Cabala, Cabalism; also Kabalism, kabalistic. (1)
The Cabalists assume that every word of the inspired writings embodies a secret
meaning, the key to which only they possess; (2) a summation of the ancient
lore accredited to the ancient rabbis of
Cacodemon. An evil spirit; the elemental. A
term once employed in connection with the twelfth house, but no longer in use.
Cadent. Those houses which fall away
from the angles; the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th houses. Cadent Planets are those
which occupy Cadent Houses, and whose influence is thereby weakened. v.
Houses.
Caduceus. n. The wand of Hermes, or
Mercury, the messenger of the gods. A cosmic, sidereal, or astronomical symbol;
its significance changing with its application. Originally a triple-headed serpent,
it is now a rod with two serpents twined around it, and two wings at the top.
As a medical insignia it may appear as a rod surmounted by a ball, representing
the Solar orb, and a pine cone, representing the pineal gland. The entwined
white and black serpents represent the struggle between good and evil - disease
and cure. Another form is the Thyrus, often pictured in the hands of Bacchus.
Astronomically, the head and tail represent the Nodes - the points on the
ecliptic where Sun and Moon meet in an eclipse. v. Aaron's Rod.
Calendar. A system of reckoning and recording the time when events occur;
the coordination of the days, weeks, and months of the year with the cycles
upon which they are based.
The frequency with which astrologers
have been known to accept without question a birthdate that a little inquiry
would reveal as a Julian date, rather suggests that sometimes we strain at a
gnat and swallow a camel: calculating with great care to the hour and minute,
cusps and planets' places for a date that is 10 or 11 days in error according
to the calendar on which our computations are based.
Throughout the centuries the recording
of time has been a problem, to the study of which lifetimes have been devoted.
To the historian the correct day is important, but to the astrologer the
correct hour of the correct day is not only important - it is essential. An
aftermath of World War II will probably be an increasing number of contacts
with people who have Julian birthdates, and who know so little about astrology
that the importance of reimpressing their birthdate upon their memory in
Gregorian terms never occurs to them.
To render more vivid the problem of
the world's calendar makers, there is presented a survey of the manner in which
it has been met in different epochs and in remote countries.
Fundamentally time is reckoned by the
Earth's rotation on its axis with reference to the Sun, a day; by the Moon's
revolution around the Earth, a month; and by the Earth's revolution around the
Sun, a year. Of mechanical gadgets for recording the passing of time, their
number is legion; but their correction always comes from the astronomical
observatory.
The recurrence of the Vernal Equinox
on the same day each year is the one supreme and inflexible necessity - and
that we have not even yet fully attained. In astrology, the complexities
arising out of a variety of calendars constitute a major problem. The day is
universal as a unit of time, but to group days into months, and months into a
year, and keep in step with the universe and the seasons introduces serious
difficulties. Days do not add up to lunar months, and months do not add up to
years, other than through recourse to numerous devices and ingenious
compromises.
The planets pursue their inexorable
courses, wholly unmindful of man's need for a method whereby to determine the
places they occupied at a given moment of time. The moment is easy enough to
identify when it occurs, but how to record the moment in terminology that will
suffice to identify it a century later is a vastly more difficult problem. A
study of the various calendars is perhaps the shortest way to an appreciation
of the importance of a matter which involves the basic facts with which the
astrologer must deal.
The Mohammedan calendar is one
of the most primitive. It is strictly a Lunar calendar, the year consisting of
twelve lunar months, which retrograde through the seasons in about 32½
years. To reconcile the lunar cycle to a given number of complete days, a leap
year is introduced on the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th,
26th and 29th years of a thirty year cycle, making these years consist of 355
days instead of 354. The names of the months and the number of days are:
1, Muharram (30); 2, Saphar (29); 3,
Rabia I (30); 4, Rabia II (29); 5, Jomada I (30); 6, Jomada II (29); 7, Rajah
(30); 8, Shaaban (29); 9, Ramadan (30); 10, Shawaal (29); 11, Dulkasda (30);
and 12, Dulheggia (29 or 30). The years are calculated from July 16, 622 A.D.,
the day following the Hegira, the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina after
an attempted assassination. The beginning of the 46th cycle, with the first day
of Muharram, in the year 1351, compares to May 7, 1932 of the Gregorian
calendar; continuing:
1365.............. Dec.
6, 1945
1366.............. Nov.
25, 1946
1367.............. Nov.
15, 1947
1368.............. Nov.
3, 1948
1369.............. Oct.
24, 1949
1370.............. Oct.
13, 1950
1371.............. Oct.
2, 1951
1372.............. Sept.
21, 1952
1373.............. Sept.
10, 1953
1374.............. Aug.
30, 1954
To find the Gregorian equivalent to
any Mohammedan date multiply 970,224 by the Mohammedan year, point off six
decimal places and add 621.5774. The whole number will be the year A.D., and the
decimal multiplied by 365 will be the day of the year.
The Egyptian calendar divided
the year into twelve months of 30 days each, with five supplemental days
following each twelfth month. Because it ignored the quarter day annual loss,
it likewise retrograded through the seasons in 1460 years, hence 1461 Egyptian
years are equal to 1460 Julian years. The Egyptian year has been called vague,
because at different epochs it has commenced at different seasons of the year.
The inadequacy of these calendars,
because totally unrelated to the cycle of the seasons, is obvious. The Hindu calendar
of India is one of the early lunisolar calendars, wherein the year is divided
into twelve months, with an intercalated month bearing the same name, inserted
after every month in which there are two lunations, which is about every three
years. The year commences about April 11, and is divided into the following
months: Baisakh, Jeth, Asarh, Sarawan, Bhadon, Asin or Kuar, Kartik, Aghan,
Pus, Magh, Phalgun, and Chait.
