More on the Horizon

We recently looked at the horizon as a major differentiating factor. Night and day, male and female, sect. But there is more. The concept of a planet being oriental or occidental to the Sun (and the Moon in some cases) is also derived from the east/west axis. But here East and West are not absolute. They are in respect to the Sun. Being oriental or occidental, is an accidental quality that has an influence on how a planet comes to expression. We see this being considered when the physical appearance and the temperament are being judged in natal astrology. It has less importance in a horary chart. You will also notice that in this type of judgement the luminaries are not included, but that is only logical as they cannot be oriental or occidental to themselves!

So let us look at the qualities that the five planets are given: (CA p. 533)

Planet …….. intrinsic qualities ………… Oriental………………………. Occidental
Saturn ……. cold and dry ………………… cold and moist ……………. dry
Jupiter …… hot and moist ………………. hot and moist (dry)* ……. moist
Mars ………. hot and dry ………………….. hot and dry (moist)* …… dry
Venus……… cold and moist ……………… hot and moist………………. moist
Mercury …. cold and dry …………………. hot ………………………………. dry

Can we recognize any sort of pattern here? First of all there is a difference between the superior planets and those close to the Sun.

The superior planets when oriental generally have more power to maintain their characteristic hot or cold qualities. Venus and Mercury do not. They are too close to the Sun and when they rise before him they have already been ‘warmed’. With the superior planets the moist or dry qualities become more balanced. Dry Saturn and Mars become moister, while moist Jupiter becomes dryer.*

When occidental each planet is able to keep its moist or dry qualities but their hot and cold qualities are suppressed. The general implication is that an oriental planet has more power to act. So in a sense this is a form accidental dignity whereas an occidental planet, one that rises after the Sun, has in a sense been preempted and so has lesser ability to act. This would be a form of accidental debility.

Judgement of the stature is similar. (You can look this up in detail in CA p. 546) The general tendency is for an oriental planet to encourage a touch more ‘growth’ while an occidental planet is slightly hindered in its usual influence. This is of course in respect to the nature of the planet. Saturn which is cold and dry generally does not encourage growth but if he is oriental then there is slightly ‘more’ possible. Jupiter on the other hand encourages growth so when occidental this is slightly ‘less’ Wm. Lilly describes it thus, “Of moderate stature but inclining to tallness”

We see that two more sets of duality are introduced to the first sets of night/day, female/male. These are cold/hot and moist/dry. This will later be important when we explore the quadrants. But before we do that it is still necessary to consider another division, the meridian. This will be the subject of a future article.

* Please see the comment below, marked with a star * Th.



3 thoughts on “More on the Horizon

  1. Dear Thomas,

    This is a very interesting approach, you have taken here.

    Looking through Dorian G. Greenbaum’s ‘Temperament’ book, I found that she claims that Lilly took his table of qualities from Garcaeus from his work ‘Astrologiae Methods’, 1574. She does not say how she knows and Lilly does not seem to list him in his “Catalogue of most Astrological Authors” either.

    She gives a table after Garcaeus and what struck me was the fact that in comparism with the table you give above oriental Mars is hot and dry and oriental Jupiter is hot and moist. As well as that he gives oriental Venus as hot and moist.

    This would mean that the qualities of Mars and Jupiter do not change at all and Venus and Mercury change from cold to hot with Saturn changing from dry to moist.

    What do you think, Thomas?

    Best wishes

  2. *

    Dear Peter,

    The list that I gave above does indeed depart from Lilly’s! Sorry to say it is a copy error on my part. 😦 Thank you for pointing it out. He lists hot and moist for oriental Jupiter and hot and moist for oriental Venus and hot and dry for oriental Mars so his table is identical to that of Graecus and also that of Schoener.

    This does not change the general intent of the article but one would have to correct the ‘balancing’ of Mars and Jupiter (this was something that puzzled me). The argument that an oriental planet has more power to express its nature remains unchanged. In this case also a general ‘warming’ can be applied to all of the planets whether superior or inferior. Saturn doesn’t get hot but he does thaw slightly!

    So as to prevent confusion. I will mark the particular sentences that need to be changed red and set the miscopied qualities in parentheses and also mark them red.

    best wishes and thank you for the close reading of the text,

  3. Dear Thomas,

    yes, I had a look in my Regulus edition of CA and noticed that Lilly wrote the planetary symbols in the bottom line of each paragraph, which can easily lead to a mistake. When dealing with that sort of old writing style, a copying error is easily made.

    Apart from that, I agree of course fully with your argument about oriental planets.

    I am looking forward to the article about the division by meridian…

    best wishes

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