Ptolemy - Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos - Book 3: Ch. 14 lyrics

CHAPTER XIV NUMBER OF THE MODES OF PROROGATION WHEN the prorogator has been determined as above directed, it is also necessary to take into consideration the two modes of prorogation; one into succeeding signs, under the projection of rays, as it is called; and, when the prorogator may be in an oriental place, that is to say, in any place between the mid-heaven and the ascendant, this mode only is to be used. The other mode extends into signs preceding the prorogator, according to what is called horary proportion; and, in cases when the prorogator may be situated in any place receding from the mid-heaven, or, in other words, between the mid-heaven and the angle of the west, both modes of prorogation are to be adopted. It is next to be observed, that certain degrees are anæretic; though, in the prorogation made into signs preceding, the only degree which is strictly anæretic is that of the western horizon; and it becomes so because it obscures the lord of life; while other degrees, of stars meeting with or testifying to the prorogator, both take away from and add to the aggregate amount of the prorogation, which would otherwise continue until the descension or setting of the prorogator. Of these last-mentioned degrees, however, there are none properly anæretic; since they are not borne to the prorogatory place, but, on the contrary, that place is carried to their positions. In this manner the benefics increase the prorogation, but the malefics diminish it; and Mercury a**ists the influence of either party with which he may be configurated. The amount of the increase or diminution is indicated by the degree, in which each star, so operating, is exactly situated; for the number of years will depend upon, and correspond with, the horary times proper to each degree; and if the birth be by day, care must be taken to calculate the diurnal horary times; if by night, the nocturnal. These directions are to be understood as applicable to instances wherein the degrees in question may be in the ascendant; if farther advanced, a deduction proportionate to the distance is to be made, unless they should be on the occidental horizon, in which case there can be no remainder. But, in the prorogation made into succeeding signs, the places of the malefics, Saturn and Mars, are anæretic, whether meeting the prorogator bodily, or by emission of rays in quartile, from either side, or in opposition: they are also sometimes anæretic, by a s**tile ray, if in a sign of equal power, obeying or beholding the sign of the prorogator. And even the mere degree, in signs following, in quartile with the prorogatory place, as also the degree in s**tile, if badly afflicted, which is sometimes the case in signs of long ascension, and, still further, the degree in trine, if in signs of short ascension, are all anæretic: so also is the Sun's place, should the Moon be prorogatory. But, although the meetings, which occur in the course of prorogation thus made, have, respectively, some of them an anæretic, and other a preservative, power, in consequence of their occurring by means of an actual transmission to the prorogatory place 1; yet their anæretic tendency is not always effectual, but only in cases where the places, so brought to the prorogatory place, may be badly afflicted. For should those places be situated within the terms of a benefic, the operation of their anæretic degree becomes impeded; and it will likewise be impeded, if either of the benefics should cast a ray in quartile, trine, or opposition, 2 to the said anæretic degree itself, or to some other degree near in succession, and not farther distant from it than twelve degrees, if the benefic be Jupiter; nor than eight, if Venus: the like impediment will also subsist, if both the prorogator and its opponent should be bodies, and not have the same latitude. Therefore, whenever there may be found two or more conflicting configurations, auxiliary on the one hand, and hostile on the other, due observation must be made to ascertain which party surpa**es the other, in power as well as in number. The pre-eminence in number will be, of course, obvious, from the greater number on one side than on the other; but, for pre-eminence in power, it must be seen whether the stars, auxiliary or hostile as the case may be, are, on the one side, in places appropriate to themselves, while they are not so on the other; and especially whether those on the one side may be oriental, and those on the other occidental. It is also to be observed, in all cases, that not any one of such stars, whether hostile or auxiliary, is to be left out of the present calculation, on account of its casual position under the sunbeams. This rule must be particularly attended to, because, even though the Moon be not prorogatory, the solar place itself becomes anæretic, if shackled by the simultaneous presence of a malefic, and not restored to freedom of operation by any benefic. The number of years, depending on the distances between the prorogatory and anæretic places, cannot be always gathered simply and at once from the ascensional times 2 of each respective degree; but only in cases when the ascendant itself, or some other specific degree or body, actually ascending in the oriental horizon, may possess the prorogation. For, if it be desired to calculate agreeably to nature, every process of calculation that can be adopted must be directed to the attainment of one object; that is to say, to ascertain after how many equatorial times 3 the place of the succeeding body, or degree, will arrive at the position preoccupied at the birth by the preceding body, or degree: and, as equatorial time transits equally both the horizon and the meridian, the places in question 4 must be considered, in respect of their proportionate distances from both these; each equatorial degree 5 being taken to signify one solar year. In conformity with the foregoing remarks, when it may happen that the prorogatory and preceding place may be actually on the oriental horizon, it will be proper to reckon, at once, the ascensional times which may intervene until the meeting of the degrees; because, after the same number of equatorial times, the anæreta will arrive at the prorogatory place; that is to say, at the oriental horizon. Should the prorogatory place be found on the meridian, the whole number of degrees by right ascension, in which the whole intercepted arc will transit the meridian, must then be taken. And if the prorogatory place be on the occidental horizon, the number of descensions, in which every degree of the distance will be carried down (or, in other words, the number of ascensions, in which their opposite degrees will ascend), is in that case to be reckoned. When, however, a prorogatory and preceding place may not be situated on any one of the three aforesaid points, but in some intermediate station, it must be observed that other times will then bring the succeeding place to the preceding one; and not the times of ascension or descension, or transit of the mid-heaven, as above spoken of. For any places whatever, which have one particular position, on the same degree, in regard to the horizon and meridian, are alike and identical. This is the case, for instance, with all places lying on any one of those semicircles which are drawn through the arcs of the meridian and horizon; and each of these semicircles (all of which have position at the same equal distance from each other) marks one temporal hour; and, as the time occupied in proceeding through the places 3 above described, and arriving at the same position of the horizon and meridian, is rendered unequal to and different from the time of transits in the zodiac; so, also, the transits of other spaces are made, agreeably to their position, in time again distinct from this. There is, however, a method by which the proportion of time, occupied in the progress of a succeeding place to a prorogatory and preceding place, in whatever position, whether oriental, meridian*l, or occidental, or any other, may be easily calculated. It is as follows: When it has been ascertained what degree of the zodiac is on the mid-heaven, as also which are the preceding and succeeding degrees, the period of whose meeting is to be calculated, the position of the preceding degree, and its distance in temporal hours from the meridian, are next to be noted; because any part of the zodiac, on becoming distant from the meridian in the same temporal hours, must fall on the same individual semicircle 1. For ascertaining this distance, the number of ascensions, in a right sphere, found in the intermediate space between the said preceding degree and the mid-heaven, either above or under the earth, is to be divided by the number of the diurnal or nocturnal horary times of the said preceding degree: for instance, if that degree be above the earth, by its diurnal horary times; and, by its nocturnal, if it be under the earth. It is then to be discovered in what number of equatorial times the succeeding degree will be distant from the same meridian, by as many similar temporal hours as those by which the preceding degree is distant from it. And, to effect this, the hours in question must be noted, and it must first be observed, by the right ascensions again, how many equatorial times the succeeding degree, at its original position, is distant from the degree on the mid-heaven; and then it must be seen how many equatorial times it will be distant, on coming to the preceding degree's distance in temporal hours fro ‘m the said mid-heaven: this will be found, by multiplying those hours by the succeeding degree's horary times; diurnal, if the future position be above the earth, and nocturnal if under; and the difference in amount, of these two distances, in equatorial times, will present the number of years inquired for.