Chapter XIX. Considerations Before Judgment

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CHAPTER XIX.

CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE JUDGMENT.

ALL the ancients that have written of questions do give warning to the astrologer, that before he delivers judgment he well consider whether the figure is radical ¹ and capable of judgment: the question then shall not be taken for radical: 1st, when either the first or second degrees of a sign ascend, (especially in signs of short ascensions, viz., ♑, ♒, ♓, ♈, ♉, ♊). You may not then adventure judgment, unless the querent be very young, and his corporature, complexion, and moles or scars of his body, agree with the quality of the signs ascending. 2d. If 27 or more degrees of any sign ascend, it is not safe to give judgment, except the querent be in years corresponding to the number of degrees ascending, or unless the figure be set upon a time certain, viz. any event happening, such as a man went away or fled at such a time precisely; to learn the result: here you may judge, because it is no propounded question. 3d. It is not safe to judge when the ☽ is in the later degrees of a sign, especially in ♊, ♏, or ♑; or, as some say, when she is in via combusta, which is, when she is in the last 15 degrees of ♎ or the first 15 degrees of ♏.

All manner of matters go hardly on (except the principal significators be very strong) when the ☽ is void of course; yet sometimes she performs it void of course, if in ♉, ♋, ♐, or ♓. You must also be wary, when in any question propounded you find the cusp of the seventh house afflicted, or

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the lord of the house retrograde or impedited, and the matter at that time not concerning the seventh house, but belonging to any other house: it is an argument that the judgment of the astrologer will give little content, or nothing please the querent, for the seventh house generally has signification of the artist. The Arabians, as Alkindus and others, do deliver the following rules, as very fit to be considered before a question be judged:--viz. if ♄ be in the ascendant, especially retrograde, the matter of that question seldom or never comes to good: ♄ in the seventh either corrupts the judgment of' the astrologer, or is a sign the matter propounded will come from one misfortune to another. If the lord of the ascendant be combust, neither question propounded will take, nor the querent be regulated. The lord of the seventh unfortunate, or in his fall, or terms of the infortunes, the artist shall scarce give a solid judgment.

When the testimonies of fortunes and infortunes are equal, defer judgment: it is not possible to know which way the balance will turn; however, defer your opinion till another question better inform you.

Footnotes

74:1 This term signifies, like the radix or root, the figure of birth; for when a person asks his first question of an astrologer, it will generally be found that the same sign, and often the same degree, will ascend that ascended at his birth.