Thunder Lightning and Winds as also of the wholsomness or unwholsomness of the Air of the Plenty or scarcity of Corn and other Fruits of the Earth and the like For the Prediction of the Constitution of the Quarters or Seasons of the Year from three Figures of each Quarter they collect likewise the Lord of each according to the predominion of Fortitudes and then pronounce what kind of Spring what Summer what Autumn what Winter is next to come according to the qualities of their respective Lords For Mars for Example shall encrease the heat in Summer mitigate the cold in Winter make the Spring rather Warm then cold and likewise the Autumn Saturn the quite contrary and so of the rest Lastly for the Prediction of the Weather each Day through the whole Year They will have Four Themes or Scheams to be erected for each moneth one at the moment of the New-moon one at that of the Full-moon and one apeece at each of the Quarters and then collecting what Planet is Lord of a Quater of a moneth they Prognosticate the Temper of the Air aswell for that whole Quarter of the Moneth as for each Day therein according as the Dominion decayeth or continueth strong respectively to that dominion which is to succeed at the next Quarter or as that is of a contrary or the same or of a middle nature But because the Predictions taken from these predominions are for the most part fallacious therefore they call in other things also which may impede the Effects otherwise to succeed and produce some contrary to them For that I may not insist upon the notable variety of Effects which they will have to arise not only from several Stars of the Zodiack according as they call some Saturnal some Jovial some Martial c. But also from the Twelve Houses and the several parts of them whereof they make some to be of their own nature Exciters of Thunder some Causers of Rain some of Hail some of Snow some of North some of South Winds c. And thus you may observe how they derive the chiefest variety from the Aspects of the Planets and those places in which they are the while Now among these Aspects the most powerfull for change of weather they make that called a Conjunction the next an Opposition the next a Quartile then a Trine and last or least of all a Sextile For they will have the forces of every Planet to be corroborated by the additional forces not only of such other Planets as are of like virtues but also of indifferent ones as on the other side they will have the influence of each to be abated or mitigated by the influences of Contrary Planets according to their mutual Aspects and in the General that clear and wholesome Weather is signified by a Trine or Sextile soul and unwholesome by a Quartile indifferent by a Conjunction rather the one than the other according to the condition of the Ruling Planet As for their Apertiones Portrarum or Catarracts i. e. of great turbulency in the Air by high winds great Rains Thunder showers Hail stormes c. these they will have to be caused not only when the Planets whose natures and houses are opposite or respect each other in an opposite or Quartile aspect but also and chiefly when the Moon leaving one Planet or its aspect is carried to another Planet or its aspect which is opposite thereto For thus when the Moon for Example is carried from Saturn to the Sun or contrariwise from the Sun to Saturn They will have dark Weathér Foggs Mifts aboundance of showers and extream Colds to be engendred and portended When the Moon marcheth from Jupiter to Mercury or from Mercury to Jupiter then we must have high Winds and especially from the North and East as also Lightning Thunder and the like tempestuous Weather c. In respect of the Places likewise They make no smal difference For if the Planets be Oriental and Direct and about the Apogeum then must they signify Drie weather if Occidental Retrograde and about the Perigeum wett weather Mars only excepted who at such times encreaseth Heat and Dryness But our chiefest care must be to regard the Signes in respect of the Triplicities or Trigons in which the Planets are configurated among themselves For from thence respective to the aspects of the Planets made in them there ensue Fiery Watery c. effects But above all they cry up a Conjuuction and so much the more if it chance to be of those Planets which they call the Great or Greatest For if such a Conjunction happen in Fiery Signes then it portends great and dangerous Conflagrations if in Watery then great Inundations if in Earthy then huge Earth-quakes in Fiery then fatal Plagues and Pestilences And wheresoever it hapneth if Saturn be predominant it produceth great sicknesses and contagions if Jupiter be predominant either no diseases at all or very gentle ones if Mars rule acute diseases The like affections of the Air They praesage from the Conjuctions of the inferior or lesser Planets and chiefly if they are all conjoyned For if they meet in Watery Signes then we must certainly expect deluges And to prevent your wonder at this though they derive fair Weather from the Sun and three superior Planets they decree Clouds from the three Inferior and add that Mars somtimes of the superior dòth cause rains and Mercury of the Inferior serenity For they take Mercury for Eolus who doth somtimes raise high Winds and stormes and somtimes blow them away again and sweep the welkin as with a broom If he be conjoyned with Saturn then doubtless we shall be troubled with dark rainy and blustering winds if with Jupiter we have gentle and refreshing gusts if with Mars partching and burning blasts if with the Sun hott and unwholsome gales Iomitt how they attribute Hail to some Aspects Thunder to others snow to others and the like and how the Planets as they pass neer the Fixt Stars do mightily encrease their virtues for when Mars passeth by the Pleiades he doth so heighten their watery forces that woe be to us for deluges and how they admitt the same effects concerning the Rising and Setting of the Fixt Stars respective to the Sun all which are contained in the Tables and Kalandars of the Ancients as we have formerly observed with an infinite number of the like Extravagances whereof their Books are full After this short accompt of the Grounds and Manner of their erecting Praedictions of changes of weather we might well spare any further discussion of them their Vanity being obvious to every mans consideration For how frivolously do they elect the Lord of the Year of each Quarter of the Year of each Quarter of the Moon that designation of a number of Testimonies of Fortitude and Debility being meerly Chimerical and yet made the Signes by which they are guided in their Election If there must be a Lord paramont among the Planets one
