right or not see Morinus in his Astrol. Gall. lib. 16. pag. 368. and I doubt not but you will believe him Also see Ptolemy lib. 1 cap. 13. and some others Now the Reason why our modern Professors have decryed Antiscions and â—â—id they could find no truth in them is Because they neither know how to take them nor direct them when taken and I will make it appear to any one That let any of them direct the Sun or Moon to such Antiscions as I shall appoint and I will also work the same Directions with them and when we have both done there shall be 10 15 or 20 degrees difference between my Directions and theirs and therefore it is no wonder they can find no effects in the Antiscions and their Directions Mine I can demonstrate but they work theirs as a Parrot talks by rote they have learned a Notion but it is indeed a groundless one nor can they give you any Satisfaction if you desire the reason of them For Example Why must there be Contrantiscions of a different nature from the Antiscions Or what reason can they give why the Contrantiscion should not be of the same nature with the Antiscion Besides there are some parallels or Antiscions that cannot be directed to of which sort they are that be out of the Ecliptick c. And so I come to give you an Example in the thing to shew you that what I have said is truth and that they do differ from me as I have told you Let the Example be of the Moon and Saturn in this Cardinal's Nativity as being most apt for the illustration of the thing I do here intend The place of Saturn is 7 degrees 16 minutes in Virgo with 30 minutes of North Latitude hence you will find his Declination is 9 degrees 21 minutes answering to 6 degrees of Virgo and 24 degrees of Aries in the Ecliptick and to 6 degrees of Pisces and 24 degrees of Libra The Longitude of the Moon is 21 degrees 39 minutes in Leo with North Latitude 4 degrees 33 minutes her Declination is 18 degrees 38 minutes and her Parallels fall in 6 degrees 48 minutes of Leo and Aquary and in 23 degrees 12 minutes of Taurus and Scorpio when at the same time their Parallels or Antiscions c. fall in 21 degrees 39 minutes of Leo and Taurus and in 8 degrees 21 minutes of Aquary and Scorpio so that you see here there is no less than 15 degrees of difference between them and Truth Now if I should as they do direct the Moon to 23 degrees of Libra she hath there 4 degrees 23 minutes of Latitude and 5 degrees odd minutes of Declination which doth not come near the Declination of Saturn which is 9 degrees 21 minutes Therefore I observe what Latitude the Moon hath in 4 degrees of Scorpio and I find she hath there 3 degrees 47 minutes in which Point she haâ—h 9 degrees 21 minutes of Declination and in that Point she really meets the true Parallel of Saturn and as he is so is she equally distant both from the Tropicks and Equator and to this Point and with that Latitude there I direct the Moon whose Ark of Direction is 76 degrees 50 minutes Which turned into Time gives 70 years and about 5 or 6 months And at that time the Moon and Part of Fortune comes by Direction to the Parallel of Saturn's Declination and so of the others in the like case Thus I have given you One and thirty Nativities out of Argol's De Diâ—bus Criticis to prove that there were Reasons to be given for their Deaths and Preferments by a regular method in taking the Hileg and using of it to the end it is chosen without running from one point to another and at last perhaps kill them on some Directions that were never imagined nor believed to have any such mortal power before And in some of these Nativities I keep close to Argol's time without any alteration at all and in others of them where I do differ from him it is with good reason to believe that he strain'd the point to make his Direction that he did imagine hit the Accident And I do believe in some of them he hath made considerable alteration from the estimate time Like C in his Key filed bigger to shew himself a man of Skill alters his Estimate Time almost Three Hours the Consequence you shall hear hereafter in this Treatise And yet for those Nativities that I have not altered as well as those I have I do not engage for the Truth of any of them nor doth it matter any thing to the intent of this Book whether they are true or not If they are true he hath wholly mistaken the Principles of his Art and misguided his Reader and Pupil in his Instructions and justly deserved the modest Correction that I have made of the whole If they are not true Nativities it is the same thing as if they were for he would have given the same Reasons for true ones as he doth in these and to be plain with you he gives his Reasons for them believing and supposing them to be true And so I take them and the same Reasons I give will hold and have adequate effects in any true Nativities carefully