Contrariety

There is accidental contrariety among the heavenly bodies through A B C D E F G which hold contrariety so that they can cause and dispose oppositions in things below, without which no natural generation or decay, nor any natural operation can proceed. And this contrariety is not intrinsic to the heavenly bodies, for if it were, they would be corruptible: this is rather an external opposition, for instance like a blacksmith whose art is not of his own essence or substance as he forges nails by the work he does externally to his own essential nature.

Aries and Mars oppose Gemini and Jupiter and they reach the subject of their opposition below through A B because A B are opposed through dryness and moisture as well as through moving, unmoving, masculine and feminine qualities. However, this opposition is tempered by the concordance also existing in its subject where A B are concordant in heat and thus the subject of contrariety and concordance is disposed for better of for worse by Aries, Jupiter, Gemini and Mars acting as the upper causes of concordance and contrariety below.

Through E, Aries and Mars oppose Gemini and Jupiter which in turn oppose them with G, because as Aries and Mars are rising, they cause fortune as they rise in the decan in which they have more goodness, greatness, power, virtue, instinct and appetite than in F G; and likewise with Gemini and Jupiter. And therefore E in Aries and Mars takes over the functions that would otherwise be exercised by E of Gemini and Jupiter. And E in Gemini and Jupiter destroys G in Aries and Mars as much as possible, as it does not have as much power as E of Gemini and Jupiter. But the destruction cannot be complete because the said concordance between A and B preserves whatever can be preserved and so does F, since it participates in both E and G as a medium between them.

Oppositions above cause oppositions below as combinations of planets and signs determine the fortunes of men (as God allows them to)  for better or for worse, riches or poverty, health and illness, joy and sorrow. Likewise, combinations of planets and signs determine that some people are big, others small, some are black and some are white and F sometimes endows men with neutral qualities or constitutions, and likewise with other things like these.

Opposition above disposes some men to oppose others, to promote wars and many other evils, and some are angry at others and the longer their anger lasts, the more evil and contrariety it produces, all this happens on account of upper duration, appetite and magnitude causing their likenesses below; and thus anger below mounts under the influence of opposition above, like the strength of mustard that grows as the mustard is more finely ground.

Contrariety above is the chief cause of malformation at birth, as it is the chief cause of the bitterness tasted in a sweet apple, it is also the source of illnesses and crooked mirrors and other things like these.

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