Another lunisolar compromise is the Chinese calendar,
wherein the year begins with the first new Moon after the Sun enters Aquarius.
It consists of 12 months, with an intercalary month every 30 months, each month
divided into thirds. It dates from 2697 B.C., whereby the Gregorian equivalent
of the Chinese year 4647 is 1950 A.D..
The Jewish calendar is likewise
a lunisolar calendar, which reckons from 3761 B.C., the traditional year of the
Creation. The ecclesiastical year begins with the first New Moon after the
Vernal Equinox, but the civil year begins with the new Moon following the
Autumnal Equinox. The years are either defective' of 353 d., regular, of 354 d.
or perfect, of 355 d., with an intercalated month on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th,
14th, 17th and 19th years of the 19-year Metonic cycle. Each month begins on
the new moon -- not the moment of the Lunation but of the new moon's visibility
-- allowing some elasticity for bringing certain Festivals on suitable days of
the week. The Jewish civil calendar, and its important days, runs thus:
1. The so-called October new Moon.
Tishri (30 d.). New Year's day, or Rosh Hashanah; containing the Feast of
Gedelis; Yom- kippur; Succoth, Hashana Rabba; Shemini-Atzereth; and Simchath-
Torah. 2. Heshvan (29 or 30 d.). 3. Kislev (29 or 30 d.) containing Hanaca. 4.
Teveth (29 d.); containing the Fast of Teveth. 5. Shevat (30 d.). 6. Adar (29
d. or 30 d.). Ve-Adar (29 d.). An intercalary month on leap years, containing
the Fast of Esther, and Purim. 7. Nissan (30 d.); containing Pessach, the first
day of the Passover. 8. Iyar (29 d.); containing Lag B'omer. 9. Sivan (30 d.);
containing Shevuoth. 10. Tamuz (29 d.); containing the Fast of Tamuz, for the
taking of Jerusalem. 11. Av (30 d.) ; containing the Fast of Av, for the Destruction
of the Temple. 12. Ellul (29 d.).
The current Lunar cycle, the 301st,
consists of these comparative years:
5701........ Oct. 3, 1940
5702........ Sept. 22, 1941
5703........ Sept. 12, 1942
5704........ Sept. 30, 1943
5705........ Sept. 18, 1944
5706........ Sept. 8, 1945
5707........ Sept. 26, 1946
5708........ Sept. 15, 1947
5709........ Oct. 4, 1948
5710........ Sept. 24, 1949
5711........ Sept. 12, 1950
5712........ Oct. 1, 1951
5713........ Sept. 20, 1952
5714........ Sept. 1O, 1953
5715........ Sept. 28, 1954
5716........ Sept. 17, 1955
5717........ Sept. 6, 1956
5718........ Sept. 26, 1957
5719........ Sept. 15, 1958
The Roman calendar is presumed
originally to have consisted of ten months, of a total of 304 days, beginning
with Martius and ending with December. Numa added January and February,
bringing it up to 355 d., and ordered an intercalary month every second year.
The Romans counted backwards from three fixed points in the month: the calends,
the 1st; the ides, the 15th of March, May, July and October, and the 13th of
other months; and the nones, the 8th day before the ides. Thus the ides of
March was March 15th; March 13th was the third day before the ides; March 7th
was the nones of March; while March 30th was the third day before the calends of
April.
Abuse of power by the pontiffs and the
many wars of conquest prior to the Christian era finally so disrupted the Roman
calendar that after his conquest of Egypt Julius Caesar brought to Rome a Greek
astronomer, Sosigines, who with the aid of Marcus Fabius accomplished the first
great calendar reform, the Julian calendar, named after himself, which went
into effect through the civilized world in 45 B.C., and continued in use until
1582 A.D. These reforms consisted of the following:
(1) The equinox was returned to March,
by inserting two months between November and December of 46 B.C., creating what
was thereafter known as "the last year of confusion." (2) The lunar
year and the intercalary month were abolished. (3) The length of the mean solar
year was fixed at 365.25 days, the length at which the ancients had figured it.
(4) To compensate for the accumulation of these fractions into a day every four
years, the extra day was inserted at the end of February, then the last month
of the year, making it a "leap year" of 366 days. (5) Renamed
Quintilis, the fifth month, after himself, calling it Juli. (6) Evenly
distributed the days among the months, 30 days to the even months, and 31 days
to the odd months, except February which had 30 days only in leap year. (7)
Ordered it to take effect January 1, 45 B.C. However, despite the fact that the
Julian calendar went into effect on January 1st, the civil year continued to
date from March 25th.
The system was slightly disarranged by
Augustus, who renamed Sextilis as August, but refusing to be honored by a
shorter month than Julius, ordered it increased to 31 days, reducing February
to 28 days except on leap years. Hence, to him we owe the irregular arrangement
of the 30 and 3i day months, and the poem we moderns must recite in order to
tell which are which. He did, however, render one important service, not
without its droll aspects, by suspending leap years for some eleven years to
correct a 3-day error which had progressively accumulated because the pontiffs
had been intercalating every third instead of every fourth year for some 36
years, and this error of from 1 to 3 days in the chronology of the period has
never been corrected.
Meanwhile the Equinox continued to
retrograde. When Julius introduced his reform it fell on March 25th; by 325,
the Council at Nicea, it was the 21st; by 1570 it was the 11th. The Venerable
Bede had called attention to it in the 8th Century and John Holywood in the
13th. Roger Bacon finally wrote a thesis on calendar reform and sent it to the
Pope; and in 1474 Pope Sixtus IV summoned Regiomontanus to Rome to superintend
a reconstruction of the calendar, but he died with the task unfinished.
