CHAPTERXIXALFRIDARIES
Perhaps the simplest example of the Alfridary that we have received is that in which the Sun takes precedence in all Day births and the Moon in all Night births, the planets following the Sun in, the usual Chaldean order, and the Moon in the reversed order.
The oldest that is known to us in the West is that invented by Claudius Ptolemy in the second century. It is developed in theTetrabiblosor Four Books on the Influence of the Stars, translations of which are easily obtained, the best being that by Ashmand. Under the head of Chronocrators, the Seven Ages of Man, so graphically described by the bard inAs You Like It, are for the first time mentioned and placed under the dominion of the seven planets of the ancient solar system. Ptolemy’s invention consists in ascribing to these ages the number of years they extend, and applying to them certain periods of the planets and luminaries. Thus he makes the Moon to rule the first four years of life, the infant “mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms”; the next ten years are under Mercury, and denote the “schoolboy, with ... shining morningface, creeping like snail unwillingly to school.” The next eight years are under Venus, and represent “the lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow.” The next nineteen are under the influence of the Sun, according to Ptolemy. The next fifteen under that of Mars, denoting the “soldier ... bearded like a pard ... sudden and quick in quarrel.” Jupiter rules the next twelve years and represents “the justice ... full of wise saws and modern instances.” Saturn, ruling the next thirty years, figures “the lean and slippered pantaloon.” Here the system of Ptolemy ends, and to this the poet, with that prophetic apprehension of ulterior need, adds a truly Uranian picture of that “second childishness and mere oblivion” which characterizes paralytic dotage. Astrologers have sought to apply this system of Chronocrators to the horoscopes of persons by taking into consideration the aspects held by these planets at the time of birth and judging of the period under consideration accordingly. Thus a person at whose birth Mars is an afflicting planet, as may be seen by its aspects to the Sun, Moon and other significant points of the horoscope, would suffer many troubles and misfortunes during the period from forty-one to fifty-six years of his age. One in whose horoscope Jupiter is a beneficent planet, as judged by its aspects, would similarly have good fortune and experience many benefits during the period of Jupiter from fifty-six to sixty-eight years of age. So in regard to the other Chronocrators. The scheme is set out in the following table—
Table of Chronocrators
By Ptolemy.
This may be taken as the foundation of a number of ambitious attempts to read light into the somewhat misty generalizations of the Alfridary. One of these has regard to the Moon’s position at birth, and employs the twenty-seven lunar mansions, so much in repute among the Orientals, the periods ascribed to the planets in this scheme being: Sun 10 years, Moon 9 years, Mars 7 years, Mercury 13 years, Jupiter 12 years, Venus 8 years, Saturn 11 years, making 70 in all, the planets following the order of the days of the week.
An extension of Ptolemy’s system of Chronocrators seems to be a very feasible scheme, but to give it more particular application to the needs of the practical astrologer it is found necessary to subdivide the periods allotted to each of the planets.
For various reasons I should be disposed to adhere to the period of 108 years, as being so uniformly reflected in the cosmical order of things, and there appears no reason why one planet should have a longer period than another, seeing that in somehoroscopes the Moon may have the major influence and in others Saturn or another planet, and hence would dominate the life more particularly. While it rules its influence is paramount, and that is all that we can logically say of it. The attempt to ascribe periods which are partly astronomical and partly symbolical is at all events inconsistent, and only invariable experience of their validity would warrant us in accepting them.
I propose, therefore, to employ all the known operative factors of the cosmos, and to give to each of them a period of twelve years, and since there are nine factors, there will be 108 years in the circle of life represented by this scheme. The Chaldean order is adhered to, and the Period is ruled first of all by the planet which heads it, and is followed by the others in succession, or rather in rotation, for that which rules the first subdivision of one Period will be last in the sub-periods of the next Period, as the following table will show.
The Moon is seen to rule from 0 to 12, Mercury from 12 to 24, Venus from 24 to 36, Sun from 36 to 48, Mars from 48 to 60, Jupiter from 60 to 72, Saturn from 72 to 84, Uranus from 84 to 96, and Neptune from 96 to 108. Taking into consideration the known characteristics of the several planets (all the bodies are regarded as planets from the point of view of a stationary earth), these periods will, I venture to think, appear as satisfactory as those of the Ptolemaic method, while the inclusion of Uranus and Neptune should render the system complete.
Figure 22-a. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.Figure 22-a. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.
Figure 22-a. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.
Figure 22-a. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.
Figure 22-b. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.Figure 22-b. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.
Figure 22-b. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.
Figure 22-b. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.
Figure 22-c. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.Figure 22-c. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.
