Natal chart

“ So that, from a cosmical point of view, quite a large number of births will take place under similar conditions, for even the Moon, which represents the element of variability, will continue in the same sign for about 21⁄2 days, and in a thickly populated area such as the City of London, where the average birth-rate is 14 per hour, we may have as many as 840 births under exactly the same zodiacal conditions. ”

“ For from [5] (the moment) of birth [6] the ascension of the zodiacal sign rising in the heaven should be closely watched, [7] since the Chaldeans, determining (from this) the horoscope, frame the configuration of the stars in accordance with the ascension (of the sign) ; and they term this—disposition, in accordance with which they devise their predictions. But neither is it possible to take the birth of persons, falling under consideration, as I shall explain, nor is the horoscope infallible, nor is the rising zodiacal sign apprehended with accuracy. ”

“ Thus Aries, Leo, and Capricornus give small families. Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, and Pisces give large families, and the other signs yield a moderate family. When the Moon is strong, angular, and not afflicted, the number is increased. Twins are born from double-bodied signs occupying the cusp of the 5th House, or planets in the 5th in a double-bodied sign.
The condition of each child is known in a general manner from the alternate Houses, commencing with the 5th. Thus the first child is (in a male horoscope) ruled by the 5th House, and planets therein; the second child by the 7th House ”

“ Aries governs the East, Cancer the North, Libra the West, and Capricornus the South.
The Double-bodied signs are Gemini, Sagittarius, and Pisces. It is important that all these classifications should be learned, as they form an essential part of the doctrine of Astrology, and are frequently employed in the reading of a Horoscope.
The types of people under the various signs should also be known as intimately as possible. A person is said to be “under” a sign—that is to say, under its influence, when that sign is rising in the East at the [Pg 26] moment of birth. ”

“ The “rising sign” and the “first house” together form an avenue for the fecundating influences of the Moon which there crystallize and form the etheric matrix that moulds the physical particles from the maternal body into a new vehicle, hence the astrological maxim that the ascendant at birth (or its opposite) is the Moon’s place at conception, This composite body is the part of the human being which is born and dies after a relatively evanescent period of existence. ”

“ Nevertheless people often ask the astrologer when is the best time to be born; young astrologers also frequently want to know, not that they have any idea of controlling birth but so that on seeing a horoscope or being told a person’s time of birth they may make quick mental calculation to determine a good or bad horoscope. Such a judgment would, of course, be founded only on the position of the sun ‘by sign and approximate house, hence general in the extreme. ”

“ The cause of diversity is that he who is born in the daytime, and has a masculine planet (the Sun, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars) lord of his geniture, bears the more remarkable signs in his right hand, especially when the sign ascending is also masculine. The contrary happens to those born at night, as often as a feminine planet predominates. If both hands agree, it must be that in a diurnal nativity the feminine planets rule, or that there falls out a mixture of masculine and feminine ”

“ And of the zodiacal signs, they term some male, but others feminine; and some with two bodies, but others not so; and some tropical, whereas others firm. The male signs, then, are either feminine, which possess a co-operative nature for the procreation of males, (or are themselves productive of females.) For Aries is a male zodiacal sign, but Taurus female; and the rest (are denominated) according to the same analogy, some male, but others female. ”

“ The only means of effecting the calculation, therefore, is by reference to the ephemeris for the year of birth. Then, having the Moon’s radical elongation, the successive dates at which this elongation is repeated are to be noted, and each of them is accounted as one year of life. Thus for the 20th year of life one must count 19 synods or conjunctions of the Sun and Moon after birth, and thereafter proceed to fix the date after the last synod at which the Moon’s elongation is the same as that of birth. ”

“ It is best to be born in April or August when the life-giving Sun is in its exaltation sign Aries or Leo, its home, for then we enter the sea of life on the crest-wave and are backed in the battle of existence by an abundant fund of vim and energy,
It is also good to be born in May and July when the life-light of the Sun is focused through the exaltation sign and home of the Moon, Taurus and Cancer, especially, as said, when the lesser light is increasing for those configurations, also furnish an abundance of vitality which is such a great asset in physical life. ”

“ Now, according to astronomers, this causes one of the Zodiac signs to appear in the eastern sky, where it remains for two hours. We have said that each sign has a planet ruling it, so the sign that appears on the sky at the time of birth decides what planet that person is born under or is influenced by.
Let us suppose for a moment that you were born when the sign Libra was rising, as the saying is. The planet which rules Libra is Venus, so the person born at that time would be a Venus type, i.e., a person having the influence of Venus upon him. ”

“ Manly or humane, curteous Signs, Gemini, Virgo, Libra, Aquarius. Ferall Signs are Leo and last part of Sagittarius. Mute Signs or of slow Voice, Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces; the more if Mercury be in any of them, in Conjunction, Square, or Opposition of Saturn. The use hereof is, that if your Significator or Lord of the Ascendant be in Aries, Taurus, Leo, Sagittarius, Capricorn, there’s in the condition of that party something of the nature of that Beast which represents that Sign he is in; as if he be in Aries, the man is rash, hardy and lascivious ”

“ The mundane factor as distinguished from the zodiacal, that is to say, the positions of the planets in the prime vertical as distinguished from their positions in the zodiac, is that which makes for individual expression. Three hundred and sixty persons could be born in a single day in any one locality and each of these could have a horoscope that is distinct and individual. The highest record does not reach this number. ”

