|
Two of the planets were classed as good and two as bad, and the words were technical rather than moral. The Moon entered Pisces at 03:24 UTC this morning and spends the whole day there, ninety five percent lit, two days short of full. Pisces is Jupiter’s house and the exaltation of Venus, the sign where she is held to work above her ordinary strength. It is the only sign on the wheel owned by one benefic and honoring the other.
|
|
Benefic and malefic are the terms. Jupiter and Venus took the first, Saturn and Mars the second, the Sun and Moon stood apart as the lights, and Mercury took the color of whatever he was attached to. The reasoning behind the split is physical. Jupiter and Venus were counted temperate in heat and moisture, Saturn excessively cold and dry, Mars excessively hot and dry. Abu Ma’shar, in ninth century Baghdad, is one of the writers through whom that account reached Latin Europe.
|
|
The labels were a starting position, not a verdict. Sect decided how much each one was worth, so by day Jupiter was the more helpful of the two benefics and Mars the worse of the two malefics, and by night the pairs traded places. Everything else in a chart then argued with the label. What the calendar shows plainly is the shape of the last week: from Saturday morning until today the Moon was inside Saturn’s two signs, and this is the first sign in five days that does not belong to a malefic. She holds no dignity of her own in Pisces either. She is simply a guest of a different house.
|
|
