This text has been
retyped by Thomas Callanan and adheres to the punctuation, spelling
and capitalization as it appears in Wharton’s translation. This
article is reproduced at Classical Astrologer with his kind permission. PJC
I shall not dispute how much Astronomers differ among themselves
concerning the Number, Site, Motions, and Nature of the Heavens: Neither
here undertake to compose such a strike, nor to censure, any Man's
judgment therein; forasmuch as at least, in this, they do many of them
agree [That there is one supream Heaven and First Moveable, which by its
own motion from East to West, accomplisheth its Revolution about the
Earth, in the space of 24 hours; and causeth such a force of stupend
Motion, in the bodies subordinate, that it manifestly carried with it,
from East to West, whatsoever is betwixt it and the middle Region of
Air].
'Tis true, Kepler (the Lynceus of the last Age) denying (with
Copernicus) such a First Moveable, makes the Starry Heaven to be supream,
and immoveable: And maintaineth, that the Earth, (called a planet by
Pythagoras, and placed between the Sphaeres of Mars and Venus) performs
by its own motion from West to East an entire rotation about its Axis,
in the space of 24 hours, the Sun being placed in the Center of the
World. Which supposed to (as indeed it is by the most Learned of this
Age) yet I this doth the Starry Heavens perform the Office of the First
Moveable, [That the same part of the Earth, by the motion of the whole
body thereof,
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continually cometh into the Aspect of the New parts of the Stellified
Heaven, whereby that part of the Earth shall be forthwith changed de
novo, unless we deny it all power of operating thereupon.
Whether therefore there be no other Heavens above that of the Fixed
Stars (unknown I confess to the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Plato, Aristotle,
Hyparchus, and even to Ptolemy himself). Or whether More, according to
Aphonsins; yet this is most certain, and not contradicted by any, That
in mundane bodies, as in Earth, Water, Fire, and Heavens there is some
first and Supream, than which there cannot be any higher, otherwise
should they be infinite in Operation: And also that these very Bodies
are the universal Causes of Physical Mutations, and subordinate one
another in Operation: Therefore in that Subordination, there must
likewise be one first and supream power of Operation, and from that the
Middle and from these the Lowest do receive there vertue of Action:
Otherwise, this Subordination of Causes should it self be quite
overthrown: For why should the Middle be said to be Subordinate to the
Supream, and the Lowest to the Middle in their Operation, if that which
is lower received no influx or vertue from that which is Superiour unto
it? And can the Lowest without the Influence of the Middle, or these
without the Highest, of themselves produce any effect?
The First Cause, therefore, of all things can be no other than the
Supream Heaven, which if (according to the Doctrine of the Ancients) it
move, it moveth also the Bodies that be thereunto inferiour, yet is not
it self moved by any other Body superiour unto it. And if (according to
Kepler) it be immoveable, and indeed with Stars, it hath influence, at
least, upon the Bodies that be subordinate to it, but receiveth not
influence from any other. Thereof either way, the First Heaven shall be
the First Cause, or the first Physical beginning of Physical Effects and
Changes. For, 'tis but expedient that the First beginning in every kind,
should be the most perfect: Therefore shall the First Heaven be in the
Lineage of Efficient Causes, which are of the most universal and
powerful Active vertue, (which is the greatest perfection of an
Efficient Cause) so that there is no Inferiour Corporeal Cause, which it
moveth not, or into which it instilleth not a vertue of power of
Operation; and nothing anew generated in the whole World, which this
vertue of it self toucheth not.
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Which being granted, how can any Man doubt, but that every thing which
is generated and born de novo, should be referred to that First
Cause thereof? For it must be referred either to some part of that
Heaven, or to that whole Heaven: But it ought to be referred to the
whole Heaven: For, aliquam sui partem, according to some part of
it, but secundum se totum, according to the entire Body thereof:
Therefore every Sublunary Effect, so far as it may be considered secundum
se totum, to wit, in its Beginning, Vigour, Declination, and
Destruction, must be referred to the whole Heaven; yet not confusedly,
but distinctly and orderly, as the most orderly motion of the Heaven it
self requireth.
