Something to Think About

Life and Training of an Astrologer

Firmicus Maternus, “Matheosos Libri VIII (The Mathesis)” c.334 AD,

trans. Jean Rhys Bram, Noyes Press, New Jersey 1975.

1. Now you, whoever you are who try to read these books, since you have received the whole knowledge of this divine science and are now endowed with the secrets of the stars and have learned the first principles of the art, shape yourself in the image and likeness of divinity.

2. Therefore study and pursue all the distinguishing marks of virtue and, when you have trained yourself in these, be easy of access, so that if anyone wishes to consult you about anything, he may approach you without fear. Be modest, upright, sober, eat little, be content with few goods, so that the shameful love of money may not defile the glory of this divine science. Try with your training and principles to outdo the training and principles of worthy priests. For it is necessary that the acolyte of the Sun and Moon and the other gods, though whom all earthly things re governed, should so educate his mind always that it be proved worthy by the attestation of all mankind.

3. See that you give your responses publicly in a clear voice, so that nothing may be asked of you which is not allowed either to ask or to answer.

4. Beware of replying to anyone asking about the condition of the Republic or the life of the Roman Emperor. For it is not right, nor is it permitted, that from wicked curiosity we learn anything about the condition of the Republic. But it is a wicked man and one worthy of all punishment who, when asked, gives a response about the destiny of the Emperor, because the astrologer is able neither to find out nor to say anything. You must know that even the Haruspices, as many times as they were asked by private citizens about the condition of the Emperor, and wanted to answer the one who consulted them, always disturbed the entrails which were intended for this purpose by tampering with the arrangement of the veins and cartilages.

5. In fact no astrologer is able to find out anything true about the destiny of the Emperor. For the emperor alone is not subject to the course of the stars and in his fate alone the stars have no power of decreeing. Since he is master of the whole universe, his destiny is governed by the judgment of the Highest God, since the whole world is subject to the power of the Emperor and he himself is also considered among the number of the gods whom the Supreme Power has set up to create and conserve all things.

6. This consideration also makes things difficult for the haruspices because, whatever divinity is invoked by them since it is of lesser power, is not able to explain the character of the greater power which is in the emperor. For all free-born men, all classes, all the rich, all the nobles, all the officials, all powers serve him; endowed with divine authority and immortality he is numbered among the first ranks of the gods.

7. Therefore, if anyone asks anything about the emperor, I do not want you to disturb him with a harsh of stern answer, but convince him with persuasive words that no one can discover anything about the life of the Emperor so that, warned with your arguments, he may put aside his madness and his wrong intention. Nor do I wish you to give a report, if anyone asks you anything wrong lest, after he has received the death sentence because of his forbidden desires, you should seem to have been the cause of his death. This is foreign to the purpose of a priest.

8. Have a wife, a home, many sincere friends; be constantly available to the public; keep away from all quarrels; do not undertake any harmful business; do not at any time e tempted by an increase in income; keep away from all passion of cruelty; never take pleasure in others’ quarrels or capital sentences or fatal enmities. Employ peaceful moderation in all your dealings with other people; avoid plots; at all times shun disturbances and violence.

9. Bind your friends’ loyalty to you with strong ties; be careful to keep your honesty uncorrupted in all your activities; never stain your self-respect by becoming a false witness. Never ask interest on money lest you accumulate an increase in income from the needs of others. Do not give or take an oath, especially if it has to do with money, lest the divine protection of the gods appear to be asked by you for money.

10. To erring men, especially those bound to you by ties of friendship, show the right road of life so that, trained in your principles, they will easily avoid the errors of life. Never be present at nocturnal sacrifices, whether they are held publicly or privately. Do not bring forecasts to anyone by stealth, but openly, as we have said before, and in the sight of all exercise the discipline of this divine art.

11. In drawing up the chart I do not wish you to show up the vices of men too clearly, but whenever you come to such a point, delay your responses with a certain modest reticence, lest you seem not only to explain but also to approve what the evil course of the stars decrees for the man.

12. Keep away at all times from the enticements of the shows, lest anyone think you are a patron of this kind of thing. For the priest of the gods must be apart from low, base pleasures.

13. When you have equipped your mind with the characteristics and protections of virtue, approach with confident boldness of mind this book as well as the following books which we have written on forecasting from the stars. But if your mind has strayed in any way from these principles which we have laid down about human character, see that you do not approach the mysteries of this doctrine with a perverse instinct of curiosity or sacrilegious rashness.

14. Do not entrust the secrets of this religion to the sinful greed of men’s minds; for one should not initiate souls of depraved men into the holy rituals. This divine science cannot at any time adhere to a mind captured and stained by wicked greed, and it always sustains the greatest loss when it is defamed by improper intentions.

15. Therefore be pure chaste; and if you have separated yourself from all kinds of wicked activity which destroy the spirit; and if the desire for the right way of life has freed you from any suspicion of crime, and if you conduct yourself as one mindful of the Divine Seed, approach this work and commit to memory the following books. In this way, having attained the true knowledge of this divine art, when you calculate the destinies of men and chart the course of their lives, you will be directed not only by your readings but also by the conclusions of your own reasoning. Thus your own divinely inspired ideas may be of more profit to you than the traditions of the written word.

William Lilly and Elias Ashmole

I have uploaded an article to my web site – http://www.sue-ward.co.uk – called Beyond the Great Fire: Lilly and Ashmole. It is based on a paper I presented at the A.A. conference a few years ago and I reminded of it when I posted William Lilly's true nativity. You'll find a little more information about that nativity and directions, etc. there and some of the charts involving his friendship with Ashmole.

I hope you'll find it interesting.

