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سلام ومحبة للجميع
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Lee Lehman's Decumbiture Report
The Purpose of this Report
The purpose of this report is to present text relevent to interpreting the
Decumbiture chart. What is a decumbiture? It may be one of several events - the time a person feels so sick that they retire to their bed (the traditional meaning), or it may be the time of a sudden onset of a disease condition, such as a seizure. It may be the time of admission to a hospital. Each of these would be interpreted in the same way - as a starting point to the delineation of what the disease condition may be, whether it is physical, mental or spiritual, how readily it may be cured, and the general length of the disease. Please note that this report should never be taken as a substitute for an examination and diagnosis by a qualified health care practitioner.
The difficulty that Astrologers have faced when confronted with medical questions is that the astrological literature consists mostly of extensive lists of very specific aphorisms (e.g., "...in questions relating to sick people, or Decumbitures, Whether the Lord of the Seventh, and Seventh House itself, be free from Impediments? for if they be, the sick may safely trust himself to the care of the Physicians, for medicines will do very well. But if the Seventh House and its Lord shall be Afflicted, Ptolemy saith 'The Physician must be changed, for neither the physic nor care will do any good,' for the 7th signifies the medicine, as 'Zael' saith. Or at least the disease grows chronic and lasting. The like is to be expected if the same positions happen at the beginning of any cure." [Bonatti]).
The challege of this material is that none of the works are very much systematized, much less critically discussed. It is left to the individual Astrologer to "collect" all the relevant aphorisms that apply to a particular Decumbiture, despite the fact that these ideas are scattered over a number of references, in a number of languages, with no indexing available!
This program attempts to rectify this difficulty by automatically collecting all the aphorisms that apply, and by presenting this information in a systematic fashion. Only then can we really study this material, and make our way through it critically. To date, we have no idea how systematically any of these ideas were applied, because the historical examples that we have only present a short list of aphorisms per chart. Did they ignore the rest, or never even attempt them? Did every physician attempt to memorize literally hundreds of considerations? We just don't know.
Types of Medical Charts and Delineations
There are several types of medical charts. The Decumbiture, mentioned above, is the basic type. However, it was common to deal with disease through the use of Horary Astrology. In this case, either the Patient, or a Party related to the Patient, would consult the physician, and this would be treated as a variant of the question: What is the cause of my illness, and will I recover? This computer program also applies to this type of question, but only if the Patient is represented by the 1st House.
When is the Patient given by the 1st House in Horary? There are several ways.
The Patient asks the question. In Horary, the person asking the question, or Querent, is always given by the 1st House.
The Patient is unable to ask the question, and so designates another party to ask on her or his behalf. Traditionally, this was a servant or relative. Notice that this method requires that permission be granted to the asking party.
If the question is asked by another, it works better if the party asking is not likely to figure in the horary otherwise. The reason for this is simple - the 1st house always shows the Querent, and this meaning can only be ignored if the Querent's interests are not vitally affected by the outcome of this horary. Thus, it is unlikely that a son or daughter could ask this question concerning a parent, and be so objective that the son or daughter's response to the disease or threat of death could be ignored. In this case, the emotional response of the child to the parent could mask the reading of the First House for the vitality of the parent. It could instead show the state of the Querent! As Saunders explained,
"It's very necessary in this manner of Judgment, that you always have respect unto the Question; for if the Question come direct, that the Party sick did send, or was acquainted with the coming of the Messenger, or Urine, then ought you always to have respect to the Ascendant, the Lord thereof, to the Moon, to the 8th House, and Lord thereof..." (page 41)
Saunders also gives a special case for a parent asking about a child.
"And also, whereas you may desire to know where the Ascendant shall be taken, when the Father or Mother do make the Question for their Son or Daughter, without consent of the Sick,
"This you shall observe after our Experience in such a case -
"The 4th House shall be the Ascendant for the Querent, and for the Urine.
"The 1st House and Lord thereof, shall be the Ascendant for the Son or Daughter sick." (pages 42-43)
Actually, Saunders addresses this issue in gory detail, pages 72-80, of which we have only summarized here the most significant cases. Once it has been determined that the 1st House really does apply to the Patient, we can proceed with our delineation.
However, before we do, a word about "acute" and "chronic." Diseases were either viewed as being delineated using the Moon or the Sun as timer, depending on whether the disease was acute or chronic. Acute disease run their course in less than 30-90 days; chronic ones, longer. Much of what gets said concerning the Moon can be used for the Sun if the disease has turned chronic.
And, of course, a word about the urine and our 20th Century sensibilities... It was standard procedure when a Patient was too sick to go to a physician for the Patient to send a sample of a bodily fluid. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that urine was the most likely candidate. When the physician received the sample, he would cast a chart for the moment of receipt, hence the professional term "urine caster," for the casting of a chart. The urine was also examined for color, turbidity, and taste. This was the genesis of the modern urine sample that is often requested for a medical examination.
Understanding the system of disease presented here requires an understanding of the system of Humoral Medicine that developed out of Hippocrates' system. Many of the descriptions refer to the qualities - hot, cold, wet and dry - by degrees. These degrees work in the same way that burn degrees work. A 1st degree burn, or a humor hot in the first degree, is much more minor than a 2nd degree burn, or a condition hot in the second degree. The highest degree of quality is the 4th, which is a near fatal condition: either an extreme burning fever for hot in the 4th degree, or a metabolism so shut down as to be at death's door for cold in the 4th degree.
