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Translated and published by
George Wharton, 1659
Retyped by Paulo Alexandre
Silva, DMA
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I shall
not dispute how much Astronomers differ among themselves
concerning the Number, Site, Motions, and Nature of the Heavens:
Neither here undertake to compose such a strike, nor to censure,
any Man's judgment therein; forasmuch as at least, in this, they
do many of them agree [That there is one supream Heaven and
first Moveable, which by its own motion, from East to West,
accomplisheth its Revolution about the Earth, in the space of 24
hours; and causeth such a force of stupend Motion, in the bodies
subordinate, that it manifestly carrieth with it, from East to
West, whatsoever is betwixt it and the middle Region of Air.]
'Tis true, Kepler (the Lynceus of the last
Age) denying (with Copernicus) such a first Moveable, makes the
Starry Heaven to be supream, and immoveable: And maintaineth,
that the Earth, (called a planet by Pythagoras, and placed
between the Sphaeres of Mars and Venus) performs by its own
motion from West to East, an entire rotation about its Axis, in
the space of 24 hours, the Sun being placed in the Center of the
World. Which supposed to (as indeed it is by the most Learned of
this Age) yet in this doth the Starry Heaven perform the Office
of the First Moveable, [That the same part of the Earth, by the
motion of the whole body thereof, continually cometh into the
Aspect of the New parts of the Stellified Heaven, whereby that
part of the Earth shall be forthwith changed de novo, unless we
deny it all power of Operating thereupon.]
Whether therefore there be no other Heavens above that of the
Fixed Stars (unknown I confess to the Aegyptians, Chaldeans,
Plato, Aristotle, Hyparchus, and even to Ptolemy himself. Or
whether More, according to the Aphonsins; yet this is most
certain, and not contradicted by any, That in mundane Bodies, as
the Earth, Water, Fire, and Heavens there is some First and
Supream, than which there cannot be any higher; otherwise should
they be infinite in Operation: And also that these very Bodies
are the universal Causes of Physical Mutations, and subordinate
one another in Operation: Therefore in that Subordination, there
must likewise be one first and supream Physical cause, which
acteth by it self, and borroweth not of any former power of
Operation, And from that the Middle, and from these the Lowest
do receive there vertue of Action: Otherwise, this Subordination
of Causes should it self be quite overthrown: For, why should
the Middle be said to be Subordinate to the Supream, and the
Lowest to the Middle in their Operation, if that which is lower
received no influx or vertue from that which is Superiour unto
it? And can the Lowest without the Influence of the Middle, or
these without the Influence of the Highest, of themselves
produce any effect?
The First Cause, therefore, of all things can be no other than
the Supream Heaven, which if (according to the Doctrine of the
Ancients) it move, it moveth also the Bodies that be thereunto
inferiour, yet is not it self moved by any other Body superiour
unto it. And if (according to Kepler) it be immoveable, and
indued with Stars, it hath influence, at least, upon the Bodies
that be subordinate to it, but receiveth not influence from any
other. Therefore either way, the First Heaven shall be the First
Cause, or the first Physical beginning of Physical Effects and
Changes. For, 'tis but expedient that the First beginning in
every kind, should be the most perfect: Therefore shall the
First Heaven be in the Lineage of Efficient Causes, which are of
the most universal and powerful Active vertue, (which is the
greatest perfection of an Efficient Cause) so that there is no
Inferiour Corporeal Cause, which it moveth not, or into which it
instilleth not a vertue of power of Operation; and nothing anew
generated in the whole World, which this vertue of it self
toucheth not. Which being granted, how can any Man doubt, but
that every thing which is generated and born de novo, should be
referred to that First Cause thereof? For it must be referred
either to some part of that Heaven, or to that whole Heaven: But
it ought to be referred to the whole Heaven: For, the First
heaven is not the First and most Universal Cause, secundum
aliquam sui partem, according to some part of it, but secundum
se totum, according to the entire Body thereof: Therefore every
Sublunary Effect, so far as it may be considered secundum se
totum, to wit, in its Beginning, Vigour, Declination, and
Destruction, must be referred to the whole heaven; yet not
confusedly, but distinctly and orderly, as the most orderly
motion of the Heaven it self requireth.