Terms' Poll

The Tradition journal and the Academy of Astrology is now conducting a survey to discover which system of terms is favoured by practitioners. You can participate by following this link: http://www.academyofastrology.org/research/termpoll/

Don't forget to download your FREE copy of The Tradition NEWS for updates, the results of the House System Poll and comments on the Vernal Ingress. Follow the journal link to the right.

Manilius on Hard Work

There would be no harm in emphasising Peter Stockinger's comment below on House Systems where he tells us that the secret to becoming a competent astrologer is hard work. It reminded me of a passage in Astronomica by Marcus Manilius which was written in the 1st century AD and which very eloquently explains the principle.

The object of your quest is God: you are seeking to scale the skies and, though born beneath the rule of fate, to gain knowledge of that fate; you are seeking to pass beyond your understanding and make yourself master of the universe. The toil involved matches the reward to be won, nor are such high attainments secured without a price; so wonder not at the winding route and the intricacy of things. It is enough that we have been given the power to make the search: let the rest be left to us. Unless you mine mountains, gold will elude your grasp, and the earth that is heaped above will bar access to the wealth it hides. Men will traverse the entire globe to make jewels available, and will not shrink from occupying the sea to gain the precious pearl. Each year the anxious farmer will utter every prayer he knows, and yet how small is the yield of the treacherous countryside! We shall face the perils of the sea-winds in our search for gain and follow the god of war in hope of booty. Ah, shame on those willing to pay so high a price for perishable goods! Luxury too entails a kind of military service: the glutton keeps sleepless watch over that which proves his ruin, and profligates oft pant for their own undoing. What then shall we give for heaven? What is the worth of that, with which we may purchase all? Man must expend his very self before God can dwell in him.

Nothing much has changed in 2000 years.

House Systems

Following the publication of the House Systems' Poll in The Tradition NEWS , Peter Stockinger has made some interesting comments on his web log. I should say straightaway that I agree with him completely and because I think his post is important, I would like to take up his discussion from another perspective.

When I read the results of this poll, I was reminded of the situation with house systems when I began in astrology in the early 1980s when Equal House and Placidus were the dominant systems. Campanus, Koch, Porphyry and many others were discussed and written about, new systems were presented each supposedly answering doubts found within the others. Regiomontanus came to the forefront because of the indefatigable work of Olivia Barclay in her attempts to promote the work of William Lilly, thus it was that this system became popular, and I will say more about this below. With all the arguments about which was the definitive house system, most students were left confused and unsure about what to do, until someone (I don't know who) came up with the solution of the 'no house' house system. That is, the angles of the chart would be calculated and then left at that; the chart being delineated through the quadrants. (Porphyry itself was seen as a compromise between Equal House and Placidus and thus as a solution.) This, too, became fashionable and I recall that it held its ground for a little while.

If I were to list the order of popularity of the house systems from 20 or 30 years ago, you'd see that little has changed in terms of the understanding of house systems. The choice for most people seems to made on the basis of who it is that is recommending the system, and little to do with the system itself.

I began my studies before the advent of the personal computer and astrological software. A few years later we did have some software for certain scientific calculators, but that was it – we used tables. This probably was beneficial because to be able to generate these other, more novel systems, one needed the tables to go with them. Tables of houses could only be found by going to a bookshop, although sometimes we could buy through mail order. Also, calculating manually did tend to slow down some of our more eccentric activities; I could calculate and draw a chart in about 15 minutes (this is very fast), but even I was disinclined to calculate lots of charts simply to test some new-fangled technique.

Peter Stockinger has brought up the idea of fads and fashions in astrology and I agree with him, but this doesn't only extend to the house system, it also extends to the astrological method in totality. Modern, Traditional, Medieval and Classical (Hellenistic) attract their own adherents or followers, but the largest proportion of each are those who use a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Mixing systems or methodologies is a mistake and does no justice to any of the systems or methods employed. You might think that the mixing takes place between the Modern system and one of the earlier methodologies, but this isn't completely true. There are many practitioners who mix, say, Medieval with Traditional, or either of these with Classical which displays a lack of confidence and understanding.

Working astrology on a 'pick 'n mix' basis is understandable these days because there is so much information so easily available through the internet. But what needs to be said, I think, is that its recent manifestation began with the rising success of the Tradition in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Whilst the Tradition was encapsulated within horary astrology, and stayed there, no questions or antagonisms were raised; it was a specialised field that required its own 'rules' and no-one disabused the Modern practitioners of that (readers might not know that when I began my studies in the Tradition, horary was an astrological pariah). Later I began to lecture and write on the use of the Tradition in nativities and mundane work. It became clear to me that the idea that the same system could be universally applied was causing some people problems, particularly as other Traditionalists began to do the same, and as natal courses became available. It seems to be at around that time that the divisions of application were set, that is, that the Traditional system was to be used for horary and perhaps mundane, and the Modern system for nativities. As this happened, so too did decisions about house systems – one for each astrological application.

There is only one astrology and it encompasses nativities, horary, elections, and mundane. Choose your period and stick to it, learn it thoroughly and cleanse your mind of everything else you've learned about astrology. Do not be tempted to introduce techniques from other periods ('bolt ons' don't work in astrology), use the house system associated with that period, and understand the historical and cultural context for that period. Just because we have access to all these historical periods, doesn't mean that we have to make porridge of them. Astrology is the language of the stars, not Esperanto.

The Tradition NEWS

There is a free download of The Tradition NEWS available now at The Tradition Web Log. It features updates on the forthcoming issue of The Tradition and articles.

Lilly's Nativity in Finnish

My article regarding William Lilly's true nativity has been translated into Finnish by Petri Laakso and can be found at

http://parsaprojekti.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/william-lillyn-syntymakartta/