from the inclination of the planets that produce the cause toward the angles and the places that rise after them.

3. Concerning dignitary fortune

The matters of rank and of this kind of good fortune must be examined from the disposition of the luminaries and from the familiarity of the attending planets to them. For when both luminaries are in masculine signs, and when either both again or even one of them are at an angle — especially the one of the sect — and when it is attended by the five planets (the Sun by morning stars, the Moon by evening stars), those born will be kings. And if the attending planets are themselves at an angle, or are configured with the angle above the earth, the natives continue great and powerful and rulers of the world; and they are still more fortunate if the attending planets are configured to the right of the angles above the earth. But if, while the other conditions hold, the Sun alone is in a masculine sign and the Moon in a feminine one, but one of the luminaries is at an angle, they will only be leaders, masters of life and death. And if, besides this, the attending planets are not at an angle and do not bear witness to the angles, they will only be great men, in dignities that are partial — bearers of crowns, or procurators, or commanders of camps — but not in the highest commands. But if the luminaries are not at an angle, while most of the attending planets either are at an angle or are configured with the angles, men will not attain conspicuous dignities, but will rise in civic offices and reach a moderate standing in their pursuits in life. If, however, none of the attending planets is allied to the angles, they remain obscure in their undertakings and without advancement. And they become utterly humble and ill-fated in their fortunes whenever neither of the luminaries is at an angle, nor falls in a masculine sign, nor is attended by the benefics. Such, then, is the general outline of the examination set before us, and such is the increase and decrease of dignities. But the conditions that lie between these, which are very numerous, must be conjectured from the particular variation in the form of the luminaries themselves and of their attendance, and from the predominance among the attendants. For when this attendance belongs to the planets of the sect or to the benefics, the dignities are more genuinely and more securely held; but when it belongs to the opposing planets or to the malefics, they are more subordinate and more precarious. And the form of the dignity that is to be must be considered from the particular nature of the attending planets. For Saturn, when he holds the chief place in the attendance, makes the powers rest on abundance of possessions and the gathering of wealth; Jupiter or Venus, on favors and gifts and honors and acts of generosity; Mars, on campaigns and victories and the fear of subjects; Mercury, through intelligence or education and care and management of affairs.

4. Concerning the quality of action

The planet that holds the rulership of action is taken in two ways, from the Sun and from the sign at midheaven. For one must observe both the planet that has made its morning appearance nearest the Sun and the one upon the midheaven, especially when it holds the application of the Moon. And if it is the same planet that has both of the things mentioned, it alone must be used; likewise, if no planet has the one quality, the planet that alone has the other must be used. But if the planet that has made the nearest appearance is one, and another is allied to the midheaven and the Moon, both must be used, giving the priority to the one that has more votes of rulership by prevailing, in the manner we set out earlier. And if no planet is found either to have made its appearance or to be upon the midheaven, the ruler of the midheaven must be taken, but with reference to pursuits according to the occasion; for such men as a rule become inactive.

The planet, then, that has taken the rulership of action will be distinguished by us in this way; and the quality of the actions comes both from the particular nature of the three planets Mars, Venus, and Mercury, and from that of the signs through which they happen to be passing. For Mercury, when he furnishes the activity, makes — to put it in outline — secretaries, men of business, accountants, teachers, merchants, bankers, diviners, astrologers, sacrificers, and in general those who work from letters and interpretation and giving and receiving. And if Saturn bears witness to him, he makes stewards of other men's property, or interpreters of dreams, or those who frequent temples on the pretext of divinations and inspired frenzies; but if Jupiter does so, lawgivers, orators, sophists, men who keep company with greater persons.

Venus, when she furnishes the activity, makes those whose work lies among the scents of flowers or perfumes, or among wines, or colors, or dyes, or aromatics, or ornaments — such as perfumers, garland-weavers, tavern-keepers, wine-merchants, druggists, weavers, dealers in aromatics, painters, dyers, clothing-sellers. And if Saturn bears witness to her, merchants in articles of luxury and adornment, but also sorcerers and poisoners and procurers and those who make their gain from such practices; but if Jupiter does so, crowned athletes, men accounted worthy of honors, and those advanced by women.

Mars, when configured with the Sun, makes those who work by fire, such as cooks, smelters, men who burn, coppersmiths, miners; but when found apart from the Sun, those who work by iron, such as shipwrights, builders, farmers, quarrymen, stonecutters, stoneworkers, woodcleavers, laborers. And if Saturn bears witness to him, sailors, bilge-drainers, sewer-cleaners, dyers, keepers of beasts, cooks, butchers; but if Jupiter does so, soldiers, attendants, tax-collectors, innkeepers, ferrymen, sacrificers.