For, as the whole Effect, and whatsoever doth happen from Heaven
during the same, correspond to the whole Heaven, and yet the
Beginning is not the End thereof; so what was in Heaven of it
self the Cause of its Beginning, this same thing shall not of
itself be the Cause of the End thereof: (for so no Effect should
continue, nor indeed any be produced.) But as the Beginning,
Vigour, Declination, and End of things do differ and succeed one
another: So the Coelestial Causes of these likewise differ
amongst themselves, and must succeed one another. But in Heaven,
Difference and Succession are not, unless in respect of the
parts thereof. Therefore in Heaven are certain parts that be the
Causes of the beginning of things, or which do govern the same:
Others succedent to those, which rule the Vigour; others that
rule their Declination; and lastly, such as govern the End or
Destruction of things.
What part of Heaven then (Nature her self guiding and reaching
us) shall we call the First Cause of the Natural Beginning of
every thing? Surely that, which in the very Beginning of the
thing, ariseth above the Horizon thereof, and arising causeth
the thing it self also to arise. For, certain it is, that of all
the places of Heaven, the East is more powerful than the rest,
as is testified by all Astrologers, concerning the Rising,
Culminating, and Setting of the Stars; and as Experience it self
convinceth, in the Change of Air. But a Cause is said to be only
more Powerful, in respect of a stronger, and more difficult
Effect: Therefore, the stronger and more difficult Effect of
things must be attributed to the Ascendant Par of Heaven, which
none will deny to the Rise or Production of those things. But
successively, that Part of Heaven, which is more elevated above
the Horizon, and possesseth the Mid-Heaven, in the rise or
Beginning of the thing, shall have the Government of the vigour
and Operative vertue thereof; That which setteth at the same
time, the Declination of it, from its perfect estate: And lastly,
That which obtains the Bottom of Heaven, shall be taken for the
Cause of its Corruption.
And this is the simple, and (of all others) the first Division
of Heaven, whereby it is truly and rationally fitted for the
Begetting, Increase, and Alteration of all Physical things from
their own Nature, and, at length, corrupting them: And which
onely the Ancient Astrologers frequently used, in their General
and Particular constitutions of Heaven, as appears by Haly, in
the Figure of the Comet which happened in his time: For that
either a more scrupulous Division of Heaven was harder in those
days for want of Astronomical Tables: Or because this Division
might generically contain, whatsoever another could more
specifically.
But when once some Astrologer had observed, that Heaven was both
made and moved, rather for the sake of Man, than any other
Animate, or Inanimate Creatures, and how many things agreed to
Man himself, in respect of his more Divine Nature, which did not
in any wise to more ignoble Creatures: He supposed, that for
Man's own sake also the whole Circle of Heaven was rationally
Divided into Twelve parts, (by great Circles drawn through the
intersections of the Horizon and Meridian, and cutting the
Aequator in so many equal parts) which he called Houses; the
first whereof he placed in the East, and delivered to Posterity,
That it governed the Life of Man, and from thence might be had
and drawn a conjectural knowledge and judgment concerning Life:
that the 2. (which followeth the first, according to the Motion
of the Planets) did govern Riches: the third Brethren: the
fourth Parents, and so of the rest, as in the subsequent Figure,
the houses are Ordered and Named. And from him, until this
present time hath this division of heaven, and appellation of
Houses, continued uncorrupted: Howbeit Ptolemy and his Followers
do dissent from this Ancient Tradition, seeming to pervert the
Division in many places: As when (concerning Children) they
principally judge, not from the 5. House, but the 11. which is
opposite thereunto: When (concerning the Mother) not from 4. but
the 10. opposite unto it: So (when of Servants, and Animals) not
from 6. but the 12. (the House opposing it) which apparent Error
shall hereafter be Corrected.
