PROB. I.
To Erect a Figure of the 12 Houses of Heaven.
BEfore you erect a Figure of the 12 Houses of Heaven it will be requisite you place the Planets, ☊, and ☋, according to their Longitude and Latitude upon the Globe, as was directed in Prob. 55. of the second Book: for then, as you divide the Houses of your Figure by the Circle of Position, you may by inspection behold in what Houses the Planets are scituated, and also see what fixed Stars they are applying to, or separating from. But to the matter.
There is disagreement between the Ancient and Modern A∣strologers, about erecting a Figure of Heaven. Mr Palmer in his Book of Spherical Problemes Chap. 48. mentions four seve∣ral waies, and the Authors that used them; whereof one of them is called the Rational way used by R••giomontanus; and now gene∣rally practised by all the Astrologers of this Age. This way the face of Heaven is divided into twelve parts, which are called the twelve Houses of Heaven numbered from the Ascendent or angle at East downwards, with 1, 2, 3, &c, As in the following Figure.
In a Direct Sphear, viz. under the Equator these twelve Houses are twelve equal parts: but in an Oblique Sphear they are unequal parts, and that more or less according to the quanti∣ty of the Sphears obliquity.
These twelve Houses are divided by 12. Semi-Circles of Po∣sition; which are Semi-Circles passing from the two intersections of the Horizon and Meridian through any Star, degree, or point in the Heavens.
Four of these Houses are named Cardinals. The first and most eminent of these Cardinals is the first House, or the Angle of East, called the Ascendent; where the Semi-Circle of P••sition is the same with the Eastern Semi-Circle of the Horizon. The se∣cond Cardinal is the tenth House, or the Angle of South; called Medium Caeli, or Culmen Caeli; where the Semi-Circle of Position is the same with the Semi-Circle of the Meridian above the Horizon. The third Cardinal is the seventh House, or the An∣gle of West; called the Descende••••; where the Semi-Circle of Position is the same with the Western Semi-Circle of the Hori∣zon.