For, as the whole Effect, and whatsoever doth happen from Heaven during
the same, correspond to the whole Heaven, and yet the Beginning is not
the end thereof: so what was in Heaven of it self the Cause of its
Beginning, this same thing shall not of itself be the Cause of the End
thereof: (for so no Effect should continue, nor indeed any be produced.)
But as the Beginning, Vigour, Declination, and End of things do differ
and succeed one another: So the Coelestial Causes of these likewise
differ amongst themselves, and must succeed one another. But in Heaven,
Difference and Succession are not, unless in respect of the parts
thereof. Therefore in Heaven are certain parts that be the Causes of the
beginning of things, or which do govern the same: Others succedent to
those which rule the Vigour; others that rule their Declination; and
lastly, such as govern the End or Destruction of things.
What part of Heaven then (Nature her self guiding and reaching us) shall
we call the First Cause of the Natural Beginning of every thing? Surely
that which in the very Beginning of the thing, ariseth above the Horizon
thereof and arising causeth the thing it self also to arise. For,
certain it is that of all the places of Heaven, the East is more
powerful than the rest, as is testified by all Astrologers, concerning
the Rising, Culminating, and Setting of the Stars; and as Experience it
self convinceth, in the Change of Air. But a cause is said to be only
more Powerful, in respect of a stronger, and more difficult Effect:
Therefore, the stronger and more difficult Effect of things must be
attributed to the Ascendant Par[t] of Heaven, which none will deny to
the Rise or Production of those things. But successively, that Part of
Heaven, which is more elevated above the Horizon, and possesseth the
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Mid Heaven, in the rise or Beginning of the thing, shall have the
Government of the vigour and Operative vertue thereof; That which
setteth at the same time, the Declination of it, from its perfect
estate: And lastly, That which obtains the Bottom of Heaven, shall be
taken for the Cause of Corruption.
And this is the simple, and (of all others) the first Division of
Heaven, whereby it is truly and rationally fitted for the Begetting,
Increase and Alteration of all Physical things from their own Nature,
and, at length, corrupting them: And which onely the Ancient Astrologers
frequently used, in their General and Particular constitutions of
Heaven, as appears by Haly, in the Figure of the Comet which happened in
his time: For that either a more scrupulous Division of Heaven was
harder in those days for want of Astronomical Tables: Or because this
Division might generically contain, whatsoever another could more
specifically.
But when once some Astrologer had observed, that Heaven was both made
and moved, rather for the sake of Man, than any other Animate, or
Inanimate Creatures, and how many things agreed to Man himself, in
respect of his more Divine Nature, which did not in any wise to more
ignoble Creatures: He supposed, that for Man's own sake also the whole
Circle of Heaven was rationally Divided into Twelve parts (by great
Circles drawn through the intersections of the Horizon and Meridian, and
cutting the Aequator in so many equal parts) which he called Houses, the
first whereof he placed in the East, and delivered to Posterity, That it
governed the Life of Man, and from thence might be had and drawn a
conjectural knowledge and judgment concerning Life: that the 2. (which
followeth the first, according to the Motion of the Planets) did govern
Riches: the third Brethren: the fourth Parents, and so of the rest, as
in the subsequent Figure, the houses are Ordered and Named. And from
him, until this present time hath this division of heaven, and
appellation of Houses, continued uncorrupted: Howbeit Ptolemy and his
Followers do dissent from this Ancient Tradition, seeming to pervert the
Division in many places: As when (concerning Children) they principally
judge, not from the 5. House, but the 11. which is opposite thereunto:
When (concerning the Mother) not from 4. but from 10. opposite unto it:
So (when of Servants, and animals) not from 6. but the 12. (the house
opposing it) which apparent error shall hereafter be Corrected.
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The Order and Names of the
Houses Astrological
Now amongst all other Foundations of
Astrology, this of dividing the Heavens into 12 Houses, is the first and
chiefest; in that thereupon principally depends the whole Art of
Predictions: And the Causes, Reasons, and first Beginnings of this
Division, furthest distant from our Understanding, and far more hardly
to be found out, by reason, than any other; in which regard very few (if
any at all) have undertaken the defence thereof, by any true or probably
Reasons, Ptolemy himself (so say the truth) being in this particular
very defective.