The Order and Names of the Houses
Astrological
Now amongst all other Foundations of
Astrology, this of dividing the Heavens into 12 Houses, is the
first and chiefest; in that thereupon principally depends the
whole Art of Predictions: And the Causes, Reasons, and first
Beginnings of this Division, furthest distant from our
Understanding, and far more hardly to be found out, by reason,
than any other; in which regard very few (if any at all) have
undertaken the defence thereof, by any true or probably Reasons,
Ptolemy himself (so say the truth) being in this particular very
defective. For Lucius Bellantius (who took upon him the defence
of Astrology against Picus) in his 10. Book (written against
(c.5. of Picus' 10. Book) after he had enumerated sundry of his
own and the Ancients trifles, not worthy the name of Reasons, is
at length forced to oppose Picus with Experience onely, and to
conclude him from Objects very ridiculous, and unbeseeming an
Artist of his Learning and Gravity, in these words: Querere
igitur quam ob causum haec vel illa domus hujus virtutis sit,
est quaerere, quare Sol sit Lucidus, cur Ignis calidus, Aqua
frigida; quae tamen ex principiis intrinsecis pendent nobis
ignotioribus, aut saltem minimè notioribus; which but a little
before he had called Profunda Naturae secreta.
And indeed all others, who have endeavoured to give the Reasons
of these Houses, have produced nothing orderly, nothing of Truth,
but mere figments onely: So that if any-where they brought a
reason which seemed but to defend one House, the very same
really destroyed all the rest. And therefore Alexander ab
Angelis, lib 4. cap. 19 after his Muster of all the Arguments
brought by Julius Firmicus, concerning these Houses, he justly
resells them, in these words: Ridiculus sit quicunque ridiculas
bas rationes nostra refutatione egere existimaret.
By which it plainly appears, how easie and free it was for the
Enemies of Astrology to hiss and laugh at these Houses, and
importunately and impudently to demand, Why Heaven might not be
divided into more than 12 Houses? Wherefore the First House is
called the House of Life, and placed in the East? Why the order
and numeral succession of the Houses is from East to West? And
why the Second House is called the House of Riches or Gain, the
twelfth of Enemies, Imprisonment and misery? And so, why the
other Houses are called by their Names, and disposed in that
order? Seeing (as they pretend,) as well their Order as Names,
observe no Order at all, but are rather a mere Chymera of
Confusion, a plain hotch-potch of fiction and fooler, as Picus (lib
10) and Alexander ab Angelis (1. 4) c. 27) do variously, but
most wretchedly torment themselves in proving.
But know, that the Division of Heaven into 12 houses, as before
in the Figure,) ought not in any wise to be accounted feigned,
or as wanting a Natural Foundation: But rather for a happy
conception of the most wise and piercing intellect (provided any
humane understanding can it self apprehend it, and it be not of
that universal knowledge God infused into Adam at the Creation)
as that which standing upon a real Foundation, declares the
universal state of Man in Heaven, wonderfully shadowed, like as
in his first Physical Cause. For this Division was by the first
Author thereof, Cabalistically conveyed to Posterity, who indeed
have in no sort changed the same; but yet its Mysteries (the
spirit of the Cabal) they have not understood, nothing at all
being left us by any one concerning them.
First then (for more Illustration sake) I say, That the former,
first and simple division of heaven into four Cardinal parts, is
not feigned, but natural, and upheld by a natural foundation, as
before hath been demonstrated. And that is every one of these
parts hath two other parts in heaven of the same Nature, viz.,
those with whome is makes an Aequilateral Triangle in the
Aequator (the principal Circle of the Worlds first Motion) or
which it beholds by a partile Trine in the Aequator. For, the
Eternal Trinity is of infinite Love, and the fountain and
substance of infinite and most perfect Love, wherein the thing
Loving, which is the First; the thing loved, which is the second,
and Love proceeding from both, which is the third, are one, not
in Genere, or in Specie, but in numero; and therefore the most
simple, and most Perfect: Whose Perfection is such, and so
universal, that it derives it self into every Trine: And
therefore may every Trine be called Perfect: not in any
particular or special perfection, but in that first, and most
universal perfection of the First Trine, which cometh in Love,
and whereof all Trines do diversely participate, according to
the Capacity of the Nature.