“ When the winter months begin, the sun is in the constellation of Sagittarius, in the beginning of spring in the constellation of Pisces, in the beginning of summer, in Gemini, and at the commencement of autumn, in the constellation of Virgo. The zodiacal constellations are very important, and to the people in the olden days, the sun's position in front of them was a way to tell the season of the year. ”

“ The normal period of human gestation is nine solar or ten lunar months. It will be found that the moon makes ten revolutions while the Sun passes through nine signs of the zodiac. But this normal period may be increased or decreased, and that quite normally, by the relative positions of the luminaries at the time of inception. I use this word to distinguish it from conception, which term connotes certain physiological processes and facts. The astral factor should not be identified in point of time with the physiological processes of coitus and impregnation. ”

“ The sign of the zodiac, too, under which a child comes into the world, possesses a power to produce a particular form of body and mental inclination, always, however, subject to the influence of the seven planets. ”

“ Therefore parents with Aries children have a great responsibility to set before them by precept and example the noblest and best form of conduct of which they are capable, for this is probably the most impressive sign in the zodiac, and the habits formed, the lessons learned in childhood and youth will generally cling to the person through life and make him either very good or very bad. ”

“ Astrologers 172everywhere recognize the fact that the signs of the zodiac are alternately active and passive, or positive and negative, male and female, and the Houses or twelve divisions of the visible heavens are said to have the same polarity as the signs with which they are associated, as Aries with the 1st House, Taurus with the 2nd House, and so on. ”

“ Zodiacal ingresses are those that are made by the planets into the signs of the zodiac successively, and it is held that a change in the trend of affairs will take place in that department of the life ruled by the House wherein that sign is placed at birth. ”

“ If the 5th House be occupied by benefic planets, or planets well aspected by others, then the progeny will be a source of satisfaction and credit to the Subject, and will be reared to maturity. But the contrary is the case when the 5th House is occupied by malefic planets and such as may be heavily afflicted.
The Moon represents the tendency in the male and the capacity in the female, and when well aspected, or free from evil aspects and well placed, then there will be good fortune in connection with the progeny. ”

“ If the sun, driving through the circles and passing along the signs of the Zodiac in his annual periods, accomplishes the changes and turnings of the seasons, how did those who were born before the signs of the Zodiac were placed among the stars, and the heaven was adorned with them, continue to exist, when summer, autumn, winter, and spring, were not as yet separated from each other, by means of which the body is increased and strengthened? ”

“ Some reliance in the influence of the moon, and a small degree of attention to the aspect of the sign of the zodiac according to the time-honored frontispiece in the almanac, both materially lacking in the important requisite of full and trusting faith, are very nearly the only mysteries which can be regarded as having acquired a practical adoption in any appreciable degree. ”

“ But if Venus and Saturn are also in the common signs; that is, in Capricorn or Libra, they portend marriages of kin. If the moon is present with this aforesaid combination when it is at the horoscope or at mid-heaven, she makes men wed their mothers, or with their mother's sisters, or their stepmothers, and women wed their sons, their brothers' sons, or their daughters' husbands. The sun, particularly if the planets are setting, makes men wed their daughters, daughters' sisters, or sons' wives, and the women wed their fathers, fathers' brothers, or stepfathers. ”

“ That astronomers should have divided the sun’s course into imaginary signs of the zodiac, was enough to originate astrological rules that these celestial signs have an actual effect on real earthly rams, bulls, crabs, lions, virgins. A child born under the sign of the Lion will be courageous; but one born under the Crab will not go forward well in life ”

“ In inquiries regarding matters of importance we must observe the places in both nativities which have the greatest authority, that is, those of the sun, the moon, the horoscope, and the Lot of Fortune; for if they chance to fall in the same signs of the zodiac, or if they exchange places, either all or most of them, and particularly if the horoscopic regions are about 17° apart, they bring about secure and indissoluble sympathy, unbroken by any quarrel. ”

“ The reason is that in one instance the mother’s horoscope shows success in progeny from the presence of Jupiter in the 5th House, and the other shows no success at all from the presence of Saturn in that part of the heavens. Both mothers were perfectly fit in themselves and in the same station of life. Obviously there is here imported a factor that is of immense importance to those who have a mind for improving the race. Seed, Season and Soil are all essential to the production of healthy offspring. ”

“ Astrological Systems.—The refined system of astrological prediction based upon the solar zodiac was invented in Chaldaea, obtained a second home and added elaborations in Egypt, and spread irresistibly westward about the beginning of the Christian era. For genethliacal purposes the signs were divided into six solar and six lunar, the former counted onward from Leo, the “house” of the sun, the latter backward from the moon’s domicile in Cancer. Each planet had two houses—a solar and a lunar—distributed according to the order of their revolutions. ”

“ An astrological calculation is often made with the view of determining by what sign of the zodiac the two persons are influenced who contemplate becoming man and wife, and thence ascertaining whether they will agree. ”

“ By a knowledge of the signature given by the signs of the zodiac, when rising at birth, we may sometimes ascertain the hour of nativity, or, at any rate, go near enough to it to be able to work out the horoscope after a fashion, supposing the exact date to be impossible of attainment. ”

“ As rays of the Sun, by change of the angle of incidence, call forth leaves and flowers from the plant at one time, and at another cause them to wither, so do rays from the fixed stars call forth and produce greater changes in flora and fauna; they are responsible for the rise and fall of nations and the temperamental change which we call civilization.
Bringing the analogy a step further, the natural zodiac is composed of the constellations as they are and remain in the heavens, and the intellectual zodiac commences at the changing point where the Sun crosses the equator at the vernal equinox. ”