Let everyone that desires to be called by the name of artist have his wits in his head (for that's the place ordained for them) and not in his books.

 

The particular parts of the body under the several signs of the Zodiac, and the Houses in the heavens in a celestial scheme.

Under Aries is the head, and whatever belongs to it, as its bones, the face, brain, hair, beard, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, teeth &c, whatsoever in man is above the first vertebra of the neck.

Under Taurus is the neck, throat, the vertebrae of the neck, which are in number seven. The chanel-bone, the shoulder blade according to my opinion.

Also, Taurus has again signification in the voice, for he will roar like a bull.

Under Gemini are the shoulders, shoulder-bones, arms, hands, fingers, together with their bag and baggage.

Under Cancer is the breast, ribs, lungs, pleura, the ventricle of the stomach, women's breasts, the liver, spleen &c, and yet Doctor Reason told me the other night that the spleen was under Virgo.

Under Leo is the heart, the back, and the vertebrae of the breast, which are in number twelve; the pericardium; some authors say, the stomach is under Leo, but I can scarce believe it. I am persuaded the appetite is under Leo, and that's the reason such as have that sign ascending in their genesis as such greedy eaters.

You that are Astrologers and have the nativity of such persons in your hands, you know my words are truth. And if in a nativity the prevalency of other significators should happen to contradict it.

You know the old proverb, one swallow makes not a summer.

Under Virgo is the belly and bowels, the navel and spleen, the omentum, and all the appurtenances &c.

This is that she rules, and she bids you by my pen to be chaste.

Under the Balance, say authors, are the reins, loins and kidneys, between which (in my judgement) is as much difference as is between eight pence and two groats. Under Libra besides, they say, are the hams, buttocks, bladder and navel.

Thus authors. And I quoted only to this end, that young students may see what a monster Tradition is, and may avoid being led by the nose by it, as bears are led to the stake. You know well enough, if the blind lead the blind, what will become of them both; let everyone that desires to be called by the name of artist have his wits in his head (for that's the place ordained for them) and not in his books. 

The hams are under Capricorn, the bladder under Scorpion, the navel under Virgo; ask Doctor Reason, and see if he tell you not the same tale.

Under Scorpio are the secrets of both sexes - it is not very fitting for me to name them - as also the feminal vessels, all the vessels dedicated to the generation of man, the bladder and fundament. And therefore though artists cry out so much against the Scorpion for a false, deceitful, treacherous, mischievous, violent, poisonous sign; let them look back to the rock from whence they are hewn. It may be they shall see the reasons of some of their violent speeches against myself; a word is enough to wise men. Let them not speak evil of what they know not.

And in them take they their greatest pleasure, and thus have I spoken something for a sign which every one speaks against.

Time will not stay; therefore, I must be brief. Under Sagittarius are the thighs, the bone called os sacrum, which whether justly so called or unjustly, I know not. It is either Jewish superstition or worse. The rump bone, the thigh bone, together with all the appurtenances belonging to the thigh.

Some authors say the hams are under Sagittarius, but then they are beside the cushion.

Under Capricorn are the knees, hams, and what belongs unto them.

Under Aquarius are the legs, and whatsoever belongs unto them, even from the outward skin called cuticula to the midst of the marrow in both bones; for there are two of them which surgeons, because they would keep you in ignorance, called focile majus & focile minus, or if you will tibia & fibula. They all know what the bones are, but a quarter of them are not able to give you a reason why the bones are so called. Pray take notice of this in going about to make slaves of you, they have made fools of themselves.

Lastly, Pisces claims the feet and ankles, toes and all the bones. To write like a scholar, 'tis tarsus metatarsus, and the bones of the toes. It rules also the skin of the foot, the flesh and vessels betwixt the skin and the bones.

For though the sign be the weakest in the Zodiac, it is unwilling altogether to leave you nought but skins and bones.

Also, some authors hold an opinion that the signs carry the same signification in order that the Houses of Heaven do, and that Aries should signify life, Taurus estate, Gemini brethren and short journeys; you know the rest. Truly, my own opinion is many authors invented whimsies, and when they had done, set them down to posterity for truth; who taking them up without trial clothed Tradition in plush, and left poor Reason to go in rags. An author said so, ergo 'tis true, right or wrong.

I take this to be one of that generation, and I prove it thus: by this account Cancer should rule the fathers, but experience tells us that an ill planet in Cancer in the genesis threatens evil to the mother, but in Leo to the father. A word is enough to a wise man.

Also there is another signification of the planets according to the respective signs they are in, every planet making his Aries in his own House. I forbear it here, first of all because it conduces not much to my present scope. For example, a urine came to me about a year ago. Mercury was the afflicting planet and in Aries; according to this rate Mercury rules the legs and privities, but the man was diseased in his head, for he was mad.

I gave you a table of it in my Guide for Women, and I am as loth to write one thing twice, as you are to pay for one thing twice. If this will not content you, you are so hard to be pleased, that I shall not undertake to please you, but to please myself, and in so doing I am confident to please somebody else.