experiment, and observation, we have learned how each planet's influence externalizes; and
whether it does so because its moist nature makes it female, or the reverse, is of no
consequence. Certainly we must reject any such contradictory reasoning as that which makes
Jupiter beneficent because of its heat, and Mars malefic because of its excess of dryness, yet
on that reasoning Mars should become beneficent when below the horizon, for there it
becomes nocturnal, hence feminine.
He said also that in the parts of the Earth "where the Sun's heat is most strongly felt, the
inhabitants are more, disposed after his image." Perhaps that, rather than the hookworm,
explains the lazy South. A fair sample of the wangling by which rulership of the Trigons were
awarded, is that the west should be ruled by Mars, "who delights in West winds because they
scorch the Egyptians," and that the North should be ruled by Jupiter, "who brings the fruitful
showers from that quarter" - to which Wilson suggests that "it would be no bad policy were
the Europeans to assign him the government of the South, which would enable him to
accommodate them in a similar way." His further complaint against this jockeying for
position, as described by Ptolemy, is that "Instead of considering the heavenly bodies as
ponderous masses of matter operating by their sympathetic attraction on each other, they are
represented as school boys always quarreling and fighting about their playthings."
One need not go so far as to eliminate the entire matter of rulerships, but the Ptolemy
explanations cannot well be the explanation. If the rulership system of Essential Dignities is
valid, it is merely because of a discovered similarity of influence that renders one planet more
congenial in a certain Sign than in any other, whence in congenial surroundings one can
expect it to function more advantageously. To expand Wilson's advice: knowledge of the
Signs and planets, of the aspects between them, and of the dominions of the Houses, is of
supreme importance. Superior to Ptolemy's sex method of arriving at the strength of aspects
in different portions of the Figure, is our present method of considering first the Signs which
condition the planets, then the Houses which are joined by means of the aspect. In fact, this is
what Ptolemy attempted to do, with the limited knowledge at his command. His emphasis on
the importance of knowledge concerning the motions of the planetary orbs, of correct place-
time identification of the event for which a Figure is to be cast, and of the then concurrent
configurations, "improved by an acquaintance with the nature of the bodies and their effective
influences" as contributory to a proper prescience of Destiny and Disposition - is something
every practicing astrologer might well take to heart. To apply his advice in the light of today's
knowledge would leave us with a greatly simplified terminology, for into the discard would
go a host of words for things we are now able to describe in terms that at one and the same
time are simpler and more comprehensive.
It is not intended to make light of the contributions of Ptolemy, for his philosophy has been a
beacon through the ages, while his work as a compiler has saved to us much knowledge that
might otherwise have been lost. As to the third category, as initially set forth, it is not