319
as they are superfluous, and do not pertain to the knowledge of the peculiar dæmon, I shall, as it is fit so to do, omit them, and pass on to things more appropriate than these.
You say then, in your epistle, "that the discovery of the lord or lords of the geniture, if there are more than one in a nativity, can scarcely be obtained, and by astrologers themselves is confessed to be unattainable; and yet they say that the peculiar dæmon is from thence to be known."
But how can astrologers confess that the knowledge of the lord of the geniture is not to be obtained by them, when they deliver clear methods for the discovery of it, and teach us rules by which we may discover the doubts; some, indeed, giving us five,[1] others more and others less than five rules? Omitting this, however, let us direct our attention to a thing of greater consequence, viz. the accidents per-
- ↑ "We say," says Hephestion, "that a star is the lord of the geniture, which has five conditions of the lord of the nativity in the horoscope; viz. if that star receives the luminaries in their proper boundaries, in their proper house, in their proper altitude, and in the proper triangle." He also adds, "and if besides it has contact, effluxion, and configuration." See likewise Porphyry in Ptolemæum, p. 191.