Seeing therefore the Fixed Stars and Planets do (by reason of
their various Motions) oftentimes behold one another with
different Aspects into the Coelestial Circles, viz., a Sextile,
Square, Trine, and Opposition: The first and wise Astrologers
(as well for reasons taken a priori, from the infinite and most
universal perfection of the first Trine, as à posteriori, from
most evident Effects) do generally affirm, that of all Aspects
the Trine is the most perfect, and that therein the perfection
of the first Trine, viz., Love, is so strong and lively, it is
called by them an Aspect of perfect Friendship. Now forasmuch as
this could not be without a similitude of natures, or at least a
generical Identity: They rightly concluded the parts of the
Aequator, which beheld one another by a partile Trine, to be at
least of the same generical nature, and to make up a Triplicity
of the same nature.
Wherefore seeing that each of the afore-mentioned Four Cardinal
parts of Heaven doth challenge to it self a peculiar Triplicity
of its own nature; by these four Triplicities Heaven is divided
into 12 parts, called Houses: Neither was it divisible into more
or fewer parts by the Created Quaternary multiplyed into the
Divine Ternary. And therefore this Division is accounted the
most absolute and truly perfect; as containing two Sextiles, two
Squares, two Trines, and also the opposition: Which are all the
Coelestial Aspects, from whence (not omitting the Conjunction)
all variations of the general Coelestial Influences do happen.
And these Aspects do perfectly agree with all the parts of the
Number 12. which are 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. where of 1. is referred
to Union or Conjunction; 2. (the 6. part of 12.) to the Sextile
Aspect; 3. (the 4. part thereof) to the Quartile; and 4. (the
third part) to the trine; and 6. (the middle part) to the
Opposition: And as there are not more Aspects in the Circle, so
in the Number 12 not more parts. For indeed all things were made
by God, in Number, Weight, and Measure.
Thus much premised, I say, that the Life of Man consists of 4.
Ages; Child-hood, Youth, Man-hood, and Old-age: And, that in Man
there are four different thing observable, unto which all the
other de reduced, as it were to their first beginning; Namely,
Life, Action, Marriage, and Passion. And these agree with the
Beginning (or rise) Vigour, Declination, and End or Death; which
four were before insinuated generally agreeable to all the
effects of Nature. For Man is said to Rise into the World, when
first he enjoys a Worldly Life: To be strong in Action, when he
acteth, or reduceth, his vigour of doing, into action: To
decline, so soon as a plentiful dissipation of his innate heat
and radical moisture beginneth, as at the time of Marriage. And
from Man-hood (the best time of Marriage) he declineth toward
Old-age, and at length Dyes, when he sustains the last Passion
of Life. Therefore Man's Life, Action, Marriage, and Passion,
belong to the same Coelestial Principles, as do the Birth,
Vigour, Declination, and Death of all other things in the World:
viz., Life, to the East; Action, to the Mid-heaven, Marriage, to
the West-angle; and Passion, to the Angle of the Earth.
Whence do arise 4. Triplicites of the same generical nature; and
12. Houses, as aforesaid.
The First Triplicity is of the Angle of the East, (which they
name the First House, and belongeth to Child-hood) called the
Triplicity of Being and Life: the other houses of this
Triplicity are the Ninth and Fifth, both which do behold the
first house by a Partile Trine Aspect in the Aequator, where is
made this rational Division of the Houses.
For, Man liveth on a three-fold respect, in himself, in God, and
in his Posterity. But the First Life is onely given a Man for
other Causes, viz., That he might Worship God, and beget his own
likeness: Which is the compleat intention of God in the
production of Man.
1 - Now as touching the Life of Man in itself (because it is the
first of all other things in the Order of Nature, and without it
the rest could not be: therefore) it justly challengeth the
principal House of the Triplicity, viz., The Angle of the East.
2 - Life in God (the second in order) exists in the house of
religion, viz., the Ninth, subsequent to the First House in this
Triplicity, according to the Motion of the Aequator.
3 - And lastly, Life in his Posterity, bestowed on the house of
Children, which is the fifth. Wherefore this whole Triplicity
concerneth Life. But herein one thing is very remarkable, viz.,
That by the motion of the Aequator (the measure of Time) there
is made an immediate ingress, from the 9. house, into the 8.
which is the house of Temporary Death: whereby man is to
understand That he must live to himself in God, until his
Temporal Death: so that betwixt this, and the Life in God, no
part of time intercedeth.
