Planetary doctrine
The seven classical planets, their attributions, and how the doctrine attached to each one was assembled, transmitted and altered between Babylon and the twentieth century.
9 entries
- Aspects
The angular figures a chart draws between bodies, the reason the tradition allows exactly these, and why the orbs around them are convention.
- Jupiter
The brightest true planet after Venus, completing the ecliptic in under twelve years, roughly a sign a year, the arithmetic behind its period-marking use.
- Mars
The reddest of the five true planets, with the widest brightness swing and the largest retrograde loop of the seven, both from its varying distance.
- Mercury
Mercury never strays far from the Sun and is visible only near dawn or dusk; it is also the one planet exalted in the sign it already rules.
- Moon
The fastest of the seven, covering about 13 degrees a day, which makes it the body most sensitive to an error in birth date or time zone.
- Saturn
The outermost classical planet: its Greek and Babylonian names, its dignities, the sect rule that governs it, and where the modern Saturn return came from.
- Sect
The division of a chart by whether the Sun stood above or below the horizon at birth, and the largest doctrinal gap in twentieth-century astrology.
- Sun
The Sun rules one sign, holds no bounds, and is the only body whose sign depends on date alone, which is why a newspaper column could use it.
- Venus
Venus was two names, a morning star and an evening star, before the recognition that they were one body collapsed the naming into one.