I gather some people have discovered that the text for the third book of Dorotheus is already online and available for download at http://skyscript.co.uk/dorotheus3.pdf

I haven't made links through to the file yet, but plan to do that tomorrow when I will also be uploading an article that explores the content of the third book and considers the reasoning attached to the two demonstrated chart judgements.

Thank you so much for making this available to everyone

My article about the contents of this book is now online (available as a PDF download) at http://www.skyscript.co.uk/dorotheus3notes.pdf

Notes on Dorotheus III: <i>the hayl?j, Kadhkhud?h,</i> and terms of life

My original plan was to write a short collection of explanatory notes with a reproduction of the example charts in modern format, which I expected to take no more than a day. Several weeks later, my "notes" have turned into a substantial article which is 18 pages long and has 58 endnotes - (unfortunately the chart judgments were a lot more interesting than I expected them to be!)

The article is not casual reading but should be of interest to anyone curious about the meaning and use of the hyleg and alcocoden (the Latin equivalent of the Arabic terms <i>hayl?j, Kadhkhud?h,</i>) and the use of various astrological points such as "governor of the nativity" and "divisor". It also includes a table for calculating the hyleg according to Dorotheus, Ptolemy and Alcabitius.

The second part of the article looks in detail at the principles of judgment employed in the two example charts (one is known to be interpolated but has some interesting details nonetheless). The older, authentic chart, can be seen to hold an important place in the astrological tradition, by the replication of certain comments that became integrated into standardised interpretations of the direction of the hyleg through the terms.

There are various points of interest for researchers, but I hope the article is of benefit to astrologers who would otherwise be unfamiliar with Dorotheus' work, and I hope it encourages more debate on the procedures used in the chart judgements. I have done my best according to my own understanding of the principles, but I am sure there will be refinements, additions, and possibly corrections, if the article does what I hope it will, in stimulating attention on these two very interesting chart examples.

Deb,

Thanks for the notes. It is great work!

Interesting thing I learned was - when the directed ascendant is in the terms of a malefic or (more severely) aspects a malefic; the ray of a benefic into the term of the directed ascendant is a protective influence.

The aspect/ray of a planet to the confines of a term seems quite important.
I don't know, but this might possibly provide some clues as to how the egyptian terms are organized.

Vasanth

Glad you enjoyed it Vasanth - there is some kind of clue there, because the total number of degrees that each of the planet governs throughout the terms, represents the "greater year" for that planet - used for establishing how many years the Alcocoden offers for life expectancy (e.g., Saturn's terms cover a total of 57 degrees out of the 360 degrees of the zodiac, which is its greater year, and the same applies to the other four planets).

I didn't think to mention that because it is not a technique that Dorotheus mentions, but will add a short comment to endnote 8, where I list the greater, middle and lesser years, as it might stimulate someone else to make a further connection.

Update - I've amended endnote 8 so that it now includes the extra comment: The number of the greater (or ?final?) years for each planet represents the total number of degrees that each planet rules by term throughout the zodiac, which either reflects or is the reason why the benefic planets have larger terms than the malefics.

The connection I was trying to make was (speculative) ->

Granted Saturn has 57 degrees at his disposal to spread its influence through the terms - it chooses most degrees in the fire and air triplicity (17 + 17) - the triplicities it rules - also all masculine signs;
Also it tries to control most degrees at the end of the signs (since it is slow-moving, it can collect the light of others) along with Mars.
The benefics naturally try to select their terms at the beginning of the signs to escape the rays of the malefic terms.

There seems to be some best-fit approach based on
- the degrees allotted,
- preference based on rulerships - triplicity, domicile, exaltation
- gender & cardinality
- the rays - opposition, trine, square, sextile

The other connection to note is that if the alcocoden is at the end of a sign, it is more likely to indicate a shorter life, because it will fall into the terms of the malefics.
I'm not sure if you are aware of the paper I published that explored the rationale of the Ptolemaic terms; if not you might find it interesting. The arrangement of the Egyptian terms remains a mystery: Ptolemy couldn't fathom it out and no one else has been able to since. It is a code that has yet to be cracked.

Deb,

Thanks,
I got the article - http://www.skyscript.co.uk/pdf/Houlding ... _terms.pdf

... will go through it

Hello Deb,

Thanks for providing Dorotheus' three books to us for free. Just curious, what is your motivation behind releasing Dorotheus' books and doing an analysis on his book III?



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