Aphoristic Astrology of Ptolemy, Hermes, and Others

...[she] cannot do this unless she is helped by Jupiter [♃], and therefore in increasing good and in prohibiting evil, Jupiter [♃] is found to be much better than Venus [♀].

5. The Astrologer cannot perform the blending of the stars' significations until he knows their friendships and enmities. Their friendship and enmity is threefold: one according to nature, another according to their houses, and a third according to their dispositions original: affectus; referring to the temporary state of the planets in a specific chart.

6. Venus [♀] is opposed to Mercury [☿]: the latter embraces speeches and disciplines original: disciplinas; referring to formal learning or sciences, while the former embraces pleasures and delights. Similarly, Jupiter [♃] is opposed to Mars [♂]: the former desires mercy and justice, while the latter desires impiety and cruelty.

7. You should make the Sun [☉] or one of the superior planets the "outer" planets: Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn the significator of Great Princes. But for scribes and peasants, use the inferior planets the "inner" planets: Venus and Mercury, and especially the Moon [☽].

8. An aspect the angular relationship between planets cannot diminish the signification of a conjunction [☌]. But a conjunction diminishes the signification of an aspect, for a conjunction is stronger than an aspect.

9. Do not define or choose original: eligas; referring to "Electional Astrology," the practice of picking the best time to start an endeavor anything while Cancer [♋︎] is in the Ascendant, nor when

the angles are oblique referring to signs that rise at a sharp angle to the horizon, causing mathematical distortion in house sizes, or if Mars [♂] is in them; for a false outcome of the definition will occur, especially because Virgo [♍︎] is a sign of falsehood.

10. The sixth [6th] or twelfth [12th] places the 6th and 12th houses, traditionally considered "bad" or "malefic" houses are bad for the benefics the "good" planets, Jupiter and Venus when they are hindered there by the malefics Saturn and Mars.

11. Rumors reported while the Sun [☉] is in the first face face: also known as a decan, a 10-degree division of a zodiac sign of Cancer [♋︎] are lies and fabricated.

12. Sometimes judgments in the questions original: quaestionibus; referring to Horary astrology, where a chart is cast to answer a specific question of astrologers are not true, either because of an error in their instruments, or because of the ignorance of the person asking, or when the Sun [☉] is near the degree of the Midheaven Midheaven: the highest point in the chart, also called Medium Coeli, or when the configurations that grant or deny the matter are equal.

13. While the Sun [☉] is southern, descending in Aquarius [♒︎] or Pisces [♓︎], do not begin building; for a structure of this kind is quickly destroyed.

14. It is necessary for Mercury [☿] to be strong through harmonious places and through the configurations of other stars in birth charts, so that the person born may have dignity; for Mercury by itself is a weak planet.

15. In signs of two bodies original: duorum corporum; refers to the "mutable" signs—Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces—which were thought to have a dual nature, victory is good and defeat is bad, for both outcomes are doubled.

16. Do not define anything before you know...