material so that when the Significator shall come and shake hands with the Promistor then Oh then shall be the performance of that Effect which was so long before signified by the one and promised by the other But because they are wont to number the Advance or Progress not in the Zodiack but in the Equator to which those places are referred by Circles of Declinations hence is it that to Direct is nothing but to enquire the Arch of the Equator which is interjacent betwixt the Significator and Promissor And because they will have the Progression to amount to one Degree in a Year five minutes in a Moneth ten Seconds in a Day constantly therefore that Arch doth easily point out at what time from the Nativity the Effect sought for will happen But several things are Directed respective to the variety of Effects as the Sun for the state of Life and dignities the Moon for the affections and passions of the Mind the Horoscope or first Rising point of the First House which is also called the Horoscope for health and peregrinations the Middle Heaven for Friends the Part of Fortune for encrease or decrease of Wealth and for the duration or period of Life the special Director is the Prorogator Dominus vitae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Emissor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Arabic Hylech and somtimes Alcochoden And for this they elect either that Planet which hath more Dignities and fewer Debilities in the places called Hylegialia i e. the First Tenth Eleventh Seventh or Ninth Houses and especially the Sun in a Diurnal Geniture the Moon in a Nocturnal or if there be no Planets in those places then principally the Horoscope it self But the Emissor is Directed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Interfector or Killer as to the body of Saturn or Mars or to the Malefical beams of each or to the disposition of the Eighth House c. For those are the Destinies from which they give judgement of the time of Death allowing so many Years of Life as they have numbred degrees of the Equator from the Emissor to the Interfector and so many moneths as there are five minutes over and above and so many dayes as there tens of seconds and so many hours as there are twenty and five thirds as may be collected from what we said even now I omit that the Direction is either Direct i. e. to the Consequent Signes as for the Emissor the Horoscope the Middle Heaven or Converse i e to the Antecedent Signes as for the Part of Fortune or Planet Retrograde The Revolution is nothing else but a new erection or constitution of the Celestial Scheam to that moment in which the Sun after the space of one or more Years is revolved to the same point of the Zodiack in which it was at the moment of the Nativity For they will have it that from the comparison of this Celestial Theme or Position with the root or Natalitious Scheam of the Geniture is signified what is to happen to the Person in that Year which is begun In particular if the Horoscope of the Revolution doth respect the Horoscope of the Root in a benigne aspect then health and strength of body is signified for that Year if in a maligne then sickness If the Planets in the Revolution be disposed in a contrary manner to what they were in the Geniture then some notable danger is portended and the like Among the rest this is worthy our remembrance that in the Revolution if the Moon come to that place where Saturn was in the Root then the Person shall Marry an old Withered Crone and in all likely-hood despise and cuckold her c. The Annuall Profection is only a certain equal progress in which both the Cusps of the Houses and of the Planets and other places of the Geniture are conceived to go forward under the Zodiack by the space of 30 degrees every year so that in the space of 12 years complete the whole Zodiack is run thorow and the same Progress again begun For they regard those places to which the progress is made according to this Annual Profection in the Theme of the Root and according as they observe the Aspects betwixt them and the place of the Root to be good or bad they give judgement of Felicity or Infelicity to happen at that time And they designe both the moneths and days because the year of Profection being given they easily compute the time in which within the compass of that year the Aspects fall out Moreover they generally teach what year shall be happy what unhappy to the Native as for example the Fourth year of life must be unhappy because then the Horoscope comes to the fourth House which respecteth the Horoscope in a Quartile and the midle Heaven in an opposite And hence is it that they dispute mainly concerning Climacterical years and shew which are Lords of the seventh years called by the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Arabians Alfridary determining the dominion of the first seven years upon the Moon the second upon Mercury the third upon Venus and so consequently the Moon beginning her soveraignty again at the eighth septennarie and that year being alwayes dangerous in which the dominion