Trigons ("Triplicities") and their Lords

[Therese_Hamilton]

Dear Mr. Johnson,

I'm not particularly happy with the formal structure of this forum, but that's what Mr. Schmidt prefers. So I'll continue to address you as "Mr. Johnson," strange as it sounds. I do constantly refer to Mythic Astrology and Mansions of the Moon. Some years ago I had a half written "Mythic Astrology" as related to the sidereal zodiac, but you and Ariel Guttman beat me to it with a fine book.

I don't know Maria Mateus personally, but I follow her work and see her a bright new astrological star. We're in great need of minds like hers.

I think everyone will find your notes on the Hindu astrological tradition very enlightening. Much of Jyotish seems to have a blatantly Hellenistic origin. From Mesopotamia, the manuscript which mentions "the three roads" is particularly interesting. Is this mentioned in Pingree's notes in one of his books or articles to which we have access? It seems that we could use an extensive article or even book on the origins of Jyotish concepts. I don't suppose you have this in the works?

I cringe every time I happen upon modern Jyotish writing on the trigons and elements. Material is copied directly from tropical texts which common sense says cannot be accurate in two different zodiacs.

I'm interested in how you see the caste attributions working in relation to the trigons in contemporary Jyotish because I haven't been able to apply them in actual natal charts. For example serial killer John Wayne Gacy has Sun and Moon in Pisces (Brahmin) while Ramakrishna Paramahansa has Asc, Sun, Moon and Mercury in Aquarius. If you have time to briefly discuss caste and the trigons, I'd like to see some examples, either here or under Sam Geppi's Indian Astrology topic here on the ACT forum. That topic so far hasn't seen any posts.

Thanks,
Therese Hamilton

[Kenneth_Johnson]

The Pingree article is called "Venus Omens in India and Babylon," published in 1987 by University of Copenhagen in a series of essays called From Ancient Omens to Statistical Mechanics. Needless to say, it's hard to find. You almost need to know someone with a university faculty access card to the worldcat. (Much thanks, Demetra.)

In my own opinion, arguments regarding the origins of Jyotish have become much too polarized. Practicing Jyotishis all support the "everything from India" concept whereas Hellenists tend to regard Jyotish merely as a pale imitation of Hellenistic astrology. I am convinced that the real situation is much more complex. I won't be writing a book, though, as I have no special desire to be hanged in effigy by my Vedic colleagues. I will make a few remarks here. Some of my assumptions are based on the work I have done translating a pre-Hellenistic text called Sardulakarnavadana. I am about halfway through, but far enough to see some patterns emerging.

As regards natal astrology, Jyotish is indeed almost purely Hellenistic. The Sardulakarnavadana contains a few pages of "birth in the nakshatras," but this is natal astrology at its most rudimentary. While Jyotish has for the most part retained most Hellenistic principles of natal astrology even to modern times, there have been a few independent developments. Most notable is the way the Hindus tossed out the Hellenistic Time Lord systems in favor of new models based upon their own indigenous nakshatras. Even so, it's a mixed bag. The amazingly complex system called the Kalachakra Dasha (first recorded in BPHS) turns out, on analysis, to be based on the Releasing from Fortune and Spirit, and can only have been derived from the now lost Pahlavi version of Vettius Valens.

Electional astrology is just the opposite. It has changed very little since the times of the Sardulakarnavadana (c. 0 CE). The addition of zodiacal factors is a relatively unimportant afterthought. Hindu electional astrology is almost entirely indigenous and continues to be based on the nakshatras.

Mundane or political astrology did not exist in early Jyotish. There were, of course, the astronomical works on time cycles -- and Abu Mashar was not afraid to steal the beginning date for the Kali Yuga and re-envision it as the date of Noah's Flood! But all mundane astrology in India today is based on Western models, though of course they do it sidereally.

Horary astrology is a good example of how complex the situation really is. Pingree asserts that the first example of horary is the YJ. I am not sure how he gets there. I agree with Chris Brennan that the YJ more nearly fits the definition of what Chris calls a "consultation chart." The influence of Greek katarche in terms of fundamental principles is obvious. All the same, the first genuine work of horary astrology really does come from India. This is the Shatpanchashika, almost certainly from c. 600 CE, hence 150 years earlier than Sahl or Masha'allah. But this doesn't mean that Sahl and Masha'allah come straight out of the Shatpanchashika. I have had a chance to study Dr. Dykes' translations of the early Western sources and discuss the matter with him, and it is fairly clear that there are only a few stray "judgments" in common between them. One almost needs to postulate a lost Pahlavi tradition in order to explain this. In present times, there are two different horary traditions in India. One of them, common in north India, is just a siderealized version of the medieval tradition, and is obviously derived from Arabic/Persian sources. The other, from south India, represents an amazing archaic survival of the original Shatpanchashika tradition. The indigenous horary tradition was driven farther and farther south during the Muslim invasions, and still survives in Kerala. Fascinating though it is, it is so deeply Hindu in terms of cultural assumptions that it pretty much resists any attempt to universalize it.

I hope you can see why I feel that the question of the origins of Jyotish cannot be clearly resolved into "original primal wisdom" vs. "second-rate Hellenism." But we have roamed far from the trigons. I hope to find time to post something about the caste attributions, and I suspect that the Indian Astrology Forum is the right place.

[Robert_Schmidt]

Hello Mr. Johnson, and welcome to this forum.

While I have you here, would you mind repeating what you noticed on the back porch during the 2006 Conclave when I was bringing up the subject of joint domicile masters (the lords of the two domiciles trigonal to a given domicile) which has been discussed a bit earlier on this topic. If I remember correctly, you made a connection between these three related planets and the Indian concept of planetary friends and enemies. Am I remembering this correctly?

