Benefics and Malefics
The kind planets and the hard ones, and why, in one breath.
[p. 21] Of the four temperaments or qualities above mentioned, two are nutritive and prolific, viz. heat and moisture; by these all matter coalesces and is nourished: the other two are noxious and destructive, viz. dryness and cold; by these all matter is decayed and dissipated.
Therefore, two of the planets, on account of their temperate quality, and because heat and moisture are predominant in them, are considered by the antients as benefic, or causers of good: these are Jupiter and Venus. And the Moon also is so considered for the same reasons.
But Saturn and Mars are esteemed of a contrary nature, and malefic, or causers of evil:—the first from his excess of cold, the other from his excess of dryness.
The Sun and Mercury are deemed of common influence, and productive either of good or evil in unison with whatever planets they may be connected with.
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- viz
- short for videlicet, Latin for "namely".
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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).