Skyscript Astrology Forum

Hoping that someone's got a spare few minutes, I'd appreciate feedback on this odd little passage from Simon Forman's medical astrology manuscript which I'm presently working on. I've modernised the English a little for readibility.

The Indians say look how many degrees of any sign is ascendant and cast to any house 2 degrees and a half & mark where the numbers ends, is gaining at the sign ascending to where the number ends the 2 of that sign, according to the house that he is in shall show wherefore he comes.

Example. Suppose there is 12 degrees of Aries ascending: give to every sign 2 degrees and a half, beginning at Aries & the number ends on Leo which is in 5th, and signifies children. Then I look where I find Sun & he is in 7th which signifies women, therefore I say he comes to demand of a woman to have her to wife.

I realise that what he's talking about is using dwadasamas. But as he's writing in the late sixteenth century, I was a little surprised at this reference, especially as he's explicit in calling it Indian. Forman studied astrology in Holland, so his sources aren't necessarily restricted to those more commonly available in England at that time.

So far, this is the only reference I've found of this type. I'd appreciate any useful thoughts that relate to techniques like this being used in the West in the sixteenth century.

Kim

Thanks for that Steven.

Given that Forman is generally believed to have relied heavily on Bonatti as far as his astrological techniques go, I think that this is where it comes from, although I have a lot more work to do on this manuscript before I can be definitive about anything.

And there is something else to be known, that the ancient sages (and especially the Indians) considered in nativities and questions and the beginnings of matters?every sign is divided into twelve divisions, each of which consists of two-and-a-half degrees.

Could you please reference that quote for me?

The difference is that Forman explicitly describes the technique as "Indian." Immediately before the quote I posted, he mentions Ptolemy and Dorotheus as using fortuna to judge intent, so if he thought it was also a Greek technique it would have made sense to say so there. And he has his fair share of general "ancients" floating about.

I'll be back if anything similar pops up in the manuscript.

Kim