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A combust planet might signify someone who works hard, ambitiously and efficiently but does so under a pressure. The concept is especially relevant in our modern Western society defined by Protestant work ethics, business and competition. The planet may give an immaculate performance and get praised (promoted, a salary increase, etc.) by that, but the mission it?s aiming for is defined by someone else. In that sense the planet is invisible. In the end it may burn out.

The opposite for combustion is retrogradation. A retrograde planet does not do what others expect from it. It?s a maverick and goes its own way. No burnout but no social rewards either.

Sari

Papretis wrote: A combust planet might signify someone who works hard, ambitiously and efficiently but does so under a pressure. The concept is especially relevant in our modern Western society defined by Protestant work ethics, business and competition.

But what about Catholics?

The planet may give an immaculate performance and get praised (promoted, a salary increase, etc.) by that, but the mission it?s aiming for is defined by someone else. In that sense the planet is invisible. In the end it may burn out.

Anyway, different phases of the planet were a clear point in traditional astrology.
A combust planet is one of the worst condition for a planet, together with the retrogradation.

For example if we consider the marriage for a woman, planets oriental to the Sun shows the husband's face but just when they are visible.

And in a horary a planet could not perform till it does not come out from the sunbeams.

Hellenistic astrology is full of mentions to heliacal phases, not just combustion but the whole cycle of the planet to the Sun, combustion is a phase of it.

Margherita

Papretis wrote:The opposite for combustion is retrogradation. A retrograde planet does not do what others expect from it. It?s a maverick and goes its own way. No burnout but no social rewards either.

What if both - combustion AND retrogradation - happens to a planet at the same time? This is often true for Mercury and Venus, which are never apart from the Sun more than one or two zodiacal signs.

However, combustion is often said to make the combust planet dependent on the Sun, with less ability to act freely and from some point of view it also makes the combust planet invisible/nonsignificant (if you look up in the sky, a planet near the Sun gets outshined by the Sun's rays - and so can't be seen!)
A combust planet is often weakened significantly, but it can still have some power by being in its own major dignities, and it has the possibility of acting through a powerful dispositor, if it is connected with the dispositor through either tight aspect or mutual reception.

My experience is that combustion in Aries or Leo appears to be a little different in practice. In Aries and Leo, the Sun is placed in exaltation/domicile and day triplicity. Therefore, the Sun is very powerful and able to show from its best side - the King shows his nobleness, integrity and magnanimity. If a planet is combust in the Sun's dignities, it loves the Sun: this means something good, though the planet is still combust.

Combustion in Aries or Leo can be described as living in a gilded cage. Though, often this is much more pleasant and secure than wandering as a peregrine in the wilds. For example, Venus combust in Aries or Leo can be likened to a concubine in the King's harem. She gets to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle, but she is not allowed to leave the palace on her own so the King can use her whenever he likes to.
Mercury combust in Aries or Leo can be likened to the King's Personal Astrologer. The Royal Astrologer is allowed to live nearby the King, but he has to cast charts for each trivial purpose. If his prediction proves to be true, the astrologer gets a rich present, but if the prediction fails, he gets his head chopped off.
Mars combust in Aries can be likened to the King's bodyguard or the King's best warrior. As Mars in Aries is in its domicile and therefore very strong, the elite warrior receives many honours, horses, weapons, gold, dukedomes and plenty of other riches, he is furthermore able to command those warriors below him. But he also swore his loyalty to the King, that he must stay by the King's side and guard him with his own life.

The contrary - and the worst affliction that can happen to a planet - is being combust in Libra or Aquarius. Here, the Sun is debilitated, so the King shows from his worst side: He's snobbish, selfish and perfidious. A planet combust in Libra or Aquarius can be likened to a man under the reign of a tyrant. Unless the combust planet is Venus or Saturn, which are strongly placed in Libra and Aquarius, the planet has to suffer from the combustion and there is not much it can do without the help of a powerful dispositor.

Hi Edward,

what would you say about a combusted Saturn in Aries? I was thinking today our Minister for Foreign Affairs in Finland, Alexander Stubb http://www.alexstubb.com/ , a young, socially extremely skilled but sometimes a bit careless political star who on his 40th birthday at the 1st of April 2008 got suddenly elevated to his current position after a scandalous event concerning the previous MfFA.

I don't know about the time of Stubb's birth, but he's got most likely a diurnal chart. That means that Stubb got his new position at the beginning of his Saturn firdar which fits well in many ways. But his Saturn is in Aries combusted by the Sun. He works extremely hard and when he doesn't work he runs marathons and updates diligently his blog. It seems that he never rests.

Of course many people born in spring 1968 has a combusted Saturn in Aries, so it's not a very personalized configuration. But somehow I think it tells something charasteristic about Stubb's current career. Stubb has been criticized about thinking too fast and lacking Saturnine cautiousness. Though he's very talented and hardworking, even so far he's got to make excuses of his statements more than once.

The Sun combusts Saturn but at the same time it receives it and commits its disposition, nature and virtue to it. Saturn is weakend in his chart but at the same time the Saturn firdar lifted him to a position of his dreams.

Papretis wrote:What would you say about a combusted Saturn in Aries? I was thinking today our Minister for Foreign Affairs in Finland, Alexander Stubb http://www.alexstubb.com/ , a young, socially extremely skilled but sometimes a bit careless political star who on his 40th birthday at the 1st of April 2008 got suddenly elevated to his current position after a scandalous event concerning the previous MfFA.

Hello Papretis,

as you said, without the birth data judgement is impossible, because we don't know which houses are ruled by Sun and Saturn and in which house they are posited.

One might suggest Leo rising (does Leo rising fit Stubb's appearance?), which puts the Sun in the 10th. An exalted Sun in the 10th fits Stubb's high position as a minister, even the more since it rules the Ascendant.

