UmbrielAstrology

Faces, Chariots, and other similar Attributes of the Planets

Faces, chariots and thrones: the smaller honours a planet can hold.

Ptolemy, about 150 AD, in J. M. Ashmand's English of 1822. A 1-minute read · pages 54 to 55 · free, every word

[p. 54] The familiarities existing between the planets and the signs are such as have been already particularized.

There are also, however, further peculiarities ascribed to the planets. Each is said to be in its proper face, when the aspect it holds to the Sun, or Moon, is similar to that which its own house bears to their houses: for example, Venus is in her proper face when making a sextile aspect to either luminary, provided she be occidental to the Sun, but oriental to the Moon, agreeably to the primary arrangement of her houses†.

Each planet is also said to be in its proper chariot, or throne, or otherwise triumphantly situated, when it holds familiarity with the place which it actually occupies by two, or more, of the prescribed modes of connection: for when it is so circumstanced, its influence and energy are specially augmented by the familiarity it thus holds with the sign which encompasses it, and which is similar in influence and co-operates with it.

[p. 55] Lastly, each planet, (although it may possess no familiarity with the sign encompassing it) is said to rejoice, when any connection subsists between itself and other stars of the same condition; as, notwithstanding the distance between them, a certain sympathy and communication of influence is derived from their mutual resemblance. In the same manner, again, when a planet occupies a place adverse and dissimilar in condition to itself, much of its influence is dissipated and lost; in consequence of the interposition and admixture of the other different influence, arising out of the dissimilar temperament of the sign by which it is encompassed.

The notes

† Vide Chapter xx. It of course follows that Saturn is in his proper face when he is five signs, or in quintile, after the Sun or before the Moon; that Jupiter is so when in trine; Mars when in quartile; Venus when in sextile; and Mercury when only one sign, (or, in modern phrase, in semi-sextile,) after the Sun or before the Moon. (Ashmand’s note, 1822)

Old words on this page

oriental
rising before the Sun, in the morning sky.
occidental
setting after the Sun, in the evening sky.
sextile
two planets 60° apart. Lilly counted it friendly.
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The text is J. M. Ashmand's 1822 translation, checked word by word between two scans of the 1822 printing (Wellcome Library and Harvard). Pages are cited as the 1822 printing numbers them. The portrait is William Marshall’s engraving of Lilly from the front of the 1659 printing (Wellcome Library, public domain).

Updated 30 October 2026. Method: Umbriel's own astronomy engine computes every position stated on this site; how closely it matches NASA JPL Horizons is published on the accuracy page.