John Worsdale's Prediction Methods
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 12:59 am
Over a different thread or maybe two, we discussed John Worsdale and his prediction methods. For those who don?t know him, Worsdale wrote and published a book circa 1828, the year of his death (we think) titled Celestial Philosophy or Genethliacal Astronomy Containing the Only True Method of Calculating Nativities Made Plain and Easy. In the 1790s he also published a book that is sometimes confused with this one titled Celestial Astrology. They are different books
Celestial Philosophy contains over 30 charts with explanations and almost all of them are concerned with death. However I think the book has more value than a manual for predicting ?dissolution,? as he liked to call it. It seems if we can predict death with Worsdale?s methods, we ought to be able to predict other things as well. This thread then will be devoted to Worsdale, examples of his work, and eventually application of his methods to events other than death closer to our own time.
We can add other techniques to support what we?re doing. But support is not a synonym for substitution. I also don?t wish this thread to become sidetracked debating whether or not he agrees with this or that particular author. He is what he is or was what he was. End of story.
Some of his methods are basic and the sort of thing we?ve all heard before. The rest, to me anyway are just common sense. Our goal is to see if they have value.
1) Delineate the natal chart. We?re looking for death so look for the death stuff in the chart to see if the native will be long lived or not.
2) Select the hyleg. The hyleg is the giver of life and is usually the Sun or Moon. We?ll explain as we go along.
3) Observe the condition of the Sun and Moon whether either one is hyleg or not. Weak luminaries are an indication of a short life.
4) Look for other afflicted planets that engage the Sun and/or Moon. They are dangerous to life as well.
5) Note the condition of the part of fortune. Among other things, it represents the body.
6) Do not ignore the ASC or its ruler. Like the POF they are the body.
7) Note primary directions to hyleg and other things mentioned above. If several harmful directions afflict one or more of those significators within a short period, the possibility of death is strong.
8 ) Look to secondary progressions and solar returns for support of the prediction.
Joseph Kent
June 6, 1817
11:30 PM LAT
53 N 22
2 W 57
8 Aquarius 27 Rises
Worsdale used Local Apparent Time (LAT). Most programs will default to Local Mean Time (LMT). Solar Fire and Janus will calculate to LAT. In SF In the dialogue box, simply type in LAT. LAT can be selected in Janus. If the option isn?t offered use LMT and just adjust the chart to the ASC above. Use Placidus cusps.
Both the Sun and Moon are below the horizon. Worsdale selects the Moon as hyleg as it is in the first house, albeit in a different sign than the ascendant. Clearly he is not a whole sign advocate. Note, too the Moon is between the two malefics. Apparently it didn?t bother him that Mars was in a different sign than the Moon and Saturn. But given his methods this makes sense. Rather than be concerned about meeting a particular definition of besiegement, he is aware that at some point in the life both malefics will contact the hyleg by direction. This is a red flag. And so is the fact that the Sun and Moon/hyleg are in a tight square. Also the Sun is near the IC in the 4th house (?endings?-although he doesn?t specifically use this word) and near ?violent stars.? The only one I can find is Bellatrix (Swiftly destroying).
Mercury becomes an accidental malefic by virtue of the mundane square from the hyleg (who is besieged). The converse square from the Moon to the Sun is applying which makes it dangerous. The Sun squares the ASC in mundo, and he tells us the part of fortune opposes the Sun-Mercury conjunction which is also in a mundane square to the Moon.
A word on this last is in order. Worsdale calculated the POF in mundo, not in zodiac, the way all of our computer programs do and the way all authorities tell us to calculate it save one. Placidus said he could not get the POF in any nativity to mean anything, so he began to calculate it in mundo. That gives us a POF that is often nowhere near the usual one as in this case. Worsdale claims he learned to do this from Ptolemy, but that can?t be true. Ptolemy never calculated it this way. However Placidus was a Roman Catholic monk and Worsdale had no use for Catholics. Although Worsdale owes a great debt to Placidus, poor Placidus never gets a single mention in Worsdale?s book. Just bear with us when it comes to the POF.
