Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Articles

The Arithmetic of Sickness: Mars Against Saturn

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Learn More
The Arithmetic of Sickness: Mars Against Saturn

The day formula stored for this lot is Ascendant plus Mars minus Saturn, the two classical malefics set against each other and projected from the horizon.

Neither planetary term moves quickly. Mars covers about 31 minutes of arc a day at mean motion and much less near a station, and Saturn about two minutes, so the pair contribute roughly half a degree a day between them. The lot therefore travels with the Ascendant, one degree every four minutes and one sign every two hours, and it needs a birth time recorded to the minute before its degree is worth quoting.

The construction is the point of interest. The arc from Saturn to Mars is the elongation between the two bodies the tradition holds responsible for affliction of different kinds, Saturn for the chronic, cold and obstructive and Mars for the acute, hot and violent. The lot marks that arc out from the horizon, so it is not a lot of either malefic but of the distance between them.

Because Mars can be retrograde for roughly two months in every twenty six, and because Saturn is retrograde for about four and a half months a year, the elongation does not advance steadily and can hold nearly still or reverse for weeks at a time. For a group of people born within such a period the planetary component of the lot is effectively frozen, and the whole difference between their lots is the difference in what was rising.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Article On

Sources
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.