Again, when two of the planets that furnish the actions are found together: if Mercury and Venus take the rulership, they direct the actions toward the Muse and instruments and melodies, or poems and rhythms, and especially when they have shared the places between them; for they make musicians of the theater, actors, dealers in slaves, instrument-makers, dancers, makers of strings, painters, dancers, weavers, wax-modelers. And if Saturn in turn bears witness to them, he makes those who deal in the kinds named and in the ornaments of women; but if Jupiter does so, advocates, men set over counting-houses, those occupied in public affairs, teachers of children, leaders of crowds.

But if Mercury and Mars together take the rulership of action, they make sculptors, makers of arms, engravers of sacred figures, modelers of figures, wrestlers, physicians, surgeons, accusers, adulterers, evildoers, forgers. And if Saturn bears witness to them, murderers, clothes-stealers, robbers, brigands, cattle-rustlers, knaves; but if Jupiter does so, lovers of arms or of single combat, men of action, formidable, busy in affairs, who attack others and make their gain by such means.

But if Venus and Mars together take the rulership of action, they make dyers, perfumers, tin-workers, lead-workers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, farmers, dancers in arms, makers of drugs, and physicians who use drugs in their cures. And if Saturn bears witness to them, attendants of sacred animals, embalmers of the dead, dirge-singers, players at tombs, men possessed by frenzy, those who pass their lives where there are mysteries and dirges and shedding of blood; but if Jupiter does so, temple-servants, augurs, sacred bearers, men set over women, interpreters of marriages and unions, who live by such means, in a manner at once given to pleasure and reckless of danger.

And the particular natures of the signs in which the planets that furnish the activity happen to be also contribute something to the variety of the actions. For the signs of human shape cooperate in a way toward all the scientific occupations and those concerned with human service; the four-footed signs toward those of mining and trade and building and carpentry; the tropic and equinoctial signs toward those of interpretation and exchange and measuring and agriculture and priestly office; the land and the watery signs toward occupations in or by water, and toward those of plants and shipbuilding, and further toward burials or saltings or fishing.

And in particular again, if the Moon holds the place of action, making her course from conjunction together with Mercury: in Taurus and Capricorn and Cancer she makes diviners, sacrificers, dish-diviners; in Sagittarius and Pisces, necromancers and those who move spirits; in Virgo and Scorpio, magicians, astrologers, men who utter oracles and have foreknowledge; in Libra and Aries and Leo, men inspired by the god, interpreters of dreams, exorcists.

The form of the actions themselves, then, must be conjectured by such means according to the mixture of the temperament; but their magnitude from the power of the ruling planets. For when these are oriental or at an angle, they make the actions authoritative; when occidental or declining from the angles, subordinate. And dominated by benefics, the actions are great and glorious and profitable and unfailing and graced with charm; dominated by malefics, they are humble and inglorious and unprofitable and precarious — Saturn in opposition bringing coldness and dimness, Mars rashness and notoriety, and both of them complete overthrows. The general time of the increase or, again, of the humbling is to be observed from the constant disposition of the planets that are causes of the result toward the eastern and western angles.

5. Concerning unions

Next after these comes the account of unions. As for the living-together of man and woman according to law, one must examine it in this way. In the case of men one must look to how the Moon is disposed. For first, when she happens to be in the eastern quadrants, she makes men marry young, or be joined to women younger than their age; in the western quadrants, she makes them marry late, or be joined to older women; but if she is under the beams and configured with Saturn, she makes them altogether unmarried. Then, if she is in a single-form sign and happens to be applying to one of the planets, she makes men marry once; but if she has her application in a bicorporeal or many-formed sign, or to several planets in the same sign, she makes them marry many times. And if the planets that hold the applications, whether by close conjunction or by testimony, happen to be benefics, men take good wives; but if malefics, the opposite. For Saturn, when he holds the application, brings about wives who are laborious and austere; Jupiter, dignified and good managers of a house; Mars, bold and unruly; Venus, cheerful and shapely and graceful; Mercury, intelligent and quick. Further, Venus with Jupiter or Saturn or with Mercury makes them useful in life, loving to their husbands and to their children; but with Mars, passionate and unstable and headstrong.

In the case of women one must look to the Sun. For it too, when it happens to be again in the eastern quadrants, makes the women who have it so disposed either marry young or be joined to younger men; in the western quadrants, marry late or be yoked to older men beyond their own age. And when it is in a single-form sign or applies to one of the morning stars, it makes them marry once; configured in a bicorporeal or many-formed sign, or with several morning stars, it makes them marry many times. So when Saturn is similarly configured with the Sun, they take husbands who are settled and serviceable and industrious; Jupiter, dignified and great-souled; Mars, men of action and unaffectionate and unruly; Venus, neat and shapely; Mercury, useful in life and effective. But Venus with Saturn makes them sluggish and rather feeble in matters of love; with Mars, hot and prone and given to adultery; with Mercury, fluttered about boys. By "eastern quadrants" we now mean, in the case of the Sun, those that lead the rising point of the zodiac and the setting point; in the case of the Moon, those from conjunction and full moon up to the quarters. The western quadrants are those opposite to the ones named.

