Below is the third part of Gryphon Astrology’s three-part interview with Dr. H. of Regulus Astrology, a traditional astrologer and author.  Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview here.

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NG:  Can you discuss your use of the Arabian parts in natal delineation and rectification?  On a theoretical level, why do you think they are so accurate, even though they are abstract points, rather than bodies?

DH: Arabic Parts (or more properly Hellenistic Lots) are essentially customized Ascendants for specific life activities. Take the 7^th house. Its significations include the marriage partner, business partners, and open enemies. Now this is a real handful! How does one sort out one topic from the other? If someone ends up with a lousy mate, will they also be similarly doomed with business partners and open enemies? Or is there some differentiation between the three house topics? The first way these topics can be sorted out is a delineation technique attributed to Al-Andarzagar based on triplicity rulers of the sign on the house cusp. For whatever element falls on the 7^th cusp, take the relevant diurnal, nocturnal, and participating triplicity rulers and assign them respectively to women, controversies, and entering into covenants.(footnote 3) Or in modern terms: marriage partners, legal conflicts with open enemies, and business partnerships.

The second way to differentiate these three topics is with Arabic Parts. There are specialized parts for marriage and lawsuits. There are no parts specified to open enemies I am aware of; apparently since they are ‘open’ enemies their actions are sufficiently obvious to void the need to fine tune with specialized parts. Returning to marriage, should the Part of Marriage be placed in a favorable house and by aspected by a ruler which is in good condition, this mitigates affairs for marriage.

This is not to say that a favorable Arabic Part configuration can nullify effects of a malefic on a house topic; yet a favorably positioned Part of Marriage adds some bounty to the marriage topic which might appear relatively bleak if a malefic otherwise rules or falls in the 7^th house.

NG:  You’ve tackled rectification. What’s next?

DH: As I have stated on my site, by the end of 2008 I plan on releasing my own rectification of the July 4, 1776 United States Declaration of Independence figure. It features a Sagittarius Ascendant, like the well known Sibly figure, but is a bit later. At this point the book is about finished.

Besides documentation of a few hundred solar arc and primary directions what makes this rectification unique is Abu Mashar’s System of Distributors and Participators which I also refer to as Directing through the Bounds in my book. What I found was directing the Ascendant through the Egyptian bounds yielded most major American social movements. I guarantee people’s jaws will drop to the floor when they read it.

Another project on my plate is physiognomy. It turns out that decans are in fact related to physical appearance as most texts indicate, but the Chaldean decan rulers do not work. One has to use the set of decan rulers based on triplicity (e.g., for the sign of Aries, the three decans are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius). It’s an important technique to master because if the Chaldean decan rulers do not work, we need to replace them in al-mubtazz scoring.

And if the decan rulers based on triplicity have an influence on physical appearance, then by default the ruler of the rising decan needs to be included in temperament computations. Nobody is looking at this issue at the moment. Because of the additional publishing expense for photographs, the web may be the best vehicle to present this kind of research.

Via the web, one can also keep adding entries to a physiognomy database as time permits. It would take a subscription service of something like $20/month for a subscriber base of 300+ individuals to make this a viable business model. I mention this not because I think such a market exists today, but with the power of these written words, such a market might exist in a few years. There is nothing I would rather do than pure astrological research: to create a rectified database of several hundred charts which would be fodder for testing of the complete range of medieval delineation and predictive techniques: everything from temperament to religious faith to friends and enemies. It’s a project which needs to be done and I am more than willing.

Footnote 3: Al-Qabisi: The Introduction to Astrology. London: The Warburg Institute, 2004. p. 53.

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Read Part 1 of the interview with Dr. H. of Regulus Astrology here.

Read Part 2 of the interview with Dr. H. of Regulus Astrology here.

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This is Part 2 of Gryphon Astrology’s three-part interview with Dr. H. of Regulus Astrology.  Read Part 1 of the interview here.

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NG:  What is another technique you worked with that did not prove accurate?

DH: A more general delineation technique I have had problems with is the hierarchical style of evaluating planetary condition by both quality and quantity. Much of this can be traced to Bonatti (if not earlier) with his demands that planets be ‘fortunate and strong’ to deliver effects. In my early student days, I was led to believe that should one of the Ascendant rulers be in detriment/fall and located a cadent house (usually 6^th or 12^th) that surely the person would reject significations of that planet as a life outlet for something better signified by a planet with some essential dignity in some other succedent or angular house. But this doesn’t hold water.

