Minderwiz
Zodiacal Releasing and Christmas 1970
I'm ready to finish off the Zodiacal Releasing section but I'd like you to try and be as precise as you can about dates as I go through the possibilities. We need to be able to focus down fairly accurately or we're left with a fairly general background statement. I'll start that in my next post to give you time to dredge through your memories.
On the issue of Sinister/Dexter/Left/Right, I did some re-reading of Al-Biruni compared to Sahl, who I quoted in full. The re-read of Al-Biruni, shows that he uses almost the same example as Sahl, talking about the Sextile as third and eleventh house links; the Square as fourth or tenth house and the Trine as fifth or ninth house. Both say that the second in each pair is the stronger of the two. The crucial difference is that Sahl talks about the aspect coming from each house mentioned, whereas Al-Biruni talks about the aspect going to those houses.
Thus whereas Sahl talks about the aspect coming from the tenth house being the stronger square, Al-Biruni is saying that the aspect going to the tenth house is the stronger. The first is the Hellenistic standard aspect in the order of signs (an aspect to the left), Al-Biruni is claiming that the aspect to the right, against the order of signs is the stronger. He has turned Sahl and Hellenistic Astrology on its head, when it comes to this.
Whether Sahl is personally responsible for this change, I don't know because there's something like 200 years between the two Astrologers and the change could have been handed down to Al-Biruni. But seeing their texts are very similar, it seems to me that somewhere along the line Sahl was mistranslated or simply miscopied.
I'm ready to finish off the Zodiacal Releasing section but I'd like you to try and be as precise as you can about dates as I go through the possibilities. We need to be able to focus down fairly accurately or we're left with a fairly general background statement. I'll start that in my next post to give you time to dredge through your memories.
On the issue of Sinister/Dexter/Left/Right, I did some re-reading of Al-Biruni compared to Sahl, who I quoted in full. The re-read of Al-Biruni, shows that he uses almost the same example as Sahl, talking about the Sextile as third and eleventh house links; the Square as fourth or tenth house and the Trine as fifth or ninth house. Both say that the second in each pair is the stronger of the two. The crucial difference is that Sahl talks about the aspect coming from each house mentioned, whereas Al-Biruni talks about the aspect going to those houses.
Thus whereas Sahl talks about the aspect coming from the tenth house being the stronger square, Al-Biruni is saying that the aspect going to the tenth house is the stronger. The first is the Hellenistic standard aspect in the order of signs (an aspect to the left), Al-Biruni is claiming that the aspect to the right, against the order of signs is the stronger. He has turned Sahl and Hellenistic Astrology on its head, when it comes to this.
Whether Sahl is personally responsible for this change, I don't know because there's something like 200 years between the two Astrologers and the change could have been handed down to Al-Biruni. But seeing their texts are very similar, it seems to me that somewhere along the line Sahl was mistranslated or simply miscopied.