Aphoristic Astrology of Ptolemy, Hermes, and Others

...to prepare before their arrival. This concludes Aphorism 5, which discusses how a knowledgeable person can mitigate the stars' influence.

6. The selection of days and hours is only useful when the time has been well established by the birth chart original: genitura. For if the birth chart is unfavorable, the selection will be of no use, even if it seems to look toward a good outcome.

7. No one can perceive the mixtures of the Stars unless they have first learned their natural differences and combinations.

8. A wise soul assists the celestial operation, just as the best farmer assists nature by plowing and weeding.

9. In the process of birth and decay, physical forms are affected by celestial forms. Therefore, those who make talismans original: imagines; literally "images," referring to astrological amulets use these influences, observing when the stars have entered into them.

10. In choosing days and hours, use the malefic planets Mars and Saturn just as a great Physician uses poisons moderately for a cure.

11. Do not choose a day or an hour before you have learned the quality of the matter proposed.

12. Love and hatred prevent true judgments from being reached, for they diminish the greatest things and enlarge the smallest.

13. When the celestial configuration signifies something, use both the helping and

the corrupting Stars—that is, the secondary ones. In this context, secondary stars are those that modify the main influence of the primary planets.

14. To what great errors is the Astrologer subject when the seventh house locus septimus and its Lord are afflicted. In traditional astrology, the 7th house represents the "other" or the public; if this house is poorly positioned, the astrologer's judgment is often clouded.

15. The rising signs of the enemies of a kingdom are the signs declining cadent from the rising sign of the kingdom itself. However, the rising signs of friends are the angles cardines and the succeeding houses. The same rule applies to systems of belief.

16. When benefic planets are in the eighth house, they bring loss from good men; but if the planets are well-disposed, they will avert that loss.

17. When you judge the life of any old man, do not give a verdict until you have measured how many years he is physically capable of living.

18. When both Luminaries The Sun and the Moon are at the same degree, if a benefic planet is rising, the newborn will be fortunate in everything that happens to them; likewise if they are opposite each other at sunrise and sunset. But if a malefic planet is in the ascendant, you should judge the opposite.

19. The power of a purgation a medical treatment to cleanse the body is weakened when the Moon is joined to Jupiter.

20. Do not strike a limb with iron perform surgery when the Moon holds the zodiac sign that rules that specific limb. A fundamental rule of medieval medicine: for example, one should not operate on the head when the Moon is in Aries.

21. When the Sun original: astrological symbol for the Sun is in Aries original: astrological symbol for Aries or Leo original: astrological symbol for Leo...