Traditional Ideas in the Sidereal: Trigons and Temperament
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 7:36 pm
For this topic we all need to remember that this is a sidereal forum. Anyone is free to accept, reject or modify material here. But this is not the place to argue the tropical point of view. The sidereal concepts introduced here are unique, and deserve their own study without entanglement with tropical concepts which have an entirely different starting premise.
Part 1: Sorting out the Triplicities (Four Trigons of Signs)
The tropical labels of fire, earth, air and water have no relationship to the sidereal signs. These labels are possibly not even suited to the tropical signs as Rob Hand has discussed in his commentary on Project Hindsight's Tetrabiblos, Volume 1 (p. 16-17) Aristotle placed Air opposite Earth and Fire opposite Water, so the sidereal perspective rejects this element-sign relationship as not being tenable. (In the tropical zodiac air signs are opposite fire, and earth signs are opposite water.)
Element-sign correlations were not used in India, the stronghold of the sidereal zodiac, until B.V.Raman (who studied western astrology) introduced the sign-element relationship in his early books in the mid 20th century. The earliest date I have for a Raman book is 1940 when Astrology For Beginners was published. In that book the signs are called airy, earthy, watery and fiery, but no further descriptions are given.
However, Rob Hand's suggestion (based on Robert Schmidt's translation) is that Ptolemy himself didn't link the elements to the triplcities, but instead in Tetrabiblos referred to the qualities of hot, cold, wet and dry. (Combined these produce Aristotle's four elements.) This is a complex discussion, and it's best to refer to Rob Hand's original commentary for a full understanding of the concepts involved.
A possible Sidereal perspective links Aristotle's basic four qualities to the triplcities. These are in their proper relationship to each other in the zodiac. Hot is opposite Cold, and Wet is opposite Dry. However, these qualities have nothing to do with weather conditions or seasons. Very briefly I'm discussing a possible sign correlation here, but there is more detail in the link below. The article link also contains Rob Hand's quotes on the elements and qualities from Robert Schmidt's Project Hindsight translation of Tetribiblos.
http://www.snowcrest.net/sunrise/aatrigonsaddendum.htm
"More on Sidereal Polarity and the Trigons"
Summary of Aristotle's principles that can be related to signs of the zodiac:
Male and Female:
Reflecting the society in which he lived, Aristotle elevated the rational over the passionate or emotional. He discussed gender especially in the History of Animals. Aristotle observed the female to be softer in character, more easily moved to tears, more compassionate, but also more jealous and quarrelsome. (That is, the female displays emotion!) Aristotle respected the male characteristics of courage and rationality over emotional attributes which he considered to be inferior.
Active and Passive:
Aristotle's active and passive don't resemble our contemporary astrological understanding of those terms. Instead, they are related to functions of intellect. One understanding is that the active intellect relates to a fixed and stable set of concepts, a link to a universal mainframe (hard drive), so to speak.
There is the suggestion that the active intellect is linked to the immortality of the soul, a universal constant. A modern commentary states: "The active intellect...is more properly called the Agent Intellect, as it is the force...causing thoughts to pass from the potential to the actual." (Absolute Astronomy.com)
We might call this the creative energy that manifests especially in the arts or in functions such as entrepreneurship, the inward motivation to produce something original and significant over which one has personal control. This is basically a solar function, the Sun being the power and light center of the solar system.
However commentators and students of Aristotle wish to understand the active intellect, the general idea is that it's more central and universal than the passive. The passive is external to the active, and is related more to the outer world. (Thus, the usual astrological understanding of "active" is what Aristotle might term passive!)
Aristotle's passive has been said to relate to matter or the world of forms, the body. The passive intellect would relate to computer data files, but not the hard drive itself. This function can be related to the Moon which collects and reflects light from the Sun.
In our human world this would be the sociability factor where we reach out and link with others, asking opinions, joining energies to produce the finished product. This is the energy needed in team sports where cooperation is essential, committee meetings, conformity to a church or other organization, the helpful secretary, even the person who frequents the lecture circuit sharing concepts with an audience and soliciting response. (This is the type of energy that is called "active" in western astrological systems.)
Wet and Dry:
Aristotle's Dry is said to be algebraic, object oriented, solid, rigid, clear, enhancing distinctions; we might relate these qualities to the rational mind as separate from emotional reaction.
Aristotle's Wet is spatial, geometric, liquid, able to assume the shape of the container, fluid, formless, ambiguous, blurring distinctions, "irrational" according to Aristotle Thus, related to what might be understood as feminine or emotional psychology with instant responses to the moment.
Now that a sidereal foundation has been introduced, these qualities can be correlated to the four triplicities of the zodiac It's helpful here to introduce a portion of Rob Hand's commentary from Tetrabiblos:
"The text does appear to be saying that Hot = Masculine, Wet = Feminine, Dry = Masculine, Cold = Feminine. If Ptolemy is completely in accord with standard Aristotelianism in which Hot and Cold are both active whereas Wet and Dry are both passive, then Ptolemy here classifies Hot = Active & Masculine, Cold = Active & Feminine, Wet = Passive & Feminine and Dry = Passive and Masculine. If this analysis is correct it has all manner of interesting symbolic consequences for astrology." (p. 17)
In another post we can look at these qualities in relation to the four trigons and the traditional triplicity lords first introduced by Dorotheus (first century C.E.) These qualities can be illustrated with sidereal charts from Dorian Greenbaum's Temperament: Astrology's Forgotten Key . (But I have forgotten how to upload charts to the forum!)