of each Alfridarius or Lord is changed or devolved upon his immediate successor And this is all the great mistery of Climacterical years so much talked of so much feared The Transition is when a Planet passeth by the places of the Geniture so as the Moon for example sometimes passeth by the same place in which she was at the time of the Nativity sometimes the place in which Saturn was somtimes that of the Horoscope somtimes the place which was Quartile to Mars Trine to Jupiter c. For they will have that some eminent Changes are made in these Transitions and therefore they introduce them that so they may the more precisely define the times of Accidents For thinking themselves sure only of the Year or Moneth wherein any Effect good or bad is promised by the Direction they consider the dayes in which the good or bad Transitions happen and cast the Events to come upon the most potent of them And now you have heard all these big words and brave suppositions pray what is your opinion of them If you will give me leave to guess I should think you hold the whole Art to be a Mysterious Nothing a Fiction more vain than vanity it self For as for their Direction how could it be that they should institute their numeration in the Equator leave the Ecliptick and the rounds of the Planets in which they are moved It is not because the Equator is the measure of Time as one whole revolution thereof makes a Day But that Direction which they call Direct is computed contrary to the motion of the Equator and as for their assumption that one degree is respondent to one Year what grounds have they for it From Nature
for them but they made some of them to be Fiery as Aries Leo Sagittarius some to be Earthy as Taurus Virgo Capricorn some Aereal as Gemini Libra Aquarius others Watery as Cancer Scorpio and Pisces And these forsooth are those so much celebrated Four Trigons of the Celestial Signes Again some they have supposed to be Human as Gemini and Virgo others Beastlike as Aries Taurus others Reptile as Cancer Scorpio some they imagine to have a clear and pleasant Voyce as Gemini others a middle one as Leo and others again none at all as Pisces Moreover they call some of them Masculine and Diurnal others Feminine and Nocturnal the former being Masculine and Diurnal as Aries the latter Feminine and Nocturnal as Taurus and of the rest Some they assume to be Fertile as Pisces others Barren as Virgo others Indifferent as Capricorn Others of happy Witts as Gemini others of Stupid as Taurus To these you may add their further distinctions of them into Hearing and Seeing Stars or Signes into Beautifull and Deformed into Fatt and Lean into Ruminant and Non-ruminant into Wrathfull Leacherous c. When they come to compare the Signes with the Planets then First some of them are designed for the Houses of others for Cancer is made the House of the Moon Leo of the Sun Gemini and Virgo of Mercury Taurus and Libra of Venus Aries and Scorpio of Mars Pisces and Sagittarius of Jupiter Aquarius and Capricorn of Saturn one being the Dayly the other the Nightly mansion of their Guests assigned Secondly some of them are the Exaltations of others the Planets for Sol is exalted in Aries the Moon in Taurus Saturn in Libra Jupiter in Cancer Mars in Capricorn Venus in Pisces Mercury in Virgo And on the Contrary the Signe opposite to each is called its Dejection or Depression as Libra is the place of the Suns Depression Scorpio of the Moons c. But in the mean while it is worthy our notice that neither Leo nor Aquarius are either the Exaltation or Dejection of any one Planet but Gemini and Sagittarius are both attributed to the head and tail of the Dragon Thirdly some Signes according to the decads of degrees contained in them are consigned to several Planets for the first ten degrees of Aries are consigned to Mars the next ten to the Sun and the last to Venus the first ten of Taurus to Mercury the next ten to another and so consequently Fourthly as there are five Planets besides the Sun and Moon so have they imagined five Terms or Ends in each Signe for of Aries the first six degrees are given to Jupiter the next eight or six to Venus another seven or eight to Mercury c. Fifthly to each degree are attributed if not single Planets yet at least special Figures as to the first degree of Aries they give the Figue of a Man holding a Sickle in his right hand and a bow in his left to the second a Man with a Dogs head his right hand extended and his left holding a staft and so consequently through all the degrees of the Signes Sixthly of the Four mentioned Trigons the Fiery is appropriated to Sol and Jupiter the Earthly to Venus and Luna the Aerial to Saturn and Mercury the watery only to Mars from whence you may understand which and in respect of which the Planets are said to be Trigonocratores or Lords of the Trigon one in the Day time another in the Night where they are two I need not insist upon other of their Comparisons For in respect of things subject to the Signes they have particular Provinces allotted to their sway as for Example they subject France to Aries Italy to Leo Norway to Scorpio c. Nay they proceed to the allottment of even Cities in the same Country as Marselles to Aries Paris to Virgo Avignon to Sagittarius c. Nor do they rest here but running on in the same prodigious subtility they arrive at last at consigning the parts of Mans body to the dominion of several Signes as Aries must be Lord of the Head Taurus of the Neck c. Further each year of every Mans life doth not want the tuition of some one of the Celestial Signes as the first year belongs to that Signe in which the Sun is at the time of a Mans Nativity the second to the next the third to the next and so on to the twelfth and then you must begin at the first again renewing the series each twelfth Year whence they are called Dodecaeterides I add that when the Ancients first