Figure 22-c. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.
Figure 22-c. Planetary Periods by Sepharial.
An objection which has been raised against the Ptolemaic system of Planetary Periods, and which on the same grounds may be raised against this one, deserves consideration. It is said that it is extremely unlikely that all persons are under the same planetary influence at the same age. In this I should concur were it intended that a single planet entered into the equation. Such, however, is not the case. For although all persons are under the influence of the Moon at a certain period of their life, and all of the same age are under the same periodic influence at the same time, yet it must be remembered that in the large variety of horoscopes which arise out of astronomical changes during even a single month, it is extremely unlikely that any number of persons of the same age were born under the same conditions, and in one horoscope we shall find the Moon afflicted, in another well aspected, and so on.
Consequently, the Moon Period in these horoscopes will be variously interpreted. For if the planet governing the Period in force at any age is well placed and aspected at birth, then the period will be a fortunate one, andvice versa. Moreover, the sub-periods involving the introduction of a subsidiary influence into the Period will be interpreted in terms of the aspect the sub-period planet bears to the Period planet at the moment of birth, and thus an infinite variety of interpretations are afforded by the consideration of the various houses, signs and aspects held by the planets in the radical or birth horoscope.
Each planet then will rule in succession for a Period of twelve years, during which it will bring into play the conditions indicated by its position and aspects at birth. The same planet will rule for the first sub-period of that Period, and will be followed by the other planets in Chaldean order. Each sub-period will extend over one year and four months, and will import an influence agreeable to the nature of the planet ruling it, as well as an influence in terms of its radical relations to the Ruler of the Period.
Thus if at birth the Moon were badly aspected, then during the first twelve years of life there would be poor fortunes and changes adverse to the interests of the subject. If Venus were in bad aspect there would be sickness and family trouble at from two years eight months to four years of age, which is the Venusian sub-period of the Moon Period. Any planet in the eighth sign from the Moon would import danger of death in the family, and would threaten the life of the subject himself during the sub-period of such planet. Similarly a planet in the second from the Period planet shows gain; in the third journeys; in the fourth change of residence, adversity to the parents; in the fifth benefits; in the sixth sickness of the nature of the sub-period planet; in the seventh adversity, rivalries, hurts; in the eighth loss and death; in the ninth voyages and foreign affairs; in the tenth honours; in the eleventh new associations and allies; in the twelfth bondage, restraint, anxieties, etc.
It would appear that all the Alfridaries in existenceare modelled upon the das’a systems of the Hindus. In some of these the order of the periods and sub-periods is regulated by considerations of precedence established in the horoscope of birth, but I have been unable to obtain any definite information which will guide one surely to a correct disposition of the various factors, and I have therefore abandoned them in favour of one that appears to me to have regard to cosmical symbolism, and at the same time to include the application of considerations of an individual and radical nature, such as those obtaining in the horoscope of birth.
Thus every person born into the world is regarded as a variant of the cosmical elements, a concrete symbol in himself, born under horoscopical conditions which are part of his greater environment and related to a world of life in which, for good or ill, he is required to function in terms of his own nature. Hence the statement, which I hold to be inviolable, that the planets affect us only in terms of ourselves. The superman will have to be content to take incarnation as he finds it. Without lying idle on the shelf for some ages he cannot wait for the stars in their courses to wheel into position for the striking of the perfect die. In all ages and nations there are such things as horoscopical misfits, where the individual finds insuperable difficulty in the way of perfect expression of character. But if we all try to do our best in the circumstances allotted to us, we shall give to the personal symbol a new and a better value than it has hitherto possessed. It is this fact of human perfectibilitythat gives to astrological interpretations an ever increasing interest. We see how the anciently destructive forces of the planet Mars are converted by human evolution into the executive ability of the man of action. How the ostentation of the Jovian plutocrat is changed to the benevolence of the true philanthropist, and how even the mean sordidness of the ancient Saturn becomes the constructive carefulness of the social economist. And from the remnants of this old universe of ours, maintaining its cosmic integrity for ever, there shall at length be evolved “a new heaven and a new earth.” For as the expression of divine Ideation, the universe is the revelation of God to man, and this His handwriting in the heavens means more than all the wisdom of all the ages has yet deciphered. Cosmic Symbolism, of which here we are only dealing with the crudest elements, will hereafter come to be regarded as the subject of man’s highest intuitions, the embodiment of a perfected wisdom. Only when the last word of the last chapter of the Gospel of Nature has been read and understood will the heavens be rolled away as a scroll and the Word be fulfilled which said: “Behold I make all things new!” For our God is in the making.