Worsdale concludes his delineation:
? ? both luminaries, the ascendant and the part of fortune are all afflicted in this geniture, which forebodes a sudden, and violent death, by suffocation or drowning, which happened ? .?
He does note in several places in each geniture that the benefics can prevent death by aspects or intervening directions etc. This appears to be the case here, but it will not be enough (see below). Now we move to the relevant primary directions. The child died at age seven years, one month, and six days
Beginning at approximately 6? years of age the planets start ganging up on Kent.
Moon to the body of Saturn in Zodiac Converse 6 years 5 months
Moon to the Quintile (72?) of the Sun in Zodiac 6 years 9 months
Moon to the Sextile of Mars in Mundo 6 years 10 months
Moon to the Parallel of Mars in Zodiac* 6 years 10 months
*Parallels in zodiac are what we call antiscion, but he may not mean that. The Moon in the nativity is about a degree away from the contra antiscion of Mars. He lists an arc of direction of 6 degrees 59 minutes. It isn?t that much in the nativity. I?m not sure what he is referring to here.
All of the above are directions of the hyleg to malefics and the Sun as accidental malefic. Clearly a dangerous period for the native.
Sun to the Quintile (72?) of Mars in zodiac 7years 0 months
The importance of the luminaries. Plus the Sun is in mundane aspect to the ASC in the nativity.
Moon to the trine of Jupiter in Zodiac 7 years 2 months
This is just past the time of death by no more than three weeks. Worsdale does have this to say:
? ? and though the giver of life applied to the sextile of Venus and trine of Jupiter, yet those applications could not produce any important assistance because both the benefics were afflicted in the Nativity; for Jupiter is retrograde, near the heart of the Scorpion (Antares-tc), in square of Saturn and in mundane parallel to the Sun and applying to his opposition. Venus is also retrograde, near the Pleiades, and in exact parallel with Mercury in mundo where she becomes posited in the terms of both the enemies.?
How she could become posited in the terms of anything in a mundo parallel is a bit of a mystery to me. The terms are a zodiacal measurement. However in addition to being retrograde, Venus is smack on Algol. Whatever the reasons, the applications by the benefics are of no help.
From here he goes to secondary progressions. That?s for the next post.
Celestial Philosophy contains over 30 charts with explanations and almost all of them are concerned with death. However I think the book has more value than a manual for predicting ?dissolution,? as he liked to call it. It seems if we can predict death with Worsdale?s methods, we ought to be able to predict other things as well. This thread then will be devoted to Worsdale, examples of his work, and eventually application of his methods to events other than death closer to our own time.
We can add other techniques to support what we?re doing. But support is not a synonym for substitution. I also don?t wish this thread to become sidetracked debating whether or not he agrees with this or that particular author. He is what he is or was what he was. End of story.
Some of his methods are basic and the sort of thing we?ve all heard before. The rest, to me anyway are just common sense. Our goal is to see if they have value.
1) Delineate the natal chart. We?re looking for death so look for the death stuff in the chart to see if the native will be long lived or not.
2) Select the hyleg. The hyleg is the giver of life and is usually the Sun or Moon. We?ll explain as we go along.
3) Observe the condition of the Sun and Moon whether either one is hyleg or not. Weak luminaries are an indication of a short life.
4) Look for other afflicted planets that engage the Sun and/or Moon. They are dangerous to life as well.
5) Note the condition of the part of fortune. Among other things, it represents the body.
6) Do not ignore the ASC or its ruler. Like the POF they are the body.
7) Note primary directions to hyleg and other things mentioned above. If several harmful directions afflict one or more of those significators within a short period, the possibility of death is strong.
8 ) Look to secondary progressions and solar returns for support of the prediction.