invented these strange things by occasion of the Asterisms which they thought fixt fast in the Firmament or eighth Sphear then accounted the Primum mobile and moved only by a diurnal motion from East to West the succeding Astrologers observing that the Asterismes were moved also by an exceeding slow motion from West to East and that they had changed their old seats so that the Stars of Aries were now no longer in the Vernal Equinox nor the subsequent Signes in the same places as in the dayes of the Ancients therefore imagining another Heaven above the eighth that was moved only toward the West they affixed thereunto a naked Zodiack or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one without Stars and divided the same into 12 equal parts which they called still not Asterismes but Signes of them as of Aries Taurus c. Beginning at the Vernal Equinox and ascribing the same things in all points to the imaginary Zodiack which I have enumerated of the former neglecting the Constellations themselves as being subject to change their places Though we are to note that other whiles they call by the name of Dodecatemorion that part of the Zodiack in which doth end the number made of the degree 12. times multiplied which such or such a Planet possesseth beginning the account from the first degree of that Signe in which the Planet is As if the Planet be in the 5 th degree and 5 minutes of Aries which Example Firmicus long ago gave because this number 12. times multiplied gives 61. which being computed from the beginning of Aries ends in the first degree of Gemini therefore is the Dodecatemorion of that Planet said to be in the first degree of Gemini And these are the principal Chimera's that Astrologers have dreamt and imposed upon the Fixt Stars CHAP. VII Their suppositions concerning the Planets IF we remove to the Planets we shall find the brains of Astrologers have been as fruitfull in Fictions concerning them as they were in those ricited of the Fixt Stars For First considering the Planets singly and in themselves They assigne them certain great and admirable Virtues The Sun say they doth heat much and drie little Mars drieth even to adustion Saturn cools largely Jupiter Venus and the Moon heat somwhat and moisten more yet of the three Jupiter moistneth least Venus more and the Moon most of all but Mercury is
testimonies of Fortitude is thought to be the Lord or Governour of the Theme or Nativity Figure Thus that is called Lord of the Year which in a Figure Erected at the beginning of the Spring is the strongest unless it be that some collect Fortitudes from the Figures made at the beginning of each season of the Year and also at the New moons and Full-moons nearest to them Thus he is called Lord of the Geniture which in like manner is strongest in the Natalitious Theme though some desume it otherwise But that Planet which hath more testimonies of Fortitude in the Signe beginning each House He O worderfull is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord of that House that which hath them in the degree beginning the House is called Dispositor Domus Steward of the House in Arabick Almuten And thus we often hear of the Lord of the Ascendent or Horoscope which according to his various habitations is supposed to do various strange feats I omitt the dominions of the Planets upon the several Hours of the Day upon the several Ages of Men upon particular states or conditions of life as when Saturn is made overseer of Husbandry Jupiter president of Policy Mars of Warfare the Sun of Honours Venus of Love-matters Mercury of Merchandise and Theeving the Moon of Travelling c. Because in truth I fear you may be as weary in reading as I am in writing so tedious a list of whimzies and yet I must beseech your Patience a little longer while I look into these spatious Nothings called Planetary Houses CHAP. VIII Their suppositions concerning the Celestial Houses HEre you may behold our Syderial Quartermasters dividing the whole Heaven into twelve portions or Cantons but they call them Houses by the help of six Circles which mutually intersect each other in two opposite points and particularly intercept the twelve parts of the Zodiack And in order to this their first care is that that part of the Zodiack and so of the House should be called the First which is yet wholly under the Horizon and beginning to rise above it that the second house which is next to that beneath the Earth that the Third which succeeds the second and so forward till they come to the Twelfth But here is a great unhappiness they do not all agree about the points of those intersections and portions of the Zodiacks For some will have the imagined Circles to intersect each other in the Poles of the Zodiack others in the Poles of the Equator and others in the mutual sections of the Horizon and Meridian They who pitch upon the Poles of the Zodiack either divide the Zodiack into 12. parts exactly equal or distribute the opposite Semi-diurnal and Semi-nocturnal Arches into three equal parts The First of these two wayes seems most ancient and was approved of by the Chaldeans as may be collected from Empiricus the same also Ptolomy insinuateth when he treats de Aphelicis Julius Firmicus followeth it the Arabians do not recede from it and among the Neotericks Schonerus and Cardan chiefly defend it and it is commonly called Modus aequalis The Latter is generally ascribed to Porphyrius and Gauricus defends it and Scaliger attesteth that it is in use among the Indians but with a diminution of eight degrees as well in the beginnings of the Houses as in the places of the Planets They who fix upon the Poles of the World or Equator referr the Semi-diurnal and Semi-nocturnal Arches of the Zodiack to the Equator which they cantonize into 12. equal parts each of the Quadrants thereof which are intercepted betwixt the Meridian and Horizon being again distributed