As a rule, then, the living-together endures whenever the luminaries of both nativities happen to be configured harmoniously — that is, when they are in trine or sextile to one another, and especially when this occurs interchangeably; but much more so when the Moon of the man is in such relation to the Sun of the woman. They are dissolved upon slight occasions, and become wholly estranged, whenever the aforesaid positions of the luminaries fall in disjunct signs, or in opposition, or in quartile. And if the benefic planets regard the harmonious configurations of the luminaries, they preserve the unions sweet and gentle and beneficial; but if the malefics do so, contentious and unpleasant and harmful. Likewise, even in the case of the inharmonious positions, the benefics, by bearing witness to the luminaries, do not wholly cut off the living-together, but bring about returns and reconciliations that preserve gentleness and affection; the malefics, however, bring about the dissolutions with some abuse and insolence. And if Mercury alone is with them, the parties are involved in scandals and accusations; but with Venus, in adulteries or poisonings or the like.

Unions that have come about in any other manner must be distinguished by looking to the planet Venus and the planet Mars and the planet Saturn. For when these are properly joined with the luminaries, the cohabitations are proper and the kinships lawful; for Venus has a kind of kinship with each of the planets named — with Mars by reason of the prime of life that they share in common, since they have their exaltations in signs that are in trine to one another, and with Saturn by reason of the more advanced age, since again they have their houses in signs that are in trine to one another.

Hence Venus with Mars makes simply amorous dispositions; with Mercury also present, scandals as well; in the signs that are common and allied to both, Capricorn and Pisces, unions with sisters or kinswomen. And if in the case of men she accompanies the Moon, she makes them come together with two sisters or kinswomen; but if in the case of women she accompanies Jupiter, with two brothers or kinsmen.

Again, Venus with Saturn makes the cohabitations simply pleasant and steady; with Mercury also present, beneficial as well; but with Mars too added, unstable and harmful and full of jealousy. And if Venus is in like configuration with them, she makes the unions with persons of the same age; but if she is more to the east than they, with younger men or women; if more to the west, with older women or men. And if Venus and Saturn are in the signs that are common, that is, Capricorn and Libra, they make the unions take place among kinsfolk. And when the aforesaid configuration is at the Ascendant or at midheaven, the Moon, by accompanying it, makes the males come together with mothers or mothers' sisters or stepmothers, and the females with sons or brothers' sons or daughters' husbands; while the Sun, when the planets are especially in the west, makes the males come together with daughters or daughters' sisters or sons' wives, and the females with fathers or fathers' brothers or stepfathers. But if the aforesaid configurations do not fall in the signs of kinship, but are in feminine places, they make men in this way too prone to passion and ready in every way both to act upon and to be acted upon; and in certain formations they make them licentious, as in the forward and the hinder parts of Aries and of the Hyades and of the Water-Pitcher, and the hinder parts of Leo, and the face of Capricorn. And when the planets are set at the first two angles, the eastern and the southern, they bring such passions wholly into the open and lead men to display them in public places; but at the last two, the western and the northern, they make eunuchs, or men of the court, or barren or imperforate women; and with Mars present, castrated men or tribades.

And in general, what sort of disposition men will have toward matters of love we shall, in the case of men, examine from Mars. For when Mars is separated from Venus and from Saturn but is attested by Jupiter, he makes them pure and dignified in matters of love and aiming only at the natural use; but when found with Saturn alone, he makes them cautious and hesitant and cold. When Venus and Jupiter are configured with him, he makes them easily moved and full of desire, yet self-controlled and restrained and on guard against what is shameful; but with Venus alone, or with Jupiter also accompanying her while Saturn is absent, lustful and slack and providing pleasures for themselves from every quarter. And if of the two planets one is evening and the other morning, men are properly disposed toward both males and females, yet not excessively toward persons of either kind; but if both are evening stars, they are inclined to females only — and when the signs are feminine, they are themselves passive as well; but if both are morning stars, they are diseased in their inclination toward boys only — and when the signs are masculine, also toward males of every age. And if Venus is more to the west, men consort with humble or servile or foreign women; but if Mars is, with women of higher rank or married women or mistresses.