Thus, when degrees are given for the qualities, we can see immediately how serious the condition is. It is worth reminding ourselves that the more serious the description, the more likely it is that significant medical intervention will be necessary to get the condition under control.
This, then, relates to the utility of the delineation of Death in the Decumbiture. It is important for us to mentally insert the modifier "without aggressive medical intervention" into each warning of Death. Consider that, in Saunder's day, pneumonia, measles, scarlett fever, chicken pox, not to mention gangrene, were almost always death sentences. Any serious condition for which you were given a full dose of antibiotics could have been fatal in earlier centuries.
This does not mean that fatality is no longer possible: of course it is. In the cases where fatality is a strong possibility, there's a high probability that the illness will represent a major crisis in one's life, if it doesn't in turn result in death. We may also return to a comment I made in the beginning: that part of the delineation of a disease condition is to classify it as physical, mental or spiritual. This is not my opinion: it is a firmly grounded concept in the philosophy of our tradition. A disease that is spiritual in origin may not be "dangerous" to the body, but it can still kill. It is also not going to be susceptible to the methodology of conventional medicine, because the cure of the Body only tangentially affects the Spirit.
The curious conclusion is that this traditional medical diagnosis may ultimately provide a bridge between the more biochemically, bioenergetically, or spiritually based approaches to Medicine, by suggesting an appropriate treatment protocol.
How to Use this Report
Because this report draws on such a variety of sources and methods, it is difficult to conceive of taking this report as a literal description of the disease. The lists of conditions covered by the Significators is often overwhelming. On a first screen, the best plan is probably to specifically watch for the organ part(s) and/or symptoms known to be included in the condition in the delineation. If the description of the disease specifically lists the condition as known, then the condition is more serious.
This may seem like a strange way to proceed. But consider surgery. At approximately the same time, in the same hospital complex, a laser catarract procedure, an open heart surgery, a nose job, an EKG, and a cancer surgery could be starting, not to mention the fact that a child could be delivered. Suppose that the chart for this time highlights eye conditions. Does this mean that the heart surgery isn't needed? Not at all! But it suggests that the eye operation, although arguably the simplest and least dangerous of the procedures listed is likely to be the one with the greatest consequences.
So does that mean that the eye patient dies on the table? Probably not. However, there may be consequences: vision is not improved, or it turns out that there was another condition present with the catarract that now is allowed to manifest.
Another factor to consider: in virtually all cases, there are astrological conditions that would merit the statement, "danger of death," just as there are likely to be conditions that would be listed as "recovery." This is probably a good way of reminding us of the myriad possibilities present in each moment. If the "danger of death" warnings exceed the "recovery" ones, then the condition is probably grave enough to require considerable attention.
The Humors
The classical medical model was given by Hippocrates a century before astrology had been incorporated into Greek thought. This model incorporated four basic qualities: Hot, Cold, Wet, and Dry. These four qualities varied by season, gender, age, and person. The ideal of Hippocrates was to lead a balanced life. If the body is balanced, then disease is less likely to take hold. The method of creating balance was diet and regimen.
I have written extensively on the philosophical underpinnings of this model in my book, Classical Astrology for Modern Living. This introduction reviews some of the more pertinent points as they apply to lifestyle issues.
The entire ancient scheme was based on the four qualities: Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry. "Hot" and "Cold" were one pair - "Wet" and "Dry" the other. These qualities are understood somewhat differently within the context of disease than they are in a natal analysis.
"Whatsoever is Hot, as the Fire is his Simple and Elementary Quality, doth heat, open, digest, attenuate, ripen, subtilitate [i.e., to make more subtle: remember that Fire is of the Spirit], and make thin, and simple, and maketh soft.
"Whatsoever in his Simple and Elementary Quality and Nature is Moist, as the Air, doth moisten, putrifie and corrupt, make slippery, lighten, and conglutinate [i.e., to congeal].
"Whatsoever is Dry, as the Earth is in its Simple Quality and nature, drieth, maketh barren, attracteth and setleth, and is the worst in decreasing.
"Whatsoever is Cold in his Simple Nature and Quality, as the Water, doth make cold, thicken, and causeth indigestion, congealeth, destroyeth, maketh hard, knitteth together. It doth not pierce and open, but shutteth, incloseth and stoppeth, and nourisheth not, but astonisheth and extinguisheth the Radical Heat and Breath of Life." (Sa-069)
Each of the four qualities actually represents a cluster of concepts, and their opposites. For example, the qualities Hot and Cold do not represent extremes of a temperature continuum, as we would define them. They represent qualities of energy, where Hot represents high energy or physical heat, and Cold represents low energy or physical Cold. But these qualities are opposites in a critically different way from the way we normally envision them. Take temperature. From a purely chemical perspective, molecules in a hotter gas vibrate more rapidly on average than molecules in a colder gas. Mixing Hot and Cold gases will produce an intermediate result. In other words, in our thinking the "Cold" portion is completely canceled out by a portion of the "Hot" component. But this is not how it works - at least as far as the qualities, and not chemistry, is concerned! People are, in fact, more than capable of expressing opposite qualities without one canceling the other. In psychological testing there is often an index of consistency, which is actually a measure of to what extent an individual will give the same answer to the same question. If such an index is deemed necessary, it becomes clear exactly how capable we are of expressing "incompatible" ideas and emotions! Opposites do not cancel each other out!