into three equal parts And this way was pursued by the Author of Alcabitzij and by him who wrote Commentaries thereupon Ioh. â Saxonia Lastly they who choose the mutual sections of the Horizon and Meridian either divide the Equator into 12. equal parts and so distinguish unequally the Zodiack intercepted for only the opposite Diurnal and Nocturnal parts will be equal among themselves according to this partition or divide the First Verticle Circle for the Equator and so the Zodiack is distributed with the like inequality Nevertheless this way hath pleased Campanus and Gazulus but that the former by cutting the Equator pleased Ptolomy may be collected out of his Third Book and out of the Paraphrase of Proclus upon his Fourth Johannes a Saxonia fathers it upon Abraham Aben-Ezra and Regiomontanus embracing it and calling it the Rational way brought it most into request of all others Now the Disposition of the Houses though it be accommodated to the prognostication of changes of weather and other Events yet because the Astrologers main aim and scope is the Prognostication of such things as happen to Men therefore in the Naming of the Houses have they had respect chiefly to Human Events Hence the First House named the Ascendent and Horoscope is called the House of Life of Complexion and Corporeal Accidents the Second or Infernal Gate is the House of Wealth to be acquired by ones own industry the Third named Dea or the Goddess the House of Brothers and short journeys the Fourth Imum Caeli the lowest of Heaven and Pitt of the Planets the House of Parentage and Patrimony the First Good Fortune the House of Children the Sixth E-vil Fortune the House of Infirmities Diseases Servants and little Animals the Seventh the Setting the House of Marriage Buying Selling Conditions of Enemies the Eighth the Beginning of Death and slow Animals the House of Death Labours and hidden Treasures the Niâ—th Deus and Monomoeria the House of Religion Dreams and long Journeys the Tenth medium Caeli the House of Diguities and Condition of life the Eleventh Good Demon the House of Friends and advantages by Friend-ship the Twelfth Evil Demon the House of Enemies imprisonment fidelity of Servants and great Animals Risum tenealis I omitt to take notice how the First Fourth Seventh and Tenth Houses are commonly called Cardines Angles and in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other Four Succedent in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Four remaining Cadent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I omitt also that the first Three are called the Northern the Winter old-aged and Phlegmatick Quarter the second Three the Occidental Autumnal virile Melancholick Quarter the next Three the Meridional Summer Youthfull cholerick Quarter the Three last the Oriental Vernal Childish Sanguine Quarter I omitt also the Colours with which they paint their Houses the first White the second Green the third Saffron-coloured with other wild Romances endless to be recited And this I think enough to advance your admiration of their impudence above your laughter at their Folly CHAP. IX Their Chimeras of the 12. Signes in the Zodiack and their Virtues derided THese things I thought good to rehearse because they are the General Fundaments and as it were First Principles upon which all Astrologers Praedictions depend Nor need I mispend much time in Refuting them since
his House while one third part of it is usurped by Jupiter another by Mars and the last by the Sun What shall I say of their Fines or Bounds which after the same manner leave the least part of the Houses to be possessed by the right owners of them when the Builders of them fall together by the ears here below about them as about some weighty and difficult matter in dispute What of their Monomaeria which some Astrologers cannot hold without laughing at themselves for it Is any thing more ridiculous than to appoint particular Signes to be Presidents over particular Provinces and Cities Indeed if the Heavens stood still there might be some slender pretence for the subjection of Countries to such Signes as were directly over them but since the Sphears are continually moving with what reason can that be imagined Especially since in the allotment the Dominions are not chosen according to parallels so that the places to be governed might be lookt upon with an equal aspect but as it were by leaping from distant Parallels and wholly confusedly toward the South and North neer remote coherent interrupted and however it chances without order I confess I cannot but smile to think how when they have assigned a whole Kingdome or Country to the soveraignty of some one Signe they yet referr particular Cities therein to the presidency of other Signes and such as are remote from the Signe first made Lord Paramont thereof Nor can I suppress the Rising of my spleen when I consider the dominion of the Signes over the several parts of Mans body For why should Aries be Governour of the Head rather then Gemini or Cancer that are the highest Signes of all Why should Pisces rule the feet of others when they have no feet themselves Why should Pisces that are next to Aries be appointed to preside over a part so remote from the Head Again nothing can be more wild and absurd than to constitute the Signes Lords of several Years as if they Ruled successively and the Government of one Signe being expired with the Year the Scepter were to be surrendred to the next successor at a sett time and then each Governor remain idle for the space of eleven Years together To conclude what shall we think of that poor refuge of our Astrologers when having observed that the Asterisms have removed themselves from their ancient places they transferr the virtues formerly attributed to the same to the 12. parts of the first moveable Heavens were not those virtues assigned at first formally and