Profections and birth rectification

While I was writing the article about profections, for a strange coincidence I received the latest  number of Phos, the journal issued by CieloeTerra for their members, dedicated to same subject.

The article written by Marco Fumagalli, very beautiful in the content and sophisticated for graphics, on line here, uses profections to rectify birth times. It gives many examples, included Michael Jackson birth chart, confirming the birth time as rectified by Ben Dykes in his well known article. This is not a new technique: profections can be used as a rectification tool together other astrological tools.

A profection consists in progressing the horoscope and the other points of the chart 30 degrees per year- a slight variant is offered in Marco Fumagalli article.

But its progression is not discrete, it does not jump of 30 degrees from one year to another, it moves along the ecliptic (or the primum mobile according Cieloeterra variant): if we consider the usual method of profecting along the ecliptic, we should move of 30°/365 days= 0.082 degrees per day, ie  2.46 degrees per month.

From this, like directions, profections can be used in order to rectify the birth chart when we are unsure about the birth time.

Francesco Giuntini gives us an example in his Speculum Astrologiae¹. In front of the uncertainty of the birth time the astrologer has several method to rectify the chart: through the animodar, through the Trutine of Hermes, but the best method is the rectification by accident: directions, transits and profections. In particular:

1) per directions of the horoscope to its  promissors in the nativities;

2) per profections of the horoscope degree to its promissors in the return;

3) per planetary transit on the degree of the horoscope.

But Giuntini gives an example he knows very well. He starts explaining the method, which is very easy, more than primary directions even if  the reader is told that  directions are the most important of the three methods.

Count the days between the birthday and the day of the accident, in the year where the accident occurred. And search these days in the table of profections, and  in the vertical line at right you will find the degree and the minutes which are between the profected horoscope and the promissor, and take  those degrees . To those degrees and minutes, if you take away degrees and minutes of promissor, the remainder produces the true degree and minute of the horoscope. Example: in the 39th year the ruler of the year was Saturn and the profected horoscope was progressed at 22°39′ Aquarius. I searched a direction to the body of Mars. And the distance from the profected horoscope, namely 22°39′ to the body of Mars are 24°49′, which give (as evident from the following table) 303 days, which corresponds to the moment of the accident.

FRANCESCO GIUNTINI

This is the corresponding page of the table - these are the complete tables in PDF 

We need to illustrate the method with an example- the very same chart of Francesco Giuntini.

We know that we should use different methods together in order to get the real Ascendant.

Let’s start from Animodar, ie using the degree of that planet which has the greatest dignity on the preceding sygygy.
The syzygy falls at 17 Pisces, where Jupiter has its domicile, Venus the exaltation, Mars the triplicity (it’s a night chart), Mercury the term. Let’s choose Mars, which is with the syzygy and with the MC in the New Moon chart, and let’s put 17° on MC, we will have a new Ascendant at 22.39 Sagittarius.

Then let’s go  with directions. Giuntini lists several directions he got with this new birth time: at the age of 5  the Ascendant arrived at the square of the Sun, at 16 to Venus sextile, at 18 Venus trine at MC, at 29 the trine of Mars at MC, at 53 Saturn to the Ascendant.

We are flying on them because we want focus our attention on rectification by profection.

At 39 while in Venice Giuntini was jailed because of false accusations and obliged to fly abroad. The Sun was arrived by direction to Mars terms. But we can find something else too.

Giuntini was jailed on the 4th January 1561; the profected horoscope for the previous birthday (on the 8th March 1560) was arrived at 22°39′ Aquarius.

We should think the  profected horoscope as in motion during the year. How long does it take to arrive to Mars which is between the profected horoscope of the current and the next year? Please notice that Mars in this chart is the ruler of the fourth house, which signifies prison and loss of wealth.

Sign	Degree	Minutes
11	17	28	Mars
10	22	22	Profected horoscope (Giuntini here uses 22.22 rather than 22.39)
0	24	50	Distance between Mars and the profected horoscope

Now let’s check in the table: this distance corresponds to 303 days from 8 March 1560, ie exactly the 4th January 1551, the day of the event.

Let’s see with a modern software:

As we see the profected horoscope is arrived exactly on Mars.

We can conclude that the rectification made by the Ptolemaic method of Animodar fits both with directions and profections and let us know the exact birth time.

For this article I should thank Marco Fumagalli of CieloeTerra, with his research which can be read in Cieloeterra site which lead me to search some traditional source for this tool, together with his personal letters where he gave me a new rectification for this chart using CieloeTerra method. Details of the method in use at CieloeTerra are given by Giuseppe Bezza in the same site, in the article “La profezione: come si calcola, come si interpreta.

Written by Margherita Fiorello, CIDA certified member, for heaven astrolabe blog @ year 2010. If you want to be notified the next time I write something, subscribe to my RSS feed.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES

Giuseppe Bezza, La profezione: come si calcola, come si interpreta in Linguaggio Astrale n.104, Autumn 1966

Marco Fumagalli, Gli incontri di profezione in Phos 19, December 2009

1.   Speculum astrologiae, universam mathematicam scientiam, in certas classes digestam, complectens. Autore Francisco Junctino… Accesserunt etiam commentaria absolutissima in duos posteriores Quadripartiti Ptolemaei libros, innumeris observationibus referta, & certissimis aphorismis (quatenus ex siderum positione liceat christiano more aliquid conjicere) ex probatissimorum astrologorum scriptis depromptis insignita. Quid in priori & posteriori tomo contineatur, elenchus post epistolam ad lectorem sujunctus, indicabit. Omnia sub censura sanctae Ecclesiae catholicae Romanae. Tomus prior. Lugduni : in officina Q. Phil. Tinghi apud Simphorianum Beraud, 1581 [↩]