Thus, people - or a disease condition - can have Hot and Cold qualities simultaneously. In fact, having "half and half" would be to manifest equal quantities of each, not to have a "zero-sum state" in which "Hot" cancels "Cold," perhaps producing lukewarm. It may be useful to envision Hot and Cold as being like two different colored marbles, red and blue. Having more blue marbles doesn't take away the red ones: it just means that, if you were to draw one marble out of a box at random, you would more likely draw a blue one, but you could draw a red one.
In addition to the simple (one element types), there are also combinatory disease conditions. Saunders gives them as follows.
"Whatsoever is Hot and Dry of Nature, is cholerick, generative, attractive, durative, and conservative, drying, heating, and attracting; doth harden, and cause watchfulness, because of heating and drying of the Brain and Head; they do also exhaust and draw, gather together and collect, they also cleanse and purge, provoke to siedge [i.e., siege: to a crisis point in the disease], and make sweet, they do cleanse and scour the Body replenished with cold and moist Humours.
"Whatsover is Hot and Moist, generates by reason of Heat, and corrupteth by reason of Moisture, and bringeth not to perfection.
"Whatsoever is Cold and Dry participateth of duration and destruction; for if the Dry exceed the Cold, then it will be duratuve [lasting], , but if the cold Quality in the same subject exceed the dry, then destructive, & est sicut Lignum arridum.
"Whatsoever is Cold and Moist, is indigestible material, corruptive, and always destructive, none generative, neque durat, neque fructum sert, sed obstupes, expulsive, refrigerated, humid, corruptible, mortificant; creates heaviness, dulness, and slowness in all things, provokes to sleep and drowsiness, Rots, consumes, separates and divides, is of the nature of the Moon and Venus, ingenders moist and watry Humours and Impostumes [swellings], and repells Humous by congelation and thickening, dispersing them in sundry places." (Sa-070)
Each type has what were called Natural or Unnatural characteristics. These, for example, illustrate the natural and unnatural characteristics of choler:
"Natural Choler [pronounced like "collar"] is hot and dry, temperate, and maintaineth the Attractive Virtue in all the Members of the Body, to the maintenance of Life and Health, and the right Natural Choler is reddish, cleer and pure.
"Unnatural Choler, if it abound in the Gall, it overfloweth the Liver, and causeth the yellow Jaundies, and there are caused many bitter belchings in the Stomach. If Unnatural Choler in the Liver commix it self with Blood in the Veins, and ascend to the Brain, it maketh the Party light-witted, and frantick, and drieth the Radical moisture and humidity of the Brain, preventing sleep and rest." (Sa-148)
The important point is how to tell whether the humor is natural or unnatural. Saunders explains this as follows:
"Choler is one of the four Natural Humours in the body of Man, and is ingendred in the Liver, and hath its residence in the Gall. And by nature Choler is maintained the Virtue Attractive in the members of Man, which is hot and dry, and is of the nature of Venus and Sun, if it be Natural. But if it be Unnatural and burnt, then it is of the nature of Mars, which is hot and dry, by Nature untemperate." (Sa-147)
The critical point to notice is that natural choler is lodged in the Venus-ruled parts of the body. Venus is cold and wet, so natural choler is lodged in those areas of opposite nature. Also, the Sun is hot and dry, but much less so than Mars, so that choler can naturally occur in temperance in organs of a like nature. The natural condition is the healthy type; the unnatural is the unhealthy type. Thus, when Mars-ruled organs become excessively hot and dry, they are likely to become focal points for disease.
Hippocratic medicine combines allopathy and homeopathy. The allopathic approach would mean that if you have become out of balance because your body is experiencing too much heat (that Mars transit to your Sun?), then you need to take a Cold herb, Cold food, Cold exercise, or literally experience Cold temperatures in order to cool yourself down. Homeopathy would give you a small amount of a slightly hot to kick your system back to balance.
Hippocrates believed that, in adults at any rate, the biggest problem that resulted in disease was either eating the wrong foods, the wrong mixture of food, or too much food in the absence of exercise. What bearing does this have on allopathy and homeopathy? Going back to basics, an allopathic approach to the cure of a disease is to give a substance or create a circumstance which is opposite in nature to the nature of the symptoms, or of the disease itself. Thus, for a poison, we give an antidote which is antagonistic in its effect on the poison itself. A homeopathic approach is to give a similar or identical substance in small quantity, essentially to "kick" the body back into balance. By definition, allopathic medicines have higher dosages than homeopathic.
If we then consider that Hippocrates is saying the biggest problem that puts people in danger of disease is food, then immediately we have a clue that food can only be an allopathic agent, because food is eaten in bulk. Spices or medicines can be either, because the concentration is so much lower relative to the concentration of foods, that it's possible to administer either an allopathic, or a homeopathic dosage.
