Minderwiz
Lots of Marriage
Dave raised some points about Princess Diana's chart so to end my coverage of the Lots, in terms of where they came from and a brief consideration of their use. In these next posts I'll use her chart to look at the Lots of Marriage and Family.
Dave has already mentioned one Part of Marriage - Ascendant + 7th cusp - Venus.
The use of the seventh cusp is clearly appropriate here, as all of you will know the seventh house is the house of the marriage partner. Venus too seems appropriate as significator of the female and for many modern Astrologers, the planet of relationships. Those of you who followed the horary threads will know that the significator of a partner in a romantic relationship is the Lord of the seventh House - so a variation on this lot could substitute Lord 7 for the seventh cusp. In Morinus Lord 7 is denoted by DC! (DC being the Descendant)
However marriage can be looked at from a variety of viewpoints, none of which are mutually exclusive. There is the context of a partnership of male and female, the union of man and woman being a term used in the Christian marriage ceremony. Venus is a symbol of the female, but we could also use the Sun as a symbol of the male. For a woman, partnership is with the male, for a man, partnership is with the female. Dave's formula might be modified on that basis depending on how strongly we feel that the parts should reflect the sex of the native.
We could also look at marriage as a legal or contractual relationship and it does confer certain legal rights to property and inheritance and tnus has implications for the children of the marriage in law. Marriages do not have to be love matches - though our culture values them highly - they can be arranged, again the legal issues might be more important in such cases but the linking of families is also a major consideration. Don't forget the legal side, a simple look at the number of pre-nuptial agreements (and the growth in these) will show you it's an important dimension.
The Lots I'll use here are:
Ascendant + Venus - Saturn (for men)
Ascendant + Saturn - Venus (for women)
This is probably the most common lot use in antiquity and the presence of Saturn in it suggests structure, limit and bounds - literally the bond of marriage. Saturn is also a male significator and thus we have a union of male and female. This lot is cited in Paul of Alexandria's work but certainly pre-dates him.
The second Lot comes from Vettius Valens who lived in the early second century CE, about the same time as Ptolemy. Valens used two Lots:
Ascendant + Venus - Jupiter (a diurnal lot for both men and women)
This lot replaces Saturn with Jupiter, another male planet, but it shifts the focus to the public role of marriage, it uses both benefics so it associates marriage with happiness and it also associates marriage with fertility and procreation, as both benefics indicate fertility and increase. According to Joseph Crane, Valens used the opposite position to this lot as the Lot of Adultery. As I have said above I'm not convinced by points opposite points unless there is an extremely good reason - such as for the Ascendant and Descendant, where both lie on the horizon.
The second of Valens Lots is
Ascendant + Venus - Sun (for men and both day and night)
Ascendant + Mars - Moon (for women both day and night)
Valens sees these Lots as indicating where love can lead to downfall or some other debility. The logic is that Venus and Mars compromise the Sun (male) and Moon (female). That is because Venus rules Libra the Fall of the Sun and Mars rules Scorpio the Fall of the Moon. In both cases Venus and Mars are acting malefically. For a positive outcome from this lot, the woman's lot of marriage must agree with her Lot of Fortune and the man's lot must agree with his Lot of Spirit.
Those are the Lots, let's see them in action.
Dave raised some points about Princess Diana's chart so to end my coverage of the Lots, in terms of where they came from and a brief consideration of their use. In these next posts I'll use her chart to look at the Lots of Marriage and Family.
Dave has already mentioned one Part of Marriage - Ascendant + 7th cusp - Venus.
The use of the seventh cusp is clearly appropriate here, as all of you will know the seventh house is the house of the marriage partner. Venus too seems appropriate as significator of the female and for many modern Astrologers, the planet of relationships. Those of you who followed the horary threads will know that the significator of a partner in a romantic relationship is the Lord of the seventh House - so a variation on this lot could substitute Lord 7 for the seventh cusp. In Morinus Lord 7 is denoted by DC! (DC being the Descendant)
However marriage can be looked at from a variety of viewpoints, none of which are mutually exclusive. There is the context of a partnership of male and female, the union of man and woman being a term used in the Christian marriage ceremony. Venus is a symbol of the female, but we could also use the Sun as a symbol of the male. For a woman, partnership is with the male, for a man, partnership is with the female. Dave's formula might be modified on that basis depending on how strongly we feel that the parts should reflect the sex of the native.
We could also look at marriage as a legal or contractual relationship and it does confer certain legal rights to property and inheritance and tnus has implications for the children of the marriage in law. Marriages do not have to be love matches - though our culture values them highly - they can be arranged, again the legal issues might be more important in such cases but the linking of families is also a major consideration. Don't forget the legal side, a simple look at the number of pre-nuptial agreements (and the growth in these) will show you it's an important dimension.
The Lots I'll use here are:
Ascendant + Venus - Saturn (for men)
Ascendant + Saturn - Venus (for women)
This is probably the most common lot use in antiquity and the presence of Saturn in it suggests structure, limit and bounds - literally the bond of marriage. Saturn is also a male significator and thus we have a union of male and female. This lot is cited in Paul of Alexandria's work but certainly pre-dates him.
The second Lot comes from Vettius Valens who lived in the early second century CE, about the same time as Ptolemy. Valens used two Lots:
Ascendant + Venus - Jupiter (a diurnal lot for both men and women)
This lot replaces Saturn with Jupiter, another male planet, but it shifts the focus to the public role of marriage, it uses both benefics so it associates marriage with happiness and it also associates marriage with fertility and procreation, as both benefics indicate fertility and increase. According to Joseph Crane, Valens used the opposite position to this lot as the Lot of Adultery. As I have said above I'm not convinced by points opposite points unless there is an extremely good reason - such as for the Ascendant and Descendant, where both lie on the horizon.
The second of Valens Lots is
Ascendant + Venus - Sun (for men and both day and night)
Ascendant + Mars - Moon (for women both day and night)
Valens sees these Lots as indicating where love can lead to downfall or some other debility. The logic is that Venus and Mars compromise the Sun (male) and Moon (female). That is because Venus rules Libra the Fall of the Sun and Mars rules Scorpio the Fall of the Moon. In both cases Venus and Mars are acting malefically. For a positive outcome from this lot, the woman's lot of marriage must agree with her Lot of Fortune and the man's lot must agree with his Lot of Spirit.
Those are the Lots, let's see them in action.
