osc me ee Es His Explanation - ~ ?},. < and Narration of “6 i. Whole Art ss Astrology Z an | aot bg Greek a M4 H iS M.A. FAFARHETORIUS THE EGYPTIAN ASTROLOGICAL COMPENDIUM CONTAINING HIS EXPLANATION AND NARRATION OF THE WHOLE ART OF ASTROLOGY Translated from the Greek By JAMES HERSCHEL HOLDEN, M.A. Fellow of the American Federation of AstrologersThe first edition of this translation was circulated privately in 1985, the second edition was circulated privately in 2000, and the third edition was also circulated privately in 2005. The present volume contains the fourth edition of the transla- tion as the first published edition, Copyright 2009 by James Herschel Holden ‘No part of this book may be reproduced or transcribed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the au- thor and publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical re- views and articles. Requests and inquiries may be mailed to the American Feder- ation of Astrologers at 6535 S. Rural Road, Tempe, AZ 85283, U.S.A. First Printing 2009 ISBN-10: 0-86690-590-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-86690-590-9 Published by: American Federation of Astrologers, Inc, 6535 S. Rural Road Tempe, AZ 85283 Printed in the United States of America.Rhetorius’s Explanation and Narration of the Whole Art of Astrology. Preface. On what account, the twelve signs being circular, have we made the beginning from Aries and not rather from Cancer, since it is the ASC of the World,' or from Leo because it is the solar sign; but rather than [either of those] of the two luminaries, the house of Mars, Aries, has been preferred? We say then that since the an- cients made the twelve signs bodily according to the parts of man, making the beginning from Aries, affirming it to be the head, Taurus the throat, and so on down to the feet, on account of this from the more ruling part of the commander, the brain, and all that which is proper to the head, they have made the beginning from Aries. And in particular they have made the seasons in agreement with the tropics, taking the beginning from the vernal sign, i.e. from Aries; for spring signifies the suckling; summer, the youth; fall, middle age; and winter, old age. Four of these signs, then, are called tropical, and four solid, and four bicorporeal. And the tropi- cal [signs] are so called because when the Sun is in them the changes of the air are altered; ¢.g., when it is in Aries, a tropical sign, it brings the vernal and equinoctial change and thenceforth the air becomes more serene; the day grows longer from the equal hours. When it is in Taurus, a solid and vernal sign, it makes the air calmer and unalterable, and it increases the day further. When it is "See the ‘Chart of the World” in Firmicus, Mathesis, iii. 1, where the ASC is the sign Cancer.in Gemini, a bicorporeal sign, it equalizes the air and makes the blending together of it between spring and summer, and it in- es the day further. In this quadrant, then, is completed spring, Again, when the Sun is in Cancer, a tropical sign, it brings the summer tropic,' and the air begins to become hotter, and from then it takes away from the magnitude of the day and it adds to the magni- tude of the night. Again, when it is in Leo, a solid and summer sign, it makes the air steadier and unalterable, taking away from the magni- tude of the day and adding to the magnitude of the night. Again, when it is in Virgo, a bicorporeal sign, it equalizes the air and makes the blending together of it between summer and fall, and it increases the night further and decreases the day. In this quadrant, then, is com- pleted summer, which is fire. Again, when the Sun is in Libra, a tropical sign, it brings the au- tumnal and equinoctial tropic, and from then the air turns colder, and the night grows longer from the equal hours. Again, when it is in Scorpio, a solid sign, it makes the air of fall calmer and unalter- able, taking away the magnitude of the day and adding to the mag- nitude of the night. Again, when it is in Sagittarius, a bicorporeal sign, it equalizes the air and makes the blending together of it be- tween fall and winter, and it takes away further from the magni- tude of the day and adds to the magnitude of the night. In this quad- rant, then, is completed fall, which is earth. Again, when the Sun is in Capricorn, a tropical sign, it makes the winter tropic,’ and from then the air turns more wintry and the day begins to increase and the night to abate. Again, when it is in Aquarius, a solid and wintry sign, it makes the air of winter calmer and unalterable, taking away from the magnitude of the night and adding to the magnitude of the day. Again, when it is in Pisces, a bicorporeal sign, it equalizes the air and makes the blending together of it between winter and spring, taking away from the magnitude of "The summer solstice. *The winter solstice.the night and adding to the magnitude of the day up to the equinoctial hours. In this quadrant is completed the wintry air, which is water. 