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Definition:
[Source Texts of Astrology] The
magnum opus of astrology, Claudius Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos is in some ways unfamiliar to modern
western astrologers. Written between 130 - 170 AD, it fully described the
astrological concepts of the Classical world. However, the transmission of
these ideas down to us has been incomplete in many respects, and those that
have passed to us intact have normally not been properly updated for the Age of
Pisces. Fortunately Ptolemy's original work still survives and is gaining wider
interest again today as a root-text of astrology. Below is a lexicon of zodiac
sign descriptive words in Ptolemy's astrology that are nowadays
unfamiliar.
NB: In Classical astrology the
most important factor was not the Sun sign but the "horoscopic point". This is
what we would now call the Ascendant or Rising Sign. [See
Tetrabiblos iii Chapter 2] The Sun
was just one heavenly body - albeit the most important one. It is only in the
last eighty years that Sun sign astrology has come to prominence in Western
Astrology, with the advent of the newspaper astrology column.
| The Power of the Fixed
Stars: |
In Classical
astrology the component stars of a constellation had particular astrological
properties, just as the planets still have in modern astrology. This aspect
of astrology has become lost to most Western astrologers, as our astrology has
become separated from the stars because of the problem of the
Tropical
Zodiac. |
| Character of the Sign: |
This aspect
of Classical astrology is similar to what is now known as the quality
[cardinal, fixed, mutable] of a sign. In Classical astrology there were
four characters:
Solstitial Signs:
Cancer and Capricornus. These were the summer and
winter Solstice signs in the Age of Aries. [Modern
Tropical Zodiac
astrologers call these the cardinal signs.*]
Equinoctial
Signs: Aries and Libra. These were the spring and
autumn Equinox signs in the Age of Aries. [Modern
Tropical Zodiac
astrologers call these the cardinal signs.*]
Solid
Signs: Taurus, Leo, Scorpius, and Aquarius. These
signs followed the solstitial and equinoctial signs in the Age of Aries.
[Modern Tropical
Zodiac astrologers call these the fixed
signs.*]
Bicorporeal Signs:
Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. These signs
lay between the solid and the solstitial and equinoctial signs in the Age of
Aries and in Classical astrology took some of the properties of these types.
[Modern Tropical
Zodiac astrologers call these the mutable signs.*].
*Ptolemy's sign characters were correct in the Age of Aries. And
modern Tropical
Zodiac astrologers still use them. However, now, in the Age of Pisces they
are inaccurate by one sign; Pisces is the Vernal Equinox sign for example and
hence is Equinoctial [cardinal]. |
| Planet and House: |
The twelve
house system of modern
astrology does not feature at all in Ptolemy's astrology. [As the 'right
choice' of house system
is a huge problem in modern astrology it might be best if we all followed his
example! ( When I say 'modern' Kepler was denouncing houses as "Arabic
sorcery" four centuries ago.)]
Ptolemy considered simply that a
sign housed a particular planet. In modern terms we would call this the
planetary rulership. This rulership could be by the planet's masculine
or feminine side, and the five planets ruled two signs, one with each side of
their nature's in a symmetrical system, the Sun and Moon ruling the other two.
Neptune, Uranus and Pluto had not been discovered and so were not
planetary rulers. This is an astrological invention of the last two centuries,
one with which many modern astrologers strongly disagree.
Ptolemy's planetary rulers seem to be based on Chaldean astrology
from the Age of Taurus [Leo the Summer Solstice sign]. Hence, nowadays in the
Age of Pisces it should be noted that they are two signs out, Gemini being the
Solstice sign. |
| Triangles: |
There are
four triangles containing three signs each in the Ptolemy's astrology. These
are analogous in their groups to the four-elements concept of modern astrology
[Earth, Air, Fire and Water]. However elements
formed no part of Ptolemy's Classical astrology.
First Triangle - Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius:
Masculine. Ruled by the Sun in day and Jupiter at night. [Analogous to the
modern fire signs.]
Second Triangle - Taurus,
Virgo, and Capricornus: Feminine. Ruled by the Venus in day and Moon at
night. [Analogous to the modern earth signs.]
Third Triangle - Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius:
Masculine. Ruled by the Saturn in day and Mercury at night. [Analogous to the
modern air signs.]