If Leo is rising, Aquarius is on the cusp of the 7th and Capricorn on the cusp of the 6th. This means, the 7th and the 6th are ruled by Saturn. The 7th is the house of our business partners and the 6th is the house of our servants.

Saturn is clearly dominated by the Sun, as it is not only in the Sun's dignities, but also combust. Due to Saturn's weak position (in its fall in Aries), we might think that it is in fact his partners and little servants that have to work hard for Mr. Stubb, who is signified by the Sun. Though, they seem to appreciate that - the noble dignified Sun rewards its subjects richly, as one hand washes the other. This can be by protection, offices, honours, fame, much money (if the Sun also rules the 2nd) or other riches the Sun is capable of due to its placement in the chart. Although the combust, debilitated Saturn is somehow dependent on the mighty, dignified Sun, it would be in a worse and less secure situation without the Sun.

What Mr. Stubb does in his leisure time, has not necessarily something to do with his career. Sports (as a leisure activity) would rather be seen as a matter of the 5th house, and also of Mars, as Mars is the natural ruler of physical activities.

Besides, I would still like to know the answer to my question of what happens if a planet is both combust and retrograde at the same time.

Hello Edward,

thanks for your comments.

As for the combust/retrograde question, I don't know! Theoretically we might speculate that because a retrograde inferior planet is analogous to a superior planet opposing the Sun (because superior planets are retrograde when they oppose the Sun), then maybe retrogradation kind of saves a planet from combustion. The effect must be somehow different to an direct-moving inferior planet in combustion. The opposition to the Sun has to do with retrograde planets being associated with rebelliousness and deviancy.

Edward wrote: Besides, I would still like to know the answer to my question of what happens if a planet is both combust and retrograde at the same time.

Obviously this is the case of Mercury and Venus.

For some coincidence last Saturday I spent all the day to an astrological Congress and the opening lecture was about different phases of planets.

Planetary phases of inferior planets were discussed with great detail by several authors, for example Alchabitius.
So the lower conjunction Venus in cazimi but retrograde makes the seducers while in the same position Mercury gives a great intelligence, but disposed to evil.
Margherita

Gjiada wrote:So the lower conjunction Venus in cazimi but retrograde makes the seducers while in the same position Mercury gives a great intelligence, but disposed to evil.

Hi Margherita,

does this apply to cazimi planets only?

Sari

Papretis wrote:

Gjiada wrote:So the lower conjunction Venus in cazimi but retrograde makes the seducers while in the same position Mercury gives a great intelligence, but disposed to evil.

Hi Margherita,

does this apply to cazimi planets only?

Sari

I think so because we should put together cazimi qualities with retrogradation.

Anyway details of meaning of planetary phases are given in all Ptolemy's Medieval and Renaissance commentaries. As soon I have a little of time, I will check in some of them if you are interested.

Margherita

Gjiada wrote:Anyway details of meaning of planetary phases are given in all Ptolemy's Medieval and Renaissance commentaries. As soon I have a little of time, I will check in some of them if you are interested.

Please do.

Yesterday I happened to read what Al Biruni says about the planetary phases (The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology) and he seems to start the cycle with the conjunction with the Sun with the superior planets, but with inferior planets he starts it with the retrograde conjunction, because it's after retrogradation that the inferior planets become oriental. In that case with Mercury and Venus the proverbial "opposition with the Sun" (the halfway of the cycle) would be the direct conjunction with the Sun!

There's an interesting passage about the favourability of the phases:

Some people assert that the west is favourable to the lower planets, and the east the higher, but you must understand that this is derived only from the analogy of malenest and femaleness, the east being male and the west female, while the criterion of the difference between them is distance from the Sun. (---)
But the occidentality of the inferior planets, when their movement becomes slow, is a much more injurious and weakening influence than the occidentality of the superior ones because the former have now turned their faces both towards the retrograde course and combustion: so the superior planets in their occidental phase are safer than the inferior, because it is only succeeded by their occultation. (pages 77-78, the 2006 Astrology Classics edition)

Papretis wrote:There's an interesting passage about the favourability of the phases:

Some people assert that the west is favourable to the lower planets, and the east the higher, but you must understand that this is derived only from the analogy of malenest and femaleness, the east being male and the west female, while the criterion of the difference between them is distance from the Sun. (---)

Well, surely different authors believed that for inferior planets a vespertine rising is better than a matutine one

And according Bezza, Ptolemy does not use the oriental and occidental in respect to the Sun but to the epycicle, oriental from the apogee and perigee, occidental the opposite condition.

For example see in the manuscript Tractatus Sphaerae (1290)
"Upper planets, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars are oriental when they are before the Sun, when they precede the Sun in rising in the morning and in setting in the evening. Besides, they are called occidental when they are after the Sun, following it after its rising in the morning and its setting in the evening, when the Sun precedes them in its rising in the morning and in the setting in the evening.
For lower planets, Venus, Mercury and Moon, is the opposite. In fact these three planets are oriental when the Sun rises and sets before them, being them near or far to the Sun. They are occidental when the Sun follows them to the East and the West.In the same way when the Moon becomes new is oriental and she is called oriental till she is waxing and like that follows the Sun in rising and setting. When, on the contrary, she is decreasing in light, she is called occidental, because she rises and sets before the Sun. What we told about the Moon is for Mercury and Venus too. So when these three planets are oriental are strong in ther meaning, weak when occidental. "

This is the scheme of inferiors according Bezza's traditional astrology site, where (1) is like in Albiruni the retrograde conjunction:

http://www.cieloeterra.it/articoli.epic ... cicli.html
See diagram on this link

As you see better phases in this scheme are vespertine rising and matutine setting, according hairesis (sect) of the geniture.

Margherita