Nicholas Culpeper addressed disease in a somewhat different Manner. Speaking of Saturn, he said,
"The great wisdom of a physician is to know whether Saturn cause the disease by ... Sympathy or Antipathy, and then take notice, that as the cause is, so is the cure., Sympathetical, or antipathetical: and withal do not forget, that sympathetical cures strengthen nature; Antipathetical cures, in one degree of another weaken it; ... Antipathetical Medicines are not be used, unless to such Patients whom Doctor Ignorance or Doctor Carelessness hath had so long in hand, that Sympathetical will not serve the turn.... If Saturn cause the disease by Sympathy, cure it by the Sympathetical herbs of Saturn. If he cause the disease by Antipathy, note whether it be by Antipathy to Sun or Moon.... Make use of the Sympathetical herbs of these Planets ... for cure." (Page 46)
What we begin to perceive is that the concepts allopathic and homeopathic may not be inclusive enough: Culpeper is clearly talking about the broader terms antipathetic and sympathetic. When Culpeper refers to antipathy, he is mainly referring to the dispositor of the signs in which the planet is in Detriment. So here, Saturn is in Detriment in Cancer and Leo; thus, the antipathetic causes are the Moon or the Sun.
If we apply the more modern parlance of "antagonistic" to the quainter term "antipathetic," the situation becomes even clearer. Much of modern medicine is based on the principle of antagonism: if the patient has high blood pressure, give them something to bring it down; if the patient has low thyroxin, then give them thyroxin (or a chemical relative) to increase the amount in the system. Granted, this is being done within the context of a completely different theory of disease. However, the older theories explain one bane of modern medicine: the frequency of side effects. As Culpeper says, treating a condition antagonistically weakens the system. Therefore, we see side effects, which we can understand as being manifestations of this phenomenon.
If we are to understand how this whole system works within an astrological framework, then we need to reintegrate the Humours Theory within conventional astrological analysis. Here's how it works. In your Natal Report from Solar Writer/Classical, there is a computation of your temperament. This computation is based on a number of factors, but in a way completely different from the approach of conventional astrology. The conventional astrological analysis can be broken down into an equivalent method for computing one or more dominant planets.
First, it's necessary to determine which planets are predominant in the natal chart.
Any planet in an angular house should be considered important, especially if it is conjunct the angle.
The Ruler of the Ascendant, the Sun, and the Moon are all potential candidates if any one also disposes a number of other planets, or conjoins a Royal or other significant Fixed Star.
In the absence of other indications, the most dignified planet may be considered.
Once we have decided upon the planet(s) to use, then we can translate them into qualities.
Saturn is Cold and Dry.
Jupiter is Hot and Moist.
Mars is Hot and Dry.
The Sun is Hot and Dry, but not as much as Mars.
Venus is Hot and Moist.
Mercury adapts to its sign and conjunctions.
The Moon is Cold and Moist.
The signs of the planets modify the effect of the planets, as follows:
Fire Signs are Hot and Dry.
Water Signs are Cold and Wet.
Air Signs are Hot and Wet.
Earth Signs are Cold and Dry.
The reason that we mention this is because so much of the analysis of what is out of balance requires basic understanding of these qualities. If you examine the Decumbiture analysis, you may see that Hot and Wet qualities predominate in the disease description. If you are naturally Cold and Dry, then the nature of the disease is completely antagonistic to your natural balance, and may wreck more havoc than the reverse. Hot people tend to experience more fevers (and higher ones) than Cold people. On the other hand, there are limits. A fever above a certain degree will kill, just as reduced metabolism below a certain degree (the cold equivalent) will kill.
Different humors also react differently to disease in general regardless of the nature of the disease. Thus we see that when the Natal Complexion is Choleric, the disease is shorter. (Cu-061) When the Natal Complexion is Melancholic, the disease is longer. (Cu-061)
In the Notes section, we have correlated the so-called Faculties with the Qualities, which is another way of doing this analysis. The Faculties have to do with the body's reaction mechanisms to an excess of particular qualities.
This program analyses the Decumbiture Chart, which becomes a blueprint for how the disease process has developed. Thus, here we have already started from the position that a disease has occurred. What we have just seen is the theory behind the understanding of disease onset in the first place. The rest of this report focuses on describing that disease.
Interpretation of Planetary Placements
The Moon
As Culpeper says of the Moon, the stronger, the better, the weaker, the worse. (Cu-066) One of the specifically important considerations about the Moon is that she rules relapses. (C1-091) The Moon also gives most changes in the condition, unless the disease is chronic in nature. It is almost impossible to overrate the Moon in the delineation of Decumbitures. In compiling this survey of aphorisms, I found that approximately one quarter of the total concern the Moon. A large proportion of the aphorisms relating to either danger of death or likelihood of recovery come from the Moon.
The formula for determining the gravity of an illness is rather simple: if the Moon is in good condition, and either approaching benefic(s), or improving in dignity, then the disease is neither serious, nor will it last very long. If the Moon is in bad condition, but moving to benefics, or improving in condition, then the condition of the patient will improve. But if the Moon is either moving to malefics, or deteriorating in condition, then the condition gets worse. If the Moon starts out in a bad condition, and then deteriorates from there, the condition is especially grave, because then the patient has no resources to fight the disease.
"The Moon is cold and moist, flegmatick by nature, and yet more moist than cold, she having chief dominion over all Bodies inhabiting this Globe of mortality.... She is most temperate, not much disagreeing from Nature, because it is her own house...
"The Moon hath of the Body humane, the Brain, the Lights [lungs], the Marrow, the Neck, the taste, the swallowing, the Back-bone, the Stomach, the Menstrues [menstruation], and all the Excrements, the right Eye of a Woman, and the left Eye of a Man, the force and strength of growing, the left side of the Stomach, the Head, the Matrix [womb], the Vulva, and according to some, she hath the Belly and Mother in Women..." (Sa-197/8).
