Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos · Ptolemy
THE TERMS ACCORDING TO THE ÆGYPTIANS
The method of the Chaldæans contains a certain simplicity of arrangement as to quantity, and preserves an order of succession rather more comformable to the dominion of the triplicities. It is, nevertheless, highly imperfect, as may be easily discovered even without being pointed out: for in the first triplicity (which the Chaldæans also attribute to the same signs; viz. Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius), Jupiter, the lord of the triplicity, takes the first degrees; Venus, who rules the next triplicity, follows him; after her, in succession, are Saturn and Mercury, the lords of the triplicity of Gemini; and lastly Mars, lord of the remaining triplicity. In the second triplicity (also allotted to the same signs, viz. Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn), Venus stands first; next to her, Saturn and Mercury; after them Mars, and Jupiter last. In the other two triplicities a similar order of succession is closely followed; and with respect to the third triplicity, which is ascribed to two lords, viz. to Saturn and Mercury, Saturn is placed first in order by day and Mercury by night. The quantity of degrees allotted to each planet is also simply regulated in the Chaldaic method; it diminishes in graduation from the quantity given to the planet first in order, so that each successive planet takes one degree less than that which preceded it. Thus the first planet takes eight degrees, the second seven, the third six, the fourth five, and the fifth four. By this arrangement the degrees of Saturn amount by day to 78, and by night to 66; the degrees of Jupiter to 72, of Mars to 69, of Venus to 75, and of Mercury by day to 66, and by night to 78—the whole amounting to 360.
Of these two distributions of the terms, that of the Ægyptians seems more to be relied on than the other; since it has been handed down and recommended in the writings of the Ægyptian authors, and also because the degrees of the terms, in nativities rectified by them as examples, are universally in accordance with this distribution; while, on the other hand, neither the order nor the number of the Chaldaic method has ever been recorded or explained by any writer—not even by the writers of that very nation: the accuracy of that method is consequently doubtful, and its irregularity as to the order of placing the planets is widely open to censure. There is, however, an ancient writing which has fallen into the author’s possession, and which gives a rational and consistent account of the nature of the terms; of the order in which they are to be taken, and of the quantity belonging to each. It will be found in the subsequent chapter.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.