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Nativity of Constantine VII - Porphyrogenitus

Updated: Jan 11, 2023


Levente Lazlo translated a medieval period text which had the nativity of the emperor Constantine VII. This was a very interesting period in history and I was curious to look at the chart. However, when I searched on the internet about Constantine VII, there seemed to be some ambiguity with his birth date. I reached out to Anthony Louis and he directed me to alternate sources and one of them was from the Turkish encyclopedia (Britannica) which is most likely an accurate source. Wikipedia gives a birth date of May 17/18, 905 but Pingree asserted September 03, 905 based on the chart calculations which Levente Lazlo has followed. There is every chance that this chart is not that of the emperor Constantine VII but with what we have now, Pingree’s assertion and Laszlo’s conclusion seems plausible and there is no strong ground to contest whatever Pingree or Lazlo worked with in their translation works.



Chart calculations as per the translation

The nativity of ConstantineVII Porphyrogenitus, Supplements to Greek Horoscopes,

Part 1, Edited and translated by Levente László–HOROI Project (http://horoiproject.com)version1 (6June2020)


The translation makes it very clear about the Porphyry house divisions but the zodiac seems to be unclear. It looked sidereal to me but I cannot be conclusive although it appears like the astrologer has used the sidereal zodiac. I recalculated the chart in Janus and I looked to have the AC at the exact degree which also keeps the Moon reasonably close to what was given in Levente’s calculation and the translation. We see the Moon in 23° and 24° (chart images). I noticed that the tropical chart puts the Moon in Libra but Lazlo notes that the Moon was in 25°46’ or 25°49’ of Virgo. Only sidereal calculation puts the Moon in Virgo.


I had to adjust the time from 09:17 hours to 07:57 hours to get the AC at 5 degrees of Libra as per today's calculations. I also posted a chart with the time mentioned in the translation but I used the 7:57 chart for analysis.




On the Quality of his death

Levente Laszlo translation says that the destruction according to releasing would correspond to the last degree(s) of Scorpio as Saturn casts rays to its own terms by a square. A very striking factor here is not Saturn squaring Scorpio but Saturn aspecting its own terms. Across traditional texts, a planet aspecting its own term makes the configuration very powerful regardless of whether it is positive or negative.


In analyzing whether the native will have an unnatural or violent death, the astrologer opines that the native will have a calm natural death and it is pointed out that the reason is Jupiter. On the other hand, the astrologer also mentions that the death would be because of a prolonged illness because of Saturn’s involvement.


The fascinating point here is the mention of the term rulership of Jupiter (7th cusp in Jupiter’s terms) and Saturn over the cusps of two destructive places (the 4th and the 7th). Jupiter because it is the setting place which symbolically indicates setting/death and Saturn because it rules the underground (4th) which signifies general well-being. With Saturn holding lordship over it, a prolonged illness is associated with the period of death. Moreover, the text also says that the domicile master of the destructive sign, Scorpio is Mars which is an interesting parallel to the Indian tradition that considers the 2nd house as Maraka.


Distributions


The emperor died in November 959 CE. By distributing the AC, we see the time-lord is Jupiter. I tried to distribute a few other points and found that mostly, all the planets are either in Jupiter’s, Saturn’s or Mars’ or Mercury’s terms. While distributing the lot of spirit, I found that it was in Mars’ term and interestingly, I noticed that Mars aspects the lot of death in Virgo in the terms of Mars.


The translation is a long text and I just wanted to point out this interesting part about the importance to terms although it is there in other places of the text.


Let Peace Be!

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