|
The Life of Jean-Baptiste
Morin by Dr.
Carlos Raitzin[1] Translated
from the Spanish[2] by Anthony Louis LaBruzza, copyright
2001. Section 2.
The Life of Morin[3] Today more than ever, on the eve of the Age of
Aquarius, it is indispensable that authentic astrologers turn their gaze
toward Jean Baptiste Morin de Villefranche and immerse themselves in his
teachings. Without a doubt the seeds
of future progress of our science can be found in any part of his major work Astrologia
Gallica. Indeed, we are absolutely
justified in stating that Morin was not only the greatest of all Western
astrologers but also that he should be credited with the most extensive and
profound conceptual reworking that astrology has ever experienced. With the passing of the centuries, the life of
Morin has taken on a legendary quality.
It is Morin whom Cardinal Richelieu sneaks into the queen’s bedroom
secretly to be present at the birth of the future Sun King, Luis XIV. Such a man, such an astrologer! Of course this artifice by the Cardinal had
no other purpose than to obtain the greatest possible accuracy for the natal
chart of the heir to the French crown.
But let us turn first to the astrological facts before recounting any
additional biographical incidents. Jean Baptiste Morin was born in Villefranche (in NATAL CHART OF MORIN As Morin himself pointed out, the stellium in his
Regiomontanus 12th house necessarily had to bring him sorrows and
painful tribulations, as indeed occurred in abundance during his
lifetime. In Astrologia Gallica,
Morin erects his natal chart first utilizing the Regiomontanus house system
and then using the equal house system to demonstrate the absolute falsehood
of the latter procedure. Under the
equal house system, the stellium in question falls in his 11th
[equal] house and thus the discontents, griefs, and artful manipulations that
he was destined to suffer would have been transformed into personal
satisfactions arising from his profession, friendships, powerful protectors,
happiness and well-being for his parents, and riches for the native; but
all of this was resoundingly disproved by the facts of his life. It is fitting to note here that it seems strange
that Morin erected his own chart using the Regiomontanus house system and
that he did not later modify it using the method of Placidus, since the Placidus
system enjoyed its preference during the greater part of his practice of
astrology. Otherwise in Astrologia
Gallica, Morin interpreted his chart and its revolutions [returns] as one
would expect of him, that is, masterfully. Jean Hiéroz (Jean Rozieres), the noted French
astrologer and naval engineer, now deceased, published a translation into
French of the original Latin astrological autobiography of Morin under the
title Ma Vie Devant Les Astres (Ed. Cahiers Astrologiques, Nice,
1943). In reality, it deals with an
extract of Astrologia Gallica and is worthwhile to read. A Spanish translation was published by the
Spanish-language journal Mercurio-3. A study of the work of Hiéroz (from which we have
taken valuable data for the present publication) will be worthwhile for all
astrologers. The now defunct journal Astrologia
(in issue No. 28) published a brief biography of Morin, and the same journal
dedicated issues No. 43 (edited by Francisco Aguilar) and No. 68 (a work of
the present author) to the Theory of Astrological Determinations. Today we want to offer something more
complete and profound, including, in addition to the best of that material,
further biographical material, an introductory summary of the Theory of
Determinations, and also a revised translation of the aphorisms of Morin
regarding the interpretation of natal charts, revolutions [returns],
directions, transits, and other topics
-- all of which is of inestimable value to astrologers. Also included will be Morin’s invaluable Rules of
