Julius Firmicus Maternus

There is no capacity to hold nuance.

Traditional astrologers applied this exact toddler-like splitting to the planets.

A planet was either a benefic, bringing total good fortune, wealth, and health.

or a malefic bringing absolute doom, disease, and destruction.

I want to dig into the actual mechanics of this system because reading the text, it is astonishing how complex they made it.

It really is.

To maintain this illusion that they could actually predict and control these terrifying cosmic forces, traditional astrologers developed these incredibly rigid, hyper-mathematical rules.

The terminology alone is dizzying.