Five traditions, one sky.

• 2nd century BCE – 6th century CE

  Hellenistic

  Alexandria, and the Greek-speaking Mediterranean

  Reads a chart as a shape: which planets can see each other, which are awake by day or by night, which arrived in a place that welcomes them. Concrete, fatalistic in register, and far more interested in the condition of a planet than in its symbolism.

  4 authors

• 8th – 11th century

  Perso-Arabic

  Baghdad, Balkh, Khwārazm

  Inherited the Greek and Persian material and systematised it — degrees of dignity scored, aspects weighed by applying and separating, every judgement built up from parts that can be named. The most procedural of the five.

  3 authors

• 12th – 15th century

  Medieval Latin

  Toledo, Bologna, Paris

  The Arabic corpus translated into Latin and taught in universities. Rule-bound, argumentative, and attentive to exactly how strong a testimony is before it is allowed to decide anything.

  1 author

• 16th – 17th century

  Renaissance & early modern

  Nuremberg, Paris, London

  Writes in the vernacular for working practitioners, with case material and an eye on what actually happened. The first tradition to argue in public about whether its own rules hold up.

  3 authors

• from the early centuries CE, continuously

  Jyotiṣa

  the Indian subcontinent

  The only one of the five never to break its transmission. Reads from a sidereal zodiac and organises time by period rather than by transit alone, so a transit is always read against the period it falls inside.

  3 authors

What they called the places

The twelve divisions are the same in all five. The names are not, and a name is an argument — the Greek second place is the Gate of Hades and the Indian second is the house of wealth, describing the same arc of sky.

• Place 1

  you, and the body you carry around

  temperament, constitution, the first impression, how you start things

  Hellenistic

  the Helm

  Jyotiṣa

  tanu bhāva — the body

• Place 2

  what you hold in your own hands

  money you earn yourself, possessions, what you eat, the voice you speak with

  Hellenistic

  the Gate of Hades

  Jyotiṣa

  dhana bhāva — wealth

  The Hellenistic name is bleak and the Indian one is not, and neither is a mistranslation: the Greek material treats the second as a place a planet cannot see the rising sign from, and the Indian material treats it as accumulated wealth and family. Same twelve degrees of arc, two different questions asked of them.

• Place 3

  the near distance

  siblings, neighbours, short journeys, letters and messages, the hands and the nerve

  Hellenistic

  the Goddess

  Jyotiṣa

  sahaja bhāva — the born-alongside

• Place 4

  the ground under you

  home, land, the parent who made the house what it was, what you inherit, where you end up

  Hellenistic

  the Subterranean

  Jyotiṣa

  sukha bhāva — ease

• Place 5

  what comes out of you

  children, creative work, play, romance, speculation, and what you happen to be lucky at

  Hellenistic

  Good Fortune

  Jyotiṣa

  putra bhāva — offspring

• Place 6

  the grind, and what wears you down

  daily work, routine, the people who work for you, animals, obligations you did not choose, the frictions you manage rather than resolve

  Hellenistic

  Bad Fortune

  Jyotiṣa

  ripu bhāva — the adversary

  Every tradition also reads the sixth for the body’s complaints, and a great deal of classical medical astrology is built here. Jade does not apply any of it to a person’s chart — the history is in the Learn section, where it belongs, and never attached to yours.

• Place 7

  whoever is across the table

  marriage and partnership, business partners, contracts, and open opponents — the ones who declare themselves

  Hellenistic

  the Setting

  Jyotiṣa

  kalatra bhāva — the spouse

• Place 8

  what you hold jointly and cannot settle alone

  other people’s money, debt, inheritance, taxes, intimacy, and anything that changes you without asking

  Hellenistic

  the Idle Place

  Jyotiṣa

  āyur bhāva — the span

  The Greek name means the place the rising sign cannot see, and the Indian name means duration. Both classical traditions read the eighth for the end of life; Jade does not, and never will. What survives that refusal is the useful half — the eighth is where you are entangled with somebody else’s resources and somebody else’s timing.

• Place 9

  the long view

  travel that changes you, teachers, law and doctrine, publishing, and whatever you take on faith

  Hellenistic

  the God

  Jyotiṣa

  dharma bhāva — the way

• Place 10

  what you are known for

  work in public, reputation, rank, the parent who set the standard, and the thing people name when they name you

  Hellenistic

  the Midheaven

  Jyotiṣa

  karma bhāva — action

• Place 11

  the room you get let into

  friends and allies, networks, the payoff from what you built, hopes held long enough to count as plans

  Hellenistic

  Good Spirit

  Jyotiṣa

  lābha bhāva — gain

• Place 12

  what happens away from witnesses

  solitude, sleep and dreams, what you spend without seeing it, institutions, and the parts of yourself you keep offstage

  Hellenistic

  Bad Spirit

  Jyotiṣa

  vyaya bhāva — expenditure