Joseph Kent
June 6, 1817
11:30 PM LAT
53 N 22
2 W 57
8 Aquarius 27 Rises
Both the Sun and Moon are below the horizon. Worsdale selects the Moon as hyleg as it is in the first house, albeit in a different sign than the ascendant. Clearly he is not a whole sign advocate. Note, too the Moon is between the two malefics. Apparently it didn?t bother him that Mars was in a different sign than the Moon and Saturn. But given his methods this makes sense. Rather than be concerned about meeting a particular definition of besiegement, he is aware that at some point in the life both malefics will contact the hyleg by direction. This is a red flag. And so is the fact that the Sun and Moon/hyleg are in a tight square. Also the Sun is near the IC in the 4th house (?endings?-although he doesn?t specifically use this word) and near ?violent stars.? The only one I can find is Bellatrix (Swiftly destroying).
Mercury becomes an accidental malefic by virtue of the mundane square from the hyleg (who is besieged). The converse square from the Moon to the Sun is applying which makes it dangerous. The Sun squares the ASC in mundo, and he tells us the part of fortune opposes the Sun-Mercury conjunction which is also in a mundane square to the Moon.
A word on this last is in order. Worsdale calculated the POF in mundo, not in zodiac, the way all of our computer programs do and the way all authorities tell us to calculate it save one. Placidus said he could not get the POF in any nativity to mean anything, so he began to calculate it in mundo. That gives us a POF that is often nowhere near the usual one as in this case. Worsdale claims he learned to do this from Ptolemy, but that can?t be true. Ptolemy never calculated it this way. However Placidus was a Roman Catholic monk and Worsdale had no use for Catholics. Although Worsdale owes a great debt to Placidus, poor Placidus never gets a single mention in Worsdale?s book. Just bear with us when it comes to the POF.
Worsdale concludes his delineation:
? ? both luminaries, the ascendant and the part of fortune are all afflicted in this geniture, which forebodes a sudden, and violent death, by suffocation or drowning, which happened ? .?
He does note in several places in each geniture that the benefics can prevent death by aspects or intervening directions etc. This appears to be the case here, but it will not be enough (see below). Now we move to the relevant primary directions. The child died at age seven years, one month, and six days
Beginning at approximately 6? years of age the planets start ganging up on Kent.
Moon to the body of Saturn in Zodiac Converse 6 years 5 months
Moon to the Quintile (72?) of the Sun in Zodiac 6 years 9 months
Moon to the Sextile of Mars in Mundo 6 years 10 months
Moon to the Parallel of Mars in Zodiac* 6 years 10 months
*Parallels in zodiac are what we call antiscion, but he may not mean that. The Moon in the nativity is about a degree away from the contra antiscion of Mars. He lists an arc of direction of 6 degrees 59 minutes. It isn?t that much in the nativity. I?m not sure what he is referring to here.
All of the above are directions of the hyleg to malefics and the Sun as accidental malefic. Clearly a dangerous period for the native.
Sun to the Quintile (72?) of Mars in zodiac 7years 0 months
The importance of the luminaries. Plus the Sun is in mundane aspect to the ASC in the nativity.
Moon to the trine of Jupiter in Zodiac 7 years 2 months
This is just past the time of death by no more than three weeks. Worsdale does have this to say:
? ? and though the giver of life applied to the sextile of Venus and trine of Jupiter, yet those applications could not produce any important assistance because both the benefics were afflicted in the Nativity; for Jupiter is retrograde, near the heart of the Scorpion (Antares-tc), in square of Saturn and in mundane parallel to the Sun and applying to his opposition. Venus is also retrograde, near the Pleiades, and in exact parallel with Mercury in mundo where she becomes posited in the terms of both the enemies.?
How she could become posited in the terms of anything in a mundo parallel is a bit of a mystery to me. The terms are a zodiacal measurement. However in addition to being retrograde, Venus is smack on Algol. Whatever the reasons, the applications by the benefics are of no help.
From here he goes to secondary progressions. That?s for the next post.
