Principal Question Six of Chapter Nine
Whether astrologers can judge truly concerning the length and brevity of the lives of those born from inspection of the ylech and alcocoden in the degrees of the Zodiac
It is asked whether astrologers, from inspection of the ylech and alcocoden—that is, from the places of the planets or the degrees of the Zodiac—can judge truly concerning the length and brevity of the lives of those born.
To this the astrologers answer affirmatively, saying that the stars are causes of living longer, while attempting to measure the life of each human being through the disposition of the planets in the figure of heaven at the hour of the nativity of the given person.
They attempt to demonstrate it in this manner.
For they establish one of the planets or degrees of the Zodiac, which they call the ylech in the Arabic language and which they choose according to a certain method described by Ptolemy Alcabitius, Haly Abenragel in Book IV, chapter 3 of his work, and other authorities on astrology.
Then, once the ylech has been chosen, they choose for the person born the alcocoden, that is, the giver of years. This is that planet which has the greater strength and dignity in the degree of the ylech.
And from these two paths they affirm or presume that they can know how many days or years one born at such an hour ought to survive.
The first path consists in considering how many years, or how much time, the alcocoden gives to the person born.
Hence three different quantities of years are attributed to each planet—namely, greater, middle, and lesser years—as is evident from Alcabitius and Guido Bonatti of Forlì.
Therefore, as they say, if the alcocoden is in the angles and is fortunate and strong, it gives its greater years to the person born. If it is in the succedent houses and is less strong or well disposed, it gives its middle years to the person born. But if it is in the cadent houses, it gives its lesser years to the person born, which they call frindarii.
Or, if any of the beneficent planets—such as Jupiter, Venus, and the Sun—regards the alcocoden by a trine or sextile aspect, it will add its own lesser years to it.
But if any of the malevolent planets, such as Saturn and Mars, regards the same alcocoden with a square or opposite radiation, it will diminish it by its own lesser years, as is evident in Book IV of Haly, chapter 6.
The second path by which those astrologers attempt to learn the quantity of the life of the person born consists in considering after how many years the ylech will come by direction to the place of a killing planet, such as Mars or Saturn, or to the dragon’s tail. That planet is called the killer of life. Therefore, the farther it is distant from the degree of the ylech, the longer the person will live.
It will indeed be distant by equinoctial degrees discovered through a certain difficult calculation, which is called a direction, or athazir in Arabic. Each of these degrees is customarily taken to give one year. This calculation is set forth in Book IV of Haly, chapter 7; it is also described by Alcabitius and in other books of astrologers.
But to the contrary: these two paths, or modes, of determining the years of those born and their progress toward death from a higher root are overturned by the causes adduced by Lord Henry upon Genesis and by Lord Nicholas of Lyra upon Genesis, chapter 5, for the longevity of the ancients from a lower root.
Moreover, although it can be established by many arguments of theologians that those modes are frivolous and superstitious, and were introduced of old not through experimental observation but through the suggestion of the devil, nevertheless, in this matter the same point is especially established from the ineffable truth of divine history.
For the divine histories assert that human beings at one time lived more than nine hundred years, at another time eight hundred, and at another seven hundred, as is evident from the course of the Book of Genesis.
But it is established from the traditions of astrological superstition that no planet constituted as the alcocoden in any figure of heaven can give so many years of life to those born.
The reason is that the greater years of no planet extend beyond one hundred and twenty years. If the lesser years of six planets were added to these by reason of beneficent aspects—something which nevertheless can scarcely or never happen in heaven—the result would be two hundred and fifty years, or thereabouts. No more than these can be given from heaven to any person born on the part of the alcocoden.
And again, as regards the second mode, which, as evidence of its superstition, frequently conflicts with the first mode: it is certain that the killing planet cannot be distant from the ylech at the hour of the nativity by three hundred and sixty degrees. Rather, it must necessarily be distant from the ylech by less than this. Consequently, the extent of a human life from that root cannot exceed three hundred and sixty years, or thereabouts.
They might, indeed, say that no beneficent aspect of the fortunate planets can free the person born from the killer. But this does not avail: first, because in antiquity the common period of human life was the number of years prescribed above; second, because the years of the alcocoden cannot correspond to the degrees of direction.
Therefore, those paths appear false and superstitious from the aforesaid truth of Scripture, by which it is established that many lived for a very long time beyond the years which heaven, even doubling its grant through the two paths, can give to those born.
Therefore, let some superstitious person say what figures of heaven those who lived nine hundred or eight hundred years possessed, and he will be able to discover nothing except that his practice is vain and superstitious in every respect.
Again, let some such person say why, in four thousand years or thereabouts, no one has been born, nor will anyone ever be born, under any figure of heaven similar to the figures of the nativities of the ancients who lived for so many years.
I say likewise with respect to those things which concern length of life, and none of the astronomers will be able to say anything on this subject which possesses any appearance of truth among true philosophers.
These things are Henry of Hesse’s upon Genesis.