A century later Aloysius Lilius, a
Verona physician and astronomer and doubtless an astrologer, worked out what he
believed to be the exact requirements for a calendar that would keep step with
the seasons. After his death his brother presented the plan to Pope Gregory
XII, who gathered a group of learned men to discuss it, including Clavius, who
later wrote an 800-page Treatise explaining it. Thus it was that after five
years of study the Gregorian calendar was put into effect in 1582,
instituting the following reforms:
(1) Ten days were dropped by ordering
October 5th to be counted as October 15th. (2) The length of the solar year was
corrected to 365 d. 5 h. 49 m. 12 s. (3) The year was made to begin January 1.
(4) The centesimal years were made leap years only if divisible by 400 -
thereby gaining the fraction of a day per hundred years that in fifteen
centuries had amounted to ten days.
The new calendar was immediately
adopted in all Roman Catholic countries, but the rest of the world was slow to
accept it. Germany, Denmark and Sweden did not adopt it until 1700.
In Anglo-Saxon England the year began
December 25th, until William of Normandy, following his conquest of England,
ordered it to begin on January 1st, chiefly because this was the day of his
coronation. Later England adopted March 25th, to coincide with the date on
which most of the Christian peoples of the medieval epoch reckoned the
beginning of the year. By edict Constantine later made Easter the beginning of
the year, and it continued to be observed as New Year's Day until 1565, when
Charles IV changed it back to January 1st.
Not until 1752 did Britain finally
adopt the Gregorian calendar, suppressing 11 days and ordering that the day
following September 2, 1752 be accounted as September 14th. Those who objected
to the disruption of the week of festivities with which they were wont to
celebrate the New Year, March 25th to April 1st, were sent mock gifts, or paid
pretendedly ceremonious calls on April 1st, a custom that survives today in
April Fool's Day.
The countries under the sway of the
Greek orthodox church continued to follow the Julian calendar, and not until
1918 did Russia finally adopt it.
Those to whom the calendar is an
economic necessity, and who are proposing various calendar reforms designed to
facilitate interest computations and achieve uniformity of holidays, find
themselves impeded by the requirements of the Ecclesiastical Calendar as set
forth by the Council of Nicea, 325 A.D., as follows:
(1) Easter must fall on a Sunday; (2)
This Sunday must follow the 14th day after the Paschal Moon; (3) The Paschal
Moon is that Full Moon of which the Lunation 14 days thereafter falls on or
next after the day of the Vernal Equinox; (4) The Vernal Equinox is fixed in
the calendar as the 21st of March.
It was then provided that if the 14th
day after the Paschal Moon falls on a Sunday, the following Sunday is to be
celebrated as Easter - to make certain that it did not coincide with the Jewish
Passover. Thereby did history again repeat itself, for according to Dio Cassius
the Egyptians began the week on Saturday, but the Jews, from hatred of their
ancient oppressors, made it the last day of the week.
To make Easter a fixed date in the
calendar, such as April 8th, the suggestion of which has been advanced, would
not only disturb the ecclesiastical calendar, but most of the proposed plans
would destroy the continuity of the days of the week and upset the system of
planetary hour rulerships which is almost as ancient as the recording of time.
The seven days of the week represented the quadrants of the Moon's period in an
age when time was reckoned almost entirely by the Moon. Methuselah's great age
of 969 years was doubtless that many lunar months, then called years, which if
reduced to Gregorian years as we know them would make him around 79 years of
age.
The all but universal division of the
year into twelve months, and of the Earth's annual orbit into twelve arcs,
appears to be a recognition of the changes in equilibrium that take place
during the traversal of the circuit: a moving body (the Earth) bent into an
orbit, by the attraction of a gravitational center (the Sun) which also pursues
an orbit around a more remote gravitational center (the center of our Milky Way
galaxy). Present astronomical opinion places this center at a remote point in
the direction of 0° Capricorn, which is also the direction of the Earth's polar
inclination. This suggests that it may not be merely the Earth that oscillates,
causing the pole to describe the circle from which results the 25,000-year
precessional cycle, but the entire plane of the Earth's motion. This would be
analogous to the Moon's intersection of the plane of the Earth's orbit at the
Nodes, at an inclination of 5°, thereby producing a three-dimensional motion.
The Earth's orbit may even be inclined to the Sun by the amount of the polar
inclination making the equinoctial points the Earth's nodes of intersection
with the plane of the Sun's orbit.
In any event in order that the
calendar shall coincide with the seasons it must bear a fixed relationship to
the Vernal Equinox, for in the last analysis the unit by which the year is
determined is the Earth's orbit as measured from one Vernal Equinox to the
next. The few moments of time represented by the discrepancy between a complete
circle and the precession of the point of reference is the only figment of time
actually thrown away and unaccounted for in any calendar.
If we must have calendar reform, it
would be far more practical to make the year begin at the Vernal Equinox, and
so allocate the days among the months that the first day of each successive
month shall coincide approximately with the ingress of the Sun into each sign.
This could be accomplished by 12 months of 30 days each, with a 31st day after
the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th months, and on leap years after the 12th month;
and by making all the 31st days holidays or moratorium days, hence not to be
included in any calculations of interest, rent or other legal considerations.
The legal year would consist 360 days, and computations be thereby greatly
simplified.
If some one February were ordered
prolonged by 20 days, February 48th to be followed by March 1st on the day of
the Vernal Equinox, it would reinstate September to December as respectively
the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th months, and end the year with February 30th, or on
leap years, the 3st. The holidays could readily be celebrated on these
moratorium days, and even the Fourth of July could preserve its name and
character and still be observed on the moratorium day that preceded the first
day of July.