Decumbiture chart. What is a decumbiture? It may be one of several events - the time a person feels so sick that they retire to their bed (the traditional meaning), or it may be the time of a sudden onset of a disease condition, such as a seizure. It may be the time of admission to a hospital. Each of these would be interpreted in the same way - as a starting point to the delineation of what the disease condition may be, whether it is physical, mental or spiritual, how readily it may be cured, and the general length of the disease. Please note that this report should never be taken as a substitute for an examination and diagnosis by a qualified health care practitioner.
The difficulty that Astrologers have faced when confronted with medical questions is that the astrological literature consists mostly of extensive lists of very specific aphorisms (e.g., "...in questions relating to sick people, or Decumbitures, Whether the Lord of the Seventh, and Seventh House itself, be free from Impediments? for if they be, the sick may safely trust himself to the care of the Physicians, for medicines will do very well. But if the Seventh House and its Lord shall be Afflicted, Ptolemy saith 'The Physician must be changed, for neither the physic nor care will do any good,' for the 7th signifies the medicine, as 'Zael' saith. Or at least the disease grows chronic and lasting. The like is to be expected if the same positions happen at the beginning of any cure." [Bonatti]).
The challege of this material is that none of the works are very much systematized, much less critically discussed. It is left to the individual Astrologer to "collect" all the relevant aphorisms that apply to a particular Decumbiture, despite the fact that these ideas are scattered over a number of references, in a number of languages, with no indexing available!
This program attempts to rectify this difficulty by automatically collecting all the aphorisms that apply, and by presenting this information in a systematic fashion. Only then can we really study this material, and make our way through it critically. To date, we have no idea how systematically any of these ideas were applied, because the historical examples that we have only present a short list of aphorisms per chart. Did they ignore the rest, or never even attempt them? Did every physician attempt to memorize literally hundreds of considerations? We just don't know.
Types of Medical Charts and Delineations
There are several types of medical charts. The Decumbiture, mentioned above, is the basic type. However, it was common to deal with disease through the use of Horary Astrology. In this case, either the Patient, or a Party related to the Patient, would consult the physician, and this would be treated as a variant of the question: What is the cause of my illness, and will I recover? This computer program also applies to this type of question, but only if the Patient is represented by the 1st House.
When is the Patient given by the 1st House in Horary? There are several ways.
The Patient asks the question. In Horary, the person asking the question, or Querent, is always given by the 1st House.
The Patient is unable to ask the question, and so designates another party to ask on her or his behalf. Traditionally, this was a servant or relative. Notice that this method requires that permission be granted to the asking party.
If the question is asked by another, it works better if the party asking is not likely to figure in the horary otherwise. The reason for this is simple - the 1st house always shows the Querent, and this meaning can only be ignored if the Querent's interests are not vitally affected by the outcome of this horary. Thus, it is unlikely that a son or daughter could ask this question concerning a parent, and be so objective that the son or daughter's response to the disease or threat of death could be ignored. In this case, the emotional response of the child to the parent could mask the reading of the First House for the vitality of the parent. It could instead show the state of the Querent! As Saunders explained,
"It's very necessary in this manner of Judgment, that you always have respect unto the Question; for if the Question come direct, that the Party sick did send, or was acquainted with the coming of the Messenger, or Urine, then ought you always to have respect to the Ascendant, the Lord thereof, to the Moon, to the 8th House, and Lord thereof..." (page 41)
Saunders also gives a special case for a parent asking about a child.
"And also, whereas you may desire to know where the Ascendant shall be taken, when the Father or Mother do make the Question for their Son or Daughter, without consent of the Sick,
"This you shall observe after our Experience in such a case -
"The 4th House shall be the Ascendant for the Querent, and for the Urine.
"The 1st House and Lord thereof, shall be the Ascendant for the Son or Daughter sick." (pages 42-43)
Actually, Saunders addresses this issue in gory detail, pages 72-80, of which we have only summarized here the most significant cases. Once it has been determined that the 1st House really does apply to the Patient, we can proceed with our delineation.
However, before we do, a word about "acute" and "chronic." Diseases were either viewed as being delineated using the Moon or the Sun as timer, depending on whether the disease was acute or chronic. Acute disease run their course in less than 30-90 days; chronic ones, longer. Much of what gets said concerning the Moon can be used for the Sun if the disease has turned chronic.
And, of course, a word about the urine and our 20th Century sensibilities... It was standard procedure when a Patient was too sick to go to a physician for the Patient to send a sample of a bodily fluid. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that urine was the most likely candidate. When the physician received the sample, he would cast a chart for the moment of receipt, hence the professional term "urine caster," for the casting of a chart. The urine was also examined for color, turbidity, and taste. This was the genesis of the modern urine sample that is often requested for a medical examination.
Understanding the system of disease presented here requires an understanding of the system of Humoral Medicine that developed out of Hippocrates' system. Many of the descriptions refer to the qualities - hot, cold, wet and dry - by degrees. These degrees work in the same way that burn degrees work. A 1st degree burn, or a humor hot in the first degree, is much more minor than a 2nd degree burn, or a condition hot in the second degree. The highest degree of quality is the 4th, which is a near fatal condition: either an extreme burning fever for hot in the 4th degree, or a metabolism so shut down as to be at death's door for cold in the 4th degree.