Elective Astrology with some examples that I believe will be of great
interest to readers. These aphorisms
have been translated from the stupendous work of J. Hiéroz, La Astrologie selon Morin de Villefranche, quelques
autres et moi-même (Omnium Litteraire, Paris, 1962), another
very valuable resource that we have used as a source of information. Hiéroz
supplemented his previously mentioned work in a second volume entitled L’Astrologie Mondiale et Météorologique de Morin
de Villefranche (Ed. Leymarie, Paris, 1946). There are other sources of enormous
importance. The first of these is of
course the autobiography of Morin, Les Remarques Astrologiques ou le Fanal
de l’Astrologie (Retz, Paris, 1975; and a Spanish edition by Ediciones
Obelisco). There are two
English-language versions of Morin’s celebrated Book 21 of Astrologia
Gallica: the carefully done Astrosynthesis of Zoltan Mason and
Lucy Little (Emerald Books, 1974) and the somewhat less recommended text by
Baldwyn. We should also mention the great German works of
Erich Carl Kühr, Psychologische
Horoskopdeutung (Segunda edición, R.Cerny, Wien, 1948-51) and of Sindbad
(Friedrich Schwickert)-Weiss, Die Bausteine der Astrologie (Tercera
edición, O.W. Barth, München, 1950), which
drew their inspiration directly and explicitly from Morin. There is a very well known Spanish edition
of the book by Sindbad-Weiss entitled Astrología Racional (Kier,
Buenos Aires, 1965). Returning to the life of Morin, let us say that at
12 years of age he already began to suffer severe tribulations, for then his
father became gravely ill with fevers and his mother died in childbirth
without giving him her final blessing, and she also disinherited him over a
trivial matter. From the ages of 16 to 46, the life of Morin was,
in his own words, was veritable “permanent slavery”. During this period he served sixteen
masters in succession, and he had to abandon each one in turn, but not without
suffering harm because of that. Some
of them he left because he could not endure the arrogance of their wives (he
has Venus and the Moon in his 12th House, indicating misfortune at
the hands of women). Others he left,
in his own words, because of unforeseen circumstances (he has Uranus
occupying and ruling the 11th House so that he was not able to
avoid abrupt changes in his professional activities or in the attitudes of
his friends). This slavery of thirty
years is a consequence of none other than the clustering of planets in that
“valley of sorrows” which is the 12th House, to quote the exact
and bitter words of the Master himself.
As Morin himself observed, on account of the Moon
and Saturn, it was not unusual that some of his patrons were plebians
(notaries, agents, and scribes).
Thanks to Jupiter, others were of an intermediate status
(functionaries, priests, and bishops).
Yet others, because of the Sun, were from the ruling class, including
the Duke of Effiat, the Duke of Luxemburg, and also the Duke of Desdiguieres,
whose life Morin saved as a physician (the great astrologer had received his
doctorate from the From 1614 to 1621 Morin was employed by Claude
Dormy, the Bishop of Bologne. He
resided in Morin’s next employer was the Duke of Luxemburg
with whom he remained until 1629.
During that period Morin published a defense of Aristotle (1624) and
took up the study of optics. Without
setting astrology aside, he collaborated with Gassendi on astronomical
observations. A good part of Morin’s misfortunes, as he himself
admits, had their origin in his vengeful and quarrelsome [rowdy,
troublemaking] character and in his lustful temperament. These comments do not detract from the greatness
of the noted Doctor and Teacher, Professor of Astrology, Mathematics, and
Medicine at the Even a cursory analysis of his natal chart reveals
the reason for these characteristics.
