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In this Book Morin begins with an
elaborate explanation of why the Primum Caelum divided into
exactly twelve sections, called the Signs of the Zodiac, and he also
discusses the several ways in which the Signs are classified. He repeats
the assertion, made in earlier Books of the AG, that at the beginning of
the world (roughly 6,000 years ago) the Sun was in the beginning of
tropical Aries as was the solar apogee. And he cites these reasons as
proving that Aries is the first Sign of the Zodiac. He also relates Aries
to the season of spring, and he says that this is another reason for making
it the first Sign. This brings up the fact that the seasons of the year are
reversed south of the equator, and Morin briefly
alludes to that, but he insists that Aries is Aries, both north and south.
explanation of twelve
sections,
The four elements, the four
qualities, and the triplicating of the Signs are mentioned. And in a
digression into number symbolism, he adduces reasons why 3 is a prime
number, which combined with the 4 of the elements, gives 12 - the proper
number for the division of the Zodiac into 12 Signs.
From time to time, objections to all
of this by Pico dells Mirandola (1463- 1494) and Alexander de Angelis are
mentioned and refuted. Those men wrote books in which they pointed out what
they believed to be irrational beliefs held by astrologers. Their books
were still familiar to readers in the first half of the l 7th century, so
Morin thought it necessary to deal with their complaints. Today their works
are no longer read either by critics of astrology or by partisans of the art;
and in fact even their names are scarcely known. Therefore, the present day
astrologer may regret that Morin went to such lengths to present their
criticisms and his refutations of them. Still, something can be learned
from the discussion, even though it is now of mainly historical interest.
In the present Book 14 and in some
of the later ones, the reader will notice that Morin talks a lot about the
“Four Elements” which he says are Fire, Earth, Air, and Water, and
occasionally about a sort of fifth element, “Ether.” He also talks about
the “Four Qualities,” which he defines as Heat, Cold, Moistness, and
Dryness. But both of these terms, as he uses them, are now out-of-date.
They were current in the science of the first half of the 17th century, but
both chemistry and physics were in their infancy then. The old philosophers
had coined these terms to describe material substances and some of their
obvious properties, but as science progressed, beginning in the 17th
century and extending into the 18th century, new discoveries and theories
eventually displaced these terms.
Morin's reason for talking so much
about them is that in addition to teaching practical astrology, he had two
other goals: (1) to demonstrate that astrology was soundly based upon
physical science; and (2) to show that astrology was not at odds with Roman
Catholic religious dogma. But we must recognize that science has changed a
lot since Morin's time, and that the necessity for proving that astrology
is not irreligious has largely vanished.
And while 21st century astrologers
know that “elements” are now defined as material substances that are unique
and not composite, they can still benefit from the older definition by
analogy. The old Four Elements can also be viewed as Qualities of matter-
“fiery heart,” solid, gaseous, and liquid substances; and the term Ether
was still in use as late as the 19th century, but has now been replaced by
the more stylish term “space,”' which might be defined as a nothingness
that has physical properties.
The reader will also note that Morin
discusses magnets and magnetism. This probably reflects John Kepler's
speculations about them. It seemed to Kepler that there must be some
attractive force in the universe, and he thought that it might either be
magnetism or something similar to it. We now call it gravity, but it is
still a mysterious force. Again, Morin's reason for discussing magnetism
[is] that he is trying to relate astrological influences to something
physical.
As astrologers, we are mainly
interested in learning Morin's methods of reading charts and using the
auxiliary features of astrology to make predictions. Experience teaches us
as it taught Morin that the methods he explains are valid and effective.
And we are prepared to ignore the criticisms of people who know nothing of
astrology and have had no experience with it. Consequently, the fact that
Morin's concepts of physics and chemistry are now outdated does not detract
from his exposition of his astrological methods. We do not understand the
physical mechanism by which astrology works, but experience teaches us that
it does work, and that is sufficient for us.
I would like to say something about
the translation. I have tried to translate Morin's Latin as literally as
possible, but sometimes I have thought it necessary to paraphrase his
words, and I have often inserted some words that are common and needful in
English sentences but less common or not found at all in his scholarly 17th
century Latin. And since Morin had a large Latin vocabulary, he often uses
uncommon Latin words for the sake of variety. I have preferred to render
them by their more common English equivalents, so I have dulled his
literary style to some extent.
He seldom uses italics except for
his Preface, chapter titles, and quotations. I have retained the first two
of these, but I have generally handled quotations by enclosing them in
double quotation marks. And I have italicized a number of words to point up
some of the items under discussion in the several chapters.
Morin uses a number of words in a
technical sense. l have rendered them by their most common English
equivalent, even when their most common present-day meaning is not what he
had in mind. An example is the Latin word virtus, which I have
translated as ‘virtue’. The Latin word's root meaning is ‘strength’, but it
carries the implication of a particular kind of strength arising from the
condition of its possessor. The English word ‘virtue’ now means mainly
‘moral uprightness’ . But to translate virtus
as ‘strength’ is not adequate, for to Morin it referred to the
characteristics of a planet as well as to its active force – ‘strength’
does not carry that implication. So I have rendered it simply as ‘virtue’,
but I have added a footnote to explain the term more fully.
The word determinatio
‘determination’ is another similar case; it is a very important technical
term in Morin's astrology. In classical Latin the word means ‘boundary’,
‘conclusion’, or ‘end’. But Morin used it as a noun derived from the verb determino,
whose secondary meaning was ‘to fix or settle something’. Consequently, for
him a ‘determination’ was the making of a particular Signification,
especially by the action of a celestial house on a planet that was in it or
was its ruler. The usual sense of the word in English is ‘maintenance of a
fixed purpose to do something’, although in legal circles it means ‘a
judicial decision’ or ‘the logical resolution of a question’, which is
somewhat like Morin's meaning. I have explained its technical meaning in a
footnote.
In the case of the Latin word Caelum,
which means ‘sky’ or ‘heavens’, I have chosen to retain the Latin word in
italics. Morin sometimes uses it to refer to the ‘sky’ in general, but more
often he has in mind the orientation of the Zodiac and the placement in it
of the planets at a particular time, when it could be translated as
‘celestial configuration’, but Caelum is simpler. In Morin's
day the old term Primum Caelum ‘first sky’ was
still in use. It referred to the outermost sphere of the universe, on which
the Signs of the Zodiac, were thought to be located. Since the Earth was
still considered by him to be the center of the universe, the sphere of the
Primum
Caelum, sometimes called the Primum Mobile or the ‘First
Mover’ was thought to be in daily rotation about the Earth. Within the Primum
Caelum was the sphere of the second Caelum, on which the
constellations and the fixed stars were supposed to be located. It was
dragged along by the motion of the Primum Caecum, so it also
rotated once every day. These were old and now abandoned astronomical
concepts, but they were still current to some extent in the first half of
the 17th century.
The terms ‘influence’, ‘element’,
and ‘quality’ are defined in the text.
There are a number of other
technical terms whose meaning may differ somewhat from the more common
meaning of the English word used to translate them, but, as with the two
words above, I have explained them in a footnote at their first occurrence
in the translation.
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