Fourth Triangle - Cancer,
Scorpius, and Pisces: Feminine. Ruled by the Venus/Mars in day and
Moon/Mars at night. [Analogous to the modern water
signs.] |
| Exaltations and
Depressions: |
Nowadays
exaltations are often confused with planetary rulerships, and have dropped from
view in modern astrology. In Classical astrology planets were considered strong
in the signs they ruled, but high in rank in signs in which they were exalted.
Similarly they were lowly ranked in signs in which they were depressed. Three
signs, Scorpius, Sagittarius and Aquarius have no exalted planets. Sagittarius
and Aquarius have no depressed planets. |
| The Egyptian Terms: |
Terms are another
concept which was all but lost during the 17th century hiatus in astrology. The
terms are the section of the sign within the rulership of a particular planet.
Hence "Venus = 12; Jupiter = 4" etc. indicates that Venus rules the
first 12 degrees, Jupiter the next 4 and so on. |
| The Chaldean Terms: |
Ptolemy
quotes two different sets of terms, the second being the Chaldean. He
recommends the Egyptian as being "more worthy of
credence". |
| Countries: |
In Classical
'natural' or 'universal' astrology the countries of the world were said to be
affected by particular signs. |
| Effect upon the
Weather: |
Because of the
Movement of the Ages, Ptolemy's weather description is now about one sign out
and describes the weather of the previous
Real Solar Zodiac
sign - at least in the Mediterranean.
Because of the yearly
coincidence of the cycle of the seasons - and their weather patterns - and the
yearly cycle of the Zodiac,
all Classical astrologers firmly believed in 'natural' astrology: that the
stars influenced the weather. This idea - which held sway up until the Middle
Ages - was disproved by the exploration of the Southern Hemisphere, where it is
winter when the Northern Hemisphere is in summer, and vice versa, though both
of course have the same Zodiac stars. Instead it was
realised that the Earth's tilt controls the yearly weather cycles.
Hence, we western astrologers have dropped the link with the cycle of
the seasons, except for in one key aspect - that the
Zodiac should be tied to the
seasons, i.e. it should be a
Tropical Zodiac.
Unfortunately, this just isn't true, the
Solar Zodiac is not
tied to the seasons, any more than the weather is caused by the
Zodiac. This fallacy is
one of the largest problems in Western astrology. |
| Powers of Fixed Stars and the Starts
of Signs: |
To expand on the statement above,
Ptolemy's writings provide we modern astrologers with a dilemma. Ptolemy was
convinced of the Powers of the Fixed Stars, but he was also convinced of
the Powers of the Spaces of the Zodiac. There doesn't seem to be any
problem here until it is also realised that Ptolemy held that it is
reasonable to reckon the beginnings of the signs ... from the equinoxes and
solstices, [See Tetrabiblos i Chapter
22], and not from the heavens.
In the second century AD this was
acceptable, as the Tropical Zodiac signs
[signs which start with the Equinox] were reasonable approximations to where
the stars of the constellations actually were. But they aren't now. Because of
the Movement of the Ages, they are off by almost a whole sign.
Over
the centuries since Ptolemy, this dilemma has been solved in two different
ways. In the West we have kept the connection between the signs and the Equinox
and so completely thrown away the Powers of the Stars. In the East,
notably India, astrologers have thrown away the connection between Equinox and
the start of a sign and hence kept the Powers of the Signs and Powers
of Stars.
Of the two, the Indian approach has to be the better
one. Ptolemy was convinced seasonal
Zodiac signs governed the
astrology of the weather. He thought he could see the evidence for this in the
yearly cycle of the seasons and the yearly cycle of the
Zodiac. He was wrong, it was
just a coincidence. But thinking this, Ptolemy would have thought himself
perfectly justified in tying the seasons to the
Zodiac by deciding that the
Vernal Equinox marked the start of a
Zodiac sign closest to the
Equinox, Aries. He was
wrong about this too. It doesn't. The Vernal Equinox is now in
Pisces, and in a few
hundred years will be in
Aquarius.
Unfortunately the Tropical Zodiac is an
outmoded mistake just like Zodiac weather. [See the
Real Solar Zodiac
for the accurate Sun
Sign dates.] |
© Dr Shepherd Simpson, Galactic Astrologer
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