4 Pe hare (Osetia OO CEA Ca steps su Curis and Narration of Whole/Art *f Astrology Hess from the Greek James fade WW We U.NThe first edition of this translation was circulated privately in 1985, the second edition was circulated privately in 2000, and the third edition was also circulated privately in 2003. The present volume contains the fourth edition of the transla- tion as the first published edition. Copyright 2009 by James Herschel Holden No part of this book may be reproduced or transcribed in any form or by any means. electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the au- thor and publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical re- views and articles. Requests and inquiries may be mailed to the American Feder- ation of Astrologers at 6535 S. Rural Road, Tempe, AZ 85283, U.S.A. First Printing 2009 ISBN-10; 0-86690-590-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-86690-590-9 Published by American Federation of Astrologers, Inc. 6535 S. Rural Road Tempe, AZ 85283 Printed in the United States of America.Rhetorius’s Explanation and Narration of the Whole Art of Astrology. Preface, On what account, the twelve signs being circular, have we made the beginning from Aries and not rather from Cancer, since it is the ASC of the World,! or from Leo because it is the solar sign; but rather than [either of those] of the two luminaries, the house of Mars, Aries, has been preferred? We say then that since the an- cients made the twelve signs bodily according to the parts of man, making the beginning from Aries, affirming it to be the head, Taurus the throat, and so on down to the feet, on account of this from the more ruling part of the commander, the brain, and all that which is proper to the head, they have made the beginning from Aries. And in particular they have made the seasons in agreement with the tropics, taking the beginning from the vernal sign, i.e. from Aries; for spring signifies the suckling: summer, the youth; fall, middle age; and winter, old age. Four of these signs, then, are called tropical, and four solid, and four bicorporeal. And the tropi- cal [signs] are so called because when the Sun is in them the changes of the air are altered; e.g., when it is in Aries, a tropical sign, it brings the vernal and auncatal change and thenceforth the air becomes more serene; the day grows longer from the equal hours, When it is in Taurus, a solid and vernal sign, it makes the air calmer and unalterable, and it increases the day further. When it is hart of the World’ in Firmicus, Mathesis, iii, 1, where the ASC is the sign Cancer.