In one state as long as a cat is tied to a pudding.

 

Signs of long or short sickness.

First, the Sixth House being possessed by a fixed sign argues length in the disease. If the sign that possesses the Cusp of the Sixth be movable, the disease will be short; if the sign be common, the disease will either be mean in respect of length, or else the change of the disease, or a relapse is to be feared.

If the latter degrees of a sign be upon the Cusp of the Sixth, the disease will quickly end either one way or another. 

A fixed sign on the Cusp of the Sixth shows rough and hard humours to be the causes of the disease, and such as are hard to be expelled, they stick to the body like birdlime. 

Saturn Lord of the Sixth shows long diseases; Jupiter, Mars and the Sun short; Mercury such as are as constant as the weathercock.

If the Lord of the Sixth be stronger than the Lord of the Ascendant, nature gets strength over the disease, and will at last put him to a total rout.

Common signs show the disease will stay in one state as long as a cat is tied to a pudding. 

The Lord of the Sixth, if he be a malevolent, it is an ill omen; if he be a benevolent, you need not so much as fear a long sickness, for the disease will be cured both speedily and easily, unless the said benevolent be Lord of the Eighth.

If the Moon apply to the Lord of the Sixth, the disease will be increased till it has put life to its trumps.

If the Moon be Lady of the Ascendant, ill diet was the cause of it, perhaps a surfeit of drinking.

If Venus be Lady of the Sixth, 'tis women or maybe sports and pastimes, or such gewgaws as Venus delights in. 

You know how to judge the rest of the planets according to their several natures.

If the Lord of the Sixth apply to the quartile or opposition of the Lord of the Ascendant, the disease increases and is not yet come to the height.

I confess this and many other aphorisms hereabouts belong not at all to the Decumbitures, but to question upon urine, and most of them, if not all of them, will hold true in them also. 

The Lord of the Sixth in the Eighth is but a scurvy unlucky sign, and shows the sickness will end in death; if it be the Fourth, it shows the sickness will end in the grave. 

The Lord of the Sixth in the Twelfth cries aloud that the patient opposes his own health.

The Lord of the Eighth in the Sixth, and the Lord of the Sixth in the Eighth, if they be in friendly aspect, the sick soon recovers.

I confess the former aphorism seems a paradox to me. I should rather tjink sickness and death had made a match together to take away the life of the patient, and shall do so still till I have spoken with Doctor Experience about it.

If there be an oppposition, sextile or trine between the Lord of the Sixth and Jupiter, the sick soon recovers, for Jupiter will handle him without mittens, and 'tis very probable Venus will not come much behind them in the business.

If in such a case Jupiter be in the Tenth House, the sickness comes by reason of some physick formerly taken, which will at last much conduce to the patient's health. 

I doubt my author mistook the Ninth House for the Tenth. Did I say I doubted it? Nay, I know it. It is the Tenth House that is the House of Physick, and not the Ninth.

A malevolent in the Sixth is an ill sign, but a benevolent there is as good a one for all that.

The Lord of the Twelfth in the Sixth shows witchcraft or possession by the Devil, that's as bad; and if he be a malevolent, you may take it for granted 'tis as sure as a club.

The Lord of the Ascendant in the Sixth, and the Lord of the Sixth in the Ascendant, shows long diseases, and such will continue til one of them, if not til both of them make his exit out of the sign he is in.

If in such a case the malevolent cast ill aspects to her, bid her physician use his wits as far as he can, for the fear of death is not small. 

The Lord of the Ascendant and Sixth House in quartile, opposition or conjunction, in such degrees as artists called azemini, and in angles, threatens such perpetual pain which none but Doctor Death is likely to cure.

The Lord of the Sixth in the Ascendant shows the disease will continue long enough, nay longer than 'tis welcome, but it does not signify the sick must needs die, for that belongs to the Eighth House and his Lord.

'Tis no good sign of quick recovery when the Lord of the Sixth House is malevolent. 

If the Sun, Moon and Lord of the Ascendant be free from ill beams of ill planets, and apply to fortunes that are anything strong and like to do good, the cure will come as soon as you can in reason hope for it.

'Tis always bad when the Sun, Moon or Lord of the Ascendant apply to the Lord of the Sixth, Eighth or Twelfth Houses, and 'tis not a whit better if they be Lords of those Houses.

It is an exceeding good sign at the beginning of a sickness if neither the Lord of the Ascendant, Sun or Moon behold the Lord of the Sixth or Eighth Houses.

It's very ill when the Lord of the Ascendant is afflicted, namely if he be retrograde or in an ill house, in his detriment or fall, or besieged by malevolents. All houses which behold not the ascendants or ill houses, namely the Sixth, Eighth and Twelfth; I will take no notice at all of the Second in this case because it is succeeding to the First, but the Seventh shall not scape so, because it opposes the Ascendant. It is very bad when the Lord of the Ascendant is there. 