Robert Schmidt

[Therese_Hamilton]

Mr. Johnson, these continuing historical notes are fascinating. Can you please give us the translation of Sardulakarnavadana?

I've noted elsewhere (don't remember where...) that the system of Jyotish friends and enemies aligns quite well with the trigon lords, except for the Moon which has no enemies. So we have the Sun, Mars and Jupiter sharing friendship with each other, and Venus, Mercury and Saturn mutually sharing their friendship. No planet has enemies from its own trigon. This is only a cursory overview, as I'm sure Kenneth Johnson will elaborate on the details of the whole system.

I've noted that the sharing of trigon lords does have practical application, and I'll try to post something on this in due time. This is apart from the system of trigon lordship set forth by Dorotheus.

Therese Hamilton

[Robert_Schmidt]

Forgive me, Ms. Hamilton, if I failed to mention your earlier post on the relation of the Hellenistic concept of joint domicile masters and the Indian conception of friends and enemies, when I addressed my question to Mr. Johnson. I mainly wanted to acknowledge him as the source from which I first heard of this connection.

Robert Schmidt

[Therese_Hamilton]

Thank you, Mr. Schmidt. If Ken Johnson has time to reply, I'm sure he'll add subtleties concerning the friends/enemies scheme that may have escaped me. It does seem obvious that the system is securely based on the Hellenistic tirgons. I'm thoroughly enjoying Mr. Johnson's historical notes as well as your thought provoking commentaries. At this time I have several on-going small research projects aimed at exploring Hellenistic principles. Primarily I'm working with trigons and confines because these are relatively straightforward--though perhaps not so much in application!

Therese Hamilton

[Kenneth_Johnson]

Ms. Hamilton states the basic doctrine quite succinctly, but I will lay it out in detail. I may as well continue to use the Greek word trigon. In Sanskrit, we say trikona, but this is obviously an Indo-Greek term derived from trigon.

Among the planets that rule two signs:

Mercury as ruler of Gemini trines Libra (Venus) and Aquarius (Saturn)
Mercury as ruler of Virgo trines Taurus (Venus) and Capricorn (Saturn)
Venus as ruler of Taurus trines Virgo (Mercury) and Capricorn (Saturn)
Venus as ruler of Libra trines Gemini (Mercury) and Aquarius (Saturn)
Mars as ruler of Aries trines Leo (Sun) and Sagittarius (Jupiter)
Mars as ruler of Scorpio trines Cancer (Moon) and Pisces (Jupiter)
Jupiter as ruler of Sagittarius trines Aries (Mars) and Leo (Sun)
Jupiter as ruler of Pisces trines Cancer (Moon) and Scorpio (Mars)
Saturn as ruler of Capricorn trines Taurus (Venus) and Virgo (Mercury)
Saturn as ruler of Aquarius trines Gemini (Mercury) and Libra (Venus)

Okay, I realize I said "ruler" instead of "domicile lord," but life is short.

These rulerships set up two essential groups. Ms. Hamilton is correct in noting that we call them "camps." We would expect to find the Moon in the group with Sun, Mars, and Jupiter, but it is indeed said that the Moon "has no enemies." Here I suspect that the Hellenistic infusion collided with the indigenous tradition, and the indigenous tradition was the winner. As the Sardulakarnavadana makes clear, almost all of pre-Hellenistic Jyotish is centered on the Moon. Though there are statistics regarding the orbital periods of the other planets in that text, there is no suggestion that they are used in an interpretive astrological way. The only other factor that is used astrologically is our good friend Rahu, the north lunar node, who is a very ancient friend indeed, and can be found under that name as far back as the Atharva Veda (c. 800 BCE). I suspect that Jyotishis, with their long tradition of lunar astrology, were uncomfortable with confining her in a system.

Now, on to the two camps.... Quite simply put, a planet functions more effectively if in its own camp, for example Venus in a sign of Saturn or Mars in a sign of Jupiter. Having Venus in a sign of Saturn may not help your love life, but it will certainly assist Venus in reaching her full potential for material adornment and luxury, since she shared material world associations with Saturn.

Further, the camp of Sun/Mars/Jupiter is described as the camp of the devas, whereas Mercury,Venus and Saturn are the camp of the asuras, the "not-gods." The devas hold up the righteous status quo, whereas the asuras think that sex, drugs and rock-n-roll are actually more fun.

Here is an old teaching story that we use to show the relationships of the two camps, as well as to distinguish between their devic and asuric nature and to show the Moon's ambiguity. It is said that the chief counselor (Jupiter) came to the king (the Sun) and informed him that the crown prince (Mercury) had begun to frequent the house of a beautiful courtesan (Venus). This, of course, was unacceptable to the status quo, so the king told the leader of the army (Mars) to set a close guard on the prince, and to set loose his spies as well. Nevertheless, the prince managed to sneak into the house of the courtesan thanks to the assistance of an old lame servant (Saturn). It was said the Queen (the Moon) officially supported the position of the status quo, but as a devoted and understanding mother, she may have been the one who hired the lame servant to help her son achieve his desires.

Note that the Moon seems to leaning just ever so slightly to the side of the asuras. This is embodied in an old Helen-of-Troy story from the Puranas about how the mischievous Moon God stole the wife of Brihaspati (Jupiter) and had to be defended against the heavenly armies of Skanda (Mars) by the asuric armies of Sukra (Venus).

Now, as I remember it, this whole conversation arose because there were some similarities with Antiochus that caused Mr. Schmidt and I to speculate (quite hypothetically and still without proof) that the first Greek text to reach India may have come from the same general tradition as Antiochus. Since I don't yet have the new Antiochus, perhaps Mr. Schmidt will refresh by tying this all together.