What the Birth Chart Says About the Body

Of the Form and Stature of the Body

Astrologers judge the stature and bodily form of the native chiefly from the sign ascending, the lord of that sign, and any planet placed in the Ascendant.

If many planets are in the Ascendant, their significations must be mixed together according to the several shapes and bodily forms they give, as has already been noted. After this, the Sun and Moon must also be considered according to the signs in which they are placed.

The fixed stars must not be neglected in this judgment, for they often contribute much to the form and stature of the body.

Special Rules Concerning the Stature of the Native

1. Saturn oriental in the Ascendant, or aspecting it, gives a moderate stature, somewhat above the middle size, yet rather lean and spare. When Saturn is occidental, he gives a middle stature inclining toward shortness.
2. Jupiter oriental gives a handsome, large body, and a tall stature. When occidental, he gives a moderate stature, yet a body that is fairly large and well formed.
3. Mars oriental gives the native a good stature and a strong, able body. When occidental, he gives a middle-sized body, strong and well compacted.
4. The Sun gives a large body, according to his natural description.
5. Venus oriental gives a tall, straight, and slender body. When occidental, she gives a shorter person, but one well knit and proportioned.
6. Mercury oriental gives a handsome, upright, and tall stature. When occidental, he gives a very low and small body.
7. The Moon increasing in light gives a plump, full body, and a stature moderately tall. When decreasing in light, she gives a short and somewhat ordinary body.
8. Planets with great north latitude signify large and corpulent bodies. Planets with south latitude signify smaller bodies, yet of a convenient and proportionate stature. If the significators have south latitude, the natives are more nimble and active. If they have north latitude, they are more sluggish and slow, according to Ptolemy.
9. When the significators are in airy or fiery signs, they give larger and fuller bodies. But when they are in earthy or watery signs, they signify shorter and smaller bodies.
10. If the significator of the body is in conjunction, sextile, or trine with the Sun, it gives the native a very large body and one of great dimensions.
11. If the planet that signifies the native’s stature is essentially fortified, the body is more proportionate and handsome. But if that planet is weak and debilitated, the body is less graceful and less well formed.
12. Great attention must be given to the nature of the sign ascending, the place of the Moon, and the lord of the Ascendant. The true stature and proportion of the body are discovered by observing these together.
13. The fixed stars must also be mixed into the judgment of the body according to their own natures. Their significations are important in this matter, especially when the constellations involved are great and notable.

Of Dwarfs or Little Persons

Although, according to the pleasure of God and Nature, some men and women are much smaller than others, they are not therefore to be despised. Nor should they be wondered at any more than persons of greater size, provided there is a proper symmetry and proportion throughout their bodies.

Without doubt, as noble a soul may dwell in a little body as in one of far larger dimensions. Such persons should not be considered errors of Nature. Certainly, it is no fault to be little. For it is God who has made us, and not we ourselves, as the royal Psalmist sings.

But to come to our purpose: that this art may appear able to answer even difficult questions, observe the following aphorisms.

1. If signs of short stature ascend in a nativity, and both luminaries are also in such signs, the native will be low in stature.
2. If an earthy sign ascends, and the Sun, Moon, and lord of the Ascendant are also in earthy signs, the native then born will be of very small stature.
3. If the Moon and the lord of the Ascendant are without latitude, and placed in the later degrees of signs, especially in those signs which we call void, the native will be a dwarf or very little person.
4. When most of the planets are in earthy signs, and they behold the Moon or the Ascendant, the native will be a little person.
5. If Pisces ascends on the eastern horizon in a nativity, and the Moon is also there, and Jupiter, who is lord of Pisces, is in Cancer under the earth, especially in the sixth house, then the person born will be a dwarf. This I have truly found by experience.
6. If Capricorn ascends in a nativity, and Mercury and Venus are joined to Saturn there, the native will be a dwarf. There is a person now living in Crooked Lane, London, born on December 21, 1607, at 8:30 in the morning, who has this position in his nativity, and he is indeed a dwarf. Anyone who has the desire and the skill may erect the figure and satisfy himself concerning the truth of it.