In the case of women, Venus must be examined. For when configured with Jupiter or also with Mercury, she makes them chaste and pure in matters of love; and when Saturn is absent and she is allied with Mercury, she makes them stirred and full of appetite, yet for the most part cautious and hesitant and on guard against what is shameful. But Venus, when joined with Mars alone or configured with him, makes them lustful and prone and rather slack; and if Jupiter too is added to them, then, if Mars is under the beams of the Sun, they consort with slaves or men of lower rank or foreigners; but if Venus is, with men of higher rank or masters, taking the manner of courtesans or adulteresses. And if the planets are made feminine by their places or configurations, the women are inclined only to be acted upon; but if made masculine, also to act upon other women. Saturn, however, when allied with the aforesaid configurations, if he too is made feminine, becomes the sole cause of lewdness; but if he is oriental and made masculine, he sets up women open to reproach, or makes them lovers of such — Jupiter again always contributing to the more decorous form of the passions, but Mercury to the more notorious and more easily disgraced.

6. Concerning children

Since to the topic of marriage there follows also that of children, one must observe the planets that are present in or configured with the place at the summit or the one that rises after it — that is, the place of the Good Spirit; or, if there are none, those in the places opposite to them. And one must take the Moon and Jupiter and Venus as bestowers of children, but the Sun and Mars and Saturn as productive of childlessness or fewness of children; while Mercury is common to either party, according to whichever of them he happens to be configured with, a giver when he is oriental but a remover when occidental.

The givers, then, when simply so placed and being alone, give single children; but in bicorporeal and feminine signs, and likewise in the prolific ones such as Pisces and Scorpio and Cancer, they give two or even more. And when made masculine, in masculine signs and in configurations with the Sun, they give males; when made feminine, females; but when dominated by the malefics, or when found in barren places such as Leo or Virgo, they give children indeed, yet not to a happy issue, nor to endurance. The Sun and the malefics, on the other hand, when they hold the aforesaid places, if they are in masculine or barren signs and are not dominated by the benefics, are significant of complete childlessness; but when found in feminine or prolific signs, or attested by the benefics, they give children indeed, yet such as are weak and short-lived. And when both sects have a relation to the child-producing signs, there will be losses of the children given, either of all or of a few, according to the superiorities of those that bear witness in each sect — whichever we find more numerous or more powerful by being more oriental or nearer the angles or dominant or rising afterward. If, then, the planets that have rule over the aforesaid signs are oriental, being givers of children, and are in their own places, they make the children given glorious and conspicuous; but if occidental and in the places of the other sect, humble and obscure. And if they are found in harmony with the Ascendant and the Lot of Fortune, the children are dear to their parents and graceful and inherit their estates; but if disjunct or opposed, contentious and made enemies and harmful and not receiving the estates of their parents. Likewise, if the givers of children are configured harmoniously with one another, the children given remain loving toward their brothers and respectful of one another; but if disjunct or in opposition, they are disposed to enmity and to plotting. And the particular details one might in turn conjecture by using, for each child, the Ascendant of the planet that has made the bestowal and, from its remaining disposition as in a nativity, making the examination of the more general matters.

7. Concerning friends and enemies

Of friendly dispositions and their opposites — of which we call the greater and lasting ones sympathies and enmities, and the lesser and temporary ones associations and disputes — our examination will be in this manner. For in those that are observed through great events, one must attend to the most authoritative places of both nativities — that is, the solar and the lunar and that of the Ascendant and that of the Lot of Fortune. For when these fall in the same twelfth-parts, or have exchanged places, whether all of them or the greater number — and especially when the rising points are about seventeen degrees apart from one another — they make sympathies that are unfailing and indissoluble and free from injury; but when set in disjunct or opposed positions, they make the greatest and most lasting enmities and oppositions. And when they fall in neither relation, but only in those that are configured: if they are in trine or sextile, they make the sympathies weaker; if in quartile, the antipathies weaker — so that at certain times there arise, in the case of friendships, silences and pettinesses whenever the malefics pass over the configuration, and in the case of enmities, truces and reconciliations according to the entries of the benefics into the configurations. And since there are three kinds of friendship and enmity — for men are thus disposed toward one another either through choice, or through use, or through pleasure and pain — when all or most of the aforesaid places are allied to one another, the friendship is composed of all the kinds, just as the enmity is when they are unallied. But when only the places of the luminaries are so, the friendship is through choice, which is the best and most secure friendship, and the enmity the worst and most faithless; likewise, when the places of the Lots of Fortune are so, it is through use; and when those of the Ascendants are so, through pleasures or pains.

One must also observe, of the configured places, the dominations and the regards of the planets. For in whichever of the nativities the domination of the configuration is, or in whichever the same or the nearest sign is at the rising-after, to that one must assign the more authoritative and more controlling part of the friendship or the enmity; and in whichever of them the regard of the planets is better with respect to beneficence and power, to those must be assigned both the more profitable part of the friendship and the more corrective part of the enmity.