There would be no advantage in making
Easter a fixed date, and its determination under present rules could still be
done as readily as is the date for the Jewish Passover. Such a reform would,
however, result in great psychological gain to the peoples of the world. Some
claim, on Biblical authority, that the year should begin on the Summer
Solstice, and that by dedicating to the Creator the middle of the 3 days when
the Sun hangs motionless, the year will divide into 2 halves of equal size,
each consisting of 182 days - the first half feminine and the second half
masculine.
The importance of a New Year point of
beginning is to be seen in the manner in which in all ages the advent of the
New Year has been celebrated with festivities.
Babylon, in 2250 B.C., celebrated New
Year at the Vernal Equinox, with an 11-day festival, Zagmuk, in honor of their
patron deity, Marduk. The Egyptians, Phoenicians and Persians celebrated it at
the time of the Autumnal Equinox. Until the fifth century B.C., the Greeks
celebrated it at the Winter Solstice, as did the Romans with a festival
dedicated to Saturn - the Saturnalia. To counteract this revelry the early
Christians celebrated it in commemoration of the birth of Jesus with prayer and
acts of charity. When the year was made to begin on January 1st, Christmas was
shifted to December 25th, the octave of New Year's day, the while Pagan Rome
made sacrifices to Janus, after whom January was named. Janus, guardian deity
of gates, was represented with two faces, watching both entering and departing
wayfarers: the going out of the old year and the coming in of the new.
Emperors began extorting tribute, strena,
by way of New Year's gifts. Henry III of England followed this precedent, a
custom which did not become entirely obsolete until the Commonwealth.
The Scottish name for New Year's Eve
is Hogmany, when the children ran around singing and begging gifts in the form
of oaten cakes. The Parsees, Persians who emigrated to India, celebrate
Yazdegera with worship of their divinities and visits to their friends to join
hands in the ceremony of hamijar. The Druids distributed sprigs of sacred
misletoe. On the continent the New Year giving of strenae "for luck"
still survives, but in English-speaking countries it has been superseded by the
Christmas gift, while the wassail-bowl has now become a bowl of eggnog.
Cancer The fourth sign of the zodiac. v.
Signs.
Cappella. A yellow star, in 20° Gemini,
the spectrum of which more nearly than that of any other bright Northern star,
resembles the spectrum of our Sun.
Capricorn. The tenth sign of the zodiac. v.
Signs.
Caput Draconis. The Dragon's Head. v. Moon's
Node.
Cardinal Signs. Aries, Cancer, Libra and
Capricorn -- whose cusps coincide with the cardinal points of the compass:
Aries, East; Cancer, North; Libra, West; and Capricorn, South. v. Signs.
Casting the Horoscope. The term used by astrologers to
imply the calculations necessary to be made, prior to the delineation of the
nativity. v. Figure.
Cataclysmic Planet. Uranus, which combines both teh
magnetic and the electric elements, producing sudden effects.
Catahibazon. An Arabic term for Cauda
Draconis. v. Moon's Node.
Cauda Draconis. The Dragon's Tail. v. Moon's
Node.
Cazimi. An Arabian astronomical term
applied to the center of the Solar disc. It is employed to describe a planet
located within an arc of seventeen minutes (17') of the Sun's longitude: or by
some authorities within half a degree of the Sun's center. It is then said to
be "in the heart of the Sun." Older authorities considered that this
position fortified the planet as much as combustion debilitates it. In his
dictionary, James Wilson scoffed at this "silly distinction," saying
that a planet so placed "is undoubtedly in the worst state of combustion."
Most modern authorities are inclined to agree with him, although the favorable
and unfavorable qualities it imparts vary according to the planet involved. v.
Combust.
Celestial Sphere. If one pictures the sphere we call the Earth, enlarged to
embrace the visible heavens, the resulting concept can be called the celestial
sphere. If it is a true sphere, any circle drawn around it can be termed a
circumference. To locate any particular circle as a circumference, implies the
selection of some point of reference.
The Horizontal System. If your particular location on the
Earth is selected as your point of reference, the point directly overhead is
the zenith. The opposite point, below the Earth, is the Nadir. At right angles
to these is a plane which is called the Horizon: the extension to the Celestial
circle of the line which, from the point you occupy, intersects earth and sky.
These established, you have a Vertical circle running from the Zenith, through
a middle point between East and West, to the Nadir; and similar circles running
through each degree all around the horizon. The distance of each of these
circles from your circle is measured by the arc at which the circles intersect
at the Zenith - termed Azimuth. Parallel to the Horizon are Parallels of
altitude. These are measured by the arc separating the radius of your horizon
from a line drawn from the same center to a given parallel of altitude.
The trouble with this system is that a
location based upon your position fails to describe the same location as viewed
from any other point on the Earth's surface.
The Equator System. This takes as a point of reference the diurnal rotation of the
Earth around its axis. Extending the North and South poles, you have the North
and South Celestial poles. Extending the Equator, you have the Celestial
Equator. The Equator is intercepted by Hour Circles, whereby location is
indicated in hours and minutes of Right Ascension, measured Eastward from the
Zero Circle which passes through Greenwich. Parallel to the Equator are Parallels
of Declination, indicated by their angular distance plus, if North of the
Equator; and minus if South.
With your celestial sphere marked off
on this system, it can be seen that the Sun does not travel around this
Celestial equator; but instead, its orbit is inclined to that of the Equator
some 23.5 degrees. The points at which the Sun's apparent orbit intersects the
Equator are the Equinoxes, and the points of greatest separation are the
Solstices. (These names have to do with an entirely different but coincidental
factor. v.
