Dear Marghuerita

Excellent work. this is first time i read a clear description of this technique. As u talk about gate of heavens opening it might be interesting to all of u that in indian astrology also they have such a saying that only at specific times a human birth is possible. they also have some rectification tables based on this theory which i think i had with me but they only rectified with few minutes.

You are doing great job. Thanks you once again.

Yes

interessantissimo! la prima e unica volta che ho sentito parlare di isaritmia è stato ad una conferenza di pasquale de leo qui a firenze.
nel caso in cui la sigizia sia una luna nuova e i due luminari siano congiunti sotto l’orizzonte come si procede? si valuta chi ha più potere sulla congiunzione?
grazie

He looks like a Rosacroce
Seriously, you are giving us so many precious information. It’s a great help, really.

I realised that my Ciceronian sentence-monster remained senseless but that’s the world.
In fact, the origin of the Mithraic Mysteries points to Anatolia, to Kingdom of Commagene which had family ties with Thrasyllus and his son, Balbillus. That’s why he’s the most possible candidate. Also, it’s interesting that the earliest charts are connected to the same circle: the regal monument of Antiochus I of Commagene on Nemrut Dağ from 62 BCE and Balbillus’ example nativities from 72 and 43 BCE. (Balbillus himself was a great-grandson of Antiochus I via his mother, Princess Aka II of Commagene.) These folks had connections to everything you can imagine: Thrasyllus and Balbillus were born in Egypt, the father was an editor of the works of Plato and Democritus, the son was Prefect of Egypt and the director of the Library of Alexandria, and they enjoyed friendship of both Julio-Claudian and Flavian principes. So, whatever they really did, they influenced early times of astrology quite much.

@Osthanes
Well, I knew the reference to the Neoplatonists, but not the one to Mithra’s cult.
And I did not know that scholars think Balbillus was the founder of Mithraic misteries, but he went to and through Roma and Alexandria, true? It makes sense to me.

Here in Roma we have several Mithraeum, I saw one once, but this can be another post

@Pat
Thanks to you for your kind words, my luck is having so many friends.
I think I will write more as soon as possible.

P.S. Some bird told me you are always right with horaries

Hi Marghuerita

nice work, as usually. I only did know the method given by Lilly, in CA about natal.
This one shows paramount refinements. The quality of your articles is always impressive.
Thnaks a lot for your deep investigations.

love
Pat

Margherita,

your mention of the Homeric cave of nymphs is very inspirating in point of astrological sense. In turn, this passage is well-known by Porphyry who allegorizates it in treatise called On the Cave of Nymphs in the Odyssey. (There is a nice bilingual Greek-Italian edition, L’antro delle ninfe by Laura Simonini.)
In this treatise, Porphyry describes the souls’ routes through the heavenly gates. In fact, this interpretation comes from a Middle Platonic philosopher, Numenius of Apamea, and his lesser-known mate, Cronius. Traces of his philosophy on celestial routes can be find not only in this Porphyrian treatise but in Macrobius’ commentary on Cicero’s Dream of Scipio and in Proclus’ commentary of Plato’s Timaeus.
The most interesting fact is that the originator of this idea is not Numenius from the 2nd century CE; it directly comes from the followers of the Mysteries of Mithras, a private cult founded at the end of 1nd century CE. Of course, the idea of celestial gates and journey much antedates them; however, if we deliberate that the scholars’ best choice for the role of the founder of Mithraic Mysteries is Ti. Claudius Balbillus, the famous astrologer, and the astrological doctrines wholly permeate the Mysteries’ so-called “star-talk” (that is, a common idiom expressing facts about the universe and, parallelly, a device of presentation and interiorization), and that Antiochus of Athens may well have been a descendant of Balbillus, C. Iulius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus, archon of Athens and consul suffectus in 109 CE.
Therefore the connection of the idea of celestial gates to a special astrological technique which measures their opening and closing is quite promising. Ptolemy (BTW, Ti. Claudius Ptolemaeus) might have been aware of some Mithraic ideas, for he speaks about the inhabitants of some Asian countries as they revere “that of Kronos under the name of Mithras Hēlios” - a true piece of esoteric info.

Well this is not exactly my method It’s Giuseppe Bezza’s one. And he teaches it in his traditional astrology course, from his reading of Ptolemy’s text about so-called “animodar.”

To me this method of the gates sounds like in the famous lines Homers’ Odyssey, XIII book describing the door of men and the door of immortals.

“And in the cave are long looms of stone, at which the nymphs weave webs of purple dye, a wonder to behold; and therein are also ever-flowing springs. Two doors there are to the cave, [110] one toward the North Wind, by which men go down, but that toward the South Wind is sacred, nor do men enter thereby; it is the way of the immortals”

It was a well known tradition in famous authors like Proclus and Porphyry, in Neoplatonism in short.