the-astrology-book

Ficino, Marsilio
Sutton, Komilla. The Essentials of Vedic Astrology. Bournemouth, UK: Wessex Astrologer, 1999.
Tester, Jim. A History of Western Astrology. New York: Ballantine, 1987.
FERAL
Feral is a term used to refer to a wild animal. “Feral signs” is an older designation, similar
to the term bestial signs. In traditional astrology, the Moon was also sometimes
said to be feral when it was void of course.
FERONIA
Feronia, asteroid 72 (the 72nd asteroid to be discovered, on May 29, 1861), is approximately
96 kilometers in diameter and has an orbital period of 3.4 years. It was named
after the Roman goddess of freed slaves (the naming came at the beginning of the
American Civil War), who was also the goddess of groves, woods, and orchards. Her
shrine on Mount Soracte in Etruria was the scene of an annual fire-walking ritual. In a
natal chart, the asteroid’s location by sign and house may indicate where one feels free
from social bonds or the bondage of the past. A native with a prominent natal Feronia
also feels an attraction for sylvan (related to the woods) environments.
Sources:
Kowal, Charles T. Asteroids: Their Nature and Utilization. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Ellis
Horwood Limited, 1988.
Room, Adrian. Dictionary of Astronomical Names. London: Routledge, 1988.
Schwartz, Jacob. Asteroid Name Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.
FICINO, MARSILIO
The Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) is chiefly remembered for
his revival of Platonic philosophy into the Christian West, but has been generally less
recognized for his radical revisioning of the very premises of traditional astrology. This
revisioning, far from being on the periphery of his philosophical project, partook of its
very essence.
In 1477 Ficino wrote, but did not publish, Disputatio contra iudicium astrologorum,
a vehement attack on the practices of astrologers. Anyone reading this text
would assume that the author found the foundations of traditional astrology fit for
demolition by the power of reason and the authority of God’s providence. “All this is
poetic metaphor,” exclaimed Ficino, surveying the absurdity of astrological terminology,
“not reason or knowledge.” Astrologers, he asserted, use “silly similitudes,” fabricate
rules—often inconsistently—attribute imaginary powers to the stars, and claim to
predict concrete events. But how, asked Ficino, can they know what will happen in
ten years’ time, when they do not know what they themselves will be doing today
Yet in the following year Ficino himself wrote to Pope Sixtus IV, as one “equally
devoted to both prophecy and astrology,” predicting various misfortunes over the
coming two years from specific astrological configurations (Letters). Indeed, there is
hardly a single letter among his vast correspondence in which he does not refer to the
THE ASTROLOGY BOOK
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