The Anatomy of Melancholy

Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of heroic love: bodily temperament, plentiful diet, idleness, place, climate, and so forth.

Of all the causes, the most remote are the stars. Ficino, chapter 19, says that those most prone to this burning lust are people who have Venus in Leo in their horoscope, when the Moon and Venus are in mutual aspect, or who have a temperament governed by Venus.

Plutarch interprets the story of Mars and Venus astrologically: “Those in whose birth charts Mars and Venus are in conjunction are commonly lustful; and if they are women, whores”—as Chaucer’s good Wife of Bath confessed:

I always followed my inclination, Under the influence of my birth constellation.

But of all the astrological aphorisms I have ever read, Cardan’s is the most memorable. However bitterly Marinus Mersenne, an impudent friar, and some others condemn him for it—as he himself anticipated—it seems to me frank, straightforward, plain and candid.

In his eighth birth chart, or example, he says this about himself: “Mars, Venus and Mercury in Mercury’s dignities will give me constant thoughts of sexual matters, so that I shall never have any rest.” And a little later: “Thoughts of sexual matters torment me continually; and the pleasure I was unable to fulfil in action, or was ashamed to act on when I could, I have counterfeited through constant thought.”

And elsewhere: “Because of the dominion of the Moon and Mercury, and the mingling of their rays, my intellect was profound but lustful, and I was given to shameful desire and obscenity.” So much for Cardan’s account of himself, “which he confesses about himself in order to benefit students of this discipline.”

For this Mersenne maligns him, although in effect he says no more than Gregory of Nazianzus long ago said to his pupil Chilo: “Women presented themselves to my sight, whose outstanding elegance and visible beauty put the integrity of my chastity to the test. I did indeed avoid the disgrace of fornication, but I stained the flower of virginal purity with the secret thoughts of my heart.”

But to the point. Those at whose birth Venus is in a masculine sign and in Saturn’s terms or in opposition to him are more inclined to sexual relations with males, and so forth. Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos contains many detailed aphorisms on these matters, undoubtedly confirmed by long practice and perfected through much experience, says his commentator Cardan.

Tommaso Campanella, in his Astrology, book 4, chapter 8, articles 4 and 5, amasses more aphorisms than most on the signs of lovesickness: anyone who wishes may consult them. Palm readers generally draw their conclusions from the girdle of Venus and the mount of Venus; for their judgements, consult Taisnier, Johann von Indagine, Goclenius and the others, if you like.