Masculine and Feminine
Which planets are masculine and which feminine, by the old reckoning of hot and moist.
[p. 21] There are two primary sexes, male and female; and the female sex partakes chiefly of moisture. The Moon and Venus are therefore said to be feminine, since their qualities are principally moist.
[p. 22] The Sun, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are called masculine. Mercury is common to both genders, because at certain times he produces dryness, and at others moisture, and performs each in an equal ratio.
The stars, however, are also said to be masculine and feminine, by their positions with regard to the Sun. While they are matutine and preceding the Sun, they are masculine; when vespertine and following the Sun, they become feminine*.
And they are further regulated in this respect by their positions with regard to the horizon. From the ascendant to the mid-heaven, or from the angle of the west to the lower heaven, they are considered to be masculine, being then oriental: and in the other two quadrants, feminine, being then occidental.
The notes
* “Astronomers call the planets matutine, when, being oriental from the Sun, they are above the earth when he rises; and vespertine, when they set after him.”—Moxon’s Mathematical Dictionary. (a note, p. 22)
Old words on this page
- oriental
- rising before the Sun, in the morning sky.
- occidental
- setting after the Sun, in the evening sky.
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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).