The second, is the Triplicity of the Angle of the Mid-heaven,
which they name the 10. house and appertaineth unto youth. This
is also called the Triplicity of Action, and of Gain or worldly
goods flowing thence: because every thing working Physically,
worketh for some Physical good. For, as by the Motion of the
Aequator, progress is made from the Angle of the East to the
Angle of the mid-heaven: so is there a progress made from
Child-hood unto youth, and from Being, or Life, to Action. The
two other houses of this Triplicity are the 6. and 2.
But Gain, or the Physicall good arising to man from his Actions,
is threefold.
1 - The first (in order of dignity) is Immaterial: as are Arts,
Magistracy, Dignities, and honours, unto which a man is raised:
also Power and Majesty: wherefore it hath the principal house of
this Triplicity, viz., The Angle of the mid-heaven.
2 - The second, is the Material and Animated; as are subjects,
servants, and all other living creatures; and is placed in the
6. house, according to the Motion of the Equator, in the
subsequent Triplicity.
3 - The last is Materiall-inanimated, as are gold, silver,
house-hold-stuff, and even all other Immoveable Goods, gotten by
our own labour: which are attributed to the second house, under
the name of Riches. Therefore this whole Triplicity is of Action
and Gain thence arising.
The third, is the Triplicity of the West Angle, named the 7.
House and belonging to man-hood: This is called the Triplicity
of Marriage or Love. For, as by the Motion of the Equator,
progress is made from the Angle of the Mid-heaven, to the West
Angle: even so there is a progress from youth to Man-hood, and
from famous deeds, to Marriages and friendships of men, which
thence are purchased, The two other houses of this Triplicity
are the 3. and 11.
But a man is joyned to another, in a threefold respect.
1 - The First Conjunction (in order of dignity) is that of the
body, which we call Matrimony, and therefore the principal house
of this Triplicity, viz., the West Angle, is thereunto dedicated.
2 - The second, is that of Blood, which constitutes Brethren and
Kindred, in the Third House, according to the Motion of the
Equator in this following Triplicity.
3 - The last, is that of simple Benevolence, or favor, whence do
arise friends, in the 11. house. Therefore, this whole
Triplicity is of Marriage and Love.
The fourth Triplicity, is that of the dark angle, (in the middle
of the night, or bottom of heaven) called the fourth house, and
the Cave or Den of the Planets; attributed to old-age, and
termed the Triplicity of Passion, Affliction, and Death;
whereunto every man is subject, for the sin of Adam. The two
other houses of this Triplicity are the 12. and 8.
1 - But the first Affliction of Man, in the order of nature, is
a sorrowful expectation of the Natural Death of his Parents: or
rather (speaking Cabalistically) it is that stain of Original
Sin, which our Parents imprint in us, and through which we are
from our very Births made obnoxious to every misery, and at
length, to death it self. And therefore the Parents and their
Condition, during the life of the Native, as also Death, and
heritages, left by them to the Native, do possess the principal
house of this Triplicity, viz., The Angle of the fourth house.
2 - The second Affliction consists in hatred deceipts,
Machinations, Treacherousness, and Injuries of Enemies,
especially the Secret ones: So likewise in Prisons, Servitude,
Poverty, and all other the Miseries a man suffereth in his whole
life-time. Now, for that all these are Enemies to Life,
therefore they are contained under the onely consideration of an
Enemy, in the 12. house, which is truly called the valley of
miseries, and immediately followeth in this Triplicity,
according to the motion of the Aequator.
3 - The last Affliction, inhabiting the 8. House, is the Death
of Man himself, which is an End of this Temporal, and the
Beginning of an Eternal Life: wherefore according to the second
motion, or the motion of the Planets, which is from West to East,
there is an entrance made from the 8. house into the 9. which is
the house of Life in God: whereby man is given to understand
that he is to pass by the second motion of the Soul, which is
attributed to the mind or reason (as the first and rapt motion,
is to the Body or sensitive appetite) from a Temporary Death,
unto a Life in God, which is Eternal. Therefore, in these
Triplicities, that which is First in the order of nature, or
dignity possesseth always the more noble houses, viz., the
Angular: That which is second, succedent houses, according to
the motion of the Aequator: And that which is last, Cadent,
which are also succedent according to the motion of the
Ecliptick, or Planets.