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For Lucius Bellantius (who took upon him the defence of Astrology
against Picus) in his 10. Book (written against (c.5. of Picus 10. Book)
after he had enumerated sundry of his own and the Ancients trifles, not
worthy the name of Reasons, is at length forced to oppose Picus with
Experience onely, and to conclude him from Objects very ridiculous and
unbeseeming an Artist of his Learning and Gravity, in these words: Querere
igitur quam ob causum haec vel illa domus hujus virtutis sit, est
quarrere, quare Sol sit Lucidus, cur Ignis calidus, Aqua frigida; quae
tamen ex principiis intinsecis pendent nobis ignotioribus, aut saltem
minime' notioribus: which but a little before he had called Profunda
Naturae secreta.
And indeed all others, who have endeavoured to give the Reasons of these
Houses, have produced nothing orderly, nothing of Truth, but mere
figments onely: So that if any-where they brought a reason which seemed
but to defend one House, the very same really destroyed all the rest.
And therefore Alexander ab Angelis, lib 4. cap. 19 after his Muster of
all the Arguments brought by Julius Firmicus, concerning these Houses,
he justly resells them, in these words: Ridiculus sit quicunque
ridiculus bas rationes nostra refutatione egrere exisimaret.
By which it plainly appears how easie and free it was for the Enemies of
Astrology to hiss and laugh at these Houses, and importunately and
impudently to demand, Why Heaven might not be divided into more than 12
Houses? Wherefore the First House is called the House of Life, and
placed in the East? Why the order and numeral succession of the Houses
is from East to West? And why the Second House is called the House of
Riches or Gain, the twelfth of Enemies and Imprisonment and misery? And
so, why the other Houses are called their Names, and disposed in that
order? Seeing (as they pretend,) as well their Order as Names, observe
no Order at all, but are rather a mere Chymera of Confusion, a plain
hotch-potch of fiction and fooler, as Picus (lib 10) and Alexander ab
Angelis (1. 4) c. 27) do variously but most wretchedly torment
themselves in proving.
But know that the Division of Houses unto 12 houses, as before in the
Figure, ought not in any wise to be accounted feigned, or as wanting a
Natural Foundation: But rather for a happy conception of the most wise
and piercing intellect (provided any humane understanding can it self
apprehend it, and it be not of that universal knowledge God infused into
Adam at the Creation) as that which standing upon a real Foundation,
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declares the universal state of Man in Heaven, wonderfully shadowed,
like as in his first Physical Cause. For this Division was by the first
Author thereof, Cabalistically conveyed to Posterity, who indeed have in
no sort changed the same; but yet its Mysteries (the spirit of the
Cabal) they have not understood, nothing at all being left us by any one
concerning them.
First then (for more illustrations sake) I say, That the former, first
and simple division of heaven into four Cardinal parts, is not feigned,
but natural, and upheld by a natural foundation, as before hath been
demonstrated. And that is every one of these parts in heaven of the same
Nature, viz those with whome it makes an Aequilateral Triangle in
the Aequator (the principal Circle of the Worlds first Motion) or which
it beholds by a partile Trine in the Aequator. For, the Eternal Trinity
is of infinite Love, and the fountain and substance of infinite and most
perfect Love, wherein the thing Loving, which is the First, the thing
loved, which is the second, and Love proceeding from both, which is the
third, are one, not in Genere, or in Specie, but in numero; and
therefore the most simple, and most Perfect: Whose Perfection is such,
and so universal, that it derives it self into every Trine: And
therefore may every Trine be called Perfect: not in any particular or
special perfection, but in that first, and most universal perfection of
the First Trine, which cometh in Love, and whereof all Trines do
diversely participate, according to the Capacity of the Nature.