according to the conceived nature of each particular Asterisme Had the Heaven been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Star-less do you conceive that the Ancients would nevertheless have so named the twelve parts of the Zodiack as they did in respect of the Asterismes and have endowed them with the same virtues Nor can you say that their virtues were then observed when the Asterismes were each one in its proper twelfth part of the Zodiack and that those virtues were attributed to the Asterismes which of right belonged to the twelve parts of the Zodiack For since the Asterismes were in the twelve parts that beare their names only two thousand Years ago before that time the Asterisme of Aries was in the place of Pisces Leo in the place of Cancer and so of the rest and then no such thing could be Observed in the supposed moist parts of the Zodiack that would be agreeable to Fiery Asterismes by which they were possessed and from which the twelve parts that were afterward possessed by them were accounted and named Fiery And thus much in just derision of Astrologers conceipts of the 12. Signes CHAP. X. Their Attributes of the Planets destroyed AS for the supposed Nature and Virtues of the Planets however somthing in that kind might be from what we formerly granted inferred of the Su◠and Moon yet how we should come to determine the several natures of the other Five Planets I profess I am yet to learn In particular because Mars appeare◠reddish may we therefore conclude that he is a Burning scortching Planet Saturn because pale Is he therefore Cooling O this would be an admirable Consequence if a Carbuncle would but burn and Lime cool the hand that toucheth it As if all things that look reddish must of necessity be Fiery and all that look pale or whitish be Cold as Snow But it Mars be so scortching why are not we sensible of his heats in the middle of Winter and especially when he is Acronycal Why do we not feel the Cold of Saturn in the middest of Summer Is it because there are other more opportune times for us to experiment their virtues Or how can we distinguish and say that such a degree of heat doth proceed from Mars not from the Sun And such a degree of Cold from Saturn not from some other cause But let us grant that Mars is Hot and Saturn Cold and will it then follow that they are such Malefical and destructive Planets as that no Child is born whom they do not during their tyrannous influence invade with their poisoned darts Methinks it were more reasonable to beleeve that Mars doth comfort and cherish us with his heat and Saturn refresh us with his cooling influence The same may be said of Jupiter and Venus only it is somewhat more tollerable that Astrologers imagine them to be Good and Kindly Planets But oh that they would not run out into Extremes For when they come to this that nothing of good and happiness befalls man but by the dispensation and favour of these Planets is any thing imaginable more fabulous more prophane It is somwhat strange that extolling this unknown beneficence of these Planets they blush not in the mean time to be ungratefull to the Sun whose soveraigne benefits are dayly proclaimed through the whole World For Mercury I cannot much wonder his attributes are so few and uncertain considering he seldom renders himself conspicuous and so they cannot discern what sex he is of And here it is not worth the while to rehearse all their fooleries concerning the sexes of the Planets and other the like extravagances Only I would enquire how they come to know that the Planets in their own Houses have Five not Four Testimonies of Fortitude and in their Exiles Five not Four Testimonies of Debility Why have they in their Exaltations just Four not Five nor three And so of the rest Have they measured with an Ell or Weighed in the scales the forces of the Planets in each Place of the Zodiack that-they dare pretend to Calculate them so Exactly and according to the number of suffrages to determine the fates of Mortals and their affaires We might insist upon these particulars more expresly and especially upon the Fortitudes and debilities of Accidental Dignities But that no man who considers them can doubt that they are all gross and ridiculous Fictions meer arbitrary inventions having no ground either in Reason
Whence bath it such malice and malignant virtue to us poor Mortals But we shall do better to enquire from whence in the general these Houses come to have their particular virtues Is it from the Moveable Heavens Then why should the same part of Heaven which is happy and benigne in one House become unhappy and maligne in others Is it from the particular Place or Space Then how can meer Dimensions be endowed with such and so great force of activity Nor can They excuse themselves by urging that it is not the Houses themselves but the Planets inhabiting them which work such wonders For since they suppose that a Planet which is Good and propitious in its own nature doth become Evil and destructive in an ill House we must demand again whence comes that Malice wherewith the good Planet is so strongly infected as to change its own benevolent native influence into a dangerous and Offensive How can a man conceive that Jupiter should dispence very great favours and happiness while he is in the First House and soon after dart all the plagues and mischiefs in the world upon our heads when he comes to lodge in the second which is contiguous to the First That he should in the tenth House destine men to temporal Dignities in the ninth to Ecclesiastical and yet when he quartereth in the eighth lying betwixt them both he should make men ignoble base mad and the like Moreover can we understand why or how when any infant is born the Fates of his brethren should be written on the third House of his Parents on the fourth of his Children on the fifth of his Wife on the seventh of his Friends