Precession.)
The Ecliptic System. The path of the Sun, called the Ecliptic, is based on the annual
revolution of the Earth around the Sun. Taking this apparent path of the Sun as
a circumference, you have at right angles thereto the North and South poles of
the Ecliptic: connected by vertical circles of Longitude measured in degrees
Eastward from the Vernal Equinox. Circles parallel to the Ecliptic are measured
in degrees of Latitude North or South.
Stretching for some 8 degrees on
either side of the Ecliptic is a belt in which lie the orbits of all the solar
system bodies, each inclined in various degrees to the Earth's orbit. Since
Hipparchus
(q.v.), the greatest of the ancient astronomers, this belt has been
divided into twelve 30° arcs, or signs, measured from the Vernal Equinox; the
signs named from the constellations which once coin- cided with these arcs, but
which because of the Precession of the Equinoxial point now no longer coincide.
The statement that this disproves astrology is sheer ignorance, for no modern
astrologer ascribes the sign influences to their background of stars, but to
conditions of momentum and gravitation within the earth by virtue of its annual
revolution around the Sun. (v. Zodiac; Precession; Galactic Center.) Many of these
terms are loosely used by some astrologers, largely because they lack complete
astronomical understanding of the factors on which their map of the heavens for
a given moment is erected. (v. Map of the Heavens.)
Vertical Sphere. The circle of observation in which one stands when facing South
(probably so termed because it is the observer's horizon raised vertically and
projected upon the heavens), is the circle that is presumably subdivided into
twelve equal 2-hour segments as it passes over the horizon, which divisions are
termed the Houses of a Nativity. On the Equator these Houses are equal in both
time and arc, but they become increasingly unequal in arc as one passes N. or
S. from the Equator. This results from the declination of the Poles, and the
consequent inclination of the Ecliptic to the Equator. The planets which are
posited in these signs pass obliquely through the semi-arc of the Ecliptic to
the Mid-heaven - not the zenith. Therefore the position which a planet will occupy
at some future moment, to which it is desired to direct it, must be calculated
by Oblique
Ascension.
In an effort to reconcile the rising
or ascendant moment at which a planet passes above the horizon, with its
oblique ascension along the Ecliptic to a mid-heaven point that is on the same
longitudinal circle as the Zenith, but a considerable distance removed from it,
various attempted compromises have resulted in several different systems of
House Division
(q.v.). The horizon system appears to yield the correct House
positions of the planets in a birth map, but the directing (q.v.) of
planets to the positions they will occupy at some future moment, requires the
application of Oblique Ascension, both to the planets' places and to the
progressed cusps.
For a concise classification of the
term, note the appended table:
THE CELESTIAL SPHERE
Circle of reference
Horizon
Celestial Equator Ecliptic
Poles
Zenith
N. celestial pole Midheaven
Nadir
S. celestial pole Immum Coeli
Secondary Circles Vertical
circles Hour
Circles
Latitude circles
Parallels of altitude Parallels of declination Parallels of Latitude Coordinates
Altitude
Declination
Celes. Latitude
Azimuth
Right Ascension Celes.
Longitude
Zero
Circle Vertical c.
thru S. Hour c. thru Ver.
Latit. c. thru V.
point
Equinox
Equinox.
Direction of first Through
West Eastward
Eastward
coordinate
Ceres. (1) Daughter of Ops and Saturn;
a Roman goddess of growing vegetation, particularly corn. Her day of
celebration occurred on April 19th. (2) The first of the Asteroids (q.v.)
to be discovered.
Chaldaeans. First a Semitic tribe, but later
the magi of Babylonia, astrologers and diviners. From among them came "the
wise men from the East." We know little of Chaldaean astrology, but some
idea of their teachings are to be gleaned from the Chaldaean Oracles. With them
Astrology was a religion, but of a far different type from any which has
survived to modern times. The Chaldaean priests were famous Astrologers. They
held that the world is eternal, without beginning or end; that all things are
ordered by Divine providence; and that the Sun, Mars, Venus, Mercury and
Jupiter are "interpreters," concerned with making known to man the will
of God. From the regularity of motions in the heavenly bodies, they inferred
that they were either intelligent beings, or were under some presiding
intelligence. From this arose Sabianism, the worship of the host of heaven:
Sun, Moon and Stars. It originated with the Arabian kingdom of Saba (Sheba),
whence came the Queen of Sheba. The chief object of their worship was the Sun,
Belus. To him was erected the tower of Belus, and the image of Belus. They did
not worship the stars as God, who they thought of as too great to be concerned
with mundane affairs; but they worshipped those whom they believed He had
appointed as mediators between God and man. Their religion was based upon a
belief in one impersonal, universal Principle, but to which they gave no name.
To their lesser gods they erected huge temples, of a peculiar construction,
specially adapted for star worship. Here they healed the sick, and performed
certain magical ceremonies. An inscription on the pedestal of a statue erected
to Nebo, reads: "To the god Nebo, guardian of the mysteries, director of
the stars: he who presides at the rising and setting of the sun; whose power is
immutable, and for whom the heaven was created." In the time of Alexander
the Great, 356 B.C., the Chaldaeans alleged that their Astrology had existed
473,000 years.
Chaldaean Oracle. An Oracle venerated as highly by
the Chaldaeans as was the one at Delphi, by the Greeks. It taught that
"Though Destiny may be written in the stars, it is the mission of the
divine soul to raise the human soul above the circle of necessity." The
Oracle promised victory to any one who developed that masterly will. The
Chaldaean teachings with regard to karma and reincarnation, are today found in
Theosophy.
