#traditional-astrology
39 articles
HealthTemperament and Mental Character: How the Classical Mind Was Read
In classical astrology the four temperaments color the whole personality, yet the mind itself was read chiefly from Mercury and the Moon.
BeginnerThe Four Qualities: Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry
Beneath the four elements and four humors lie two simpler pairs: hot or cold, wet or dry. This small grid generates the elements, the temperaments and the sign qualities alike.
HealthThe Six Non-Naturals: The Galenic Regimen of Health
Galen's six non-naturals, air, food and drink, sleep, motion and rest, evacuation and the passions, were the daily regimen that kept the humoral temperament in balance.
HealthHow to Find Your Temperament from Your Birth Chart
The classical step-by-step method for reading temperament in a chart: the Ascendant and its ruler, the Moon by sign and phase, the season of birth, and sect, the way physicians read it from Galen to Lilly.
BeginnerFrom the Four Temperaments to Modern Personality Theory
The four temperaments outlived humoral medicine. Follow the thread from Galen through Kant to Eysenck and Keirsey, and see where the astrological version still stands apart.
HealthTemperament in Relationships: The Humoral Compatibility Model
Long before sun-sign compatibility, classical medicine read love and friendship through the four temperaments. See how the humors were said to complement or clash.
HealthThe Four Elements in the Body: A Guide to Astrological Medicine
Classical medicine read the body as a mixture of the four elements, each a working force: fire as vital heat, air as breath and spirit, water as moisture, and earth as solid substance.
BeginnerGalen, Hippocrates and the Origin of the Four Temperaments
How the Hippocratic four humors became Galen's four temperaments, and how that medical scheme lined up with the zodiac's four elements. A sourced history.
HealthTemperament and the Planets: Which Planet Governs Each Type
In classical astrology each of the four temperaments has its own planet: Mars and the Sun for choleric, Jupiter for sanguine, Saturn for melancholic, the Moon for phlegmatic. A dominant planet tilts the type.
HealthThe Phlegmatic Temperament: Water, Phlegm and the Calm Type
In classical astrology the phlegmatic temperament is cold and moist. It is the humor of phlegm, ruled by the Moon and Venus, and tied to the water signs Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.
HealthTemperament and the Season of Birth
Classical medicine paired the four seasons with the four humors: spring sanguine, summer choleric, autumn melancholic, winter phlegmatic. Your season of birth was read as one thread in your temperament.
HealthThe Four Temperaments and the Ages of Man
Classical medicine read a whole human life as a turning wheel of humors: sanguine childhood, choleric youth, melancholic maturity, phlegmatic old age.
HealthThe Melancholic Temperament: Earth, Black Bile and the Reflective Mind
The melancholic temperament is cold and dry, the humor of black bile, ruled by Saturn and tied to the earth signs Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn in the classical tradition.
HealthHumoral Imbalance (Dyscrasia): When One Humor Dominates
In classical medicine, health was eucrasia, a good mixture of the four humors, and illness was dyscrasia, a bad mixture in which one humor ran to excess.
HealthThe Sanguine Temperament: Air, Blood and the Warm Complexion
The sanguine temperament is hot and moist, ruled by the humor of blood and the element of air. Warm, sociable and optimistic, it maps to Gemini, Libra and Aquarius.
HealthTemperament and Complexion: Reading the Type in the Body
Classical physiognomy read each of the four temperaments in the body's build, coloring and bearing. See how choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic show up physically, and how each ties to the sign and the rising signature.
HealthTemperament and the Ascendant: Why Your Rising Sign Shapes Your Type
In classical astrology the Ascendant and its ruler, not the Sun, are the first things weighed for bodily temperament. Learn why your rising sign shapes your type, sign by sign.
HealthThe Choleric Temperament: Fire, Yellow Bile and the Driven Type
The choleric temperament is hot and dry, the humor of yellow bile, ruled by Mars and the Sun and mapped to the fire signs Aries, Leo and Sagittarius.
HealthThe Four Humors: Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile and Black Bile
Before the four temperaments came the four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Learn each fluid and its quality, organ and sign.