In the case of the temporary associations and oppositions that are formed at certain times, one must attend to the motions of the planets in each nativity — that is, at what times the prorogations of the planets of the one nativity come upon the places of the planets of the other. For in accordance with these there arise partial friendships and enmities, lasting the shortest time, namely until the dissolution of the prorogation itself, but the longest time until the arrival of some other of the planets that are borne on. So Saturn and Jupiter, when they come upon one another's places, make friendships through partnerships or agriculture or inheritances; Saturn and Mars, fights and plots by deliberate choice; Saturn and Venus, unions through persons of the kindred, which, however, soon cool; Saturn and Mercury, cohabitations and partnerships through giving and receiving and trade or mysteries; Jupiter and Mars, companionships through dignitary or administrative affairs; Jupiter and Venus, friendships through feminine persons, or through temple-worship or oracles or the like; Jupiter and Mercury, associations through eloquence and the sciences and the philosophical bent; Mars and Venus, unions through love-affairs and adulteries or illicit connections, but precarious and not long flourishing; Mars and Mercury, enmities and scandals and lawsuits through business or the giving of drugs; Venus and Mercury, cohabitations through some art or the Muse, or partnership arising from letters or from feminine persons.

Now the intensification and relaxation of the associations or oppositions, toward more or less, must be distinguished from the disposition of the places that take them over toward the first and most authoritative four places. For when they fall upon the angles or the Lots or the luminaries, they make the signs more conspicuous; but when estranged from these, inconspicuous. And the intensification toward what is more harmful or more profitable to the companions must be distinguished from the particular nature, toward good or evil, of the planets that regard the aforesaid places.

In particular, the place or account concerning slaves, and of the sympathy or antipathy of masters toward them, is taken from the sign of bad fortune, and from the natural suitability of the planets that regard the place, both at the nativity itself and according to the entries or transits in opposition — and especially when the rulers of the twelfth-part either agree with the authoritative places of the nativity or make configurations opposed to them.

8. Concerning travel abroad

The topic of travel abroad is determined through the position of the luminaries with respect to the angles — of both, but especially of the Moon. For when she is setting or declining from the angles, she brings about travels and changes of place. And sometimes Mars can do the like, when he is either setting or himself declining from the place at the summit, whenever he has an opposition or quartile relation to the luminaries. And if the Lot of Fortune too falls in the signs that produce the departure abroad, men continue to have their whole livelihood and their occupations and their actions in a foreign land. So when benefics regard the aforesaid places or are borne upon them, men will have glorious and profitable undertakings abroad, and returns that are swift and unhindered; but when malefics do so, undertakings that are laborious and harmful and dangerous and from which it is hard to return — the examination of the mixture being everywhere taken into account, according to the prevalence of the planets configured with these same places, as we determined at the outset.

As a rule, when the luminaries fall in the declines of the eastern quadrants, the departures come to pass toward the eastern and southern regions of the inhabited world; when in those of the western, or in the very point of setting, toward the northern and western. And if the signs that produce the travel abroad are single-form — whether they themselves or the planets that rule them — men will make their departures after a long interval and according to occasions; but if bicorporeal or two-formed, continually and for the greatest length of time.

Jupiter, then, and Venus, when they become rulers of the places and luminaries that produce the travel, make the journeys not only free from danger but also agreeable; for men are escorted on their way either by the magistrates in the countries or by the favors of friends, with the wholesomeness of the climates and the abundance of necessities cooperating with them. And when Mercury too is added to them, often through that very meeting profits and advancements and gifts and honors accrue. But Saturn and Mars, when they take over the luminaries — and especially when they are in opposition to one another — make what is left over useless and involve men in great dangers: when found in watery signs, through difficult voyages and shipwrecks, or again through hard roads and desert places; in solid signs, through fallings from heights and the assaults of winds; in tropic and equinoctial signs, through want of necessities and pestilential conditions; in signs of human shape, through robberies and plots and plunderings; in land signs, through the onsets of beasts or earthquakes; and with Mercury also present, through false accusations and dangerous indictments, and further through the strokes of serpents and of other venomous creatures — while there is observed, besides, the particular nature of the events, whether they be profitable or harmful (that is, the difference touching their cause), and the rule of the causal places of action or possessions or body or dignity according to the original disposition; and the seasons that will most produce the marked occurrences are determined from the quality of the entries of the five planets according to the times. And let these matters be sketched by us to this extent.

9. Concerning the quality of death

There being left, last of all, the examination concerning the quality of deaths, we shall first determine, by the methods worked out in our discussion of the times of life, whether the destruction will be brought about by the prorogation of a ray, or by the descent of the prorogator toward the western point. For if the destruction comes about by prorogation and meeting, one should observe, for the quality of the death, the place of the meeting; but if by the descent toward the setting point, the very place of setting. For whatever kind of planets either are present at the said places, or, if they are not present, are first of the others to be borne upon them, of such a kind one must judge the deaths to be also — the natures of these planets contributing to the variety of the events, together with the planets configured with them and with the particular nature, both by sign and according to the nature of the bounds, of the destructive places themselves.