In such cases, 'tis true the disease may happily be cured if good courses be taken, but either a relapse into that disease is to be feared, or else the disease is subject to a change out of that disease into another as bad, whereby the sick is in danger of death unless in the mean season the Lord of the Ascendant grows stronger, for the stronger he is, the better able he is to preserve life. 

The Lord of the Ascendant infortunated by the Lord of the Sixth, though he be but in his term, prolongs the sickness.

If the Lord of the Ascendant be infortunated by the Lord of the Eighth, it gives fear enough that none but death can end the quarrel between the sick and the sickness.

If the Lord of the Ascendant be slow in motion, the sickness will be as slow in the parting, and flower if Saturn be Lord of the Ascendant; but if the Lord of the Ascendant be swift in motion, according to the haste he makes such speed you may expect of the disease. 

The Lord of the Ascendant angular and strong and no way impedited, let the disease be never so violent, the fear of death is more than the harm. 

The Lord of the Ascendant entering into another sign, though it be out of his own house into another, provided it be not into the House of the Lord of the Sixth, Eighth or Twelfth, the disease soon ends in health. If it be into the House of the Lord of the Eighth, the sick dies at the time; if it be into the House of the Lord of the Sixth, the sickness is increased; if into the House of the Lord of the Twelfth, the sick either keeps ill diet, or is unruly, or is mad. In such a case, he that will not be ruled by reason, must be ruled by force. 

If the Lord of the Ascendant be weak of himself, yet if he be joined to a fortune, the recovery will be very speedily, for if the fortune be anything strong, he will help it forward with tooth and nail. 

The Lord of the Ascendant, the Sun or the Moon joined to an infortunate prolongs the disease, and the weaker they are, the longer is the disease like to last.

If the significator of the disease be in a sign of the nature of the disease; for example, suppose the disease proceeds of melancholy, if the significator be in an earthly sign, it exceedingly prolongs the disease. Judge the like by the rest of the humours; in such cases, the cure is exceeding difficult. Vis unita fortier.

If the significator of the sickness be an infortune, and applied to the Lord of the Ascendant, it mightily retards the cure. 

You see what need there is the physician be an astrologer. I know not how a man should help nature unless he know it. 

If the Moon be with the Lord of the Ascendant, or applied to him, the cure comes gallantly on if she be swift in motion; but if she be flow in motion, she hales the cure backwards.

If the Moon decrease both in light and motion, and be with the quartile, opposition or body of Saturn, the disease is extreme, for the next time she comes to his body or opposition, unless you can cure the disease before, and he is a physician indeed that can do it, death takes possession of the breathless corpse of the patient. 

The Moon or any other significator of the sick joined to a planet direct and swift in motion shows but a short sickness; but if the planet be retrograde or slow, the cure will be as slow to a hair.

If Scorpio ascend, the sick is the cause of his own sickness, because then Aries is upon the Cusp of the Sixth House, and one planet is Lord of both places, and if he be in either of both those Houses, it is so much the worse, for he will add fire to the fuel, and blow the bellows too.

Both the luminaries in cadent houses and their dispositors, together with the Lord of the Ascendant afflicted, show a disease so dangerous that the physician has need enough to look about him.

If in such a case the benevolents set their helping hands, the disease will be prolonged, and for acute become chronic. Yet if the benevolent be strongest, the disease will at last be cured beyond all hope; if the malevolents be strongest, 'tis shrewdly to be feared that death must turn physician when all comes to all.

Suppose Mars be Lord of the Ascendant and in the Sixth, yet if he be in any aspect to Venus, 'tis not desperately bad because she mitigates his evil.

The Lord of the Sixth in the Eighth afflicted by Saturn or Mars, if he be weak, viz. retrograde or combust or in his detriment, the disease will continue til death cures it. 

The Sun, Moon or Lord of the Ascendant with the fortune, and that fortune they are with retrograde, promises cure, but together with the promise comes a threatening of length of the disease. 

The Moon in a bad place of the heavens prolongs the disease if she be in a fixed sign, without any further dispute of the story.

Never forget this general rule: the stronger the Moon is at the Decumbiture, the better it is for the sick; the weaker she is at that time, the worse.

It were a good thing and very commendable if the nativity of the sick could be procured, for if Saturn be Lord of the Nativity, the sick may live, though the Moon be in conjunction with his body, or opposition at the Decumbiture.

Judge of the length or shortness of the disease according as the disease is; for it is not to be expected that a fever should last seven year, and it is little to be hoped that a consumption should be cured in a day.