taken In these Three last Nativities here given I have made choice of them on purpose because in each of them the Part of Fortune is giver of Life according to the Doctrine and Principles of Ptolemy and that point I have directed to their several Anareta's in each of them to give the time of Death which perhaps may seem to some Old Professors a method strange to their practice notwithstanding they have talked of the Part of Fortune being one of the Five Hilegical places oftentimes but did never allow it to be directed on any occasion of Life and Death but when nothing else would do never considering the Rule when it is to be allowed giver of Life and when not and concerning this I suppose there will be divers Professors and Pretenders to this Art that will raise several doubts about it and debate the Point pro con whether it ought or ought not to be admitted into practice and I doubt not likewise but the Verdict will go against me in the case debated Therefore the better to guide these Sceptical Animadverters Judgments I will say something in order to the reasonableness of its admission to the probability of its power and to the Authority I have to plead for both from our Great Patron and Master Ptolemy Notwithstanding it is but a Point and for that Reason controvertd by many there seems as much Reason for its being directed if it is truly taken as the Sun and Moon for the point of the Zodiack that the Sun and Moon are in at the Time of Birth is gone from that part of Heaven when the point directed to comes up to them as we say And therefore the Promittor never
Distances from the Tropicks and Equator and as they are all of a Denomination so they are all of an equal Force and Power in Directions and from one Planet all of a nature too though our common Authors tell us the Antiscions are good and benefick but the Contrantiscions are bad malefick and of the nature of Squares and Oppositions But that is like the rest of their Doctrine for the most part false and groundless I told you in the end of the Third Chapter That I would say something about directing the Sun and Moon to the Antiscions of the Planets for the Midheaven and Ascendent are wholly impossible to be directed to them with any Success as you have heard before The Rule is general for as the Antiscions are taken with Latitude so they must be directed with Latitude to the Moon and without to the Sun and therefore when the Sun or Moon comes by their Regular Motion to have the same Declination that your Planet hath then is your Direction compleatly finished and no otherways And the Reason is plain because the Moon keeps the same way in her Directions to Promittors that she always compleats her Monthly Revolutions in And therefore your own Reason will tell you That the Moon must be always directed to Antiscions with Latitude because Antiscions are only Distances from the Equator and Tropicks and when the Moon or Sun comes to have the same Distance by Direction from those Points it is no matter what degree of the Sign they are in so they have the same Declination and then be sure they have the same Distance from those Points and you know the Moon hath generally Latitude and that alters her Declination every degree she moves as you may see more fully though on another Subject in my Opus Reformatum page 32. And to tell you the Truth this Direction of the Moon to the Antiscions of the Planets is one of the most troublesome to work of any in the whole Art and the difficulty lieth in the true Motion and the Latitude considered exactly for by them is the true Declination found and without that this Direction can be no ways wrought and I think it is here laid down so plain that there is no need to trouble you with an Example to teach the way I remember I have formerly asked some Pretenders to Astrology What these Antiscions were in Nature and how I might come to understand them They told me It was a mystical Ray of the Planet But then said I What is the Contrantiscion Can a Ray give a Ray and that of a different Nature from it self too If so said I it is a very mystical Ray indeed that the Star should give a Ray of his own Nature and that Ray give another Ray quite different in Quality from the first and the Star too who is Parent to both For they tell us that the Antiscion is good and benefick but the Contrantiscion is very ill and mâ—lenck just as they have made the Head and Tail of the Dragon one to give all that is good and the other to give nothing but Mischef and yet no probable Reason for either Head or Tail to have any effect Others also I have enquired of about these Antiscions and I found every Man gave me a very different as well as a very lame account of the matter and that they had nothing more but a Traditional Knowledge of the thing and so they do generally remain till this time a very