Tetrabiblos (Quadripartite) · 61 of 70

Book IV, Chapter I: Proem

CHAPTER I

PROEM

All those circumstances have now been set forth, which occur previously to the birth, as well as at the actual birth, and after it, and which it seemed necessary to mention, as conducing to a knowledge of the general quality of the contemperament produced. And of the other points, now remaining, by which extrinsic events[213] are contemplated, those regarding the several fortunes of wealth and of rank claim to be taken first into consideration. Each of these fortunes has a distinct relationship; for instance, that of wealth relates to the body, and that of rank to the mind.

Insight

The planetary vocational signatures Ptolemy gives — Saturn for buildings and agriculture, Jupiter for office and priesthood, Mars for military command, Venus for the gifts of women and friendships, Mercury for sciences and trade — survived as the working vocational astrology of the entire tradition. The same scheme appears in William Lilly's Christian Astrology in 1647 and in Alan Leo's Casting the Horoscope in 1903 with almost no modification. Modern psychological astrology has expanded the categories (a Mercury-strong chart now suggests software development and journalism alongside the ancient scribal and merchant trades) but the underlying logic — each planet a domain of human activity — has remained unchanged for nearly two thousand years.Lilly Christian Astrology II. Leo Casting the Horoscope. Modern vocational astrology continuity.

[213] That is to say, such events as are independent of the will, and not necessarily consequent on any peculiar conformation of the mind or body.