on the eleventh and so of the rest Can any thing be more manifest than that all this accommodation of several Houses to mens several Relations and Interests is wholly Fictitious and Arbitrary I will not dissemble truely that man had no very dull nor unpleasant Fansy who first made the Planets provide stables for Beasts in the Heavens and take care of Greater Cattel in the twelfth out-house and of smaler in the sixth Nor was his Imagination less active who would have longer journeys made in the ninth stage and shorter in the third It is not many years since the famous Morinus in a little Book intituled Domorum Cabbala detecta according to his great ingennuity invented Four things and made them presidents chiefly over the four Cardines viz. Life over the Horoscope Good over the Medium Caeli Love over the West Passion over the Imum Caeli and then proceeding through Trine Aspects and that by retrogradation He will have a threefold Life in Himself in God in Sons to be found in the First Ninth and Fifth Houses a Threefold Good Immaterial Material Animate Material Inanimate in the Tenth Sixth and Second a Threefold Love of Wife Bretheren Friends in the Seventh Eleventh and Third a Threefold Passion from Parents Enemies Death in the Fourth Twelfth and Eighth And hereupon He conceived the Nature and distribution of the Houses to be most happily established But by his Favour however the whole buisiness seems subtilely disputed yet untill he shall have more fully explained the matter in his Gallica Astrologia we must suspend our assent to his nice Theory because He hath assumed most of his positions Gratis without probation As in particular why only those Four things and neither more nor fewer And why that Division of them into Three members nor more nor less Besides may we not enquire why Life in God or God himself in whom all things live should be confined rather to the Ninth House than to the First than to all than to none Why if Life in God be made one member of the triple division is not Life in the Sun made the second and Life in our Parents the third Why is not the House of Parents accounted if not in the Trine of Life yet at least in that of Love and why not conjoyned with any thing rather than with Enemies and Death And other the like incongruities which to avoid prolixity I omitt to mention It may suffice that since our Morinus professeth that other Astrologers and particularly Ptolomie himself by reason of their ignorance of this Cabbal preposterously made use of aswell the Horoscope as the rest of the Houses it is to be feared least sober men may from thence argue the Vanity and uncertainty of the whole Art forasmuch as it containeth no one fundamental which is not disallowed of and impugned by some one or more of the Professors themselves and so can afford no one conclusion certain and ratified Certainly both Ptolomie himself makes the judgements concerning Children Servants Infirmities c. from other Houses than the rest of Astrologers usually do and Manilius when he describeth Altha or Events subverteth the whole reason and signification of the Houses Vulgarly admitted beginning the series or order of them not from the Horoscope but from the Lot of Fortune which is as far distant from the Horoscope as the Sun is from the Moon and advancing to the Consequent Signes when the Nativity or Conception is in the Day to the Antecedent when it is in the Night But it is wearisome even to think of remembring or refuting more of these Trifles Absurdities and Contradictions CHAP. XII Astrological Predictions concerning Changes of Weather uncertain THe Argument of our next Consideration must be those positions of Astrologers which concern the Predictions of Changes of Weather And these indeed are almost infinite so that all we shall have time and patience to do will be only to touch upon some of their Capital Assumptions Some they deliver generally of the constitution of the Air through the whole Year some of the constitution of the several Quarters or Seasons and some of the temper of each Day in the Year particularly For the Praediction of the General Constitution of the Air through the whole Year they erect either Four or Eight or Twelve Celestial Figures Four for the four moments wherein the Sun enters into Aries Cancer Libra Capricorn four for New or Full Moon immediately preceding each of those Entrances and four for the New or Full Moon immediately subsequent and then noting the places of each of the Planets aswell in their Figure or Houses as in the Zodiack or Signes they collect all the Fortitudes and all the Debilities of all the Planets and taking those whose Fortitudes are more than their Debilities they regard that Planet which appears the strongest of all or which hath most Testimonies of Fortitude and make that Lord of the Year conjoyning to him for a companion that Planet which hath the most Testimonies of Fortitude next after him The Lord of the whole Year being thus elected according to his supposed constitution or as he is Hott Cold Moist Dry Benefical Malifiical c. They give judgement of the future constitution of the whole Year or of the predomination of Heat Cold Dryness Wett