few excepted Nor do I find they are willing either to seek the Truth or accept it when offered to them You have already heard what a vast difference there is between the true way and the common way now used in Antiscions and their Directions by which you may guess it is no Wonder they found so little effect in them according to the Opinion of the Ancients as to conclude they were useless and vain But I dare assure any man if he goes to work the right way he shall find them almost as powerful as the Star whose nature they are of and that they are not different in Nature and Quality but Antiscion and Contrantiscion are the same and either both good or both bad and according to their Natures that in the Northern Semicircle is the most powerful of which Ptolomy speaks in his First Book and Twelfth Chapter of his Quadripartite In which place he also tells you They are Parallels and that to the Equator and Tropicks CHAP. VI. Of the Part of Fortune I Need not mention the common way of taking the Part of Fortune because it is one of the most principal things every one learns when he is taught how to set a Figure and is therefore well known as well as universally used among all Professors But my Design and Business is to shew That it is according as they understand it an irregular useless thing not agreeable to the Rules laid down for its Motion nor yet to the Order and Motion of Nature as you will quickly see and I suppose readily grant The Part of Fortune as it is usually taken by the common Professors doth dance backward and forward from one House to another and keeps no Regularity in its periodical Motion nor in its Directions Nor can any Artist make it appear to me How the Part of Fortune passeth by the Pole of any Significator in the Zodiack or how any Promittor passeth by that under any particular Pole that may or can be assigned to it Nor can they prove to me That the Part of Fortune is carried about by the rapt Motion in Mundo And if so I am sure they cannot prove it can be directed to any Significator whether Sun Moon or any of the Angles which they commonly do in all Nativities Nor can they prove by Reason Demonstration nor Experience that one Direction in Ten to the Part of Fortune hath any effect and the Reason is because it depends on the Moon for Declination upon her Motion for Right Ascention Distance c. and hath its Diurnal and Nocturnal Arks increased or decreased according as the Moon riseth and sets and therefore I shall here descend to Particulars to shew you how able I am to make good what I have said First It doth not keep Rule This you may see if you erect a Figure for December 19. 1691. at 9 in the Morning at which Time if you erect a Figure sub Lat. Lond. you wIll find 22 degrees of Capricorn Ascending and 26 degrees of Taurus on the Fourth House and the Part of Fortune in 9 degrees of Taurus wanting 17 degrees of the Cusp which should have been 20 degrees beyond it because the Moon is almost 20 degrees past the Square of the Sun and the Part of Fortune not yet got to the Fourth House contrary to the Rule of being on the Cusp of the Fourth at the first Square Secondly It danceth from one House to another as you may see by setting
attributed to any Line the Ecliptick excepted that they give to this For by their Rule all the Prorogators that move out of that Line will never touch any of that Star's Rays and Aspects that move in that Line either by Direction or any other Motion But suppose it were true That there were such a Line as they imagine there is and that it doth cut the Ecliptick at 90 degrees distant from the Star yet this makes nothing at all for their Conceit in Directions with half Latitude because every Prorogator meets the Rays and Aspects of the Planets in his own Way and Circle in which he moves Thus the Sun meets all Rays in the Zodiack because he moves always therein The Moon meets all Rays in her Circle of Latitude in which she constantly moves and is always out of the Ecliptick except when she is with either of her Nodes and therefore to talk of directing either of these two to the Rays of the Planets with half Latitude is neither agreeable to Motion or reducible to Reason And when they come to tell us of directing the Part of Fortune in this nature to the half Latitude it is such a piece of Vanity and folly that is not to be matched for the Part of Fortune is by them called the Lunar Horoscope and indeed is so in some Measure and Proportion and that it is found by the Moon principally as Cardan observes but the Part of Fortune is sometimes far more remote from the Ecliptick than the Moon can be and by no means to be directed as they imagine and think But when they come to tell us of directing the Angles to the half Latitude of Sextiles and Trines that is indeed no more nor no less than downright Nonsense and that