HealthCritical Days and Decumbiture: The Moon and the Course of an Illness
A decumbiture chart was cast for the moment a patient took to bed, and the Moon's motion marked the critical days of a fever. Here is the method, from Hippocrates to Culpeper.
HealthPart of Sickness in Medical Astrology, Explained
The Part of Sickness is a calculated point in traditional medical astrology built from Mars and Saturn. Learn its disputed formula and how classical physicians read it.
NatalWilliam Lilly and Christian Astrology
William Lilly (1602 to 1681), the English Merlin, wrote Christian Astrology in 1647, the first major astrology textbook printed in English and the book that codified horary practice.
HealthAvicenna and Astrological Medicine: The Canon and the Stars
Avicenna's Canon of Medicine ruled the sickroom for six centuries and refined the doctrine of temperament. Here is how his medicine met, and quietly limited, astrology.
HealthUroscopy: Reading the Urine Flask in Astrological Medicine
Uroscopy was the medieval art of judging health by the urine in a glass flask, read alongside the humors and the chart. Here is how the matula and the astrologer's figure met.
NatalSirius, the Dog Star: The Brightest Fixed Star in Astrology
Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, carries a Jupiter-Mars nature in traditional astrology, promising honor, renown and wealth near angles and the lights.
NatalThe Eighth Place: Death, Inheritance, and the Idle House of Antiquity
Ancient astrologers called the eighth place the Idle House and read it for death, debt, and the goods that pass to the living. Here is the traditional doctrine.
NatalPlanetary Stations: The Power of Retrograde and Direct Turns
At a station a planet appears to halt and turn, lingering on one degree for days. Here is why that slowness intensifies it, and what the classics actually say.
NatalTriplicity Rulers: The Planets That Govern Each Element
Triplicity rulers are the traditional planets that govern each element, with a different ruler by day, by night and a third participating ruler. They are a quiet layer of essential dignity that lends a planet steadiness.
NatalPrimary Directions: The Most Ancient Predictive Technique
Primary directions time major life events to the year by symbolically continuing the sky's daily rotation, the oldest documented predictive method in astrology.
NatalOriental and Occidental Planets: East and West of the Sun
Whether a planet rises before the Sun as a morning star or sets after it as an evening star changes how classical doctrine reads its expression.
NatalBenefic and Malefic Planets in Traditional Astrology
Jupiter and Venus are the benefics, Saturn and Mars the malefics, the Sun, Moon, and Mercury neutral. A classical guide to what these labels describe and what changes them.
NatalDeneb Fixed Star: The Tail of the Swan in Astrology
Deneb (Deneb Adige), Alpha Cygni and the Swan's tail, sits near 5-6° Pisces with a Venus-Mercury nature: aesthetic intelligence read as character, not fortune.
NatalSignificators and Perfection: How Horary Charts Reach a Verdict
How the querent's and quesited's planets must connect by aspect, translation, or collection for a horary matter to come to pass.
NatalThe Almuten Figuris: Finding the Lord of the Geniture
The Almuten Figuris is the planet that wins a dignity contest over five key points in the chart, making it the overall ruler of the whole nativity. Here is how to find it.
NatalPlanetary Joys: The House Where Each Planet Is Happiest
In traditional astrology each of the seven classical planets has a house of joy where it works at its best, from Mercury in the 1st to Saturn in the 12th. Here is the full pattern and what it means in your chart.
NatalCombust, Cazimi and Under the Beams: A Planet and the Sun
How close a planet sits to the Sun changes its strength. Combust burns it up, under the beams dims it, but cazimi, in the heart of the Sun, makes it shine.
NatalThe Trine Aspect: 120° of Natural Flow in Astrology
A trine is a 120° aspect joining two signs of the same element. Classically the most benefic aspect of distance, it describes natural ease and flow, not a guaranteed outcome.
BeginnerElectional Astrology: Choosing the Right Moment
Electional astrology chooses the best moment to begin something by building a chart that supports the goal. It is the active sibling of natal astrology, turning the question from who you are into when you should act.
NatalConjunction Aspect in Astrology: When Two Planets Fuse
A conjunction is two planets at 0 degrees, their meanings fused into one voice. Learn the classical synodos view, moiety orbs, and the combustion-to-cazimi ladder.