Morin himself clearly explained it by pointing to the presence in his
12th House of the Moon and Venus, the ruler and co-ruler of this 1st
House. The dangers that this brought
to him continuously during almost every year starting with his adolescence
were dispersed thanks to various factors, the most important of which were
Venus and Jupiter present in and ruling the 12th House, thereby
guaranteeing his triumph over his cunning enemies. In spite of the above-mentioned facts, Morin
pointed out that he had always been a man of ardent faith and he said, “only
the Goodness of It is precisely in relation to these facts that
Morin states categorically that only an astrologer of weak intellect could
pretend, using the system of “equal houses,” that the benefics and the
luminaries in the 11th House could have produced so many grave
misfortunes in his case. Thus with an
iron club he demolishes the absurd equal house system, utilizing his
implacable logic and his ingeniously creative talent (Mercury conjunct Uranus
in Aquarius in the 11th sextile the Ascendant). In this way he also destroys the
absurdities of the Campanus house system, whose pretences he fulminates
against in the most lucid manner. Indeed, according the Campanus system, Morin’s 9th
House would fall in Capricorn and he would be subject to the cold skepticism
of Saturn, ruler of Capricorn, rather than to the proper fervent religious
attitude of Jupiter already mentioned, which accompanied him his entire
life. Even Scorpio, according to
Campanus, would have ceased to be intercepted in the 7th House and
that would have distanced this illustrious native from the mortal risks that
befell him in his days.[4] Morin even added to the other reasons an
argument that will give many astrologers pause for reflection. With reference to the Regiomontanus house
system and Morin’s religious fervor, he stated: “Finally, the cusps of the 1st
and the 9th Houses are in a partile trine.” The surprise here resides in Morin’s
notion that the house cusps are active factors in the chart. Let us leave this idea for polemics and,
above all, for judicious and methodical observation of the facts. Yet while it is not his major credit, one of
Morin’s most significant achievements was his treatment of the unsightly
remains of a venerable Astrological Tradition that he received exactly in the
form that corresponded, separating with both genius and thoroughness the
wheat from the chaff. In medieval The great Morin did not lose his composure because
of this and, in accord with realizing the encyclopedic task of restoring the
original tradition as much as possible in all its purity, he enriched it with
his conceptions in such a wonderful way that before his labor of prodigious
gold mining the statement of authorities of the stature of Sindbad and Weiss,
for whom at its side the work of other astrologers is no more than the work
of paving, has full validity. It is understandable, though not justifiable, that
in our time the immense labor of more than one contemporary astrologer
remains unknown, for the lazy inertia of the human mind as well as human
arrogance and envy are well known.
But considering that four centuries have passed since the birth of
Morin, it is a shame (for all of us astrologers) that silence and
unfamiliarity weigh upon his work.
Morin’s opus has been rescued from almost total oblivion by the few
talented individuals already mentioned.
If the proliferation of astrological recipes and other foolishness is
added to this, it is not surprising that astrology still knocks at the doors
of the universities that had to abandon it after the unfortunate decree of
Luis XIV, instigated by Colbert in 1666.
Let no one doubt that soon those doors will be reopened, following the
example of Here MORIN outlines some questions of fundamental importance
to astrological interpretation.
Speaking of the combustion, he does not hesitate to fully take issue
with those who assert that a planet combust the Sun lacks effective action in
the sublunar world. On the contrary,
Morin affirms: I have Venus and
Mercury combust [the Sun] and their rulers, Saturn and Jupiter, are also
combust, and certainly each one of them has worked with full
effectiveness. Next Morin enumerates the multitude of weighty
reasons that substantiate his statement in the characteristic discursive
style of Astrologia Gallica.
Clearly patterned after the canons of scholastic philosophy, his
masterwork follows a rational-deductive model starting with a system of
axioms and postulates that we will briefly review later. (Perhaps soon some publisher with a vision
of the future will want to make this immense opus from the past available to
everyone.) The conclusion is rendered
irrefutable in light of the facts of his own life: the combust planets are
not private in their own strength, at least in an influential sense, that is,
that which results from the determination by the Houses of the radical
chart. Who better than Morin, with his
brilliant talent and the four planets that are combust in his nativity, to
pass judgment in this regard? Indeed,
Mercury gives him the clear intelligence that is reflected in his works (made
ever clearer by its conjunction with Uranus in the Domicile of the
latter). Venus being combust entangles
him in a hundred amorous flings that carry in their wake many other
misfortunes, including two nearly fatal stabbings in 1605. At last his glory arrives. Not without efforts on his behalf, the
honor of Professor Real of Mathematics is granted to him, thanks to the
support of the Queen Mother María of Médicis.