for the Reasons above specified CHAP. V. Of the Antiscions of the Planets THere hath been much Noise and Talk about the Antiscions some allowing and others condemning the Use of them Argol makes them do every thing and directs all the five Prorogators to them allowing them to give Preferment Marriage Death c. But some of our English Writers do make little account of them and say They are of little Force and Virtue either in their Positions or Directions and yet in the Conclusion neither one sort nor the other understand them either what they are or how to take them and therefore to one sort of People they serve when perhaps nothing else can be found and the other sort on a more strict Enquiry finding little effect in their Directions have wholly and totally rejected them As to the Common and Usual Way taught by all Authors how to find and take them it is really false and there is no such thing in Nature as they talk of unless in the Sun and Planets not having Latitude for in taking their Parallels or Antiscions the common way holds good and true But when the Planets have Latitude the true Antiscion shall differ from that commonly taken 6 8 10 15 and sometimes 30 degrees especially if near the Tropicks By which you may easily judge it is no Wonder if those commonly taken have no effect when the Prorogators meet them by Direction and therefore it will be convenient to tell you what they are and what Ground and Reason there is for their Use either in Positions and Figures in general or in Directions in Nativities in particular The Ground therefore of Antiscions is laid down by Ptolomy in a very few Words in the Thirteenth Chapter of the First Book of his Quadripartite where he tells us That these Antiscions are nothing else but the Signs and Degrees of the Signs equally distant from either of the Tropicks or the Equator and that when the Sun comes to those Points on either side the Equator he riseth and sets in the same Points of East and West and makes the Days of equal Length as well as the Nights For example Let the Sun be in the 1st degree of Virgo then his Antiscion falls in 29 degrees of Aries so that each of these Points are equally distant from the Northern Tropick the Days and Nights are of the same Length when the Sun is in the one Sign as in the other and the 1st degree of Virgo riseth and sets in the same Point of the Horizon exactly where the 29th degree of Aries doth And the same Accidents and Circumstances do also exactly concur with the 1st degree of Pisces and the 29th degree of Libra they being both equally distant from the Southern Tropick as the former from the Northern and all these four Points have the very same Declination without which it could not be Objection But perhaps some may say This is no more than what we have learned already for the very same Degrees and Signs are also our Antiscions we thank you for nothing for this is to no purpose Answer Not so hasty my good Friend I have something else to say to you if you will have a little Patience Let us now suppose a Star to be in 20 degrees of Taurus with 5 degrees North Latitude I know you will say his Antiscion falls in 10 degrees of Leo and his Contrantiscion in 10 degrees of Aquary c. but in this you are extreamly out of the way and in a gross Error for one falls in 14 degrees 26 minutes of Gemini and Sagitary and the other in 15 degrees 34 minutes of Cancer and Capricorn And do you think this would not make a vast difference in a Direction when one man directs the Sun or Moon to the Antiscion of a Planet in 15 degrees of Cancer and another directs them to the 10th degree of Leo which is but 25 degrees distant one from another and impossible to be both true Again Let us suppose a Star in 20 deg of Taurus with 5 degrees South Latitude and then one Antiscion falls in 4 degrees and 12 minutes of Taurus and Scorpio and the other falls in 25 degrees 48 minutes of Leo and Aquary Here you find 16 degrees of distance between that taken in the common way and the true one and is sufficient to confound any young Enquirer into those things From this and such Reasons as this is you have sometimes Accidents and no Directions to signifie the thing and sometimes Directions and no Accidents to attend them according to the Rules laid down in such Cases And to satisfy you that I am no Innovator in this Point pray have Recourse to your great Author and Oracle Morinus page 368. where he teacheth this way only and also tells you that the Antiscions are to be takâ—n no other way but by the Tables of Declination and to say the Truth that is the only valuable and remarkable Truth in that great Volume I do not say there is no more I make you see no mention of Contrantiscions for I call them all either Antiscions or Zodiacal Parallels which comes first to Mind for they are nothing else but parallel