Continued in Part 2, Sidereal Trigons and Temperament
Part 1: Sorting out the Triplicities (Four Trigons of Signs)
The tropical labels of fire, earth, air and water have no relationship to the sidereal signs. These labels are possibly not even suited to the tropical signs as Rob Hand has discussed in his commentary on Project Hindsight's Tetrabiblos, Volume 1 (p. 16-17) Aristotle placed Air opposite Earth and Fire opposite Water, so the sidereal perspective rejects this element-sign relationship as not being tenable. (In the tropical zodiac air signs are opposite fire, and earth signs are opposite water.)
Element-sign correlations were not used in India, the stronghold of the sidereal zodiac, until B.V.Raman (who studied western astrology) introduced the sign-element relationship in his early books in the mid 20th century. The earliest date I have for a Raman book is 1940 when Astrology For Beginners was published. In that book the signs are called airy, earthy, watery and fiery, but no further descriptions are given.
However, Rob Hand's suggestion (based on Robert Schmidt's translation) is that Ptolemy himself didn't link the elements to the triplcities, but instead in Tetrabiblos referred to the qualities of hot, cold, wet and dry. (Combined these produce Aristotle's four elements.) This is a complex discussion, and it's best to refer to Rob Hand's original commentary for a full understanding of the concepts involved.
A possible Sidereal perspective links Aristotle's basic four qualities to the triplcities. These are in their proper relationship to each other in the zodiac. Hot is opposite Cold, and Wet is opposite Dry. However, these qualities have nothing to do with weather conditions or seasons. Very briefly I'm discussing a possible sign correlation here, but there is more detail in the link below. The article link also contains Rob Hand's quotes on the elements and qualities from Robert Schmidt's Project Hindsight translation of Tetribiblos.
http://www.snowcrest.net/sunrise/aatrigonsaddendum.htm
"More on Sidereal Polarity and the Trigons"
Summary of Aristotle's principles that can be related to signs of the zodiac:
Male and Female:
Reflecting the society in which he lived, Aristotle elevated the rational over the passionate or emotional. He discussed gender especially in the History of Animals. Aristotle observed the female to be softer in character, more easily moved to tears, more compassionate, but also more jealous and quarrelsome. (That is, the female displays emotion!) Aristotle respected the male characteristics of courage and rationality over emotional attributes which he considered to be inferior.
Active and Passive:
Aristotle's active and passive don't resemble our contemporary astrological understanding of those terms. Instead, they are related to functions of intellect. One understanding is that the active intellect relates to a fixed and stable set of concepts, a link to a universal mainframe (hard drive), so to speak.
There is the suggestion that the active intellect is linked to the immortality of the soul, a universal constant. A modern commentary states: "The active intellect...is more properly called the Agent Intellect, as it is the force...causing thoughts to pass from the potential to the actual." (Absolute Astronomy.com)
We might call this the creative energy that manifests especially in the arts or in functions such as entrepreneurship, the inward motivation to produce something original and significant over which one has personal control. This is basically a solar function, the Sun being the power and light center of the solar system.
However commentators and students of Aristotle wish to understand the active intellect, the general idea is that it's more central and universal than the passive. The passive is external to the active, and is related more to the outer world. (Thus, the usual astrological understanding of "active" is what Aristotle might term passive!)
Aristotle's passive has been said to relate to matter or the world of forms, the body. The passive intellect would relate to computer data files, but not the hard drive itself. This function can be related to the Moon which collects and reflects light from the Sun.
In our human world this would be the sociability factor where we reach out and link with others, asking opinions, joining energies to produce the finished product. This is the energy needed in team sports where cooperation is essential, committee meetings, conformity to a church or other organization, the helpful secretary, even the person who frequents the lecture circuit sharing concepts with an audience and soliciting response. (This is the type of energy that is called "active" in western astrological systems.)
Wet and Dry:
Aristotle's Dry is said to be algebraic, object oriented, solid, rigid, clear, enhancing distinctions; we might relate these qualities to the rational mind as separate from emotional reaction.
Aristotle's Wet is spatial, geometric, liquid, able to assume the shape of the container, fluid, formless, ambiguous, blurring distinctions, "irrational" according to Aristotle Thus, related to what might be understood as feminine or emotional psychology with instant responses to the moment.
Now that a sidereal foundation has been introduced, these qualities can be correlated to the four triplicities of the zodiac It's helpful here to introduce a portion of Rob Hand's commentary from Tetrabiblos:
"The text does appear to be saying that Hot = Masculine, Wet = Feminine, Dry = Masculine, Cold = Feminine. If Ptolemy is completely in accord with standard Aristotelianism in which Hot and Cold are both active whereas Wet and Dry are both passive, then Ptolemy here classifies Hot = Active & Masculine, Cold = Active & Feminine, Wet = Passive & Feminine and Dry = Passive and Masculine. If this analysis is correct it has all manner of interesting symbolic consequences for astrology." (p. 17)
In another post we can look at these qualities in relation to the four trigons and the traditional triplicity lords first introduced by Dorotheus (first century C.E.) These qualities can be illustrated with sidereal charts from Dorian Greenbaum's Temperament: Astrology's Forgotten Key . (But I have forgotten how to upload charts to the forum!)
Continued in Part 2, Sidereal Trigons and Temperament
