QUADRANT
The quadrants of a horoscope refer to four sets of three houses: Houses one, two, and
three (first quadrant), houses four, five, and six (second quadrant), houses seven, eight,
and nine (third quadrant), and houses ten, eleven, and twelve (fourth quadrant).
A quadrant is also an instrument used to calculate the position of celestial
bodies. In Europe, quadrants superseded the use of astrolabes during the Renaissance.
QUADRUPEDAL
The quadrupedal signs are the so-called four-footed signs, namely, Aries, Taurus, Leo,
Sagittarius, and Capricorn.
QUALITIES(QUADRUPLICITIES)
The primary categories by which the signs are classified are the four elements—earth,
air, fire, and water—and the three qualities—cardinal, mutable, and fixed. Each of the
12 signs of the zodiac is a unique combination of an element and a quality (e.g., Aries
is a cardinal fire sign, Taurus is fixed earth, Gemini is mutable air, and so forth). The
elemental nature of a sign is said to refer to its basic temperament, whereas its quality
refers to its mode of expression.
Cardinal signs are said to be outgoing signs that initiate new activities; fixed
signs, by way of contrast, persist with their established activities; mutable signs adapt
to changing circumstances. Some modern astrologers use an analogy to certain
notions in physics to contrast the nature of the three qualities: cardinal signs are said
to represent centrifugal force, fixed signs centripetal force, and mutable signs wave
(back and forth) motion.
THEASTROLOGYBOOK [567]
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