Circle of reference Horizon Celestial Equator Ecliptic
Poles Zenith N. celestial pole Midheaven Nadir S. celestial pole Immum Coeli Secondary Circles Vertical circles Hour Circles Latitude circles
Parallels of altitude Parallels of declination Parallels of Latitude Coordinates Altitude Declination Celes. Latitude
Azimuth Right Ascension Celes. Longitude
Zero Circle Vertical c. thru S. Hour c. thru Ver. Latit. c. thru V.
point Equinox Equinox. Direction of first Through West Eastward Eastward coordinate
Ceres. (1) Daughter of Ops and Saturn; a Roman goddess of growing vegetation, particularly corn. Her day of celebration
occurred on April 19th. (2) The first of the Asteroids (q.v.) to be discovered.
Chaldaeans. First a Semitic tribe, but later the magi of Babylonia, astrologers and diviners. From among them came "the
wise men from the East." We know little of Chaldaean astrology, but some idea of their teachings are to be gleaned from the Chaldaean Oracles. With them Astrology was a religion, but of a far different type from any which has survived to modern times. The Chaldaean priests were famous Astrologers. They held that the world is eternal, without beginning or end; that all things are ordered by Divine providence; and that the Sun, Mars, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter are
"interpreters," concerned with making known to man the will of God. From the regularity of motions in the heavenly bodies, they inferred that they were either intelligent beings, or were under some presiding intelligence. From this arose Sabianism, the worship of the host of heaven: Sun, Moon and Stars. It originated with the Arabian kingdom of Saba (Sheba), whence came the Queen of Sheba. The chief object of their worship was the Sun, Belus. To him was erected the
tower of Belus, and the image of Belus. They did not worship the stars as God, who they thought of as too great to be concerned with mundane affairs; but they worshipped those whom they believed He had appointed as mediators between God and man. Their religion was based upon a belief in one impersonal, universal Principle, but to which they gave no name. To their lesser gods they erected huge temples, of a peculiar construction, specially adapted for star worship. Here they healed the sick, and performed certain magical ceremonies. An inscription on the pedestal of a statue erected to Nebo, reads: "To the god Nebo, guardian of the mysteries, director of the stars: he who presides at the rising and setting of the sun; whose power is immutable, and for whom the heaven was created." In the time of Alexander the Great, 356 B.C., the Chaldaeans alleged that their Astrology had existed 473,000 years.
Chaldaean Oracle. An Oracle venerated as highly by the Chaldaeans as was the one at Delphi, by the Greeks. It taught
that "Though Destiny may be written in the stars, it is the mission of the divine soul to raise the human soul above the circle of necessity." The Oracle promised victory to any one who developed that masterly will. The Chaldaean teachings with regard to karma and reincarnation, are today found in Theosophy.
Changeable Signs. v. Signs.
Character. The sublime strength of Astrology is in its delineation of character. As destiny is subservient to character, no
prediction should be ventured until the patterns of emotional stimulation and environment are understood. Character is the cumulative result of the aggregate of experience. Daily cosmic stimulation through birth receptivities constitutes a portion of the aggregate of experience. But cosmic stimulation is a conditioning process that determines only the nature of one's reactions, while the reaction takes place only when called into play by some accidental encounter within an environment. Thus environment plus reaction produces an event, and the sum total of events becomes the aggregate of experience - out of which one learns or fails to learn to control reaction, and thereby character evolves.
Character of Planets. v. Planets.
Characteristics of the Signs. v. Signs.
Chart. v. Figure.
Chronocrators. Markers of Time. (1) To the ancients the longest orbits within the solar system were those of Jupiter, 12
years, and Saturn, 30 years. Thus the points at which Jupiter caught up with and passed Saturn marked the greatest super- cycle with which they were able to deal. This phenomenon occurred every 20 years at an advance of about 243°. Therefore, for some 200 years or more (exactly 198 years, 265 days) these conjunctions would recur successively in a Sign of the same element. Thereby every 800 to 960 years it would return in Sagittarius, making the Grand Climactic conjunction which marked supreme epochs in the history of mankind. This conjunction made its reappearance in Sagittarius around the commencement of the Christian era, and again in the eighth and sixteenth centuries, bringing periods of great world- upheaval. For this reason Jupiter and Saturn are called the great chronocrators - a word which does not appear in Webster's Dictionary nor the Encyclopedia Britannica, but about which volumes have been written by astrological authorities. The 20-year conjunctions are termed minims, or specialis; the 200-year cycle, media, or trigonalis - change of trigons; and the 800-year cycle, maxima, or climacteria. In the series there are ten conjunctions in Signs of the Fire-element, ten in Earth, and so on.
