Chapter XVII. Signs commanding and obeying

Any two signs configurated with each other at an equal distance from the same, or from either equinoctial point, are termed commanding and obeying, because the ascensional and descensional times of the one are equal to those of the

other, and both describe equal parallels. The signs in the summer semicircle are commanding ; those in the winter semicircle, obeying: for, when the Sun

is present in the former, he makes the day longer than the

night ; and, when in the latter, he produces the contrary

Signs beholding each other, and of equal Power.

Any two signs, equally distant fram either tropical sign, are equal to each other in power; because the Sun, when present in one, makes day and night, and the divisions of

time, respectively equal in duration to those which he produces when present in the other, Such signs are also said to behold each other, as well for the foregoing reasons, as because each of them rises from one and the same part af the horizon, and sets in one and the same part*.

Whalley quotes the opinion of Placidus, which he saysis farther confirmed by the 12th Chapter of the Sd Book of this very treatise, where it is stated that the ascendant and the eleventh house are in sextile te each other; the ascendant and the mid-heaven in quartile ; the ascendant and the ninth house im trine; and the ascendant and the eecidenta! angie in opposition ; all which certainly seems to be applieabie to mundane aspects in partioular.

* Whalley has a very lengthy note upon this and the preceding chapter, to shew that Ptolemy here speaks of zodiacal parallels, or parallejs of declination, and to point oyt the necessity of observing a planet’s latitude, in order to ascertain its true parallels. It