Seeing therefore the Fixed Stars and Planets do (by reason of their
various Motions) oftentimes behold one another with different Aspects
into the Coelstial Circles, viz, a Sextile, Trine, and
Opposition: The first and wise Astrologers (as well for reasons taken a
priori, from the infinite and most universal perfection of the first
Trine, as a posteriori, from most evident Effects) do generally
affirm, that of all Aspects the Trine is the most perfect, and that
therein the perfection of the first Trine, viz Love, is so strong
and lively it is called by them an Aspect of perfect Friendship. Now
forasmuch as this could not be without a similitude of natures, or at
least a generical Identity: They rightly concluded the parts of the
Aequator, which beheld one another by a partile Trine, to be at least of
the same generical nature, and to make up a Triplicity of the same
nature.
Wherefore seeing that each of the afore-mentioned Four Cardinal parts of
Heaven doth challenge to it self of its own nature; by
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these four Triplicities Heaven is divided into 12 parts, called Houses:
Neither was it divisible into more or fewer parts by the Created
Quaternary multiplied into the Divine Ternary. And therefore this
Division is accounted the most absolute and truly perfect; as containing
two Sextiles, two Squares, two Trines, and also the opposition: Which
are all the Coelestial Aspects, from whence (not omitting the
Conjunction) all variations of the general Coelestial Influences do
happen. And these Aspects do perfectly agree with all the parts of the
Number 12. which are 1,2,3,4,5 [sic],6. where 1. is referred to Union or
Conjunction; 2. (the 6. part of 12.) to the Sextile Aspect; 3. (the 4.
part thereof) to the Quartile; and 4. (the third part) to the trine; and
6. (the middle part) to the Opposition: And as there are not more
Aspects in the Circle, so in the Number 12 not more parts. For indeed
all things were made by God, in Number, Weight, and Measure.
Thus much premised, I say that the Life of Man consists of 4. Ages;
Child-hood, Youth, Man-hood, and Old-age: And, that in Man there are
four different thing observable, unto which all the other [be] reduced,
as it were to their first beginning; Namely, Life, Action, Marriage, and
Passion. And these agree with the Beginning (or rise) Vigour,
Declination, and End or Death; which four were before insinuated
generally agreeable, to all the effects of Nature. For Man is said to
Rise into the World, when first he enjoys a Worldly Life: To be strong
in Action, when he acteth, or reduceth, his vigour of doing, more into
action: To decline, so soon as a plentiful dissipation of his innate
heat and radical moisture beginneth, as at the time of Marriage. And
from Man-hood (the best time of Marriage) he declineth toward Old-age,
and at length Dyes, when he sustains the last Passion of Life.
Therefore, Man's Life, Action, Marriage, and Passion, belong to the same
Coelestial Principles, as do the Birth, Vigour, Declination, and Death
of all other things in the World: viz. Life to the East, Action
to the Mid-heaven, Marriage to the West-angle; and Passion to the Angle
of the Earth.
Whence do arise 4. Triplicites of the same generical nature; and 12.
Houses, as aforesaid.
The First Triplicity is of the Angle of the East, (which they name the
First House, and belongeth to Child-hood) called the Triplicity of Being
and Life: the other houses of this Triplicity are the Ninth and Fifth,
both which do
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behold the first house by a Partile Trine Aspects in the Aequator, where
is made this rational Division of the Houses.
For, Man liveth on a three-fold respect, in himself, in God, and in his
Posterity. But the First Life is onely given a Man for other Causes, viz.
That he might worship God, and beget his own likeness: Which is the
compleat intention of God in the production of Man.
1. Now as touching the Life of Man in itself (because it is the first of
all other things in the Order of Nature, and without it the rest could
not be: therefore) it justly challengeth the principal House of the
Triplicity viz. The Angle of the East
2. Life in God (the second in order) exists in the house of religion viz.
the Ninth, subsequent to the First House in this Triplicity according to
the Motion of the Aequator.
3. And lastly, Life in his Posterity, bestowed on the house of Children,
which is the fifth. Wherefore this whole Triplicity concerneth Life. But
herein one thing is very remarkable, viz. That by the motion of
the Aequator (the measure of Time) there is made an immediate ingress,
from the 9. house, into the 8. which is the house of Temporary Death:
whereby man is to understand That he must live to himself in God, until
his Temporal Death: so that betwixt this, and the Life in God, no part
of time intercede.