Tycho Brahe (in his Progymnasin, Bk. 1) said that all the odd-numbered climacteria: 1, 3, 5, etc., were auspicious, "ushering in signal favors of the Almighty to mankind." Both Kepler and Alsted said that the climacteria would "burn up and destroy the dregs and dirty-doings of Rome." The Star of Bethlehem is frequently presumed to have been a Jupiter- Saturn conjunction, possibly reinforced by Mars. The associating of this conjunction with the record of Joshua having commanded the Sun and Moon to stand still, and of Ahab's report that the Sun had retrograded 10°, is probably erroneous, for these more than likely had to do with readjustments of the calendar to correct the effect of precession, as was done in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII ordered the suppression of ten days in order to restore the equinox to its rightful date. It appears that Daniel utilized the climacteria as the basis of his "Seventy Weeks of Prophecy," wherein he connected the
coming of the Messiah with the tribulations to be visited on the Jews (Daniel ix:25). As Daniel was a Chaldean student (Daniel ix:2), it is reasonable to assume that this period of frequent mention was derived by him from the famous Chaldean tables of the Sun, Moon and Planets. These tables are lost to us, but from many historical references we know the
Chaldeans employed a Soli-lunar calendar, and so tabulated their dates that 490 lunar years were almost exactly contained in 475 solar years.
If 12 lunations made a lunar year, there would be 5,880 lunations in 490 lunar years. On the Biblical unit of a day for a year, 490 days are 70 weeks - Daniel's Seventy weeks. One-seventieth of the 5,880 lunations, is 84 lunations: about 7 lunar years, or 6 solar years and 9 months-the actual duration of each of Daniel's seventy weeks.
In the ancient Hebrew calendar 12 lunar months totalled 354.37 days - 11¼ days short of a solar year. In 8 years this discrepancy totalled about 3 solar months, which were added every 8 years. In 475 years there would be 59 such additions, of which the intercalated time aggregated 15 years. This, added to 475 solar years, equals 490 lunar years of the Hebrew calendar - to within an error of only 2 days. Thus it is seen that in this period the lunar and solar calendars coincided, making the cycle to which Daniel referred in his Seventy Weeks of Prophecy. (In 475 Julian years are 173495.0 days; in
475 true years, 173490.0 days; in 5875 lunations, 173492.2 days. Thus this ancient Chaldean cycle has a mean value almost exactly midway between that of a Julian year and a true year.)
Comparing this period to the progressive conjunctions of the great chronocrators, it is found that 24 conjunctions occur in 476.635 years, almost the period of 5,880 lunations in which the Sun, Moon, Jupiter and Saturn conjoin at a point advanced about 35 degrees in the Zodiac.
Daniel also mentions a cycle of 2,300 years, which offers confirmation of this inference, in that 116 conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn occur in a period of 2,303.8 years. Furthermore Daniel, at the beginning of his 70 weeks, recounts how in the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad (about 444 B.C.) Artaxerxes sent Nehemiah to restore Jerusalem. (It can be
inferred that the book of Daniel was not written until some 280 years after this event, for in it Daniel calls to the Jews to hold out against the policies of Antiochus Epiphanes - who flourished about 170 B.C.) We also find that a Jupiter-Saturn
conjunction took place in 442 B.C.
(2) In another sense, the word chronocraters has been applied to the Rulers of the Seven Ages of Man (q.v.).
Chronos. (1) The original supreme deity, superseded by Zeus. (2) In ancient texts, the planet Saturn (q.v.).
Circle. The complete circle of the zodiac, or 360 degrees of 60 minutes each.
Circles of Position. Circles intersecting the horizon and meridian, and passing through a star: in terms of which to express
the position of the star. Their use is not obsolete. However, Circles of Position were not so used by Ptolemy or Placidus, who measured the distance of every star by its semi-arc.
Cities, Sign Rulership. v. Signs.
Clairaudience. In occult terminology, the psychic ability to hear sounds or voices regardless of distance. The hearing sense
is deemed to be ruled by Saturn; the psychic sense, by Neptune.
Clairsentience. An occult term indicating psychic sensitivity; a "hunch" or "that peculiar feeling that something is going to
happen." Almost everyone possesses instinctive and intuitive clairsentience to some degree, largely dependent upon the nature of the configurations in which Neptune is involved.
Climacterical Conjunction. Said of certain Jupiter-Saturn Conjunctions. v. Chronocrators.
Climacterical Periods. Every 7th and 9th year in a Nativity, supposedly brought about through the influence of the Moon
in its position in the Radix. The Moon squares her own place by transit every 7th day, and by direction every 7th year; and trines it every 9th day and year. Thus the climacterical periods occur at the ages of 7, 9, 14, 18, 21, 27, 28, 35, 36, 42, 45,
49, 54, 56, and 63 years. The most portentous are those of the 49th and 63rd years, which are doubly climacterical, 7x7 and 9x7. When evil directions coincide these are generally deemed to be fatal. The 63rd year is called the Grand Climacteric, and the general presumption is that more persons die in their 63rd year than in any other from 50 to 80.
Climate. The precursors of the modern Tables of Houses. They were calculated for every 30' shortening of the diurnal and
nocturnal semi-arc as one proceeds north or south from the Equator.
Cold planets. Moon, Saturn. v. Planets, Hot, Slow.
Cold Signs. v. Signs.
