On page 113 of Christian Astrology, William Lilly writes that when a planet is within 17' of the Sun he is said to be in the Heart of the Sun and cazimi, and all authors agree that a planet in the state of cazimi is greatly fortified.

On page 300, in aphorisme 26, Lilly mentions cazimi again but reduces the orb to 16'. Within 16' of arc, or less than 17', seems to be correct since the Solar disc is 32' of arc wide, the half of this is 16' of arc, so any planet being separated less than 17' of the solar centre, measured along the ecliptic, is rationally joined to the Sun.

However, in case of the Moon, she herself has an apparent diameter of approximately the same size as the Sun, varying with a few minutes of arc according to whether she is in her perigeum or apogeum. (The closer she is to Earth, the larger she appears and the swifter her motion - which is considered a fortunate condition). Measured along the ecliplic the consequence of the Moons apparent diameter would be that the Moon was still 'joined' to the Sun until 30'-33' separate the Sun. Does this mean that the orb allowed for the term cazimi should be extended in the case of the Moon? Any opinions?

My example chart would be http://www.astronor.com/ENTRY11.GIF In this case the Moon is at its New and only 15' separate the Solar centre, so under any of the circumstances discussed above the Moon is cazimi and fortified.

Andrew Bevan

No that simple.

For the case you give, while the Moon is conjunct Sun in longitude within the 15'-17' orb for cazimi, it is actually 3.2? north of the edge of Sun's disk - more than 13 solar radii away!

Only rarely is a planet actually within the disk of the Sun. A solar eclipes is a special case of a true cazimi.

Check this...

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~mlewicki/software.html

I'd think a cazimin planet that is further from the sun by zodiacal latitude would not be as strong in the same sense that a new moon that is not an eclpise is not as potent.

Martin Lewicki

Thank you for your input. I have given the matter some thought and most certainly agree that the eclipse and occultation is special, although I do not think a term like cazimi is a question of latitude since I understand all planetary positions as projected along the circle of the ecliptic as our line of reference.

As we know, northern latitude may cause a planet to rize above the horizon before the zodiacal degree which it is located in. But in a basic sense, I like to think of all planets in terms of their location along the ecliptic.

However, thank you for your insight!! It is a matter to be considered!

Note the Mercury cazimi-occultation today! 3-May-2007

A table of cazimi occultation/transits events for 2000 to 2015

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~mlewicki ... events.htm

Martin Lewicki