Of Friends and Enemies [According to Egyptian Ptolemy]
last updated: 25/Sep/2021
Note: For references, I utilized the version of the cosmopolitan Tetrabiblos from the anthologist Ptolemy’s four books of the influence of the stars [or the Quadripartite Mathematical Treatise] translated from the Greek paraphrase of Proclus by j. m. Ashmand – more specifically I will refer this article to the Book IV; Chapter 7, pages 104-106 [London, Davis and Dickson; 1822].
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VII. Of Friends and Enemies
“With regard to friendly dispositions and the opposite [enmity], the deeper and more lasting of which we call sympathies and hostilities, and the lesser and occasional acquaintances and quarrels, our investigation will follow this course.”
Are we going to be friends? Does my radix scientifically tell me I will have a pattern suggesting secured friendships or long lasting enemies? When that shall happen then? The ancients had the same worry as we concerning on the experiences of social contacts with multitude of people in life that are not exclusively one-to-one. Worry or not, genuine curiosity or for self-amusing, you will have a pattern in relation to these kind of scenarios, and astrology is a great technology to find out such information ahead of time. This is some sort of Synastry Ptolemy presents, but won’t say more than “…we must observe the places in both nativities…” and keeps up the text as if the person reading have had some previous knowledge on the combination of the planets related to other’s people radix. Note that the scientist put together information of Directions and Synastry, something I think I’ve never heard or read about before and is very intersting; also, Ptolemy writes about transits of benefic and malefic planets at their ingresses over the stronger planet and periods of destruction or reconciliation etc. Read it:
Question Mark | Investigate in Both Natives |
Which is Stronger? | Sun, the Moon, Asc or Lot of Fortune? |
Found out? | Yes. How do they relate to each other’s radix? |
“…In inquiries regarding matters of importance we must observe the places in both nativities which have the greatest authority, that is, those of the Sun, the Moon, the horoscope [Asc], and the Lot of Fortune;”
Type | Investigate |
Secure & Indissoluble Friendship | “…for if they chance to fall in the same Signs of the Zodiac, or if they exchange places, either all or most of them, [ex. let my Sun in Sagittarius and my friend too and the planet is the strongerst in both our charts – or let my Sun and my friend be in Aquarius and/or we both have the planet in the 11th house] – and particularly if the horoscopic regions [both native’s Asc] are about [max of] 17° apart, they bring about secure and indissoluble sympathy, unbroken by any quarrel. [as if one Asc conjunct the other] |
Real Enemies | However, if they are in disjunct signs or opposite signs, they produce the deepest enmities and lasting contentions. [ex. let my Asc be in Aries and my enemy in Libra, and both of us the Asc is stronger than our Sun, Moon or Lot] |
Indifferent | If they chance to be situated in neither of these ways, but merely in Signs which bear an aspect to one another, if they are in trine or in sextile, they make the sympathies less, – and in quartile, the antipathies less. |
Friends no more | Thus there come about occasional spells of silence and of disparaging talk in friendships, whenever the maleficent planets are passing through these configurations, |
Reconciliation | and truces and reconciliations in enmities at the ingress of the beneficent planets upon them. |
The 3 Classes of Friendship & Enmity | For there are three classes of friendship and enmity, since men are so disposed to one another either by preference or by need or through pleasure and pain when all or most of the aforesaid places have familiarity with each other, the friendship is compounded of all three kinds, even as the enmity is, when they are dissociated.; |
Friends by Choice | But when the places of the luminaries only are in familiarity, the friendship will result from choice, which is the best and surest kind, |
Worst Enemies | and in the case of enmity the worst and faithless; |
Friends by Needs | similarly, when the places of the Lots of Fortune are familiar, through need; |
Friends by Love and | and when the places of the horoscopes [both natives’ Asc] are familiar, through pleasure or pain.” |
Greater Direction over Friends & Enemies: “One must observe, of the places in aspect, their elevations and how the planets regard them. To the nativity in which an elevation of the configuration occurs, whether it is the same sign as the succedent place or the one closest to it, must be assigned the greater authority and direction over friendship or enmity;
Greater Benefit & Success over Enmity: …and to those nativities in which the regard of the planets is more favorable for benevolence and power, we must allot the greater benefit from the friendship and the greater success in the enmity.”