The second is the Triplicity of the Angle of the Mid-heaven, which they
name the 10. house and appertaineth unto youth. This is also called the
Triplicity of Action and of Gain or worldly goods flowing thence:
because every thing working Physically, worketh for some Physical good.
For, as by the motion of the Aequator, progress us made from the Angle
of the East to the Angle of the mid-heaven: so is there a progress made
from Child-hood unto youth, and from Being, or Life to Action. The two
other houses of this Triplicity are the 6. and 2.
But Gain, or the Physicall good arising to man from his Actions, is
threefold.
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1. The first (in order of dignity) is Immaterial: as are Arts,
Magistracy, Dignities, and honours, unto which a man is raised: also
Power and Majesty: wherefore it hath the principal house of this
Triplicity, viz. The Angle of the mid-heaven.
2. The second, is the Material and Animated; as are subjects, servants,
and all other living creatures; and is placed in the 6. house, according
to the Motion of the Equator, in the subsequent Triplicity.
3. The last is Materiall-inanimated, as are gold, silver,
house-hold-stuff, and even all other Immoveable Goods, gotten by our own
labour: which are attributed to the second house, under the name of
Riches. Therefore this whole Triplicity is of Action and Gain thence
arising.
The third is the Triplicity of the West Angle, named the 7. House and
belonging to man-hood: This is called the Triplicity of Marriage or
Love. For, as by Motion of the Equator, progress is made from the Angle
of the Mid-heaven, to the West Angle: even so there is a progress from
youth to Man-hood, and from famous deeds, to Marriages and friendships
of men which thence are purchased. The two other houses of this
Triplicity are the 3. and 11.
But man is joined to another in a threefold respect.
1. The First Conjunction (in order of dignity) is that of the body,
which we call Matrimony, and therefore the principal house of this
Triplicity, viz. the West Angle is thereunto dedicated.
2. The second, is that of the Blood, which constitutes Brethren and
Kindred, in the Third House, according to the Motion of the Equator in
this following Triplicity.
3. The last, is that of simple Benevolence, or favor, whence do arise
friends, in the 11. house. Therefore, this whole Triplicity is of
Marriage and Love.
The fourth Triplicity, is that of the dark angle, (in the middle of the
night, or bottom of heaven) called the fourth house, and the Cave or Den
of the Planets; attributed to old-age, and the Triplicity of Passion,
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Affliction, and Death; whereunto every man is subject, for the sin of
Adam. The two other houses of this Triplicity are the 12. and 8.
1. But the first Affliction of Man, in the order of nature, is a
sorrowful expectation of the Natural Death of his parents: or rather
(speaking Cabalistically) it is that strain of Original Sin, which our
Parents imprint in us, and through which we are from our very Births
made obnoxious to every misery, and at length, to death it self. And
therefore the Parents and their Condition, during the life of the
Native, as also Death, and heritages, left by them to the Native, do
possess the principal house of this Triplicity, viz The Angle of
the fourth house.
2. The second Affliction consists in hatred deceipts, Machinations,
Treacherousness, and Injuries of Enemies, especially the Secret ones; So
likewise in Prisons, Servitude, Poverty, and all other the Miseries a
man suffereth in his whole life-time. Now, for that all these are
Enemies to Life, therefore they are contained under the onely
consideration of an Enemy, in the 12. house, which is truly called the
valley of miseries, and immediately followeth in this Triplicity,
according to the motion of the Aequator.
3. The last Affliction, inhabiting the 8. house, is the Death of Man
himself, which is an End of this Temporal, and the Beginning of an
Eternal Life: wherefore according to the second motion, or the motion of
the Planets, which is from West to East, there is an entrance made from
the 8. house into the 9. which is the house of Life in God; whereby man
is given to understand that he is to pass by the second motion of the
Soul, which is attributed to the mind or reason (as the first and rapt
motion, is to the Body or sensitive appetite) from a Temporary Death,
unto a Life in God: which is Eternal. Therefore, in these Triplicities,
that which is First in the order of nature, or dignity possesseth always
the more noble houses, viz. the Angular: That which is second,
succedent houses, according to the motion of the Aequator: And that
which is last, Cadent, which are also succedent according to the motion
of the Ecliptick, or Planets.
