PHYSIOGNOMY

...and grant healthy influences, being friends to our nature, and for this reason they are called "of fortune" original: "fortunæ dicti"; in astrology, these are the "benefics" (Jupiter and Venus) which were thought to bring good luck. But the colors, which are seen diversely in these stars, are seen in a manifold and lovely mixture in Mercury alone; for in him shine the pale sallow of Saturn, the fiery red of Mars, the bright white of Jupiter, and the golden yellow of Venus, as well as the brilliance and cheerfulness of both The Sun and Moon. For this reason, Mercury has no peculiar nature of his own, but will instill himself according to those planets with whom he is configured; he becomes a participant in their virtues and fulfills their roles.

The Sun and the Moon, however, by their magnitude and the prerogative of their light’s splendor, possess no trivial power but claim the principality for themselves and rule over the others. When they look favorably upon others, they increase the good and mitigate the bad; but when they are opposed, they infect the good and make the bad the worst of all. Finally, that greatest interpreter of the stars, Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy, the 2nd-century Greco-Egyptian mathematician and astronomer whose works defined Western astrology for over a millennium, reported that the types of future events can be grasped through the very "face" and form of the constellation.

The splendor of life, leadership, and wealth are discerned from the "attendance" original: "satellitio"; a technical term for planets positioned near the Sun or Moon of the luminaries. For a significator surrounded by beneficial stars of the same condition decrees a state illustrious and conspicuous with glory. Conversely, if deprived of such attendance, and if the luminaries are "void of course" original: "cursu vacua"; an astrological term for when a planet makes no further major aspects before leaving its current sign, they bring an obscure and abject life.

Obscure and misty stars in configuration with the Sun—such as the Pleiades, or those in the sign of Cancer, the arrow of Sagittarius, and the sting of Scorpio—portend the loss of eyes or dimness of sight. The Sun, the most lucid of stars, which lends light to the others, rules the eyes, the most lucid parts of the body. Malefic stars original: "Infortunæ" in the high summits of the heavens announce high dangers, such as falls from heights. The Moon in the turnings of the circles, such as the tropics, makes people crooked and hunchbacked. In the "nodes" points where the moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic, such as the equinoctials, it makes them lame and gouty. Malefics in the final degrees of the zodiac signs threaten the extreme parts of the body: the feet and hands.

The beginning of life comes from the rising Sun in the East, death from the setting Sun in the West, and the status of life from the middle of the sky. The Arabs say that stars placed in the higher arches of the heavens create tall men; in the opposite lowest parts, they create short men and dwarves; and in the middle recesses, they create a square-set build. Likewise, those with great latitude distance from the ecliptic make people broad and fat; those without latitude make them thin. Saturn, being of slow motion in his circle, makes people sluggish and stubborn in their opinions. The Moon, being of very fast motion, makes them changeable and light-headed.

The starry whiteness of the Milky Way provides a milky complexion to those born under it. Heraclides Ponticus A 4th-century BCE Greek philosopher relates that the rising of the Dog Star Sirius was observed with the greatest care by the ancients, so that they might conjecture the state of the coming year from its color. For if it rose darker and as if misty, the year would be heavy and pestilential; if clear and translucent, it would be healthy and prosperous. Those born at the very moment of an earthquake always tremble; those born during thunder are always weak; during a burning comet, they are insane due to a fiery temperament; during the new moon original: "interlunij tempore", they are weak, or as Aristotle writes, suffering from black bile original: "atra bile laborantes"; melancholy—and six hundred other things with which the books of astrologers are filled. From the similarity of these things, anyone will be able to prefigure this knowledge for themselves.

THE ART OF INTERPRETING DREAMS

In this same way, diviners predict from the similarities found in dreams. For the soul, freed from the functions of the body through sleep and restored to itself, is as if in a certain retreat, entirely its own. Reflected within itself through the principles of its own divinity and its celestial kinship, it sees whatever things are to come. To its body, its dwelling—which is then almost dead—over which it presides, it explains the state of the body and represents it through visions using certain colors, figures, quantities, and similarities, so that the body may take care for itself; yet this happens not always, but by the permission of those above.

Joseph the Hebrew The biblical figure Joseph, son of Jacob predicted to the royal cupbearer that he would be restored to his former office after three days, based on the similarity of the dream he had dreamed: of a vine sprouting three branches, from whose ripe grapes he pressed wine to give to Pharaoh. And to the baker, he predicted that after the same number of days he would be hung on a gallows, because he had dreamed he had three baskets full of bread upon his head, and that birds from on high were eating from them; for birds eat the