Thus, when degrees are given for the qualities, we can see immediately how serious the condition is. It is worth reminding ourselves that the more serious the description, the more likely it is that significant medical intervention will be necessary to get the condition under control.
This, then, relates to the utility of the delineation of Death in the Decumbiture. It is important for us to mentally insert the modifier "without aggressive medical intervention" into each warning of Death. Consider that, in Saunder's day, pneumonia, measles, scarlett fever, chicken pox, not to mention gangrene, were almost always death sentences. Any serious condition for which you were given a full dose of antibiotics could have been fatal in earlier centuries.
This does not mean that fatality is no longer possible: of course it is. In the cases where fatality is a strong possibility, there's a high probability that the illness will represent a major crisis in one's life, if it doesn't in turn result in death. We may also return to a comment I made in the beginning: that part of the delineation of a disease condition is to classify it as physical, mental or spiritual. This is not my opinion: it is a firmly grounded concept in the philosophy of our tradition. A disease that is spiritual in origin may not be "dangerous" to the body, but it can still kill. It is also not going to be susceptible to the methodology of conventional medicine, because the cure of the Body only tangentially affects the Spirit.
The curious conclusion is that this traditional medical diagnosis may ultimately provide a bridge between the more biochemically, bioenergetically, or spiritually based approaches to Medicine, by suggesting an appropriate treatment protocol.
How to Use this Report
Because this report draws on such a variety of sources and methods, it is difficult to conceive of taking this report as a literal description of the disease. The lists of conditions covered by the Significators is often overwhelming. On a first screen, the best plan is probably to specifically watch for the organ part(s) and/or symptoms known to be included in the condition in the delineation. If the description of the disease specifically lists the condition as known, then the condition is more serious.
This may seem like a strange way to proceed. But consider surgery. At approximately the same time, in the same hospital complex, a laser catarract procedure, an open heart surgery, a nose job, an EKG, and a cancer surgery could be starting, not to mention the fact that a child could be delivered. Suppose that the chart for this time highlights eye conditions. Does this mean that the heart surgery isn't needed? Not at all! But it suggests that the eye operation, although arguably the simplest and least dangerous of the procedures listed is likely to be the one with the greatest consequences.
So does that mean that the eye patient dies on the table? Probably not. However, there may be consequences: vision is not improved, or it turns out that there was another condition present with the catarract that now is allowed to manifest.
Another factor to consider: in virtually all cases, there are astrological conditions that would merit the statement, "danger of death," just as there are likely to be conditions that would be listed as "recovery." This is probably a good way of reminding us of the myriad possibilities present in each moment. If the "danger of death" warnings exceed the "recovery" ones, then the condition is probably grave enough to require considerable attention.
The Humors
The classical medical model was given by Hippocrates a century before astrology had been incorporated into Greek thought. This model incorporated four basic qualities: Hot, Cold, Wet, and Dry. These four qualities varied by season, gender, age, and person. The ideal of Hippocrates was to lead a balanced life. If the body is balanced, then disease is less likely to take hold. The method of creating balance was diet and regimen.
I have written extensively on the philosophical underpinnings of this model in my book, Classical Astrology for Modern Living. This introduction reviews some of the more pertinent points as they apply to lifestyle issues.
The entire ancient scheme was based on the four qualities: Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry. "Hot" and "Cold" were one pair - "Wet" and "Dry" the other. These qualities are understood somewhat differently within the context of disease than they are in a natal analysis.
"Whatsoever is Hot, as the Fire is his Simple and Elementary Quality, doth heat, open, digest, attenuate, ripen, subtilitate [i.e., to make more subtle: remember that Fire is of the Spirit], and make thin, and simple, and maketh soft.
"Whatsoever in his Simple and Elementary Quality and Nature is Moist, as the Air, doth moisten, putrifie and corrupt, make slippery, lighten, and conglutinate [i.e., to congeal].
"Whatsoever is Dry, as the Earth is in its Simple Quality and nature, drieth, maketh barren, attracteth and setleth, and is the worst in decreasing.
"Whatsoever is Cold in his Simple Nature and Quality, as the Water, doth make cold, thicken, and causeth indigestion, congealeth, destroyeth, maketh hard, knitteth together. It doth not pierce and open, but shutteth, incloseth and stoppeth, and nourisheth not, but astonisheth and extinguisheth the Radical Heat and Breath of Life." (Sa-069)
Each of the four qualities actually represents a cluster of concepts, and their opposites. For example, the qualities Hot and Cold do not represent extremes of a temperature continuum, as we would define them. They represent qualities of energy, where Hot represents high energy or physical heat, and Cold represents low energy or physical Cold. But these qualities are opposites in a critically different way from the way we normally envision them. Take temperature. From a purely chemical perspective, molecules in a hotter gas vibrate more rapidly on average than molecules in a colder gas. Mixing Hot and Cold gases will produce an intermediate result. In other words, in our thinking the "Cold" portion is completely canceled out by a portion of the "Hot" component. But this is not how it works - at least as far as the qualities, and not chemistry, is concerned! People are, in fact, more than capable of expressing opposite qualities without one canceling the other. In psychological testing there is often an index of consistency, which is actually a measure of to what extent an individual will give the same answer to the same question. If such an index is deemed necessary, it becomes clear exactly how capable we are of expressing "incompatible" ideas and emotions! Opposites do not cancel each other out!