So Saturn, when he takes the rulership of death, makes the ends come through long diseases, consumptions, fluxes, wastings, agues, affections of the spleen, dropsies, of the bowels, of the womb, and all that are constituted by an excess of the cold. Jupiter makes the deaths to come from quinsy, inflammation of the lungs, apoplexy, spasms, headaches, affections of the heart, and all that follow upon excess or foulness of breath. Mars, from continual and semi-tertian fevers and sudden strokes, affections of the kidneys and of spitting blood, hemorrhages, miscarriages, childbirths, erysipelas, and destructions, and whatever of the diseases brings on death through fiery heat and excess of the hot. Venus makes the deaths through affections of the stomach and the liver and the bowels, and further through ulcers, fistulas, lichens, the giving of drugs, and all the symptoms that are brought about when the moist is in excess or corrupted. Mercury, through manias and ecstasies and melancholies and fallings and epilepsies and diseases of coughing and bringing-up, and all that are constituted when the dry is in excess or corrupted.

Now those depart this life by deaths that are natural to them who pass away in the manner described, whenever the planets that have taken the rulership of death happen to be in their own or their familiar natural condition, dominated by none of those that are able to harm and to make the end more notorious. But men die by deaths violent and conspicuous whenever either both the malefics have rule over the destructive places — whether being present with them, or in quartile, or in opposition — or whichever of them, or both together, take over the Sun or the Moon, or both luminaries; the harm of the death being constituted from their conjunction, its magnitude from the testimony of the luminaries, and its quality again from the joint regard of the remaining planets and from the signs that contain the malefics.

For Saturn, when he stands in quartile or opposition to the Sun against the sect, in solid signs makes men perish by the pressing of crowds or by hangings or by strangulations; and likewise if he is setting while the Moon is borne upon him; in bestial signs, men destroyed by wild beasts; and if Jupiter bears witness while being himself afflicted, men who fight beasts in public places or on appointed days; and when he is at the opposite point of the Ascendant to either of the luminaries, men who perish in prisons. Configured with Mercury, and especially about the serpents in the sphere or the land signs, men who die from venomous bites; and with Venus added to them, by poisonings and the plots of women; in Virgo and Pisces, or in the watery signs, with the Moon configured, men who are drowned and choked beneath the water; and about the Argo, men who fall in with shipwrecks; in tropic or four-footed signs, when he is with the Sun or in opposition, or, instead of the Sun, with Mars, men overtaken by collapses; and if they are at midheaven or at lower midheaven, men hurled down from a height.

Mars, when he stands in quartile or opposition to the Sun against the sect, or to the Moon, in signs of human shape makes men slain in civil seditions or by enemies, or who become self-slayers; and through women, or also slayers of women, when Venus too bears witness to them. And if Mercury is configured with these, men destroyed by pirates or robbers or malefactors; in the signs of severed limbs and the incomplete signs, or at the Gorgon's head of Perseus, men beheaded or with limbs cut off; in Scorpio and Taurus, men who die by burnings or incisions or amputations of physicians, or by spasms; at midheaven or lower midheaven, men set up on crosses, and especially about Cepheus and Andromeda; at the setting point or the opposite of the Ascendant, men burned alive; in the four-footed signs, men who die from collapses and crushings and accidents. And when Jupiter bears witness to him and is afflicted together with him, men perish again by notable condemnations and the wrath of magistrates or kings.

And when the malefics are joined with one another and are thus in opposition over one of the aforesaid causal conditions, they cooperate still more toward the harm of the death — the rule over the quality belonging to the one that happens to be at the very destructive place — or else many, or double, deadly events are brought about, whether in quality or in quantity, when both have a relation to the destructive places. Such men are also left without burial; and they are devoured by beasts or birds whenever the malefics happen to be about the signs of like form, with none of the benefics bearing witness to the place below the earth or to the destructive places. And the deaths take place abroad when the planets that occupy the destructive places fall in the declines, and especially when the Moon too happens to be present at, or in quartile or opposition to, the aforesaid places.