In the example I gave – an afflicted malefic in the 6^th house with some claim to the Ascendant – whenever the malefic in the 6^th was activated dynamically the individual suffered tremendous pain, illness, or took on a position of servitude. The individual appeared incapable of choosing a better life outlet. While this is a natal example, this kind of behavior has important implications for mundane astrology.

Bonatti, for instance, rejects a planet conjunct the Midheaven in an Ingress figure as Significator of the King should it have no essential dignity. So he would discard Saturn/Aries on the 10^th cusp in favor of some other planet to delineate the actions of the King. Maybe Bonatti is wrong. Perhaps the planet most closely aspecting the MC signifies the King whether or not it has any essential dignity.

NG:  I think you’re right about Bonatti’s rejection of potential significators of the King if they had no essential dignity, or other afflictions. Do you think this is more an issue of bad astrology, or more of self-protection or buttering up the boss by the astrologer? If we use Bonatti’s method, as in your example, it would mean nothing bad could ever happen to the King.

DH: First off, even if the significator of the King is itself benefic, an aspect from a malefic can still harm the King so I have to disagree with your last comment. The March 2008 Aries Ingress is a good example with Sun/Aries a logical significator for the King in many geographical locations yet the Sun is square Mars/Cancer. This does not bode well for the King.

In any case, I don’t think it’s self-protection because the only way an astrologer can truly protect himself is to quit his job if he sees bad events for the King on the horizon, especially if a fall from power is forecast. I don’t think it’s buttering up the boss either because the only way the King would know the astrologer is buttering him up is for the King to have a sufficient understanding of the methodology that the King would know the astrologer was intentionally biasing his predictions. Since most Kings probably did not have that level of expertise this is really a moot question.

But more to the point: why would Bonatti go to such lengths in creating a checklist of over 50 questions for determining the significator of the King if instead he could just lie and make something up! Instead I think what’s going on here is Bonatti’s hierarchical style of delineation reflects his own personal philosophy which is extremely class conscious. That’s my instinct based on my read of Bonatti.

Besides Kings, another example is his discussion of sexual proclivities when delineating marriage. When he starts delineating conditions for ‘foul and filthy coitus’ we should ask ourselves: foul and filthy for whom? Heads of state wouldn’t want to get caught up with this. But suppose one is dealing with a professional hooker whose life is enhanced by ‘foul and filthy coitus.’ Is this such a bad condition for a hooker assuming she uses condoms for protection? Maybe not.

Regarding other techniques I tested, I also have problems with the notion of quantity: that angular, succedent, and cadent planets respectively deliver 100%, 50%, and 25% percent of their power. Consider the delineation of children. In Bonatti’s approach, children are promised if any significator of children (Jupiter, Venus, Moon, Mercury, Lord 5^th, P.Fortune, P.Children & their lords) are located in houses favorable for children (1^st, 11^th, 10^th, 7^th). Significators must also be in the fruitful water signs or the rather fruitful signs of Taurus, Sagittarius, and Aquarius. As an example, both Mercury and Venus in the sign of Taurus are correct planets in the correct sign; but if placed in the 12^th house children would not be predicted.

A second approach is to use all life events to date as the sample used to build the model. Then treat new events which occur in real time as out-of-sample events. Test these events against the model in real time. The second approach is what I have taken with Obama.

For Obama, I published a rectified time of 7:54:28 PM, Ascendant = 27AQ09’17”, on November 20, 2007 and have been watching the chart unfold ever since. Any predictive method used to create the rectification model can be employed in a real time test. Some techniques, like monthly profections, can help confirm the Ascendant sign. Other methods, like directions and dynamic activity to Arabic Parts, can confirm the exact degree and minute of the rectified Ascendant. So let’s get our hands dirty.

Consider this solar arc direction:

July 24, 2008. direct solar arc Ascendant trine Sun.

This is actually the only solar arc direction of a planet to either the Ascendant or Midheaven for the entire calendar year of 2008. So for using solar arc directions as a tool for out-of-sample tests, this is it.