Now I beseech you, what is he will suppose this Division of the
12 Coelestial houses by Triplicities, appearing in this so
excellent a consent, and in such wonderful order, to be in any
wise feigned, or casual? Or whether by chance such consents are
wont to be in things so abstruse and intermixed? Or if
altogether fictitious, whether therefore altogether wanting a
Natural Foundation; which before I have plainly proved to be
false, and now made that most orderly consent of the Houses
themselves manifest. Therefore is this Division Natural, and
ordained by great wisdom, as comprehending (at least generically)
all worldly things that can possibly be enquired of or
concerning Man: forasmuch as the knowledge of Contraries is the
same, and that an affirmative or negative may be sought of any
thing belonging to any house.
For example, Seeing Man, by the force of natural light, knoweth,
that there is one God, who made and governeth the world, and
therefore to be worshipped and Loved above all (as the Trine
aspect made from the first house, (the cause of all
inclinations,) to the 9. which is the house of Religion, by the
first principles of nature, insinuateth) from the Stars and
Planets, (or their Aspects) resident in the 1. and especially in
the 9. may judgment be given, whether the native shall be
inclined to the worship of God, and to Religion, or the contrary.
And so concerning other things of this nature.
In like manner, conjecture is made from the 7. house, whether he
shall lead a married or a single life: From the 5. whether he be
fruitful, and to have issue, or the contrary: and so of the rest
of the other houses.
Moreover, this light of the Triplicites doth very clearly
distinguish the things which belong to every House per se; and
manifests their Errors who judge from the purpose by
inconvenient or Repugnant Houses. For example; In a manner all
Astrologers do suppose (but erroneously) that health and
sickness belong to 7. and 6. Houses per se: whereas indeed they
depend upon the Temperament, which is the Seat of Life; and
therefore ought judgment to be given concerning them, from the
First House, per se: but the judgment deduced from the other
Houses is only per accidens, that is, as you shall find the
Malevolent Planets, or their Beams, upon which the horoscope
falls by Direction, or which shall come by Direction to the
horoscope it self, or to the opposition or Square thereof,
during the Life of the Native: And therefore if Saturn or Mars,
shall at the Moment of his Birth, be found in the 2. or 6. House,
from these Houses shall judgment be given (per accidens) of a
Saturnine or Martial disease; to happen when the horoscope comes
by Direction to Saturn or Mars, in the 2. Or when Saturn or Mars
shall come by Direction to the opposite of the horoscope in the
7. Therefore judgment per se is always referred to the horoscope.
The like of other Houses, which Ptolemy especially seems highly
to pervert; but would have said otherwise, had he known this
Cabal of the Houses, which so perfectly distinguisheth the
proper house of every thing. Much more might be said concerning
these Triplicities, conducing to the natural light of
Praedictions, which I here omit; presuming I shall abundantly
satisfie as well the Friends as Enemies of Astrology, if from
the Doctrine proposed, I do give a full and clear Answer to the
beforementioned importunate Questions, put to Astrologers,
concerning these houses.
Therefore to the first Question I say, that heaven is divided
into 12 Houses and no more; because every one of the 4 Cardinal
parts of heaven, which govern the beginning, vigour, Declination,
and Death of things, do by a Trine Aspect, behold two other
Coelestial parts, which be of its own Nature: whence shall arise
three places out of each of the 4. Cardinal, of the same nature,
for three times 4 doth make neither more nor less than 12.
To the second, I say, that the first House is called the House
of Life, because a man is said first to Rise upon this Scene of
the world, when first he draws the Breath of this Life: and
therefore seeing that the first breathing of this Life is the
beginning thereof, it must be placed in the East, as the
beginning of every other Physical thing.
