All signs, between which there does not exist any familiarity in any of the modes above specified, are inconjunct and separated.
For instance, all signs are inconjunct which are neither commanding nor obeying, and not beholding each other nor of equal power, as well as all signs which contain between them the space of one sign only, or the space of five signs, and which do not at all share in any of the four prescribed configurations: viz. the opposition, the trine, the quartile, and the sextile. All parts which are distant from each other in the space of one sign only are considered inconjunct, because they are averted, as it were, from each other; and because, although the said space between them may extend into two signs, the whole only contains an angle equal to that of one sign: all parts distant from each other in the space of five signs are also considered inconjunct, because they divide the whole circle into unequal parts; whereas the spaces contained in the configurations above mentioned, viz. the opposition, trine, quartile, and sextile, produce aliquot divisions.[47]
CHAPTER XX
HOUSES OF THE PLANETS
Those stars which are denominated planetary orbs have particular familiarity with certain places in the zodiac, by means of parts designated as their houses, and also by their triplicities, exaltations, terms, and so forth.
The nature of their familiarity by houses is as follows:
Cancer and Leo are the most northerly of all the twelve signs; they approach nearer than the other signs to the zenith of this part of the earth, and thereby cause warmth and heat: they are consequently appropriated as houses for the two principal and greater luminaries; Leo for the Sun, as being masculine; and Cancer for the Moon, as being feminine. It has hence resulted, that the semicircle from Leo to Capricorn has been ordained solar, and the semicircle from Aquarius to Cancer, lunar; in order that each planet might occupy one sign in each semicircle, and thus have one of its houses configurated with the Sun and the other with the Moon, conformably to the motions of its own sphere, and the peculiar properties of its nature.
Saturn, therefore, since he is cold and inimical to heat, moving also in a superior orbit most remote from the luminaries, occupies the signs opposite to Cancer and Leo: these are Aquarius and Capricorn; and they are assigned to him in consideration of their cold and wintry nature; and because the configuration by opposition does not co-operate towards the production of good.[48]
Jupiter has a favourable temperament, and is situated beneath the sphere of Saturn; he therefore occupies the next two signs, Sagittarius and Pisces. These signs are airy and fruitful, in consequence of their trinal distance from the houses of the luminaries, which distance harmonises with the operation of good.
Mars is dry in nature, and beneath the sphere of Jupiter: he takes the next two signs, of a nature similar to his own, viz. Aries and Scorpio, whose relative distances from the houses of the luminaries are injurious and discordant.
Venus, possessing a favourable temperament, and placed beneath the sphere of Mars, takes the next two signs, Taurus and Libra. These are of a fruitful nature, and preserve harmony by the sextile distance; and this planet is never more than two signs distant from the Sun.