Thus, people - or a disease condition - can have Hot and Cold qualities simultaneously. In fact, having "half and half" would be to manifest equal quantities of each, not to have a "zero-sum state" in which "Hot" cancels "Cold," perhaps producing lukewarm. It may be useful to envision Hot and Cold as being like two different colored marbles, red and blue. Having more blue marbles doesn't take away the red ones: it just means that, if you were to draw one marble out of a box at random, you would more likely draw a blue one, but you could draw a red one.
In addition to the simple (one element types), there are also combinatory disease conditions. Saunders gives them as follows.
"Whatsoever is Hot and Dry of Nature, is cholerick, generative, attractive, durative, and conservative, drying, heating, and attracting; doth harden, and cause watchfulness, because of heating and drying of the Brain and Head; they do also exhaust and draw, gather together and collect, they also cleanse and purge, provoke to siedge [i.e., siege: to a crisis point in the disease], and make sweet, they do cleanse and scour the Body replenished with cold and moist Humours.
"Whatsover is Hot and Moist, generates by reason of Heat, and corrupteth by reason of Moisture, and bringeth not to perfection.
"Whatsoever is Cold and Dry participateth of duration and destruction; for if the Dry exceed the Cold, then it will be duratuve [lasting], , but if the cold Quality in the same subject exceed the dry, then destructive, & est sicut Lignum arridum.
"Whatsoever is Cold and Moist, is indigestible material, corruptive, and always destructive, none generative, neque durat, neque fructum sert, sed obstupes, expulsive, refrigerated, humid, corruptible, mortificant; creates heaviness, dulness, and slowness in all things, provokes to sleep and drowsiness, Rots, consumes, separates and divides, is of the nature of the Moon and Venus, ingenders moist and watry Humours and Impostumes [swellings], and repells Humous by congelation and thickening, dispersing them in sundry places." (Sa-070)
Each type has what were called Natural or Unnatural characteristics. These, for example, illustrate the natural and unnatural characteristics of choler:
"Natural Choler [pronounced like "collar"] is hot and dry, temperate, and maintaineth the Attractive Virtue in all the Members of the Body, to the maintenance of Life and Health, and the right Natural Choler is reddish, cleer and pure.
"Unnatural Choler, if it abound in the Gall, it overfloweth the Liver, and causeth the yellow Jaundies, and there are caused many bitter belchings in the Stomach. If Unnatural Choler in the Liver commix it self with Blood in the Veins, and ascend to the Brain, it maketh the Party light-witted, and frantick, and drieth the Radical moisture and humidity of the Brain, preventing sleep and rest." (Sa-148)
The important point is how to tell whether the humor is natural or unnatural. Saunders explains this as follows:
"Choler is one of the four Natural Humours in the body of Man, and is ingendred in the Liver, and hath its residence in the Gall. And by nature Choler is maintained the Virtue Attractive in the members of Man, which is hot and dry, and is of the nature of Venus and Sun, if it be Natural. But if it be Unnatural and burnt, then it is of the nature of Mars, which is hot and dry, by Nature untemperate." (Sa-147)
The critical point to notice is that natural choler is lodged in the Venus-ruled parts of the body. Venus is cold and wet, so natural choler is lodged in those areas of opposite nature. Also, the Sun is hot and dry, but much less so than Mars, so that choler can naturally occur in temperance in organs of a like nature. The natural condition is the healthy type; the unnatural is the unhealthy type. Thus, when Mars-ruled organs become excessively hot and dry, they are likely to become focal points for disease.
Hippocratic medicine combines allopathy and homeopathy. The allopathic approach would mean that if you have become out of balance because your body is experiencing too much heat (that Mars transit to your Sun?), then you need to take a Cold herb, Cold food, Cold exercise, or literally experience Cold temperatures in order to cool yourself down. Homeopathy would give you a small amount of a slightly hot to kick your system back to balance.
Hippocrates believed that, in adults at any rate, the biggest problem that resulted in disease was either eating the wrong foods, the wrong mixture of food, or too much food in the absence of exercise. What bearing does this have on allopathy and homeopathy? Going back to basics, an allopathic approach to the cure of a disease is to give a substance or create a circumstance which is opposite in nature to the nature of the symptoms, or of the disease itself. Thus, for a poison, we give an antidote which is antagonistic in its effect on the poison itself. A homeopathic approach is to give a similar or identical substance in small quantity, essentially to "kick" the body back into balance. By definition, allopathic medicines have higher dosages than homeopathic.
If we then consider that Hippocrates is saying the biggest problem that puts people in danger of disease is food, then immediately we have a clue that food can only be an allopathic agent, because food is eaten in bulk. Spices or medicines can be either, because the concentration is so much lower relative to the concentration of foods, that it's possible to administer either an allopathic, or a homeopathic dosage.
