Penelope Sitter joins the show to talk about the life and work of the 17th century astrologer Jean-Baptiste Morin de Villefranche, and her new translation of his work.
Morin was an astrologer from France who lived around the same time as William Lilly, and he wrote a massive tome on astrology titled Astrologia Gallica, which means French Astrology.
Penelope just translated book 21 of Morin’s work from Latin, which is the most important book of Astrologia Gallica, where he outlines his unique approach to chart synthesis.
Penelope became so excited about Morin's work after being exposed to it in the 2000's through the work of Robert Corre that she actually learned Latin specifically in order to translate Morin's text.
During the course of the episode we talk about Morin's life and work, and then we also get into his techniques and discuss what makes his approach interesting and different when compared to some of his contemporaries.
Along the way we talk about his birth chart and personality, and use his chart a few times to demonstrate his technical approach, which he does several times in his work.
It ended up being a fascinating discussion, introducing an important but often overlooked astrologer who was the last great court astrologer in France before the decline of astrology in the 17th century.
Penelope's Translation of Book 21 of Morin
You can get Penelope's translation of book 21 of Morin here:
Morin's Book 21: Of the Active Determination of the Celestial Bodies & the Passive Determination of Sublunary Things
This episode is available in audio and video versions below.
Timestamps
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:04 About Jean-Baptiste Morin
00:08:32 Astrologia Gallica volumes
00:15:00 Translations of Astrologia Gallica
00:18:51 Penelope Sitter's background
00:31:45 Why Morin has been difficult to understand
00:35:38 Morin's natal chart
00:41:50 Morin's personality
00:47:59 Triplicity rulers
00:49:20 Morin's significations of the houses
00:55:38 Morin's family
00:57:37 Significations of Sun and Moon
00:58:41 Zoltan Mason
01:00:49 Reestablishing of lineages
01:03:17 Rejection of general significators in book 21
01:10:11 Morin's use of specialized terminology
01:12:27 Planet begins the action and dispositor takes over
01:16:39 Particular significators and local determinations
01:20:51 Essential and accidental meanings of houses
01:23:23 Angular vs. intermediate houses
01:24:58 Chapter on houses
01:31:30 Significators for parents
01:31:58 Jupiter and Mercury significators
01:33:49 Best steps to follow for delineations
01:39:25 Theory of astrological signification
01:49:50 Influence of planets on preceding house
01:57:07 Gustavus Adolphus' natal chart
02:00:14 House distortion
02:02:50 Blending of whole sign and quadrant houses
02:06:30 Cabala of the houses
02:11:57 4 traditional human aims
02:18:23 Rulers of the houses
02:25:21 Influence of Aristotle
02:30:20 Derived houses
02:32:21 Synastry
02:34:10 Timing techniques
02:37:04 Fate and divine will
02:39:34 Penelope's book and projects
02:44:35 Closing credits
Watch the Video Version of This Episode
Watch the video version of this episode on Morin on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Ad6dQbmEo
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Transcript
A full transcript of this episode is available: Episode 449 transcript
Listen to the Audio Version of This Episode
Listen to the audio version of this episode or download it as an MP3: