Considerations

Ptolemy opens the chapter 5 writing about the previous chapter (4) [as we studied here] discussing the 2 of the 4 temperaments condensed on each planet. After it, [in Chapater 6 Of the Beneficient and Meleficent Planets] he explains how come the planets came to be titled as Benefics or Malefics because of such.

Of Beneficent and Maleficent Planets

After Ptolemy described the temperament of the planets and their dual nature [mixture] one by one in the 4th chapter in Book I, he now wants you to know in Chapter 5 how to discern from Benefic versus Malefic or those which mutate or add/summate due to association. By this point, he also wanted to assure that you will know the active and passive elements of the planets as result of the amalgamation. 

Example: Due to the Moon’s temperament Wet/Hot, she is passive [fertile/nutritive] and thus benefic, while Jupiter is benefic because it is actively Hot/Wet, and by last Venus is also Benefic due to it fertile nature resulted by Wet/Hot temperament (alike the Moon)]. On the contrary,  basic qualities such as Dryness and Cold are said to exert a malefic operation, viz. Mars & Saturn, and also to some degree the Sun and Mercury once they share dryness in common with the malefics.

In essense, the Hot/Wet are Prolific & Nutritive , while Dry/Cold are Destructive & Noxious. Read it:

“Since the foregoing is the case, because two of the four humours [temperaments] are fertile and active, the hot and the moist (for all things are brought together and increased by them), and two are destructive and passive, the dry and the cold, through which all things, again, are separated and destroyed, the ancients accepted two of the planets, Jupiter and Venus, together with the Moon, as beneficent because of their tempered nature and because they abound in the hot and the moist, and Saturn and Mars as producing effects of the opposite nature, one because of his excessive cold and the other for his excessive dryness; the Sun and Mercury, however, they thought to have both powers, because they, have a common nature, and to join their influences with those of the other planets, with whichever of them they are associated.”

Conclusion

Lesser & Greater: Because Mars has Hot as secondary nature, it is less Malefic than Saturn, which is Cold/Dry, two “malefic” qualities. Because Jupiter has Heat as primordial quality and Venus is Wet, Jupiter is said to be greater benefic to Venus, once Fire is superior to Water.

Now, because the Sun has a moderate Dryness, it can be dissipated, yet Active & Proalific, but ike Mercury, Ptolemy believed the Sun to also tend to the side of the planets it is involved with, specially the Dominator /Almudebit/Victorious Planet of the chart. Neverhteless, Mercury on the other hand can be quite challenging, because it doesn’t have a primordial or secondary nature but both Dry & Wet at the same time, yet it tends to adapt more to the side of the nature of the planet it is involved and configured with.

Yes, there are/is Godess & Evilness: There are terrains in astrology which modern astrologers won’t dare touching, as if it was some sort of dark magic, apocalyptical or perhaps too cryptic and rooted on antagonisms. I try to understand how many astrologers are divided by the subject as pre-determined, fully determined to total free-will, which the last seems to rather contradict the one who “works” with astrology. Let’s question further: a denotation rather just an operation of the universe? I believe we don’t have full free-will, and as result we are determined by the stars but our journey is pre-determined depending on the choices of the native, like a video-game which has many ends, but the script is there, even a great part and things that you suddenly think or have a great idea may be totally determined before you were born [you were born a girl, but was determined before you were born that you would think like a boy and would want to become one by time], actually, from the moment of the big-bang.

Symbolic System: Talking about that what is benefic and that what is malefic is purely philosophical and those things we consider morally right and wrong as well as what brings godess or evilness or that of moderation, and I can understand why many won’t believe there aren’t “good or bad planets”, they want the experience to be full and that we shall “learn from bad choices” and thus not malefic. 

Bear in mind that, we can’t ever experience full nativity [the whole chart/houses/planets, etc.] the whole time, perhaps in a few moments in life, but the true is that typically we are having good or bad to moderate moments in life. Many of those will depend on one’s background and culture. But one thing is sure, gratuitous violence/evil exists, so as gratuitous goodness and joy.

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References

Go back to Ptolemy’s Way and read the references