10. Concerning the division of the times

Having worked out summarily the outline of the examination of each species — only as far as those very things which, as we proposed at the outset, are taken in their whole parts of the inquiry — it remains to add, in the same manner, all that ought also to be considered concerning the divisions of the times, naturally and in keeping with the inquiries set out part by part. Just as, then, in absolutely all of the topics of genethlialogy there is presupposed a certain greater destiny over the particular ones — namely that of the countries themselves, to which the things observed in detail concerning nativities are naturally subordinate, such as the matters touching the forms of bodies and the particular natures of souls and the variations of customs and laws — and the one who examines naturally must always keep hold of the first and more authoritative cause, so that he may not, misled by the resemblance of nativities, ever say, for instance, that one born in Ethiopia is white-skinned or straight-haired, and that the German or the Gaul is dark-skinned and woolly-haired; or that these latter are gentle in their manners, or fond of discourse, or fond of contemplation, while those in Greece are wild in soul and uncultivated in speech; or again, in accordance with the particular character of customs and laws, in the matter of unions — proposing, for the sake of argument, marriage with a sister for the man who is Italian by race, when this belongs to the Egyptian, and marriage with a mother for the latter, when this belongs to the Persian; and, in general, one must first take into account the universal circumstances of destiny, and then fit the particular ones to them in their greater or lesser degree. In the same manner also, in the case of the divisions of the times, it is necessary to lay down beforehand the differences and aptitudes of the ages of time toward each of the results, and to take care that we do not, in accordance with the common and simple character of the contingencies observed for the examination, ever unawares attribute to the infant action or marriage or some of the more perfect things, or to the very aged man procreation or some of the more youthful; but that we fit, once and for all, the things observed through the approaches of the times, according to the resemblance and the possibility, to those things suited to the ages. For there is one and the same single application for all in matters of the times, that of the universal nature of human beings, held according to the likeness and comparison of the order of the seven planets, beginning from the first age and the first sphere from us — that is, the lunar — and ending at the last of the ages and at the last of the planetary spheres, that called Saturn's. And it has truly come to pass that to each of the ages there belong the things proper to the nature of the planet to which it is compared, which we must observe, so that we may examine the universal matters of the times from this source, but the particular differences from the characteristics found in the nativities.

For up to about the first four years, according to the proper number of the four-year period, the Moon, taking the age of infancy, has produced the moistness and softness of the body, and the rapidity of its growth, and the for the most part watery character of its nourishment, and the changeableness of its condition, and the imperfection and inarticulateness of the soul, in keeping with the things that accompany her own active power.

In the next ten years, taking the childish age — second, and the second sphere — that is, half the number of the twenty-year period — the planet Mercury begins to articulate and to mold the intellectual and reasoning part of the soul, and to implant in it certain seeds and rudiments of learning, and to bring out the particular characters of the manners and aptitudes, awakening the soul by teachings and trainings and the first exercises.

Venus, taking the youthful and third age, for the next eight years, according to the equal number of her own period, begins, as is fitting, to set in motion the seminal channels, by the filling of them and the impulse toward the union of love — when especially a kind of madness enters the souls, and incontinence, and a passion for any chance objects of love, and inflammation and deceit and the blindness of recklessness.

The fourth age, the one that is middle in order, the young-man's age, the lord of the middle sphere, the Sun, taking it for the nineteen years, now sets in the soul the masterful and authoritative quality of actions, and a desire for livelihood and reputation and standing, and a transition from the playful and unaffected faults to that which is attentive and modest and ambitious of honor.

After the Sun, Mars, fifth, taking over the manly age for the equal fifteen years of his own period, introduces the austere and toilsome part of life, and produces cares and harassments in the soul and the body, as though now giving a certain sense and notion of the decline and turning men, before the end draws near, to accomplish something worth mention, with toil for those who handle affairs.

Sixth, Jupiter, taking the elderly age for the twelve years of his own period in turn, makes men turn away from the self-laboring and toilsome and turbulent and dangerous part of actions, and introduces in its place the decorous and provident and retired, and further the part that reckons all things and admonishes and consoles — preparing men then especially to lay claim to honor and praise and liberality, with modesty and dignified bearing.

Last, Saturn was allotted the final and aged age, until the remaining times of life, when both the bodily and the psychic motions are now cooled and impeded in their impulses and enjoyments and desires and quick movements, the decline toward nature coming upon the life that has grown dry and dispirited and feeble and easily offended and discontented with all things, in keeping with the proper sluggishness of its motions.

The particular natures of the times, then, observed according to the common and universal character of nature, may be sketched beforehand in this manner. But of the particular matters that ought to be taken according to the proper character of the nativities, some, again according to what is presupposed and more general, we shall make from the most authoritative prorogations once more — yet from all of them, and not from one only, as in the case of the times of life. Rather, we shall make the prorogation from the Ascendant toward the bodily events and the travels abroad; that from the Lot of Fortune toward the matters of possessions; that from the Moon toward the passions of the soul and the cohabitations; that from the Sun toward the matters of dignity and reputation; and that from the midheaven toward the remaining and particular conducts of life, such as actions, friendships, the bearing of children. For thus, in the same seasons, there will not be one single ruler over them, whether benefic or malefic, since for the most part many opposite events come to pass at the same times — as when a man, having lost some near relation, receives an inheritance, or is laid low by disease at the same time as he happens upon some dignity and advancement, or, being in inactivity, becomes a father of children, and all such things as are wont to occur. For it is not the same for body and soul and possessions and dignity and those who live with us, the goods or evils, so that one must of necessity be fortunate in all of these together, or again unfortunate; but such a thing would perhaps come about in the seasons of those who are perfectly happy or perfectly wretched, whenever in all or in most of the prorogations the meetings of all benefics or all malefics run together — yet rarely, because of the imperfection of human nature toward either of the extremes, and its proneness to the proportionate mixture that arises from the alternation of goods and evils.

