Ptolemy - Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos - Ch. 23 lyrics

THE DISPOSITION OF THE TERMS THERE are two methods of disposing the terms of the planets, in reference to the dominion of the triplicities; one is Ægyptian, the other Chaldaic. But the Ægyptian method preserves no regular distribution, neither in point of successive order nor in point of quantity. In point of order it is defective, since it, in some instances, allots the first degrees of a sign to the lord of the house, in others to the lord of the triplicity, and in others again to the lord of the exaltation. By selecting examples this failure in order will easily be seen; for instance, if the order were regulated by the government of houses, for what reason should Saturn take the first degrees in Libra, since that sign is the house of Venus? or why should Jupiter take them in Aries, which is the house of Mars? If the government of triplicities were followed, for what reason should Mercury take the first degrees in Capricorn, which is in the triplicity ruled by Venus? If the government by exaltations, why should Mars take the first degrees in Cancer? that sign being the exaltation of Jupiter. And if the order were regulated even by considering the planet which possesses most of these dignities in the sign, for what reason should Mercury take the first degrees in Aquarius, in which sign he rules only by triplicity, and why not Saturn, who has government in it by house, as well as by triplicity? or why in short should Mercury, who does not possess any kind of dominion in Capricorn, receive the first degrees in that sign also? The same want of order is abundantly evident in the rest of the distribution. An equal irregularity exists in the respective quantities of degrees allotted by the Ægyptians to the several terms of the planets. For it is by no means a proper nor sufficient demonstration of accuracy that the aggregate sum of all the numbers of every single planet amounts to the precise total requiring to be divided into portions of time; 2 since, even if it be admitted that this total, collected from every single star, is correctly a**erted by the Ægyptians, it may still be objected that the same total, so collected by them, may be found in many other ways by interchanging the numbers in a sign. There are persons also who contend that in every latitude the same space of time is occupied in ascension by every star; this, however, is manifestly wrong: for, in the first place, these persons are guided by the vulgar opinion of the plane heights of ascension, which is totally foreign to truth, and according to which, in the parallel of Lower Ægypt, the signs of Virgo and Libra would ascend each in thirty-eight degrees and a third, 1 and Leo and Scorpio each in thirty-five degrees; when it is, on the contrary, shown by the Tables, that the latter two signs occupy in their several ascensions more than thirty-five degrees each, but Virgo and Libra less. It should further be observed, that those who support this opinion seem (by so doing) not only to dispute the quantity of the terms most generally received, but to be driven also to the necessity of falsifying many points; since (as it is indispensable to keep to the same total amount of all the terms together) they make use of parts of degrees; but even that contrivance does not enable them to reach the true point. The method of the Chaldæans contains a certain simplicity of arrangement as to quantity, and preserves an order of succession rather more comformable to the dominion of the triplicities. It is, nevertheless, highly imperfect, as may be easily discovered even without being pointed out: for in the first triplicity. (which the Chaldæans also attribute to the same signs; viz. Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius), Jupiter, the lord of the triplicity, takes the first degrees; Venus, who rules the next triplicity, follows him; after her, in succession, are Saturn and Mercury, the lords of the triplicity of Gemini; and lastly Mars, lord of the remaining triplicity. In the second triplicity (also allotted to the same signs, viz. Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn), Venus stands first; next to her, Saturn and Mercury; after them Mars, and Jupiter last. In the other two triplicities a similar order of succession is closely followed; and with respect to the third triplicity, which is ascribed to two lords, viz. to Saturn and Mercury, Saturn is placed first in order by day and Mercury by night. The quantity of degrees allotted to each planet is also simply regulated in the Chaldaic method; it diminishes in graduation from the quantity given to the planet first in order, so that each successive planet takes one degree less than that which preceded it. Thus the first planet takes eight degrees, the second seven, the third six, the fourth five, and the fifth four. By this arrangement the degrees of Saturn amount by day to 78, and by night to 66; the degrees of Jupiter to 72, of Mars to 69, of Venus to 75, and of Mercury by day to 66, and by night to 78--the whole amounting to 360. Of these two distributions of the terms, that of the Ægyptians seems more to be relied on than the other; since it has been handed down and recommended in the writings of the Ægyptian authors, and also because the degrees of the terms, in nativities rectified by them as examples, are universally in accordance with this distribution while, on the other hand, neither the order nor the number of the Chaldaic method has ever been recorded or explained by any writer--not even by the writers of that very nation: the accuracy of that method is consequently doubtful, and its irregularity as to the order of placing the planets is widely open to censure. There is, however, an ancient writing which has fallen into the author's possession, and which gives a rational and consistent account of the nature of the terms; of the order in which they are to be taken, and of the quantity belonging to each. It will be found in the subsequent chapter.