In Persecutions of Religion, Jupiter is little better than the Devil; call help of Venus in such a case.

 

Question

Put the case the age of the people and the season of the year be the same, would the crisis be the same, yea or no?

I answer thus: Their complexions may be different, the one hot and dry, the other cold and moist. If the disease be hot and dry, the effect will not be so violent upon a cold and moist body as it will be upon a hot and dry. The fire will sooner seize upon that which is hot and dry, that that which is cold and moist.

Imagine the complexions to be the same upon both parties.

I answer that is impossible. There must be some difference upon complexions, for though they may be the same in the universal, yet in particulars there must needs be some difference by reason of their different diet, exercise and climate, unless they be born and brought up altogether under one latitude.

Let us imagine they be all alike, yet divers things may intervene and alter the crisis, their nativities may not agree. For example, if the Moon be in the place of Saturn or Mars in the nativity, the disease is dangerous, not so if she be in the place where Jupiter or Venus was in then, or it's possible Jupiter and Venus may hurt in the nativities of such to whose ascendents they are inimical or posited in the sixth or eighth houses.

Again, Saturn may be Lord of the nativity and not of the other, and then he may hurt the one and not the other whose nativity he is Lord of, for the Devil will not hurt his own, the like of Mars.

Innumerable such things may be added, as that the one may provide for the sickness beforehand, not the other, but it is needless.

Objection

But then you will say there can be no certainty at all found in the crisis?

I answer: Astrologers pass judgement two manner of ways in diseases.

The first we call universal, and so Saturn rules consumptions, Mars fevers, Venus over women, Mercury over scholars, &c.

The second is particular, and the Seventh House has dominion over women, the Ninth over scholars, &c.

Now, no particular can destroy a universal; for example, if Venus be ill-seated in a nativity and the lord of the Seventh well-seated, we say the native shall generally incur evil by women, though some particular good may incur from them. In like manner, judge in this case by the general significators of sickness, viz. Saturn and Mars.

But secondly, if you can possibly get the nativities, you shall not err. And now give me leave to quote one experiment of my own: if the nativities be one and the same, the crisis will be one and the same. For example, I know three children born at one and the same time (as the event proved) at five years of age they all three had convulsions, whereby they were all three lame in one leg, the boys on the right leg, and the girl on the left. At fourteen years of age, they died altogether in one and the same day of the smallpox. 

Thirdly, if the nativity cannot be gotten, view the urine and erect a celestial scheme upon the sight of it; and if you have the decumbiture, compare the decumbiture with the celestial scheme at the view of the urine, and you may judge clearly the crisis.

To proceed to the matter. If the Moon be strong, when she comes to the quartile or opposition of the place she was in at the decumbiture, viz. in her house or exaltation, the sick recovers if she be aspected to no no planet.

Judge the like of the Sun in chronical diseases, but judge the contrary if either of them be in the detriments of falls, for there is as much difference between them as there is between the zenith and nadir. If the Moon be void of course at the beginning of a disease, the sign is neither good nor bad; look then to the sign ascending at the beginning of a disease, and let the Moon alone for a time.

If the Moon be angular as the decumbiture, and in the ascendent judge of her alone, and make use of no other significator; if she be not so, join the lord of the ascendent with her in your judgement. 

'Tis very dangeros when the Moon is eclipsed, when she comes to the quartile or opposition of the place she was in at the decumbiture, for usually at such a time death turns physician. 

If in the beginning of a sickness the Moon be in a moveable sign, the sickness soon moves to an end one way or other; fixed signs prolong sickness, and common signs set a stop to the wisest brain in the world.

Also this is a certain rules, as sure as the Sun is up at noonday, that diseases of plentitude are very dangerous when a man is taken sick upon a Full Moon; diseases of fasting or emptiness are most dangerous when a man is taken sick upon a New Moon. Let me entreat you to give physick for a disease of emptiness when she is near the Full, and for diseases of fullness when the Moon has lost her light. 

Diminish a humour when the Moon diminishes in light, increase when she increases in light. Phlegm opposes choler, melancholy opposes blood. 'Tis none of the worst ways to diminish choler by increasing phlegm, a word is enough to the wise.

'Tis very bad when in the beginning of a sickness the Moon is in a sign of the nature of the humour offending.

Naturally, when she is in a fiery sign, amend a disease of phelgm, but if choler abound, 'tis very good if she be in a watery sign. You may know by a penny how a shilling is coined. 

If the Moon be in conjunction or aspect with any planet, and neither of them have latitude, the crisis will be firm; if they differ much in latitude, the crisis will be weak.

The Moon in conjunction with Saturn at the decumbiture shows long sickness, and if Saturn be slow in motion, so much the worse (and bad is the best) at all times in such a case.

If Saturn is retrograde when he comes to the opposition of the Sun, beware the relapse.

Is Saturn has north latitude, be sure the sick is bound much in body. If the Moon be joined to a retrograde planet, the sick vomits up his physick.

Venus helps more in the sickness of young men and women, than she does in old.

If the disease come of heat, Venus helps more than Jupiter; if the disease comes more of cold, Jupiter helps more than Venus. If the disease comes of love, there is not a more pestilent planet in the heavens than Venus; then, call for help of Jupiter. In persecutions of religion, Jupiter is little better than the Devil; call help of Venus in such a case.

Mercury occidental and strong signifies good in diseases.

If Mars cause the disease, Venus helps more than Jupiter; if Saturn, then Jupiter more than Venus. 

If in the beginning of a sickness the Moon be in conjunction with any fixed stars of the first magnitude whose latitude from the ecliptic is but small, you may safely judge of diseases by the nature of that star she is joined to. Suppose he be of the nature of a planet good or bad, take him according to his nature.

When the Moon is joined to any planet by body or aspect in the beginning of any sickness, if she aspect that planet when she comes to the quartile or opposition of the place, the crisis will be firm and stable, and 'twill move no faster than a house, and 'twill not be altered be it good or bad.

But if when she comes to the quartile or opposition, she meets with another planet; be sure the disease changes either to better or worse according to the nature of that star she meets withal.

And this will appear in the sick party, or else in the physician, or in the course of the physick. 

See what house the planet she meets withal at the crisis is lord of in the decumbiture, and judge accordingly. And so a sick person may happen to have more wit than an old doting physician.

If it be a fixed star of another nature to that fixed star she was withal at the decumbiture, it will not alter so much, or at least there will not be a universal alteration of the disease, and my reason is because the fixed stars are so far from the Earth. 

And the last thing is whatsoever is said of the Moon in acute diseases will hold as true of the Sun in chronic diseases.