Collection of light. When a planet is in aspect to two other bodies which are not within orbs of each other, a collection of
light results through the action of the intermediary planet. It denotes that the affairs represented by the two bodies whose light has been thus collected, will be forwarded by a third person, described by the intermediary planet, providing both bodies receive the intermediary in one of their dignities. Used in Horary Astrology. Other authors confine it to a larger planet aspected by two smaller, with the interpretation that if the smaller do not receive the larger in one of their dignities, the intermediary will feel no interest in the affair, nor will it prosper.
Colors. In the age when an astrologer presumed to find in a chart the answer to every manner of question that could be
propounded he frequently undertook to tell, for example, which cock would win in a cockfight merely by indicating the color associated with the strongest planet in an Horary Figure. It also was considered an index to the coloring of an
individual's eyes, hair, and complexion, as well as the clothes he should wear. Thus the following color chart adduced from Wilson, who professed not to take it too seriously:
Sun: Yellow, inclined to purple.
Moon: White, or a light mixture, perhaps spotted. Mercury: Azure to light blue.
Venus: White and purple. Mars: Fiery red.
Jupiter: Red and green mixture. Saturn: Black.
To the Signs these colors are attributed: Aries: White and red.
Taurus: Red and citron mixture. Gemini: Red and white mixture. Cancer: Green or russet. Leo: Golden or red.
Virgo: Black with blue splotches. Libra: Dark crimson, swarthy or black. Scorpio: Dark brown.
Sagittarius: Olive or light green. Capricorn: Dark brown or black. Aquarius: Sky blue.
Pisces: Pure white and glistening.
The color of the fixed stars were taken as an index to their nature: as, a star of the color of Mars is of the nature of Mars; and so on. Placidus said the yellow color of the Sun indicates radical heat; the white of the Moon, of passive power and radical moisture; the blue and yellow of Venus and Jupiter, of combined heat and moisture, the moisture predominating in Venus and the heat in Jupiter; the red of Mars, of intemperate heat and dryness; and the lead color of Saturn, of intemperate cold and dryness. Wilson dissents by saying that "whatever blue is the color of, Venus has more of it than Jupiter." v. Signs.
Combust. Said of a planet when in extreme closeness to the Sun, the limits variously placed at from 3° to 8°30'. The
characteristic effect to which the term applies is probably confined within an arc of 3° and is more pronounced when the planet rises after the Sun. Older authorities, including Milton, have described it as weakening, except in the case of Mars which was said to be intensified. The probabilities are that the effect of the combust condition is to combine the planet's influence more closely with that of the Sun, until it is no longer a physical emotion capable of independent control, but an integral part of that consciousness of Destiny that the Sun imparts. Thus Mercury combust imparts to the mind a capacity for concentration upon what it deems its own destiny, but robs it of its receptivity to distracting or diverting influences. Hence it is no bar to the achievement of its own objectives insofar as the ability to achieve them is within its own powers, but it robs the native of the cooperation of those whom he alienates by his particular species of obtuse deafness to any or all argument that runs counter to his own concepts. Edison and Kant both illustrate this interpretation. Venus combust may take away the strength to achieve, but when in a particularly close conjunction with the Sun it produces the condition sometimes termed nymphomania - described by Bolitho concerning Lola Montez. Mars combust is always the man who fights for what he wants; and so with each planet according to its intrinsic nature.
The distinction is an important one, in that a person with an entirely unaspected Mercury is one who usually develops a complex by way of an escape mechanism, while one whose Mercury is within 5° to 10° of the Sun is seldom afflicted with any manner of mental derangement.
Wilson says "there seems manifest a difference in genius and propensities of natives, according to the distance of their Mercury from the Sun; and that those whose Mercury is combust have little wit or solid judgment, though they will persevere in business and frequently with good success." Also that a good aspect to the Moon, if angular and increasing in light, will in great measure remedy this defect, making one "judicious and penetrating."
It should not be confused with the phrase "under the Sun's beams" which applies to, let us say, the degree of non- combustion, and is perhaps embodied in the doctrine that a planet within the Sun's aura - which extends to 17° on either side - is within orbs of a conjunction therewith. In other words, while the orbs of the planets, with regard to aspects, are variously from 3° to 10° according to the nature of the aspect, the solar orb, by conjunction or opposition, can be as much as 17°.
Comets. Erratic members of the Solar system, usually of small mass. Luminous bodies, wandering through space, or
circulating around the Sun, and visible only when they approach the Sun. They usually consist of three elements: nucleus, envelope, and tail. The superstitious once considered them to be evil omens. Those pursuing an elongated orbit are periodic and return at fixed intervals. Those with a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit are expected never to return. The astrological significance of comets has been the subject of much study, but so far no definite conclusions have been reached. Suggestion has been advanced that Donate's comet, which made its first appearance of record in June 1858 and attained its maximum brilliancy on October 9th, was a factor in the nativity of Theodore Roosevelt, born October 27, 1858. It is presumed that comets presage history-making events; but operating through individuals whose birth coincides with their appearance, their effects are so delayed as often to be overlooked. Donati's comet was one of the most
beautiful of comets. Its tall was curved. The nucleus had a diameter of 5,600 miles.
"When beggars die there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes." - Shakespeare. The year of F. D. Roosevelt's birth was also marked by the appearance of one of the brightest comets of record, which
was visible in broad daylight - even at noon.