Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos · Ptolemy
MONSTROUS OR DEFECTIVE BIRTHS
The same places, as those pointed out in the two chapters last preceding, are again to be considered, in inquiring into the probability of a monstrous or defective birth. For it will be found that, at a birth of this description, the luminaries are either cadent from the ascendant, or else not in any manner configurated with it; while, at the same time, the angles[136] are occupied by the malefics. It therefore becomes necessary, when such a position of the heavens may occur at the time of birth, to observe forthwith the preceding new or full Moon[137] and its ruler; as well as the rulers of the luminaries at the said time of birth. For, if all the places, in which the rulers of the luminaries, and in which the Moon herself and Mercury may be situated, at the birth, or, if most of those places should be totally inconjunct and unconnected with the places of the said preceding new or full Moon and its ruler, the birth will then be monstrous. And if it should be further found, in addition to this absence of connection, that the luminaries may be also posited in quadrupedal or bestial signs, and the two malefics in angles, the birth will in that case not be human. And should the luminaries, when so circumstanced, be not at all supported by any benefic planet, but only by malefics, the creature born will be wholly indocile, wild, and of evil nature: if, however, they should receive support from Jupiter or Venus, the offspring will then be like that of dogs or cats, or other creatures held in religious veneration and used in worship[138]: but, if Mercury support the luminaries, it will resemble that of fowls, oxen, or swine, or, of other animals adapted to the service of mankind.
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