Minderwiz
but the problem I have is one of judging the presence of a *specific* disease from the chart. i.e, by seeing the chart, how do I judge that Moon in Scorpio and ruling Lot of Fortune means madness, and not (say) a vacillating will?
Even with disease the Moon and Scorpio could mean many things, and narrowing it down seems hard (at least at my level of knowledge)
Of course as a *diagnostic* device, this works extremely well. In other words, if we were to examine the astrological chart of a patient, we could trace a specific disease (here madness) to a specific astrological factor (here Moon in Scorpio + Moon is Ruler of Spirit), and then prescribe specific drugs or rituals etc.
I suspect this section of Valens has to deal with diagnosis, as ancient physicians did, and not necessarily prediction, as astrologers do.
just a thought.
My feeling is that you can't predict precisely using this approach. What you can do is identify possible weak areas for health. That is where injuries might occur or what sort of disease the native is prone too. It might be possible in more advanced predictive methods to identify periods of high risk of either injury or disease.
Alternatively you can use it as a diagnostic tool, as you suggest. But I don't think that the ill health is necessarily entailed. Because someone is prone to a particular form of disease does not necessitate them succumbing to it either regularly or at some occasion in the future.
I have Saturn on the Ascendant, in Detriment in Leo. There are at least three possibilities here. Firstly Saturn on the Ascendant threatens life and thus suggests a likely death in infancy. Secondly, Leo as the Ascending sign threatens heart disease, Saturn also signifies the knees (through Capricorn, my sixth place) I have Fortune in Aries and Spirit in Sagittarius the former is linked to dim vision, arthritic joints and hearing problems. The second is also linked to loss of vision. Now there's a lot there that I could suffer from, but if I die in childbirth or shortly after, none of the others will materialise.
In fact I did have a difficult birth and need a lot of support from the midwife. At one point my father was told that my life was in danger and I might not survive. Luckily I did, and this isn't a ghost column. But, I do have high blood pressure (since my late fifties) I do have poor vision and need spectacles (since my early teens). I now have to wear hearing aids (since my mid sixties) and I have arthritic knees and finger joints (knees are worse, fingers are not too bad)
So taking Ascendant, Fortune, Spirit and the Place of Harm, all have contributed something to my health issues, more as I move towards old age than in my youth. Oddly I did have a knee injury as a child and still have a scar, so injury through Fortune and disease through the Place of Harm seem to be indicated. but not at the same time for everything.