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AFTER due attention has been given to the instructions in the preceding chapter, the Sun, the Moon, the Ascendant, and the part of Fortune, are to be considered as the four principally liable to be elected to the office of prorogator; and their positions, together with those of such planets as rule in the places of their positions, are to be observed.
The part of Fortune is ascertained by computing the number of degrees between the Sun and the Moon; and it is placed at an equal number of degrees distant from the ascendant, in the order of the signs. It is in all cases, both by night and day, to be so computed and set down, that the Moon may hold with it the same relation as that which the Sun may hold with the ascendant; and it thus becomes, as it were, a lunar horoscope or ascendant. 1
Among the candidates for prorogation, as beforementioned, by day the Sun is to be preferred, provided he be situated in a prorogatory place; and, if not, the Moon; but if the Moon, also, should not be so situated, then that planet is to be elected which may have most claims to dominion, in reference to the Sun, the antecedent new Moon, and the ascendant; that is to say, when such planet may be found to have dominion over any one of the places where these are situated, by at least three prorogatives, if not more; the whole number being five. If, however, no planet should be found so circumstanced, the Ascendant is then to be taken.
By night, the Moon is to be elected as prorogator, provided, in like manner, she should be in some prorogatory place; and if she be not, the Sun: if he also be not in any prorogatory place, then that planet which may have most rights of dominion in reference to the Moon, 1 and the antecedent full Moon and the part of Fortune. But, if there be no planet claiming dominion in the mode prescribed, the Ascendant must be taken, in case a new Moon had last preceded the birth; but, if a full Moon, the part of Fortune.
If the two luminaries, and also some ruling planet of appropriate condition, should be each posited in a prorogatory place, then, provided one luminary may be found to occupy some place more important and influential than the others, that luminary must be chosen; but should the ruling planet occupy the stronger place, and have prorogatives of dominion suitable to the conditions of both luminaries, the planet must then be preferred to either of them. 2
89:1 The Latin translation, printed at Perugio in 1646, has here the following passage in addition: "But it must be seen which luminary may follow the other in the succession of the signs; for if the Moon should so follow the Sun, the part of Fortune is also to be numbered from the horoscope or ascendant, according to the succession of the signs. But if the Moon precede the Sun, the p. 90 part of Fortune must be numbered from the ascendant, contrary to the succession of the signs."
There is a long dissertation on the part of Fortune, in Cooper's Placidus, from pp. 308 to 318; and, among the directions there given for computing its situation, the following seem the most accurate and simple: viz. "In the diurnal geniture, the Sun's true distance from the east is to be added to the Moon's right ascension, and in the nocturnal, subtracted; for the number thence arising will be the place and right ascension of the part of Fortune: and it always has the same declination with the Moon, both in number and name, wherever it is found. Again, let the Sun's oblique ascension, taken in the ascendant, be subtracted always from the oblique ascendant of the ascendant, as well in the day as in the night, and the remaining difference be added to the Moon's right ascension; the sum will be the right ascension of the part of Fortune, which will have the Moon's declination." It is shown also by this dissertation, that the situation of the part of Fortune must be necessarily confined to the lunar parallels; that it can but rarely be in the ecliptic; and that its latitude is ever varying. Cooper also adds, from Cardan's Commentaries on the Tetrabiblos, that "if the Moon is going from the conjunction to the opposition of the Sun, then the Moon follows the Sun, and the part of Fortune is always under the Earth, from the ascendant; but if the Moon has passed the opposition, she goes before the Sun, and the part of Fortune is before the ascendant, and always above the earth." This remark of Cardan's is, in effect, exactly equivalent to what is stated in the additional passage inserted in the Perugio Latin translation, and given above.
In the Primum Mobile of Placidus (Cooper's translation, p 45), the following remark and example are given: "The part of Fortune is placed according to the Moon's distance from the Sun; and you must observe what rays the Moon has to the Sun, for the latter ought to have the same, and with the same excess or deficiency, as the part of Fortune to the horoscope. As the Moon is to the Sun, so is the part of Fortune to the horoscope; and as the Sun is to the horoscope, so is the Moon to the part of Fortune. So, in the nativity of Charles V, the Moon applies to the ultimate sextile of the Sun, but with a deficiency of 7° 45': I subtract the 7° 45' from 5° 34' of Scorpio, the ultimate sextile to the horoscope, and the part of Fortune is placed in 28° 9' of Libra. N.B.--In this nativity, according to Placidus, the Sun is in the second house, in 14° 30' of Pisces: the Moon in the ascendant, in 6° 45' of Capricorn; the ascendant is 5° 34' of Capricorn; and the part Fortune is in the ninth house, in 28° 9' of Libra.
91:1 According to her position in the scheme of the nativity.
91:2 Placidus, in remarking on the nativity of John di Colonna, after stating his opinion that it is an error to suppose that a malign influence to the horoscope, when the horoscope has not the primary signification of life is anæretic, says, that "the order and method which Ptolemy lays down for the election of a prorogator are quite absurd, unless life be at the disposal of a sole prime significator only." He proves by other arguments also, and by instances of the fact, that "one only signifies life, elected according to Ptolemy's method." (Cooper's translation, p. 184.)