Exploration of traditional astrology by a practitioner and student in the Art Horary, mundane, natal Renaissance and Medieval Astrology revived for the 21st century Bonatti, Lilly, Cardan
Monday, September 04, 2006
The Gryphon Astrology Blog has moved!
Dear readers,
The time has come to move on to better, greener, more user-friendly pastures (sorry, Blogger, it was great while it lasted). The blog now lives, better and greener than ever at
I have decided to experiment with a new way of blogging, not unlike the way in which most bloggers out there do it. Yes, Gryphon Astrology joins the 21st century at last. That is, I will write a lot more astrology posts that are shorter, to keep the momentum going on the blog. I'll be shooting for one post a day, to have some kind of quality control.
To get the ball rolling, here is one such short post about the astrological Part of Spirit (the opposite of the Part of Fortune).
My best, and happy reading, Nina AKA Gryphon Earlier, I had written on the astrology blog about the connection between the Guardian Daemon and the Lord of the Geniture. To quickly recap, the Guardian Daemon is the ancient Greek name for what we now call our Guardian Angel. In the article above, I wrote about how the Lord of the Geniture, our strongest planet in the horoscope, is a symbol of our Guardian Daemon. The best planet we have will always bail us out of the mess in which we manage to get ourselves. So, to get a sense of what the Guardian Daemon is for us, what is its nature vis a vis ourselves, we must look toward the Lord of the Geniture. Is it nurturing? Aggressive? Disciplinarian? Those are the qualities that will always save us when we are in a tough spot.
One ancient astrologer made the direct connection between the Guardian Daemon (also known as the Eudaimon, or the Good Spirit) and The Part of Spirit. The Part of Spirit is calculated in the opposite way from the Part of Fortune, so Asc + Sun - Moon. Note that for reasons explained in an earlier article, I do not reverse the Part of Fortune and its associated Arabian Parts by night. Firmicus links the Guardian Daemon and Part of Spirit in one sentence:
After these four cardinal points, that is the Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven and IMC, there is another set of four points in the nativity which are also of following and favorable power. These are Dea, Deus, Bona Fortuna (Good Fortune) and Bonus Daemon (Good Spirit) which the Greeks have called thus Thea, Theos, Agathe Tyche, Agathos Daemon.
So there you have it, the Part of Spirit IS the Agathos Daemon. But what do we do with this information? As with any Arabian Part, it is best when it is aspected by its sign ruler, and that sign ruler is essentially and accidentally strong. But it doesn't always work that way in real life. Any planets aspecting the Part of Spirit will tell us of the nature of our Guardian Daemon. Then, we would inspect the sign ruler of the Part of Spirit.
For example, imagine a horoscope where the Part of Spirit is at 7 Libra. It is trined by the Sun at 4 Gemini and squared by the Moon at 6 Cancer. The two aspecting planets rule the 10th and 9th houses respectively. Does this bode well for the native's spiritual career? It certainly does, indicating that not only is the Part of Spirit in play, as John Frawley puts it, but it is also going to be used at its highest capacity (strong Moon). Especially more so when we know that the Sun, though essentially weak, is in the sign of Mercury in Gemini. Our hypothesis is confirmed when we see that the temperament is overwhelmingly phlegmatic, with the most "phlegmatic" planet, the Moon, in strong essential dignity, ruling the 9th house. We have here no ordinary character. This horoscope belongs to Padre Pio, a 20th-century Catholic priest and saint.