Of Monstrous and Deformed Births

Many philosophers and physicians have held different opinions concerning monstrous and deformed births.

Some have referred the matter only to the imagination of the woman. Fernelius tells of a woman at Pisa who was accustomed to kneel and pray before a picture of John the Baptist clothed in camel’s hair, and afterward was said to have brought forth a hairy child.

Strato, and some others, teach that when such births are conceived, the womb suffers some distortion. And if the womb is crooked at the time of conception, then the birth, following the form of it, must also be crooked.

Empedocles the philosopher, as Plutarch reports, refers the conception of such births to an excess or defect of seed. This may happen either through its troubled motion, through some violent disturbance of it, or through its division into several parts.

Astrologers refer the cause to the influences of the stars, especially to their evil configurations at the time of conception. I am more inclined to believe this last testimony, because Sir Christopher Heydon, the learned author of that excellent defence of astrology, rightly concludes that the time of conception is to be observed for the accidents of the child while in the womb, and the time of birth for what shall happen to the native afterward.

But someone may object:

If the time of conception shows the accidents of the child in the womb, why do astrologers give rules for judging deformity or monstrosity from the nativity itself?

I answer that astrologers do not give such rules from the birth chart as though these accidents were caused by the configurations of the stars at the moment of birth. For if that were so, the cause would come after the effect, which would be contrary to reason and would make the art contradict itself.

Rather, these rules are given to show the great harmony of the heavens, and how the figures of conception and birth agree and sympathize with one another.

Therefore, although arguments of deformity may be gathered from the radix, or birth hour of the native, the true causes of such accidents are properly derived from the time of conception alone.

This does not contradict the art, but rather proves the excellent agreement between the conception chart and the birth chart. It also shows the skill of the astrologer, who leaves rules and aphorisms by which even the most difficult and unlikely accidents may be discovered.

For this reason, I judge it necessary that every astrologer inspect the figure of conception as well as the figure of birth when considering such matters. For the child, together with its defects, grows gradually in the mother’s womb from the time of conception. Therefore from that time must arise the true original causes of all such deformities and bodily defects.

Aphorisms Concerning Monstrosity and Deformity, to be Observed in the Conceptional Figure

1. If, at the moment of conception, the Ascendant, the Sun, and the Moon are afflicted in obscure parts of the figure, the child then conceived may be malformed or deformed. Observe the signs occupied by the significators, and from them you may judge which part of the body is afflicted.
2. When violent fixed stars of the nature of Saturn or Mars possess the Ascendant, the place of its lord, or the place of the Moon, the person then conceived may be misshapen.
3. When Saturn or Mars has no dignity in the Ascendant, and either casts a square or opposition to it, or is joined to it by conjunction, especially in Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, or Pisces, and in azimene degrees, the child then conceived may be greatly misshapen.
4. If the Moon, or the lord of the Ascendant, is combust of the Sun in the sixth or twelfth house of the figure, and also in the Via Combusta, the child then conceived may be deformed. I know, and am well acquainted with, a person who at the time of conception had the Moon combust of the Sun at 28 degrees of Libra, and the lord of the Ascendant in Taurus in the twelfth house, joined with Caput Algol according to longitude. This person is wry-necked and otherwise much deformed.
5. Together with the signs and degrees of the zodiac in which the significators are placed, consider also the images of the constellations rising with them, either according to the globe or by Hartgill’s tables of the fixed stars, lately published. By these you may more fully satisfy yourself concerning any bodily deformity or unusual formation.