Changeable Signs. v. Signs.
Character. The sublime strength of
Astrology is in its delineation of character. As destiny is subservient to
character, no prediction should be ventured until the patterns of emotional
stimulation and environment are understood. Character is the cumulative result
of the aggregate of experience. Daily cosmic stimulation through birth
receptivities constitutes a portion of the aggregate of experience. But cosmic
stimulation is a conditioning process that determines only the nature of one's
reactions, while the reaction takes place only when called into play by some
accidental encounter within an environment. Thus environment plus reaction
produces an event, and the sum total of events becomes the aggregate of
experience - out of which one learns or fails to learn to control reaction, and
thereby character evolves.
Character of Planets. v. Planets.
Characteristics of the Signs. v. Signs.
Chart. v. Figure.
Chronocrators. Markers of Time. (1) To
the ancients the longest orbits within the solar system were those of Jupiter,
12 years, and Saturn, 30 years. Thus the points at which Jupiter caught up with
and passed Saturn marked the greatest super-cycle with which they were able to
deal. This phenomenon occurred every 20 years at an advance of about 243°.
Therefore, for some 200 years or more (exactly 198 years, 265 days) these
conjunctions would recur successively in a Sign of the same element. Thereby
every 800 to 960 years it would return in Sagittarius, making the Grand
Climactic conjunction which marked supreme epochs in the history of mankind.
This conjunction made its reappearance in Sagittarius around the commencement
of the Christian era, and again in the eighth and sixteenth centuries, bringing
periods of great world-upheaval. For this reason Jupiter and Saturn are called
the great chronocrators - a word which does not appear in Webster's Dictionary
nor the Encyclopedia Britannica, but about which volumes have been written by
astrological authorities.
The 20-year conjunctions are
termed minims, or specialis; the 200-year cycle, media,
or trigonalis - change of trigons; and the 800-year cycle, maxima,
or climacteria. In the series there are ten conjunctions in Signs
of the Fire-element, ten in Earth, and so on.
Tycho Brahe (in his Progymnasin,
Bk. 1) said that all the odd-numbered climacteria: 1, 3, 5, etc., were
auspicious, "ushering in signal favors of the Almighty to mankind."
Both Kepler and Alsted said that the climacteria would "burn up and
destroy the dregs and dirty-doings of Rome." The Star of Bethlehem is
frequently presumed to have been a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, possibly
reinforced by Mars. The associating of this conjunction with the record of
Joshua having commanded the Sun and Moon to stand still, and of Ahab's report
that the Sun had retrograded 10°, is probably erroneous, for these more than
likely had to do with readjustments of the calendar to correct the effect of
precession, as was done in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII ordered the suppression
of ten days in order to restore the equinox to its rightful date.
It appears that Daniel utilized
the climacteria as the basis of his "Seventy Weeks of Prophecy,"
wherein he connected the coming of the Messiah with the tribulations to be
visited on the Jews (Daniel ix:25). As Daniel was a Chaldean student (Daniel
ix:2), it is reasonable to assume that this period of frequent mention was
derived by him from the famous Chaldean tables of the Sun, Moon and Planets.
These tables are lost to us, but from many historical references we know the
Chaldeans employed a Soli-lunar calendar, and so tabulated their dates that 490
lunar years were almost exactly contained in 475 solar years.
If 12 lunations made a lunar
year, there would be 5,880 lunations in 490 lunar years. On the Biblical unit
of a day for a year, 490 days are 70 weeks - Daniel's Seventy weeks.
One-seventieth of the 5,880 lunations, is 84 lunations: about 7 lunar years, or
6 solar years and 9 months-the actual duration of each of Daniel's seventy
weeks.
In the ancient Hebrew calendar 12
lunar months totalled 354.37 days - 11¼ days short of a solar year. In 8
years this discrepancy totalled about 3 solar months, which were added every 8
years. In 475 years there would be 59 such additions, of which the intercalated
time aggregated 15 years. This, added to 475 solar years, equals 490 lunar
years of the Hebrew calendar - to within an error of only 2 days. Thus it is
seen that in this period the lunar and solar calendars coincided, making the
cycle to which Daniel referred in his Seventy Weeks of Prophecy. (In 475
Julian years are 173495.0 days; in 475 true years, 173490.0 days; in 5875
lunations, 173492.2 days. Thus this ancient Chaldean cycle has a mean value
almost exactly midway between that of a Julian year and a true year.)
Comparing this period to the
progressive conjunctions of the great chronocrators, it is found that 24
conjunctions occur in 476.635 years, almost the period of 5,880 lunations in
which the Sun, Moon, Jupiter and Saturn conjoin at a point advanced about 35
degrees in the Zodiac.
Daniel also mentions a cycle of
2,300 years, which offers confirmation of this inference, in that 116
conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn occur in a period of 2,303.8 years.
Furthermore Daniel, at the beginning of his 70 weeks, recounts how in the
fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad (about 444 B.C.) Artaxerxes sent
Nehemiah to restore Jerusalem. (It can be inferred that the book of Daniel
was not written until some 280 years after this event, for in it Daniel calls
to the Jews to hold out against the policies of Antiochus Epiphanes - who
flourished about 170 B.C.) We also find that a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction
took place in 442 B.C.
(2) In another sense, the word chronocraters
has been applied to the Rulers of the Seven Ages of Man (q.v.).
Chronos. (1) The original supreme
deity, superseded by Zeus. (2) In ancient texts, the planet Saturn (q.v.).
Circle. The complete circle of the
zodiac, or 360 degrees of 60 minutes each.