Now, I beseech you, what is he will suppose this Division of the 12
Coelstial houses by Triplicities, appearing in this so excellent a
consent, and in such wonderful order, to be in any wise feigned, or
casual? Or whether
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by chance such consents are wont to be in things so abstruse and
intermixed? Or if altogether fictitious, whether, therefore altogether
wanting a Natural Foundation: which before I have plainly proved to be
false, and now made that most orderly consent of the Houses themselves
manifest. Therefore is this Division Natural, and ordained by great
wisdom, as comprehending (at least generically) all worldly things that
can possibly be enquired of or concerning Man: forasamuch as the
knowledge of Contraries is the same, and that an affirmative or negative
may be sought belonging to any house.
For example, Seeing Man, by the force of natural light, knoweth, that
there is one God, who made and governeth the world, and therefore to be
worshipped and Loves above all (as the Trine aspect made from the first
house, (the cause of all inclinations) to the 9. which is the house of
Religion, by the first principles of nature, insinuateth) from the Stars
and Planets, (or their Aspects) resident in the 1. and especially in the
9. may judgment be given, whether the native shall be inclined to the
worship of God, and to Religion, or the contrary. And so concerning
other things of this nature.
In like manner, conjecture is made from the 7. house, whether he shall
lead a married or a single life. From the 5. whether he be fruitful, and
to have issue, or the contrary: and so of the rest of the other houses.
Moreover, this light of the Triplicites doth very clearly distinguish
the things which belong to every House per se; and manifests
their Errors who judge from the purpose by inconvenient or Repugnant
Houses. For example; In a manner all Astrologers do suppose (but
erroneously) that health and sickness belong to 7. and 6. Houses per
se: whereas indeed they depend upon the Temperament, which is the
Seat of Life; and therefore ought judgment to be given concerning them,
from the First House, per se: but the judgment deduced from the
other Houses is only per accident, that is, as you shall find the
Malevolent Planets, or their Beams, upon which the horoscope falls by
Direction, or which shall come by Direction to the horoscope it self, or
to the opposition or Square thereof, during the Life of the Native: And
therefore if Saturn and Mars, shall at the Moment of his Birth, be found
in the 2. or 6. House, from these Houses shall judgment be given (per
accident) of a Saturnine or Material disease; to happen when the
horoscope comes by Direction to Saturn or Mars, in the 2.
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Or when Saturn or Mars shall come by Direction to the opposite of the
horoscope in the 7. Therefore, judgment per se is always referred to the
horoscope. The like of other Houses, which Ptolemy especially seems
highly to pervert, but would have said otherwise, had he known this
Cabal of the Houses, which so perfectly distinguished the proper house
of every thing. Much more might be said concerning these Triplicities,
conducing to the natural light of Preadictions, which I here omit;
presuming I shall abundantly satisfie as well the Friends as Enemies of
Astrology, if from the Doctrine proposed, I do give a full and clear
Answer to the beforementioned importunate Questions, put to Astrologers,
concerning these houses.
Therefore to the first Question I say, that heaven is divided into 12
Houses no more; because every one of the 4 Cardinal parts of Heaven,
which govern the beginning, vigour, Declination, and Death of things do
by a Trine Aspect, behold two other Coelstial parts, which be of its own
Nature: whence shall arise three places out of each of the 4. Cardinal,
of he same nature, for three times 4 doth make neither more nor less
than 12.
To the second, I say, that the first House is called the House of Life,
because a man is said first to Rise upon this Scene of the world, when
first he draws the Breath of this Life: and therefore seeing that the
first breathing of this Life is the beginning thereof, it must be placed
in the East, as the beginning of every other Physical thing.
