What monstrous signs indicate.

Many people are born deformed by monstrous signs. One has an extra finger or toe, another lacks one. In some, all the digits grow together in the mother’s womb. Another brings from the womb a twisted foot, arm or neck; another a dislocated back or hump. So too are born hermaphrodites or androgynes, that is, people endowed with both male and female genitals, or deprived of both. I have observed many monstrous signs of this kind in males and females; all are to be considered monstrous signs of hidden evil ascendants. Hence the familiar proverb: “The more twisted, the more wicked; lame limbs, lame deeds.” For these are signs of vices, rarely indicating anything good.

As an executioner marks his children with infamous signs, so evil ascendants brand their offspring with supernatural malicious marks, so that they may more readily be guarded against. The example is that of criminals who display brands on the forehead or cheeks, or mutilated ears, fingers, hands, eyes or tongues.

Each of these infamous signs designates a particular vice. A brand burnt into a woman’s face, for example, or the cutting off of ears usually indicates theft. The cutting off of fingers marks dishonest gamblers; of a hand, breakers of the peace; the loss of two fingers, perjurers; the putting out of an eye, those who practise cunning and subtle crimes; and the cutting out of the tongue, blasphemers and slanderers. Likewise you can recognise those called Mamelukes, or renouncers of the Christian religion, by a cross branded on the soles of their feet, signifying that they have denied Christ their redeemer.

Monstrous signs from the imagination of a pregnant woman.

Leaving these matters and returning to the monstrous signs of evil ascendants, you should know that not all monstrous signs arise from the ascendant alone. They often also arise from the stars of the human mind, which continually, at every moment, rise and fall with phantasy, estimation or imagination, just as in the upper firmament. Thus from the fear or terror of pregnant women are born many monsters, or children marked in the womb with monstrous signs. Their chief cause is fear, terror and desire, which arouse imagination. When a pregnant woman begins to imagine, her heaven revolves with its own motion just like the upper firmament, the ascendants rising or setting at every moment. After the pattern of the greater firmament, the stars of the microcosm too are moved by imagination, until an impact occurs through which the stars impart the influence and impression of imagination to the pregnant woman, as when someone impresses a seal or stamps a coin. Hence these signs and birthmarks are called impressions of the lower stars. Many have tried to philosophise at length about them and judge people reliably from them, which nevertheless cannot be done. Yet they adhere to and are impressed upon offspring according to the frequency or violence with which the mother’s stars act upon the foetus, or because the mother’s desire is not satisfied. For if a mother desires a certain food and cannot obtain it, and the stars are, as it were, suffocated within themselves and die down, that desire accompanies the child throughout life, so that the child can never adequately satisfy it. The same applies to other matters, which we shall not investigate at greater length here.

On Astral Signs of Physiognomy in the Human Being.

The origin of physiognomy.

The signs of physiognomy derive their origin from the upper stars. This science of physiognomy was held in the highest esteem by our ancestors, especially by pagans, Tartars, Turks and other peoples among whom it is customary to sell people into slavery; nor has it entirely died out among Christians. Many errors, however, have crept in with it, unnoticed hitherto, since every fool and ignorant person has assumed the licence to judge everyone indiscriminately. It is remarkable that those errors have never been detected from people’s works, deeds and powers.

Why the stars compel some people and not others.

If someone argues against us here that the signs of physiognomy come from the stars, but the stars have no power to force, compel or incite anyone, he does not speak badly. Yet one distinction must especially be observed: the stars compel one person and do not compel another. We must therefore know who can rule and restrain the stars and who is governed by them. Observe that a wise person can rule the stars and is not subject to them. The stars are subject to the wise and are compelled to obey them, rather than the wise obeying the stars. But the stars force, compel and constrain the animal person to follow where they lead, just as a thief follows the gallows, a robber the wheel, a fisherman fish, a fowler birds and a hunter beasts. What else causes this except that such a person neither knows nor employs himself or his powers, nor considers that he is the lesser world and contains within himself the whole firmament with all its powers?

The human being as lord of all creatures.