Circles of Position. Circles intersecting the horizon
and meridian, and passing through a star: in terms of which to express the
position of the star. Their use is not obsolete. However, Circles of Position
were not so used by Ptolemy or Placidus, who measured the distance of every
star by its semi-arc.
Cities, Sign Rulership. v. Signs.
Clairaudience. In occult terminology, the
psychic ability to hear sounds or voices regardless of distance. The hearing
sense is deemed to be ruled by Saturn; the psychic sense, by Neptune.
Clairsentience. An occult term indicating
psychic sensitivity; a "hunch" or "that peculiar feeling that
something is going to happen." Almost everyone possesses instinctive and
intuitive clairsentience to some degree, largely dependent upon the nature of
the configurations in which Neptune is involved.
Climacterical Conjunction. Said of certain Jupiter-Saturn
Conjunctions. v. Chronocrators.
Climacterical Periods. Every 7th and 9th year in a
Nativity, supposedly brought about through the influence of the Moon in its
position in the Radix. The Moon squares her own place by transit every 7th day,
and by direction every 7th year; and trines it every 9th day and year. Thus the
climacterical periods occur at the ages of 7, 9, 14, 18, 21, 27, 28, 35, 36,
42, 45, 49, 54, 56, and 63 years. The most portentous are those of the 49th and
63rd years, which are doubly climacterical, 7x7 and 9x7. When evil directions
coincide these are generally deemed to be fatal. The 63rd year is called the
Grand Climacteric, and the general presumption is that more persons die in
their 63rd year than in any other from 50 to 80.
Climate. The precursors of the modern
Tables of Houses. They were calculated for every 30' shortening of the diurnal
and nocturnal semi-arc as one proceeds north or south from the Equator.
Cold planets. Moon, Saturn. v. Planets,
Hot, Slow.
Cold Signs. v. Signs.
Collection of light. When a planet is in aspect to
two other bodies which are not within orbs of each other, a collection of light
results through the action of the intermediary planet. It denotes that the
affairs represented by the two bodies whose light has been thus collected, will
be forwarded by a third person, described by the intermediary planet, providing
both bodies receive the intermediary in one of their dignities. Used in Horary
Astrology. Other authors confine it to a larger planet aspected by two smaller,
with the interpretation that if the smaller do not receive the larger in one of
their dignities, the intermediary will feel no interest in the affair, nor will
it prosper.
Colors. In the age when an astrologer
presumed to find in a chart the answer to every manner of question that could
be propounded he frequently undertook to tell, for example, which cock would
win in a cockfight merely by indicating the color associated with the strongest
planet in an Horary Figure. It also was considered an index to the coloring of
an individual's eyes, hair, and complexion, as well as the clothes he should
wear. Thus the following color chart adduced from Wilson, who professed not to
take it too seriously:
Sun: Yellow, inclined to purple.
Moon: White, or a light mixture,
perhaps spotted.
Mercury: Azure to light blue.
Venus: White and purple.
Mars: Fiery red.
Jupiter: Red and green mixture.
Saturn: Black.
To the Signs these colors are
attributed:
Aries: White and red.
Taurus: Red and citron mixture.
Gemini: Red and white mixture.
Cancer: Green or russet.
Leo: Golden or red.
Virgo: Black with blue splotches.
Libra: Dark crimson, swarthy or
black.
Scorpio: Dark brown.
Sagittarius: Olive or light
green.
Capricorn: Dark brown or black.
Aquarius: Sky blue.
Pisces: Pure white and
glistening.
The color of the fixed stars were
taken as an index to their nature: as, a star of the color of Mars is of the
nature of Mars; and so on. Placidus said the yellow color of the Sun indicates
radical heat; the white of the Moon, of passive power and radical moisture; the
blue and yellow of Venus and Jupiter, of combined heat and moisture, the
moisture predominating in Venus and the heat in Jupiter; the red of Mars, of
intemperate heat and dryness; and the lead color of Saturn, of intemperate cold
and dryness. Wilson dissents by saying that "whatever blue is the color
of, Venus has more of it than Jupiter." v. Signs.
Combust. Said of a planet when in extreme
closeness to the Sun, the limits variously placed at from 3° to 8°30'. The
characteristic effect to which the term applies is probably confined within an
arc of 3° and is more pronounced when the planet rises after the Sun. Older
authorities, including Milton, have described it as weakening, except in the
case of Mars which was said to be intensified. The probabilities are that the
effect of the combust condition is to combine the planet's influence more
closely with that of the Sun, until it is no longer a physical emotion capable of
independent control, but an integral part of that consciousness of Destiny that
the Sun imparts. Thus Mercury combust imparts to the mind a capacity for
concentration upon what it deems its own destiny, but robs it of its
receptivity to distracting or diverting influences. Hence it is no bar to the
achievement of its own objectives insofar as the ability to achieve them is
within its own powers, but it robs the native of the cooperation of those whom
he alienates by his particular species of obtuse deafness to any or all
argument that runs counter to his own concepts. Edison and Kant both illustrate
this interpretation. Venus combust may take away the strength to achieve, but
when in a particularly close conjunction with the Sun it produces the condition
sometimes termed nymphomania - described by Bolitho concerning Lola Montez.
Mars combust is always the man who fights for what he wants; and so with each
planet according to its intrinsic nature.
The distinction is an important
one, in that a person with an entirely unaspected Mercury is one who usually
develops a complex by way of an escape mechanism, while one whose Mercury is
within 5° to 10° of the Sun is seldom afflicted with any manner of mental
derangement.
Wilson says "there seems
manifest a difference in genius and propensities of natives, according to the
distance of their Mercury from the Sun; and that those whose Mercury is combust
have little wit or solid judgment, though they will persevere in business and
frequently with good success." Also that a good aspect to the Moon, if
angular and increasing in light, will in great measure remedy this defect,
making one "judicious and penetrating."