To the third, I answer, that it matters not as to the
instituting of Coelestial Influxes, or Praedidctions, what
number any House be called by, whether 2. 3, or 4. provided
heaven be divided (as before) into four Triplicities, and the
nature of the Houses not changed. Yet the Physical order of the
Houses is from the East to the South, into the West, agreeable
to the Motion of the first and most universal Physical cause,
according to whose parts succeeding one another, by that motion,
are the principal Estates or Ages of all generable things
contained (according to their succession, before related) in the
Equator the principal Circle of the first cause: and so
Physically the House of Enemies is the second in order; the
House of Friends the third; the House of Magistracy, the fourth,
and so forth. But mystically, or Analogically, the Numerical
order begins from the East by the North Angle, to the West: the
reason whereof is this. There are two Motions in the heavens;
the first is of the first Moveable, termed the Raptmotion: the
second of the Planets, who (notwithstanding the Rapt-motion, by
which they are wheel'd about) inviolably observe the Laws of
their own Moderate motion, ordained to the contrary of the
former. There are also two Motions in Man, who is called the
Microcosme; one of the sensitive Appetite, which is the motion
of man, in as much as he is a Living creature, and the first in
the order of nature, and also rapid: the other is the Rational
appetite, which is the Motion of a man, as he is man, and
contrary to the former, and also very moderate in it self. But
forasmuch as the first of these Motions of a man, hath a greater
Analogy with the Motion of the first moveable; and the second
with the Motion of the Planets: Therefore it was thought fit
that heaven should be divided according to the Succession of the
Signs, or the direct motion of the Planets (for these also are
sometimes Retrograde, and Stationary, even as is the Rational
appetite, in its course, whilst it suffers it self to be rapt or
perverted by the Sensitive Appettite.) But that was done only in
an Analogical consideration, and not for any Physical cause, as
if the Motion of the first Moveable should by it self have
influence upon the Sensitive Appetite of man, and the Motion of
the Planets, by it self, upon the Rational: for the Planets
insomuch as they are carryed by their own Motion, and even also
the first moveable, have not of themselves any influence upon
the Sensitive Appetite, or on man, as he is a Living creature,
otherwise than upon other Animals. But neither the Planets, nor
First Moveable, have of themselves influence upon the Rational
appetite, or man, so far as he is Rational, for a reason arising
from no Natural, but a Supernatural principle.
Nevertheless, there are many things to be perceived in that
mystical Analogy, worthy our consideration, as conducing not a
little to the wholesome instruction of the Mind, and amongst
others, this especially, viz., That there are two ways which
presently occurr to a man at his Birth, and even when placed in
the first House of his Rising. One is of the Sensitive Appetite,
whereby he is brought, by the Motion of the first Moveable, into
the valley of miseries, viz., the 12. House, which contains all
the miseries of this Life, and also the House of the secret
Enemies, of the World , the Flesh, and the Devil, the way of
whose Pride this is; tending first and forthwith on high to the
Angle of Honour and Majesty; which House issueth from the
Triplicity of Parents and Death, and threateneth continual
Imprisonments in the dark den of sorrow and horror. But the
other way is that of the Rational Appetite, whereby a man is
carryed by the Motion of the Planets in the way of Descension
and humility, to the House of Riches, or Goods gotten by a mans
own virtues, viz., the second, which springs from the Triplicity
of the Supreme Angle or mid-heaven, wherein Goodness, Power, and
Majesty are seated; whereby it's evidently manifested unto us,
whether of those ways is the better, and which we had best
follow, the Motion of the Rational, or that of the Sensitive
Appetite.
Lastly, to the 4 Questions I say, that the reason, why every
House must be called by its own, and not another Name; appears
more clear than the Sun-shine it self, in the Constitution,
Distinction, and Explication, of the Triplicities before posited.
Wherefore I will put an end to this my discourse of the
Coelestial Houses, which although it be indeed new, and hitherto
unheard of, yet it is firmly established upon Physical Reasons,
and taking its Original from the most Glorious things, is
thitherto reduced; to the end, that the invisible things of God
from the Creation of the world, might be clearly seen, being
understood by the things which he hath made.
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