Retrogradation,
is when a planet moves backward from 20° to 9°, 8°, 7°, and so out of Taurus into Aries.
Frustration,
is when a swift planet applies to the body or aspect of a superior planet; and before it comes to it, the superior planet meets with the body or aspect of some other planet.
The Dragon’s Head and Tail.
To the seven planets, viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna; Astrologers add, two certain nodes or points, called the Dragon’s head, distinguished by this sign ☋, and the Dragon’s tail by ☊. In those two extremities of the beast, our students in Astrology place such virtues, that they can draw from thence wealth, honour, preferments, &c. enough to flatter the avarice, ambition, vanity, &c. of the fools who follow them. Sensible, however, that the admirers of this art support their principles and defend their doctrines by examples founded on their own experience and on the authority of history; there is no necessity for us here to expose the weakness and futility of their arguments. Tully’s proof will suffice; who, amidst the darkest clouds of superstition and ignorance, and in the very heyday of paganism and idolatry, and whilst religion itself seemed to countenance Astrology, inveighs severely against it in Lib. 2, de devinat. “Quam multa ego Pompeis, quam multa Crasso, quam multa huic ipsi Cæsari a Chaldæis dicta memini, neminem eorum nisi senectute, nisi domi, nisi cum clantate esse moriturum? ut mihi per Mirum videatur quem quam extare, qui etiam nunc credastis, quorum predicta quotidie videat re et eventis refelli[[9]].”
Climacteric.
Astrologers have used their best artifices, and employed all the rules of their art, to render those years of our age, which they call climacterics, dangerous and formidable.
Climacterick from the Greek, κλιμακτης, which means by a scale or ladder, is a critical year, or a period in a man’s age, wherein, according to Astrological juggling, there is some notable alteration to arise in the body; and a person stands in great danger of death. The first climacterick, say they, is the seventh year of a man’s life; the rest are multiples of the first, as 21, 49, 56, 63, and 84; which two last are called the grand climactericks, and the danger more certain.
Marc Ficinus accounts for the foundation of this opinion: he tells us there is a year assigned for each planet to rule over the body of a man, each in his turn; now Saturn being the most maleficent (malignant) planet of all, every seventh year, which falls to its lot, becomes very dangerous; especially those of 63 and 84, when the person is already advanced in years. According to this doctrine, some hold every seventh year an established climacteric; but others only allow the title to those produced by the multiplication of the climacterical space by an odd number, 3, 5, 7, 9, &c. Others observe every ninth year as a climacterick.