they could not assume it and the year is made by Nature but their distinction of the Circle into 360. parts rather than into more or less as also their subdivision of each single degree into 60. minutes and of every single minute again into 60. seconds is meerly Arbitrary and a meer Artifice But what proportion is there in this that one degree shall serve for one Year five minutes for thirty daies ten seconds for one whole day How can the single Years inscribed upon the single degrees or the moneths upon so many minutes or the dayes upon so many seconds be correspondent To speak only of the Degrees truely if the term of mans life at the longest did extend to 360. Years then perchance they might with correspondence to their supposition determine how much shorter every man dying sooner doth come of that precise number of Years but since the number of degrees is 360. and od and yet each degree must answer to one whole Year of a mans life which doth seldome amount to above Davids account viz. threescore and ten what becomes of the overplus of degrees Can any who gives his imagination the liberty of the greatest extravagancy in Bethlem Phansy a more incongruous thing than this Again how is it possible that that place in which a Planet or Aspect was at the time of the Nativity should so long retain an impression then made Why should it not effuse health or harm sooner or later Why should not this impression which is only accidentary be expunged by other and perhaps different impressions there succeeding so many other Aspects so many other transitions almost every Day And as for the Place it self what is it but a meer Dimension somthing simply respective and wholly incapable of Action For whereas they refer the Energy to the Zodiack or the places therein possessed by the Planets it is manifest that though the Planets cover some places of the Zodiack from our sight and may therefore be said to be in them yet really the Planets are not in the Zodiack nor can they impress upon it in respect of the immense distance betwixt the Zodiack and them any such virtue as should be afterward retorted upon us and if the Zodiack could reflect any such virtue upon us is there any reason why it should not do it at all times aswell as some except only while those particular places of it are covered by the bodies of the Planets And as for their Revolution the same may be said of that as of the Direction the condition of the one being as bad if not worse than that of the other For what community can there be betwixt that point of the Heavens which arose in the Nativity and that which ariseth in the time of the Revolution so as to cause that the Fates of that Year should depend upon the aspect of one to the other What an exquisite sense here is that the Latter point which was of no concernment at the time of the Nativity should at the instant of the Revolution become sensible thereof and infuse upon the Former I know not what virtue which should afterwards affect an Infant born and no longer remaining in the same place I say why should it be sensible of that point which is mane or inanimate and in which there were no remains of an impression left And the Theme is wont to be constituted only in the Revolutions of the Sun but why not aswell in all those of the Moon of Mercury or of the other Planets At least why not in the Revolutions of both the Fortunes and Misfortunes to which they ascrible more power than to the Sun it self Likewise for their Annual Profection can there be any reason given why Thirty degrees precisely should respond to each year How can that consist with the Direction which as we have seen doth allow no more than one degree to one year And why is there not here also a reduction of the Zodiack to the Equator Is not the Question here aswell concerning the Time I speak nothing of the Sense of the Heavens which must of necessity be stupified at all other times and be excited only every twelfth year in the Natalitious places I observe only how pleasant a thing their distribution of the Alfridarij or Annual Lords is so that the Planets imitate great men ambitious of the Magistracy and must raise sedition in Heaven unless they be admitted to rule by turns As if the Sun deserved not or were not able to hold the Scepter longer than Mars As if after each seventh year the Moon were to be brought down almost from Heaven the Virtue of Mercury prevails and then not only the Moon herself but the Sun also and the rest of the Planets doe homage at the throne of Mercury and adore him as their Superior Besides though this be now the Vulgar Policy of the Alfridarij yet Ptolomie had another Firmicus another and others another kind of Politicall successive Monarchy among the Planets For Ptolomie lib 4. cap. 9. doth not consigne seven years government to each Planet but four years to the Moon ten to Mercury eight to Venus fiveteen to Mars twelve to Jupiter and what remains of life untill the hour of death to Saturn Firmicus consignes the first ten years and nine moneths to the Sun in a diurnal nativity and to the Moon in a nocturnal and other termes of soveraignty to the others according to the order in which they follow the Sun or Moon in the Zodiack And now I pray take notice with what constancy these famous Artists deliver their very Fundamentals nor can you demand upon what grounds either of them builds his Theory for in truth their Answers would be most childish most ridiculous Lastly for their Transitions all I say of them is only this that each of the Planets ought to be most exact in their notice of all the places of the other Planets when any one is born that they may know them again when they come to them and distinguish the impressions left on them For if a Planet should perform its course with one and the same equal tenor and not make interpunctions in its way as it passeth along and reflect upon those marks or memorials what reason can there be why it should as it passeth that way again do such a thing and no other at that point But in case any thing were begun at the Nativity why should it continue so long and not rather be nulled and obliterated in all that intermediate time so many Planets passing by the same Places and leaving various impressions behind them But why do I trifle away my time upon these Absurdities these Extravagances whose Inventors doubtless laughed at those that did not laugh at them CHAP. XVII Their Questions impertinent and Elections of Times for sundry affairs ridiculous HEre I should proceed to the Examination of those Questions and Elections which Astrologers profess they are able to judge