He served in this position until his death. He also received the sum of 4.000 pounds
coming from two Mecenas to publish their works. After many fights against his enemies, Morin
succeeded in achieving one of his grand discoveries, the measurement of
geographic longitude using astronomical techniques. This won him a prize and a pension, but he
had to wait until after the death of Cardinal Richilieu to receive them. The sinister prelate, distanced from Morin,
did as much as he could during his lifetime to deprive Morin of the honor he
so deserved. And so the fame and renown of Morin finally
spreads to all of Here between the lines one can find Bailey’s
doctrine of accidental dignities. One
must also go back to Morin to find the true discoverer of derived houses
(already known in a seminal form to the Arabs), of the meaning of the
superimposition of the Houses of a return chart upon the Houses of the
nativity, of the power of realization of the parallels of declination when
the bodies in aspect have the same declination with the same sign. Morin insisted on measuring aspects on the
great circle that joined both planets and not solely on the ecliptic, a
useful teaching that was set aside because of the labor involved. Thus, the opportunity to control in the
effective directions the character of the radical linking of the intervening
stars was lost. Let us point out that
the astrological program PRIMA by Vladimir Bogdanov affords the
opportunity to control these aspects and to analyze multiple other data of
interest (in particular the antiscions) with great simplicity. The precise observations that Morin made about the
action of planets in matters signified by the House opposite to the one the
planet physically occupies (determination by polarity or opposition) is
worthy of attention. If a planet is
found in one of its dignities (Domicile or Exaltation) in one House, it will
always act unfavorably in relation to the opposite House. Here we must refer to our writings about
the Kybalion. Thus, Morin himself, with Jupiter on his throne
and Venus in her exaltation, and both in the 12th House protecting
him against illnesses and numerous secret enemies, at the same time suffered
a symphony of problems with his servants [ruled by the opposite 6th
House], which he had to change almost monthly. I would refer those interested in more details
about the life of Morin to the already cited book by Hiéroz: Ma vie devant les astres. Nonetheless, I want to mention here two
anecdotes about this famous astrologer.
First is the event that brought him renown in the eyes of the powerful
Cardinal Richelieu, who later called Morin into his service as his personal
astrologer. The Duke Henry d’Effiat, a
favorite of King Luis XIII, consulted Morin about his destiny. Unfavorably impressed by the arrogance of
the Duke, Morin does not hesitate to tell the duke about the violent and
dishonorable nature of his demise. This carries weight, as Sindbad-Weiss note well,
because the nobleman has Jupiter, the Sun, and Mars in his 8th
House – factors that could tempt the novice to predict a heroic death in
battle. When d’Effiat mentions this
prediction with monumental disdain at a banquette, everyone laughs
uproariously, except for Richelieu who remains stoic and calm as always. Three years later events transpire exactly as
Morin had predicted. Around 1638 Morin engaged in a polemic with
Descartes and vehemently criticized his philosophy. This certainly earned him a new quota of
enmities and an estrangement from certain academic circles. In the end, on the 6th of November,
1656, at 2 in the morning Morin dies like an authentic grand astrologer. Fifteen days earlier while Morin is still
healthy, a chiromancer announces his impending death and Morin, without alarm
and as his only comment, responds that he is already well aware of it and
that the following month will be fatal for him without fail. Nine days later he is overcome with
fever. The doctors despair in their
attempts to save him, while Morin, smiling, requests that they not toil, for
he has already seen his death in the stars.
It was impossible to stop the blow and Morin knew it! We have included for their analysis the
solar and lunar revolutions [returns] corresponding to his death in Finally, we mention here that a plaza in
© 2001-2009, ForumOnAstrology, LLC. All rights reserved. All trademarks are owned by the respective company. |
[1]
Original source is http://www.spicasc.net/morinbio.html.
Republished with permission by the estate of Dr. Carlos Raitzin.
[2]
I have followed the original Spanish fairly closely and have maintained the
same boldface and italicized text as in the original.
[3]
This is section 2 of Dr. Raitzin’s
longer essay on Morin’s life, techniques, and his rectification of
Morin’s natal chart.
[4]
In the Regiomontanus house system, Scorpio is intercepted in the 7th
house.