Testimonies of Deformity to Be Observed from the Figure of Birth

1. When the malefic planets afflict the sign ascending from the angles, especially from the Midheaven, or when they are placed in the Ascendant itself, the native then born may be deformed or misshapen.
2. If, in a nativity, the Sun or Moon has no familiarity with the Ascendant, as happens when they are placed in the sixth, eighth, or twelfth houses, and their dispositors are afflicted by Saturn or Mars, the person then born may have some bodily deformity.
3. When the principal lord of the preceding conjunction or opposition of the luminaries has no friendly aspect to the Ascendant, the Sun, the Moon, or the lord or Almuten of the birth figure, the native then born may be deformed or unusually formed.
4. If, in a nativity, the Moon is near her nodes, that is, the Head or Tail of the Dragon, and is in square or opposition to Saturn or Mars from the angles, the native then born may be misshapen, crooked, or hunch-backed.
5. When the luminaries are joined to the infortunes, namely Saturn or Mars, the native then born may be injured or marked in that member of the body represented by the sign in which they are placed.
6. If the malefic planets are in angles, and are lords of the sixth, eighth, or twelfth houses, and afflict the Moon or the lord of the Ascendant, the native is unlikely to escape some bodily deformity.
7. When the Moon and Mars are with the Dragon’s Tail in the twelfth house, and Jupiter and the Sun are in the fourth house, the person then born may be crooked or deformed.
8. When the luminaries and the lord of the Ascendant are in crooked or bowed signs, with the Head or Tail of the Dragon, and are afflicted by the infortunes, especially in angles, the native then born may be crooked or deformed.
9. If Saturn is in square or opposition to the Ascendant or the Moon, in unfortunate degrees, and the lord of the Ascendant and the dispositor of the Moon are in square or opposition to one another, the native may be mutilated, crooked, or ill-shaped in body.

Note

When any of the significators of deformity are placed in asterisms of ill signification, or in those degrees of the signs which we call azimene degrees, the deformity will be more remarkable and extraordinary. What these azimene degrees are may be learned from the table given in the fourth chapter of this book.

Of the Colour and Proportion of the Face

Although the face, together with its form, shape, and colour, has already been described in the earlier descriptions of the planets, I do not judge it needless or repetitive to add here the particular testimonies concerning it. For this follows the method of the learned astrologers in this science.

The rules are as follows.

1. Saturn signifies a long face, dark or swarthy in colour, with a heavy or lowering look.
2. Mars signifies a full face, often sunburnt or ruddy.
3. The Sun signifies a full, round face, a high forehead, and a sallow complexion.
   
   If the Sun is in Aries, Taurus, or Gemini, the face is fair and handsome.
   
   If the Sun is in Cancer, Leo, or Virgo, he gives a round but lean complexion.
   
   If the Sun is in Libra, Scorpio, or Sagittarius, he signifies an oval face, sunburnt and somewhat dark.
   
   If the Sun is in Capricorn, Aquarius, or Pisces, he gives a round, pale, yet reasonably handsome face.
   
4. Jupiter and Venus signify a very fair and beautiful face. The more free they are from affliction, the more comely the face will be.
5. If Saturn, Mars, or the Dragon’s Tail afflicts the Ascendant, it shows a disfigured face, or a harsh and unpleasant complexion.
6. Mercury, in this judgment as in all others, must be mixed with the planet with which he is configured. From that mixture, the form and appearance of the face must be judged.
7. When the luminaries are weak, the native may have a crooked or uneven look, or else some blemish or defect in the eyes.
8. The principal rule I use for discovering the form, shape, and colour of the face is this: mix the signification of the sign ascending with the planet or planets in the Ascendant, or those beholding the Ascendant, together with the lord of the Ascendant and the Moon.

For example, suppose Libra ascends in a nativity, and Saturn is either in the Ascendant or beholding it. I first consider the description of Libra, which signifies a round, handsome, and beautiful face. Then I consider Saturn, who signifies a dark, swarthy, and lowering face.

Yet because Saturn has his exaltation in Libra, I do not judge that he wholly spoils or destroys the face. Rather, the excellent beauty and comeliness signified by Libra is reduced by Saturn into a more ordinary handsomeness. The proportion given by Libra remains, but the beauty is lessened.

The same method must be understood with the other planets.

9. Human signs ascending signify a fair, handsome, and clear face. The face will be even more comely when Jupiter, Venus, or stars of a jovial or venereal nature are placed in the Ascendant at the same time.

And this shall suffice for discovering the fashion, form, and figure of the face.

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