The Ptolemy’s Synastry in Directions
When the Hyleg of One Reaches the Other: “In the occasional acquaintances and oppositions that arise from time to time between individuals, we must pay attention to the movements of the planets in each of the nativities, that is, at what times the prorogations of the planets of one nativity reach the places of the other. – I have a sense that Ptolemy is actually suggesting us to observe the Synastry happening Primary Directions? Supposed your Hyleg is the Moon, let the Moon be in Scorpio, but ready to move to Taurus by Primary Directions when you were/are 21 years old, and your friend’s Hyleg is Sun in Taurus at 0° degree. Or malefics reaching the places of malefics etc. I think such directions we could also consider in Secondary Directions charts of the friends or enemies in question.
Friends/Enemies Through | M |
1. Partial Friend or/& Enemy 2. Longest kind | 1. …For partial friendships and enmities take place in these times, prevailing at the shortest up to the completion of the prorogation, – 2. and at the longest until same other of the approaching planets reaches the place. |
Introductions, Food Industry or Inheritances | Now if Saturn and Jupiter approach each other’s places they produce friendships through introductions, agriculture, or inheritance; |
Second Intentions | Saturn and Mars make intentional quarrels and scheming(s); |
By Blood in the Family that Suddenly cools down | Saturn and Venus, associations through kinsfolk, which, however, quickly cool; |
Trade or Mysteries | Saturn and Mercury make marriage and partnerships for the sake of giving and receiving, trade, or the mysteries. |
Real State | Jupiter and Mars cause associations through dignities or the management of property; |
Women & Religion | Jupiter and Venus friendships through women, religions rites, oracles, or the like; |
Classes & Panels Events | Jupiter and Mercury associations for learned discussion, based upon philosophic inclination. |
Adultery & Unusual Relations | Mars and Venus cause associations through love, adultery, or illegitimate relations, but they are unsure and flourish only briefly; |
Enemies in Business & Lawsuits | Mars and Mercury produce enmities, noisy disputes, and lawsuits which arise through business or poisonings. |
By Art & Letter | Venus and Mercury give associations based upon same art or domain of the Muses, or an introduction by letter or through women.” [would also that be through social media?] |
Synastry; Intense or Relaxed Chapters with Society? “Now then we must determine the degree of the intensity or relaxation of acquaintances and oppositions from the relation between the places which they assume and the four principal and most authoritative places [Sun, Moon, Asc and Lot],
Conspicuous: for if they are upon the angles or the Lots of Fortune or the houses of the luminaries [4th and 5th places], their portent is the more conspicuous,
Insignificant: but if they are removed from them, they are insignificant.
Injurious or Beneficial Associates? Whether the association will be more injurious or more beneficial to the associates is to be determined from the character for good or bad of the planets which regard the places named.”
Slaves & Masters, (or) Labourous Worker with Bad Payment & 12th House: “The special topic or account of slaves and the sympathy or antipathy of their masters to them is elucidated from the house of the Evil Daemon [12th House] and from the natural suitability of the planets which regard this place both in the nativity itself and in their ingresses and oppositions to it, particularly when the lords of the sign are either in harmonious aspect to the principal places of the nativity, or the opposite.” – we usually learn from modern books that the busisness of “slaves” is/was related to the 6th house, which as you can see/read, is the opposite from Ptolemy’s research on acient texts of astrology. I think this could also be played out in kinky sexual behavior (as sexual fantasy shared among people). Also nowadays, such topic could easily be refferred as “Laborous worker with bad payment”? or any kind of payment in society that is not valued enough as a cerebral persuit and is credited as the “working class” of society? Either way, Ptolemy described that to known the power of a “master” (manager, direct boss etc.) over you or vice-versa, investigate as told to know if the result will be friendly or antagonistic]
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References
Tetrabiblos Ptolemy’s four books of the influence of the stars [or the Quadripartite Mathematical Treatise] translated from the Greek paraphrase of Proclus by j. m. Ashmand – [London, Davis and Dickson; 1822]
Ptolemy. Tetrabiblos. Translated by F. E. Robbins. Loeb Classical Library 435. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940.
Porphyry The Philosopher – Introduction To The Tetrabiblos & Serapio Of Alexandria; Astrological Definitions (Translated from the Greek by ] James Herschel Holden, M.A.)