Sun is the universal significator of fame and power. In the sign he rules, Sun/Leo is flamboyant and should produce an event conducive to projecting fame and power which is long lasting. What happened? This is the exact date Obama spoke at the Victory Column in Berlin, the most high profile campaign event of the year prior to the Democratic National Convention. The following day he met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In mundane astrology, France is assigned to Leo. Obama met with the French (Leo) President and discussed what amounted to a partnership with France for defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan. Business partners and open enemies are assigned to the 7^th house, the location of Obama’s Sun.

This event appears a match to the solar arc direction. It is evidence in favor of the rectification, but more events need to be tested. Arguably, one could make the case that this solar arc Ascendant trine Sun should really time his August 28 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, meaning the rectified time is in error by four minutes of degree, the amount needed to change the birth time to push the recomputed solar arc Ascendant trine Sun measurement to August 28 instead of July 24. One can go crazy with this, making adjustments for every new event. I prefer to wait at least six months and preferably a year before making an assessment.

One also has to realize that making these micro adjustments not only changes the Ascendant trine Sun direction but literally every other direction measurement used to build the initial model.

Dynamic activity to Arabic Parts is also helpful for out-of-sample tests. I first started to look at the Part of Servants 25AR54 and its antiscion 4VI06 after Obama’s foreign policy advisor Samantha Power was fired after making some ill-mannered comments about Hillary Clinton. It turns out that Power’s March 7, 2008 resignation was timed by the transit of Saturn located at 4VI08, only two minutes of degree from the antiscion of the Part of Servants. Continuing the saga was Jim Johnson’s forced resignation from the Vice President vetting committee on June 11, 2008 timed by the converse transit of the South Node located at 4VI05. Finally, after Saturn went direct and passed over the part’s antiscion again, Wes Clark stuck his foot in his mouth on June 29, 2008 when he made the following comment on John McCain: “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” Saturn was positioned at 4VI25 on that date, a bit wide of the part’s antiscion, but still close.

While Clark was not officially employed by the Obama campaign as far as I know, he was up until this time a contender for the VP slot. Shortly after his June 29 gaffe he disassociated himself from the Obama campaign. Maybe the Wes Clark gaffe is irrelevant. But there is no doubt that Samantha Power and Jim Johnson were employees and were terminated from the Obama campaign.

Identifying Saturn and the South Node as significators for the termination of employees is crucial to the logic of this out-of-sample test. Employees are assigned to the 6^th house. While some might assign employee termination to the 9^th house (4^th of the end-of-the-matter from the 6^th by derived houses), I have found the 1^st house (8^th from the 6^th) more reliable for employee termination. For Obama, Saturn rules the 1^st; South Node is positioned in the 1^st. Both Saturn and the South Node are significators for the death and/or termination of employees based on rulership and position.

There are some other events I have looked at, such as the transit of Pluto to the Part of Faith as a timer of Obama’s earlier Reverend Wright fracas. Overall I remain happy with the rectified model despite the official birth certificate time of 7:24 PM posted on June 12 by the Daily Kos blog. At the end of the day it is the horoscope which consistently works on an out-of-sample basis that I will always choose as a professional astrologer.

This is hard work; real roll up your sleeves kind of stuff. After doing it awhile one gets a better appreciation of why dedicated medieval predictive astrologers can take on only a handful of clients. I doubt I could ever service more than two or three clients if I use all the tools at my disposal.

Footnote 2: b. May 28, 1944, Brooklyn, NY, 6:02:37 AM EWT, Ascendant – 14GE454; Dr. H’s rectification.

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Read Part 1 of the interview with Dr. H. of Regulus Astrology.

Read Part 3 of the interview with Dr. H. of Regulus Astrology.

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Last month, Ben Dykes published a new translation of the works of 8-9^th century Persian astrologers Sahl and Masha’allah. The book is a compilation of 16 shorter astrological works. As Dykes pointed out in his interview with GA, this is not an exhaustive collection of Sahl and Masha’allah’s works. The works that are included have dual value: they are of use to a practicing astrologer, and provide insight into the practice of astrology by the Arabs.

Dykes translated Guido Bonatti’s Book of Astronomy last year, and because Bonatti refers to Sahl and Masha’allah very frequently as his sources, Dykes sought to make the works by the two authors more available to the English-reading public. If Bonatti was only sparsely translated into English (such as his aphorisms, by Henry Coley), Sahl and Masha’allah were translated even less frequently, despite their importance in early medieval astrological practice.