To the third, I answer, that it matters not as to the instituting of
Coelestial Influxes or Praedidctions, what number any House be called
by, whether 2. 3, or 4. provided heaven be divided (as before) into four
Triplicities, and the nature of the Houses not changed. Yet the Physical
order of the Houses is from the East to the South, into the West,
agreeable to the Motion of the first and most universal Physical cause,
according to whose parts succeeding one another, by that motion, are the
principal Estates or Ages of all generable things contained (according
to their succession, before related) in the Equator the principal Circle
of the first cause: and so Physically the House Enemies is the second in
order; the House of Friends the third; the House of Magistracy, the
fourth, and so forth. But mystically, or Analogically, the Numerical
order begins from the East by the North Angle to the West: the reason
whereof is this. There are two Motions in the
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heavens; the first is of the first Moveable, termed the Raptmotion: the
second of the Planets, who (notwithstanding the Rapt-motion, by which
they are wheel'd about) invariably observe the Laws of their own
Moderate motion ordained to the contrary of the former. There are also
two Motions in Man, who is called the Microcosme; one of the sensitive
Appetite, which is the motion of man, in as much as he is a Living
creature, and the first in the order of nature, and also rapid: the
other is the Rational appetite, which is the Motion of a man, as he is
man, and contrary to the former, and also very moderate in it self. But
forasmuch as the first of these Motions of a man, hath a greater Analogy
with the Motion of the first moveable; and the second with the Motion of
the Planets: Therefore it was thought fit that heaven should be divided
according to the Succession of the Signs, or the direct motion of the
Planets (for these also are sometimes Retrograde, and Stationary, even
as is the Rational appetite, in its course, whilst it suffers it self to
be rapt or perverted by the Sensitive Appettite.) But that was done only
in an Analogical consideration, and not for any Physical cause, as if
the Motion of the first Moveable should by it self have influence upon
the Sensitive Appetite of man, and the Motion of the Planets, by it
self, upon the Rational: for the Planets insomuch as they are carried by
their own Motion, and even also the first moveable, have not of
themselves any influence upon the Sensitive Appetite, or on man, as he
is a Living creature, otherwise than upon other Animals. But neither the
Planets, nor First Moveable, have of themselves influence upon the
Rational appetite, or man, so far as he is Rational, for a reason
arising from no Natural, but a Supernatural principle.
Nevertheless, there are many things to be perceived in that mystical
Analogy, worthy our consideration, as conducing not a little to the
wholesome instruction of the Mind, and amongst others, this especially,
viz. That there are two ways which presently occur to a man at his
Birth, and even when placed in the first House of his Rising. One is of
the Sensitive Appetite, whereby he is brought, by the Motion of the
first Moveable, into the valley of miseries, viz. the 12. House,
which contains all the miseries of this Life, and also the House of the
secret Enemies, of the World , the Flesh, and the Devil, the way of
whose Pride this is; tending first and forthwith on high to the Angle of
Honour and Majesty; which House issueth from the Triplicity of Parents
and Death, and threateneth continual Imprisonments in the dark den of
sorrow and horror. But the other way is that of the
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Rational Appetite, whereby a man is carried by the Motion of the Planets
in the way of Decension and humility to the House of Riches, or Goods
gotten by a man's own virtues, viz. the second, which springs from the
Triplicity of the Supreme Angle or mid-heaven, wherein Goodness, Power,
and Majesty are seated; whereby it's evidently manifested unto us,
whether of those ways is the better, and which we had best follow, the
Motion of the Rational, or that of the Sensitive Appetite.
Lastly, to the 4 Questions I say, that the reason why every House must
be called by its own, and not another Name; appears more clear than the
Sun-shine it self, in the Constitution, Distinction, and Explication, of
the Triplicities before posited. Wherefore I will put an end to this my
discourse of the Coelistial Houses, which although it be indeed new, and
hitherto unheard of, yet it is firmly established upon Physical Reasons,
and taking its Original from the most Glorious things, is thitherto
reduced; to the end that the invisible things of God from the Creation
of the world, might be clearly seen, being understood by the things
which he hath made.
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