The prorogative places, then, we shall distinguish in the manner described; but of those that meet in the prorogations, we must take not only, again, the destroyers, as in the case of the times of life, but absolutely all of them, and likewise not only those that meet bodily or by opposition or quartile position, but also those by trine and sextile configuration.

And first, the times must be given, for each prorogation, to the planet that is found upon, or configured with, the prorogative degree itself; but if it is not so, to the planet that takes over the nearest leading position, up to the one that regards the next degree in the order of the following signs; then to this one, up to the next, and so on for the rest in like manner — the planets that hold the bounds also being taken into account for the rulership. And again, years must be given to the degrees of the intervals: for the prorogation from the Ascendant, equal in number to the ascensional times of the proper clime; for that from the midheaven, equal in number to the times of the culminations; for those from the rest, proportionately, or according to the nearness of the risings or descents or co-culminations toward the angles, just as we determined also in the case of the times of life.

The universal time-rulers, then, we shall take in the manner described; but the annual ones by projecting the number of years from the nativity from each of the prorogative places into the following signs by sign, and taking in addition the ruler of the sign in which the count is completed. And the same we shall do also in the case of the months, projecting again the number of these from the natal month from the places that have taken the rulership of the year, at twenty-eight days to a sign. And likewise also in the case of the days: for we shall project the days from the natal day from the monthly places, at two or three days to a sign.

One must also attend to the entries that take place toward the places of the times, since these too contribute no small thing toward the results of the seasons — and especially the entries of Saturn toward the universal places of the times, those of Jupiter toward those of the annual ones, those of the Sun and Mars and Venus and Mercury toward those of the monthly ones, and those of the passages of the Moon toward those of the daily ones; and considering that the universal time-rulers are more authoritative toward the completion of the result, while the particular ones cooperate or fail to cooperate according to the familiarity or unfamiliarity of their natures, and the entries bring about the intensifications and relaxations of the events. For the universal character of the quality, and the prolongation of the time, the place of the prorogation and the ruler of the universal times, together with the ruler of the bounds, indicate — because each of the planets is allied, at the nativity itself, to the places of which it originally took the rulership.

And whether the event will be good or the contrary is determined through the natural and tempered nature of the time-rulers, beneficent or maleficent, and through their original alliance or antipathy toward the place ruled. And at what times the result will be more especially marked is shown through the configurations of the annual and monthly signs toward the causal places, and through the entries of the planets and the appearances of the Sun and Moon toward the annual and monthly signs. For those that are in harmony with the places affected, from the beginning made in the nativity, and that are configured harmoniously with them in the entries, are productive of good things with regard to the subject species, just as, if they are opposed, of bad things; but those that, in disharmony and against the sect, stand in opposition or quartile in the passages, are causes of evils, while in the other configurations they are no longer so.

And if the same planets have rule both of the times and of the entries, the nature of the result becomes excessive and unmixed, whether it inclines toward the good or toward the bad; and much more so if they have rule over the species of the cause not only through being time-rulers, but also through having taken its rulership at the very beginning of the nativity. And men are unfortunate or fortunate in all things together whenever either one and the same place is taken over by all or most of the prorogations, or, these being different, the same times happen to have all or most of the meetings alike benefic or alike malefic. Such, then, would be the outline of the examination of the seasons.

10a. Conclusion according to Parisinus 2425:

according to the outline befitting natural calculations. But the particular applications of the quality of the temporal results, being manifold and hard to interpret, must here above all be left to the discursive treatment of the things that will come about — because of our original purpose — to the skill of the mathematician with respect to the species of the mixture, since the productive power of the universal nature of the planets is still able to be fitted, in like manner and consistently, also to the particular matters. And the topic of genethlialogy having been traversed summarily, it would be well to set the fitting end also to this treatise.

10b. Conclusion according to the Madrid Procorus and Cambridge manuscripts:

But the kinds of the results that come about according to the times we shall here pass over from connecting in detail, for the purpose I stated from the beginning — namely that the productive power of the planets, which they have over universal matters, can likewise be fitted to the particular ones in a consistent way, when the cause of the mathematician and the cause that comes from the mixture are joined together with good aim.