It should not be confused with
the phrase "under the Sun's beams" which applies to, let us say, the
degree of non-combustion, and is perhaps embodied in the doctrine that a planet
within the Sun's aura - which extends to 17° on either side - is within orbs of
a conjunction therewith. In other words, while the orbs of the planets, with
regard to aspects, are variously from 3° to 10° according to the nature of the
aspect, the solar orb, by conjunction or opposition, can be as much as 17°.
Comets. Erratic members of the Solar system, usually of small mass.
Luminous bodies, wandering through space, or circulating around the Sun, and
visible only when they approach the Sun. They usually consist of three
elements: nucleus, envelope, and tail. The superstitious once considered them
to be evil omens. Those pursuing an elongated orbit are periodic and return at
fixed intervals. Those with a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit are expected never
to return.
The astrological significance of
comets has been the subject of much study, but so far no definite conclusions
have been reached. Suggestion has been advanced that Donate's comet, which made
its first appearance of record in June 1858 and attained its maximum brilliancy
on October 9th, was a factor in the nativity of Theodore Roosevelt, born
October 27, 1858. It is presumed that comets presage history-making events; but
operating through individuals whose birth coincides with their appearance,
their effects are so delayed as often to be overlooked. Donati's comet was one
of the most beautiful of comets. Its tall was curved. The nucleus had a
diameter of 5,600 miles.
"When beggars die there are no
comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes." - Shakespeare.
The year of F. D. Roosevelt's birth
was also marked by the appearance of one of the brightest comets of record,
which was visible in broad daylight - even at noon.
LIST OF PERIODIC COMETS
The following lists of comets afford a
basis for their further study:
Periodic
Comets Period Distance from
Sun* Incl. to Ecliptic Perihelion Passage
Barnard's (1884)
... 5.40 1.28 -
4.89
5°28'
1906.2
Barnard's (1892)
... 6.31 1.43 -
5.38
31°40'
1905.6
Biela's
............ 6.69 0.88 -
6.22
12°22'
1866.1
Brooks's
........... 7.10 1.96 -
5.43 6°04'
1903.9
Brorsen's
.......... 5.46 0.59 -
5.61
29°24'
1890.2
Cunningham's
....... 1940.9
D'Arrest's .........
6.69 1.33 -
5.77
15°43'
1897.4
DeVico-E. Swift's...
6.40 1.67 -
5.22 3°35'
1901.1
Donati's............5000.
1858.8
Encke's.............
3.30 0.34 -
4.09
12°36' 1905.1
Faye's..............
7.39 1.65 -
5.94
10°38'
1903.4
Finlay's............
6.56 0.97 -
6.04
3°03'
1900.2
Halley's............ 76.08
0.69 -35.22
162°13'
1910.3
Holmes's............ 6.87
2.13 -
5.1
20°48'
1899.3
Olters's............ 72.65
1.02 -33.62
44°34'
1887.8
Pons-Brooks's....... 71.56 0.78
-33.7 74°3'
1884.1
Temple's............
6.54 2.09 -
4.90
10°47'
1898.8
Temple's............
5.28 1.39 -
4.68 12°39'
1904.8
Temple-L. Swift's...
5.68 1.15 -
5.21
5°26'
1903.1
Tuttle's............ 13.67
1.02 -10.41
54°29'
1899.3
Winnecke's..........
5.83 0.92 -
5.55
17° 1004.1
Wolf's.............. 6.82
1.59 -
5.60
25°15'
1905.3
*In terms of Earth's
Mean Distance.
In terms of Earth's Mean Distance. Cunningham's Comet,
first observed in 1940, had a tail of an estimated length of 60 million miles,
pointing directly upward. It was of a magnitude of 1.7.
Halley's Comet, 1835 and 1910, is the most historic comet. Every appearance has
been traced back to 240 B.C.
The head of Holmes's Comet
had a diameter in excess of a million miles. It is one of the largest of
record.
The great comet of 1843, which
seems not to have been given a name, was apparently a Periodic Comet, with an
orbit of 400 years. A tail 200 million miles in length, the longest tail of any
comet of record, made it a sight of grandeur. Its perihelion distance, 300,000
miles, was extremely short, and carried it through the Sun's corona.
Non-Periodic Comets. Among the records of non-periodic comets are: Great comet of 1729.
- The greatest of record, yet details are lacking. Its perihelion distance,
approximately 384 million miles, over four times distance of sun to earth,
brought it no closer to Sun than Jupiter's orbit, although it did go around the
Sun. Had it come as close as the average comet, its splendor would have
transcended that of any other comet.
De Cheseaux's Comet, 1744 - an unusual comet, six tails - Great Comet of 1811.
The largest comet in actual size ever observed, except the 1729 comet of which
little is known. The head was 1,125,000 miles in diameter - larger than the
Sun. The tail was 100,000,000 miles in length. It was a magnificent sight. Its
aphelion-distance was 14 times the distance of Neptune from the Sun. The wine
in France was particularly good that season, and for years was famed as
"Comet Wine."
Great Comet of 1861. Earth passed through the tail which subtended over 100° of arc.
At one time the comet was brighter than any star or planet except Venus at its
brightest, and a peculiar glow suffused the entire sky. One of the finest,
probably the brightest comet. Could be seen in broad daylight, even at noon.
Morehouse's Comet, 1908, showed the most rapid variations in appearance - the tail
changing so much from day to day that sometimes it could not be recognized as
the same comet.
Comet 1925a. In perihelion distance it was one of the largest - nearly as far
away as Jupiter.