Nicholas Culpeper addressed disease in a somewhat different Manner. Speaking of Saturn, he said,
"The great wisdom of a physician is to know whether Saturn cause the disease by ... Sympathy or Antipathy, and then take notice, that as the cause is, so is the cure., Sympathetical, or antipathetical: and withal do not forget, that sympathetical cures strengthen nature; Antipathetical cures, in one degree of another weaken it; ... Antipathetical Medicines are not be used, unless to such Patients whom Doctor Ignorance or Doctor Carelessness hath had so long in hand, that Sympathetical will not serve the turn.... If Saturn cause the disease by Sympathy, cure it by the Sympathetical herbs of Saturn. If he cause the disease by Antipathy, note whether it be by Antipathy to Sun or Moon.... Make use of the Sympathetical herbs of these Planets ... for cure." (Page 46)
What we begin to perceive is that the concepts allopathic and homeopathic may not be inclusive enough: Culpeper is clearly talking about the broader terms antipathetic and sympathetic. When Culpeper refers to antipathy, he is mainly referring to the dispositor of the signs in which the planet is in Detriment. So here, Saturn is in Detriment in Cancer and Leo; thus, the antipathetic causes are the Moon or the Sun.
If we apply the more modern parlance of "antagonistic" to the quainter term "antipathetic," the situation becomes even clearer. Much of modern medicine is based on the principle of antagonism: if the patient has high blood pressure, give them something to bring it down; if the patient has low thyroxin, then give them thyroxin (or a chemical relative) to increase the amount in the system. Granted, this is being done within the context of a completely different theory of disease. However, the older theories explain one bane of modern medicine: the frequency of side effects. As Culpeper says, treating a condition antagonistically weakens the system. Therefore, we see side effects, which we can understand as being manifestations of this phenomenon.
If we are to understand how this whole system works within an astrological framework, then we need to reintegrate the Humours Theory within conventional astrological analysis. Here's how it works. In your Natal Report from Solar Writer/Classical, there is a computation of your temperament. This computation is based on a number of factors, but in a way completely different from the approach of conventional astrology. The conventional astrological analysis can be broken down into an equivalent method for computing one or more dominant planets.
First, it's necessary to determine which planets are predominant in the natal chart.
Any planet in an angular house should be considered important, especially if it is conjunct the angle.
The Ruler of the Ascendant, the Sun, and the Moon are all potential candidates if any one also disposes a number of other planets, or conjoins a Royal or other significant Fixed Star.
In the absence of other indications, the most dignified planet may be considered.
Once we have decided upon the planet(s) to use, then we can translate them into qualities.
Saturn is Cold and Dry.
Jupiter is Hot and Moist.
Mars is Hot and Dry.
The Sun is Hot and Dry, but not as much as Mars.
Venus is Hot and Moist.
Mercury adapts to its sign and conjunctions.
The Moon is Cold and Moist.
The signs of the planets modify the effect of the planets, as follows:
Fire Signs are Hot and Dry.
Water Signs are Cold and Wet.
Air Signs are Hot and Wet.
Earth Signs are Cold and Dry.
The reason that we mention this is because so much of the analysis of what is out of balance requires basic understanding of these qualities. If you examine the Decumbiture analysis, you may see that Hot and Wet qualities predominate in the disease description. If you are naturally Cold and Dry, then the nature of the disease is completely antagonistic to your natural balance, and may wreck more havoc than the reverse. Hot people tend to experience more fevers (and higher ones) than Cold people. On the other hand, there are limits. A fever above a certain degree will kill, just as reduced metabolism below a certain degree (the cold equivalent) will kill.
Different humors also react differently to disease in general regardless of the nature of the disease. Thus we see that when the Natal Complexion is Choleric, the disease is shorter. (Cu-061) When the Natal Complexion is Melancholic, the disease is longer. (Cu-061)
In the Notes section, we have correlated the so-called Faculties with the Qualities, which is another way of doing this analysis. The Faculties have to do with the body's reaction mechanisms to an excess of particular qualities.
This program analyses the Decumbiture Chart, which becomes a blueprint for how the disease process has developed. Thus, here we have already started from the position that a disease has occurred. What we have just seen is the theory behind the understanding of disease onset in the first place. The rest of this report focuses on describing that disease.
Interpretation of Planetary Placements
The Moon
As Culpeper says of the Moon, the stronger, the better, the weaker, the worse. (Cu-066) One of the specifically important considerations about the Moon is that she rules relapses. (C1-091) The Moon also gives most changes in the condition, unless the disease is chronic in nature. It is almost impossible to overrate the Moon in the delineation of Decumbitures. In compiling this survey of aphorisms, I found that approximately one quarter of the total concern the Moon. A large proportion of the aphorisms relating to either danger of death or likelihood of recovery come from the Moon.
The formula for determining the gravity of an illness is rather simple: if the Moon is in good condition, and either approaching benefic(s), or improving in dignity, then the disease is neither serious, nor will it last very long. If the Moon is in bad condition, but moving to benefics, or improving in condition, then the condition of the patient will improve. But if the Moon is either moving to malefics, or deteriorating in condition, then the condition gets worse. If the Moon starts out in a bad condition, and then deteriorates from there, the condition is especially grave, because then the patient has no resources to fight the disease.
"The Moon is cold and moist, flegmatick by nature, and yet more moist than cold, she having chief dominion over all Bodies inhabiting this Globe of mortality.... She is most temperate, not much disagreeing from Nature, because it is her own house...
"The Moon hath of the Body humane, the Brain, the Lights [lungs], the Marrow, the Neck, the taste, the swallowing, the Back-bone, the Stomach, the Menstrues [menstruation], and all the Excrements, the right Eye of a Woman, and the left Eye of a Man, the force and strength of growing, the left side of the Stomach, the Head, the Matrix [womb], the Vulva, and according to some, she hath the Belly and Mother in Women..." (Sa-197/8).
