Skyscript Astrology Forum

Hello
I'm trying to understand how the triplicities were arrived at.
I've read the thread on Lee Lehmann's ideas, which gives lots of food for thought. I've also read various "rationales" for the triplicity systems, of which I find that of Joseph Crane in his "Practical Guide to Traditional Astrology" the most coherent, though not altogether convincing. Crane uses Dorothean triplicities, which also seem the most coherent to me, on the whole.
Reading Carmen Astrologicum by Dorotheus (translated by David Pingree), I note that right at the beginning Dorotheus says:
"before everything, understand the seven (planets) in longitude and latitude, divide the four cardines by their degrees, and know with this the triplicities of the signs". He then goes on to give the triplicities for Aries/Leo/Sagittarius, etc.
So I'm trying to understand how this jump is made from the mundo cardines (the mundo angles, ie. houses I, IV, VII and X - even if doubtless whole-sign houses) to the celestial signs of the zodiac. Does anybody know what he could mean by "divide the four cardines by their degrees, and know with this the triplicities of the signs" ? It's intriguing, as it sounds like a method for determining the triplicities.
Many thanks for any ideas.
Graham

Hi, Grahan

the text of dorotheus is very confusing, he isn?t written by present conventions and the ideas are many times not linked together. This can be because of many reasons, but let?s just state this fact... sometimes is just not clear or logic, so we have to guess a little.

If you read all the page in Dorotheus you see that first he talked about the planets, then divide the cardines, then triplicities and which are the lords of the triplicities. but then he says:

"in an eclipse, of the sun or the moon in which they indicate (the lords of triplicities) the things which happen and for how long..."

But then he says only one line about this, and don?t speak a word about triplicities ! And then he finishes off saying that you should know the rulers...


So, I would say that, you shouldn?t be too literal in this paragraph... Dorotheus is saying that:

Always, my son, before everything else, understand how to erect a map! Write down the longitude and latitude of the seven planets. Then trace the angles of the map.

And know both the rulers of each sign, and know also the rulers of each of the triplicities.

etc...

After all, is the first page in the book, you have to start with the basics :-)

Hello Yuzuru
Yes, what you say seems the best explanation: after all, the book is an English translation from the Arabic from the Greek...
So it's really just saying first find out all the basics: positions of planets, dividing up the sectors to show which signs make up which houses (whole-sign system), then classify these signs into triplicities, the determine lords of the triplicities.
As you say, some things are then left undeveloped, others are specified in a rather simplistic way (an eclipse in Aries will affect sheep... yes, well...)
Many thanks
Graham