Considerations

In the chapter before [5], Ptolemy discussed the planets and their either Benefic or Malefic natures according to their nearness or remoteness to the Sun through the Chaldean order of the planets. In the Chapter after (6), now he wants you to know the “Sex & Gender” of the planets if they are Feminine or Masculine or both [Mercury].

I created a table in order for the reader to filter the information which in a text so you would’ve had to highlight or something. All the bracelets are mine observations and adding info which otherwise would be harder to read/grasp in contemporary times [whatever that may be].

Of Masculine and Feminine Planets

In the Chapter 5 “Of Masculine and Feminine Planets”, Ptolemy explains that for a planet to be Feminine, it must be “largely wet” in temperament, which we already known that is the Moon and Venus. In the end, he resumes the planets’ gender relative to the Sun [morning or evening stars] and that relative to the Horiziontal Axis [Eastern or Western halve]. Following the criteria, Ptolemy concludes:

“Again, since there are two primary kinds of natures, Male and Female, and of the forces [the temperaments] already mentioned that of the moist is especially Feminine – for as a general thing this element is present to a greater degree in all females, and the others rather in males with good reason the view has been handed down to us that the Moon and Venus are Feminine, because they share more largely in the moist, and that the Sun, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are masculine, and Mercury common to both genders, inasmuch as he produces the dry and the moist alike. They say too that the stars become Masculine or Feminine according to their aspects to the Sun, for when they are morning stars and precede the Sun they become Masculine, and Feminine when they are evening stars and follow the Sun. Furthermore this happens also according to their positions with respect to the Horizon [circle]; for when they are in positions from the orient to mid-heaven, or again from the occident to lower mid-heaven, they become Masculine because they are Eastern, but in the other two quadrants, as Western stars, they become Feminine.”

Conclusion

In the end, we visualize 2 Feminine planets and 4 Masculine while Mercury is said to be androgynous, it is sometimes genderless and a bisexual planet that won’t take a side but both at the same time. 

When Ptolemy tells us about the sexuality through the Eastern and Western halves, or through the stakes of the Ascendant/Dsc, you will notice it’s a base or foundation knowledge to what he discusses later in the book, for example the diseases/injuries of the soul, that of the conditions of the reasons of mind and the irrational, character reading, etc. he will then tell you what happens to that “subject” if in masculine of feminine quadrants etc. 

We’ve just learned that not only through the temperaments of the planets we are able to “calculate” their nature if Malefic or Benefic, but also their sexuality and gender.

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References

Go back to Ptolemy’s Way and read the references