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This section is from the book "Astrology In A Nutshell", by Charles Henry Webber. Also available from Amazon:Astrology In a Nutshell.

Mathematics And Astrology

It is high time that the world, with itseyesnow opening to the wonders of Astrology, should learn that mathematics/ or the claim of presumptuous mathematicians, has done more to debase Astrology and keep it in the background than all the charlatans on record. Mathematicians of today are very apt to declare that they do not believe in the flimsy and hazy kind of Astrology known as Horary. They claim to believe only in what they call Nativties, yet at the same time they advocate mathematical precision in arcs of direction from a birth data correct to the minute. What is a correct data to the minute but an Horary data. A "Nativity" and an "Horary Figure" mean precisely the same thing when the data is from the exact minute of a birth, whether that birth be the birth of a human being or an event in the life of a human being. An Horary Figure must be exact to the minute, but a Nativity may or may not be, and still it would be a Nativity. Who ever saw a picture of the Nativity of the Saviour, drawn to the moment of birth, and yet in every gallery of paintings we may find a picture of the birth of the Saviour; and by the best of scholars it is termed the "Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ" A strictly Horary Figure, of exact moment of birth is the only thing in Astrology that calls for the finer mathematics. Without the exact minute of a birth Tables of Houses are useless, and it is impossible to make correct arcs of direction. As the exact minute of a birth is almost impossible to get, this fact makes the mathematical part of Astrology a delusion and a snare, and yet nine-tenths of the students of Astrology go into mathematical hysterics after a will-o'-the wisp. The finer mathematics and spherical basis of Astrology, which calls for sidereal time, latitude, longitude, ascending degree, zenith, Tables of Houses and arcs of direction, aside from simple rules of arithmetic and approximated laws, belong almost exclusively to the Horary Branch of Astrology, which is not at all an ancient method, but is in reality a modern system but a few centuries old. This modern system, with its mathematical gymnastics, is in reality the hodge podge of Astrology, and true Astrology will never be appreciated nor intelligibly understood until these mathematicians are given a back seat and asked to use their genius in securing accurate Horary times of birth, before they attempt to force their claims into the field of Astrology. The term "mathematics" means anything, from the numbering of the signs 1, 2, 3, etc., down to the most intricate trigonomical calculation, but the pretentious mathematics forced upon pure Astrology belongs only to the Horary system, and is contained in such excellent works as "Dalton's Spherical Basis of Astrology," but this work is only useful to Horary Astrology. I know that many minds will at first disagree with me in this assertion, but they had better not argue against my statement unless they wish to prove that they do not understand the subject. Horary Astrology is generally considered to be a figure drawn for the answering of immediate questions.

The self-same mathematical law, or rules are required for the casting of a figure for exact time of birth, as for the exact time of asking a question. So far as the mathematics go, there is no difference. What is this law. It is ephemeral. It is dependent upon an arc of theearth's diurnal movement in an hour's time, and that hour magnified to a circle of 360 degrees is measured by arcs of direction, thereby obtaining symbols or correspondences to cycles of days, months and years: Such a circle is called aHoroscope, because, in reality, the entire circle of 12 Houses is nothing but an extended circle of the hour, divided into 12 departments. This same circle may be judged as the circle of a day, a year or a century, but in that case the finer mathematics are not necessary. Only in the Horary features of Astrology are the finer mathematics called for, and unfortunately for mathematics, accurate birth data are so few that mathematics are useless, except to those who fail to recognize that all of their fine mathematical labor is but time wasted. Mathematics do not enter at all into their correct findings, except it be the simple laws of arithmetic. The very first nonsense that a person gets into his head in an attempt to learn Astrology is that he must become proficient in casting a Horoscope, with or without a correct Horary data, and that all affairs of life depend upon the planet he is born under and the bouse of the horoscope it is situated in, and the aspects of other planets to it That is the very last thing that a person should attempt to learn. A large number of Astrologic students learn that and nothing more, consequently they are always floundering with mathematical problems, lordships and houses, and never really learn what true Astrology is. By reason of the mathematical problems, relative to the Horary arcs of the earth's diurnal motion, true Astrology and Horary Astrology are indiscriminately mixed in nearly all of the books published, and strange to say, those who decry the Horary features as hazy and flimsy are the biggest sticklers for that grade of mathematics which are only needed for the Horary findings. Mathematics, simple or complex, is, of course, more or less needed in Astrology, but no more so than in the making of a batch of bread, or in the mixing of paint. Might as well say that a servant girl cannot make good bread without using the multiplication table, or that a painter's boy cannot mix paint without knowledge of the rule of three, as to say that Astrologic judgment may not be arrived at without accurate sidereal time, logarithms or trigonometry. The Bast Angle in circular form, and divided into 12 equal parts, called "houses," is all there is to a natural horoscope, or a Natal Figure, with centre of the earth in line with the sun always.

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