1. Masculine and Feminine Signs and Houses, and Stars That Become Masculine and Feminine. There are six masculine signs—Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sag- ittarius, and Aquarius; and six feminine—Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces. The houses from the MC to the ASC are masculine; those from the ASC to the IMC! are feminine. Again, the houses from the IMC to the DSC’ angle are masculine, and those from the DSC to the MC are feminine. Of these four quadrants, then, two become masculine and two feminine. Again, the masculine stars are the Sun, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Mer- cury; the feminine are the Moon and Venus. But these stars some- times become masculine and sometimes feminine. And these stars become masculine if they are with the Sun in their morning rising, i.e. posited in the signs going before the Sun within 15 degrees. But they become feminine whenever being vespertine they are posited with the Sun within 15 degrees. Again, the stars become masculine when they are posited in masculine signs and are northern; but they become feminine when they are in feminine or southern signs, Again, the stars become masculine when they are posited in masculine quadrants, from the MC to the ASC and from the IMC to the DSC; but they become feminine in the feminine quadrants, i.e. from the ASC to the IMC and from the DSC to the MC. The stars which become masculine in the masculine signs or the masculine quadrants contribute to masculine genitures, for they make willful, bold persons, having manliness in themselves; but they make women undignified, shameless, bold, unruly, and in sexual relations taking a masculine role or even being ‘ribades. ‘Literally, the ‘under-earth’. “Literally, the ‘setting’.But when the stars become feminine from phases and signs and quadrants, they make men soft, faint-hearted, cowardly, afraid of everything, effeminate and generally [either] castrated or doing women’s work; and the women with downcast eyes, bashful, pru- dent, solemn, subject to men, and those who were taught womanly ways. And we have said these things about the morning and eve- ning risings of the stars, for the settings and retrogrades! of the stars are inactive and weaker and uneven in their action, except the stars that are in the heart. And the stars that are in the heart are said to be those that are conjoined partilely to the Sun, either in the same degree or an adjacent degree. None of the ancients have made mention of this phase, but, since we have found [it] by exper- iment, we have added it to the list, because even Ptolemy spoke of conjunction as a phase but didn’t mention its force. 2. The Sects of the Stars. In diurnal nativities, the Sun, Saturn, and Jupiter are rulers of the sect; but in nocturnal ones, the Moon, Venus, and Mars are the rulers of the sect. For Mercury was appointed to be common to the sects. And the Sun, Jupiter, the Moon, and Venus are considered as benefics, but Saturn and Mars as malefics. For Mercury was ap- "Accepting Kroll’s emendation aphairetikoi ‘retrograde’ for the MSS’s aphairetai “it takes away’ (cf. Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, i. 24, who uses the same phrase, dytikous kai aphairetikous *. . . setting and retrograde . ..”). *That is, within an orb of | degree. This would appear to be the Greek origin of the Arabic astrological term cazimi ‘in the heart of the Sun’. The Arabs cut the orb down to 16’ or 17’ so as to put the planet within the extent of the solar semidiameter. See al-Biriini's Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology, Chapt 481, p. 296, “If a planet should be within less than 16’ of con- Jjunetion with the sun or have passed it by less than the same amount, itis desig- nated as ‘samim’.” The translator Wright suggests that the word cazimi derives, from the Arabic ka samint ‘as if the heart’. Note the similarity between the Greek and Arabic phraseology. *Ptolemy discusses the aspects briefly in his Tetrabiblos, i. 13 “The Aspects of the Signs.”, but he doesn’t mention the conjunction in that chapter. He does men- tion the conjunction elsewhere in the book, and he mentions a planet’s being un- der the Sun beams, which is a conjunction within 15 degrees orb (see, for exam- ple, Tetrabiblos, iti. 10 and iv. 5), but he does not mention any closer conjune- tion, nor does he say anything about the astrological quality of a conjunction.