Briefly…

Works of Sahl & Masha’allah is a difficult, dense, but extremely rewarding text. The astrological concepts themselves are not terribly complicated, but we would recommend a working knowledge of planetary dignity and reception, planetary movement, and astronomical phenomena like eclipses. Dykes’s introduction to the text is a must-read, because he explains several specific concepts/phrases recurring frequently in the texts that the reader is unlikely to have encountered before.

Readers interested in the nitty-gritty practica of horary, electional, political, and weather astrology will find very useful material here. However, there is also a nice balance of more theoretical texts on the building blocks of astrology, such as Sahl’s Fifty Judgments, or Masha’allah’s On Reception. Dykes’s easy-to-read translation is a fine addition to a library of the intermediate/advanced working astrologer or astrological history enthusiast.

Book Contents and Structure

The book begins with a listing of text or reference abbreviations, of which there are plenty, Arabic transliterations, and a table of figures. The 80-page introduction by the translator is a must-read, not only for key phrase definitions, but also for a succinct comparison of techniques used by Sahl, Masha’allah and other ancient astrologers, and an explanation of frequently used sources in the text.

Because a book with just one introduction is for weaklings, the book proper begins with Sahl’s Introduction, which is essentially Astrology 101, medieval-style. Here we get the meanings of the signs, houses, aspects, and astrological concepts such as reception. This is followed by On questions, an horary treatise organized by house. Astrologers familiar with William Lilly’s Christian Astrology will see similarities in organization, but the substance is rather different. Topics such as “on a commander setting off to war, or another worried person when he asks about him,” are covered, often in great detail, along with “a question about the age of the winning beast,” such as in horse races.

A short work On the elections, follows, again organized by house-related topics. The last of Sahl’s works in the book is On times, which is a work on methods of timing events in horoscopes. These methods seem most obviously applicable to horary charts, but they could be applied to natal horoscopes as well.

The Masha’allah part of the book begins with “on the knowledge of the motion of the orb,” a cosmological, astronomical, and physical treatise. This is followed by a short work called On the roots of revolutions, and On rains, the former introducing key concepts in mundane astrology, such as solar and planetary ingress charts, and eclipses, with the latter treatise showing how to apply the methods to astrometeorology.

A useful and information-rich treatise, On the revolution of the years of the world follows, focusing on mundane astrology and specific positions of planetary significators, and their meanings. Two treatises on nativities follow, one more of a planet-in-terms cookbook, the latter containing lots of example charts in traditional square format with a paragraph of analysis each.

To shorter treatises follow, On the interpretation of cognition, and On hidden things. The former gives hints to the astrologer for discovering the intention of the questioner, and the latter text is about finding lost objects. The next text is on reception, first discussing the theory, and then its applications to various topics, such as financial questions, and “will I get the kingdom” kinds of questions, with example charts. The last text is What the planets signify in the 12th domiciles of the circle, a kind of cookbook, which could be applied both to natal and horary charts. For example, Saturn in the 12th house gives “impediments which happen in connection with the King, and he will be strong and bold in this, and he will be captured by enemies, and he will be afraid in all of his matters.”

Finally, we are treated to a multipage bibliography and detailed index.

Observations.

As noted above, Works is a very dense, rich book. The ideal way to read it is in small pieces at a time, to better experiment with unfamiliar techniques and concepts. The sheer magnitude of information can be intimidating, though the astrology itself is pretty accessible to a modern reader.

The translator does not pull any punches, and obviously enjoys bringing to light forgotten techniques and astrological concepts. He does not bend the text to shape it to our modern preconceptions. This is good, because it preserves textual integrity, and bad, as many readers might benefit from more familiar terms to help ease into a very different text than they might be used to. Ultimately, however, a translator has to balance integrity with accessibility, and Dykes’s choice, though more demanding of the reader, leaves us with the sense that justice was done to the text.

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Works of Sahl & Masha’allah

Translated by: Benjamin N. Dykes, Ph.D.

The Cazimi Press, 2008

Available from the translator at www.bendykes.com. 532 pages, hardcover.

91.95 USD

(If you have written or published an astrology book you would like reviewed on Gryphon Astrology, please contact me at nina [at] gryphonastrology.com or write to me here (don’t forget to include your contact info).

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