generally. Venus is significatrix of love affairs, domestic relations, pleasures, and of young female relations, sisters, &c. Mars is significator of enterprises, strifes, and young male relations. Jupiter is significator of increase and emoluments; Saturn of legacies, inheritance, and aged persons; Uranus of civic and governmental bodies; Neptune of voyages and psychic experiences. The chief points to be regarded, however, are the Midheaven, the Ascendant, and the places of the Sun and Moon.

SECTION II
THE CONSTRUCTION OF A HOROSCOPE

CHAPTER I
THE EPHEMERIS AND ITS USES

An Ephemeris is an almanac of the planetary positions day by day throughout any given year. They are to be obtained at a cost of one shilling per year, in a convenient form specially adapted to the use of astrologers. In the first column will be found the Sidereal Time for the day, which is the Sun’s Right Ascension or distance from the Vernal Equinox, expressed in Hours, Minutes, and Seconds, and equated to Mean Time at Greenwich. By merely adding the time after noon, or subtracting the hours and minutes before noon, at which the birth took place, you will obtain the Right Ascension of the Midheaven at the moment of birth. The use to which this is put will appear in the next chapter. It corresponds to a particular degree of the Zodiac which is in the Midheaven at the given time of birth.

The next column contains the Sun’s longitude at Noon for each day. By taking the position on one day from that on the next day, the motion of the Sun for 24 hours is obtained, and a proportion of this for the hour of birth can easily be made. The mean motion of the Sun per day is 2½′, or 1 degree per day. In another column will be found the Moon’s longitude, and in adjacent columns its declination and latitude. Declination is distance North or South of the Equator, and celestial latitude is distance North or South of the Ecliptic. The longitudes of the other bodies are also given for each day at noon.

The mean longitudinal progress of the several bodies is as follows: Sun, 2½′ per hour, or 1 degree per day; Moon, 32′ per hour, or 13 degrees per day; Neptune, 2′ per day; Uranus, 3′ per day; Saturn, about 5′ per day; Jupiter, about 12′ per day; Mars, 45′ per day, or about 2′ per hour; Venus, 72′ per day, or 3′ per hour; Mercury, 84′ per day, or 3½′ per hour. These increments are for direct motion only; the planets are, as already explained, sometimes retrograde and sometimes stationary. The Horoscope of birth is only concerned with the longitudes of the planets, but when one or more planets have the same declination North or South, they should be noted as being in Parallel, for they then act as if they were in conjunction.

Take in hand, then, the Ephemeris for the year of your birth and read this chapter with it in view. After understanding its construction, extract the Sidereal Time at Noon for the day of your birth and refer to the next chapter.

CHAPTER II
TO ERECT A FIGURE OF THE HEAVENS

Take the Sidereal time at noon on the day of birth, and add to it the hours and minutes after noon at which you were born, or if before noon, subtract from it the interval between the birth and noon. This will give the approximate Right Ascension of the Midheaven at birth. Thus, suppose a person to be born on May 1, 1890, at 3h. 30m. p.m. in London—

With this Right Ascension of the Midheaven you then refer to Tables of Houses for London (see Chapter III.), and against this quantity of Sidereal Time you will find, under the column marked 10, the sign and degree which corresponds to it, namely, the 2nd of Cancer. This is put at the head of the figure, and the rest of the signs are placed around the figure in their order as shown in the Table. Only six of the Houses are given in the Tables, because the opposite Houses will have the same degrees of the opposite signs on them. Thus we read against the Right Ascension 6h. 7m. 28s. the following:—

This means that the 2nd degree of Cancer was on the cusp of the Tenth House (the Midheaven) at the moment of the birth, Leo 8th on the cusp of the Eleventh House, Virgo 8th on the cusp of the Twelfth, Libra 1.33 on the Ascendant or Eastern Horizon, and so of the rest. On the cusp of the Fourth House we place Capricornus 2, because the Fourth House is opposite the 10th and the sign Capricornus is opposite to Cancer. On the cusp of the Fifth House we place Aquarius 8, because the Fifth House is opposite to the Eleventh, and Aquarius is opposite to Leo. When completed we find the cusps of the Houses as follows, opposite to those in the Tables:—

It is then only necessary to place the planets in the figure, as explained in the preceding chapter, and the figure of the Heavens is complete.

To Draw a Figure of the Heavens.

Take a pair of compasses, and with a radius, of about 2½ inches, describe a circle. Within this, and with a radius of about 2 inches, describe another. With the radius of this latter mark off six equal divisions, and then equally divide these so as to make twelve. Within the figure draw a small circle, concentric with the others, to represent the Earth. From the points of division already obtained draw straight lines to the centre of the figure until they touch the circle of the Earth. You then have a figure which represents the Houses of the Heavens, being a twelvefold division of the Prime Vertical. The lines extending from the outer circles to the Earth are the cusps of the Houses (see fig. Section IV., chap. 5).

The degrees of the Zodiac which are upon the cusps of the Houses, as found in the Tables opposite a given Sidereal Time, are written over the several cusps in their order between the two outer circles. Reference to the Ephemeris for May 1, 1890, shows the Sun at noon in Taurus 11 degrees 2 minutes. Three and a half hours later it will have advanced about 8 minutes in longitude, so that its position will be in Taurus 11 degrees 10 minutes. This longitude falls in the Eighth House, and we therefore place the symbol of the Sun in that division of the Heavens and place against it the figures 11.10, so that as Aries 26 is on the cusp of the Eighth and Taurus 26 on the cusp of the Ninth House, the Sun’s position in Taurus 11.10 will fall between these cusps, i.e., in the Eighth House. The rest of the planets are placed in the figure according to their respective longitudes.

CHAPTER III
THE TABLES OF HOUSES

The Tables of the Houses on pp. 40, 41, are calculated for the latitude of 51° 32′ North. This will serve for London and environs, and approximately for the South of England and the Midlands. Tables of Houses for other latitudes may be obtained through the booksellers, a useful set of half a dozen different latitudes being sold for one shilling.

In order to illustrate the uses to which these Tables may be put in the solution of astronomical problems, let us take the Sun’s position in the horoscope for the 1st of May, 1890, and find when the Sun sets on that day on the horizon of London. The Sun is in Taurus, 11 degrees, and it will set when the opposite point of the Heavens is rising. Find under the column marked “Ascen.” the 11th degree of Scorpio, and against it in the column marked “Sidereal Time” you will find 9h. 49m. 9s. This will be the Right Ascension of the Midheaven when the Sun sets on London. We have already seen that the Sidereal Time at noon on the 1st of May was 2h. 37m. 28s., and this, taken from the former Sidereal Time, gives about 7.12 p.m. as the time of sunset. Now in the example horoscope the birth took place at 3.30 p.m., and this time, taken from 7.12 p.m., gives 3h. 42m. from birth to sunset. If you multiply this by 15 to turn it into degrees and minutes of the Equator, you will obtain 55° 30′, which are the number of degrees which pass over the Midheaven from birth until sunset. At the rate of 1 degree for every year of life, this corresponds to 55½ years of age, when the subject of this horoscope would come under the adverse influence of the Sun opposition Ascendant, and would suffer some serious ill health of a feverish nature, incident to the throat (the part ruled by Taurus, the sign in which the Sun is situate). This is how predictions are made, but of this more anon.