A few weeks ago I asked myself how William Lilly came to his description of the effects of the eclipses for each of the decanates. I decided to try formulating these without looking and then using his text as a control text. I chose the first decanate of Gemini and of Sagittarius for my experiment. The background is of course to try to understand the effects of the Nodes in each of the signs, with a more detailed breaking down to the terms, which I hope sometime (not anytime too soon!) to present.
I went about it in the following way: consider the sign, the ruler, the decan ruler and any debilities.
Here is what I came up with:
Gemini: 1st Decan – Mercury sign ruler, Jupiter decanate ruler, Jupiter in detriment
Storms with much wind and rain. Difficulties for those of both mercantile and learned professions, such as writers, lawyers, doctors, but also bankers and merchants. Damage through increased criminal activity. Why? Gemini is a human sign. Both Mercury and Jupiter rule learning and learned professions. Mercury also rules mercantile activities. Jupiter in detriment, breaking of laws, together with Mercury, crime and theft.
Sagittarius: 1st Decan – Jupiter sign ruler, Mercury decanate ruler, Mercury in fall and detriment
Criminal activity under legal cover. Cheating and fear of cheating. Deceit in legal matters, either through legislature or in treaties with other nations. Hoaxes, confidence schemes, corporate fraud. The first part of Sagittarius is the more human or rational part, so this still points to activity in the human sphere. Here it is not so much the breaking of laws, but the twisting of law, its use to cover up crime. You could say a rotten core is presented with a clean facade.
What does Lilly say?
“Eclipses in the ten first degrees of Gemini, stir up dissentions, strifes, seditions amongst those we call priests, and all manner of merchants and mechanicks of every order, or any quality that is amongst them; deadly hatred, contempt of lawes, neglect of piety and holy duties doth also follow, so also breach of covenant.”
“An eclipse in the first ten degrees…of Sagittarius, doth manifest most dangerous sedition amongst men, and renders men’s minds averse to all manner of accommodations, or treaties: each man fearing deceit in the man he deals with, or one Prince fearing another will delude him.”
I think that this is the right track in understanding how Lilly or some other author, if Lilly is using an unspecified source, came to these particular conclusions.
Try it out yourself! Anybody want to try the first decanate of Pisces? or Virgo? or continue with the second decanate of Gemini or Pisces? (keeping to the mutable cross)
Altair Astrology 