The human being can withdraw from and submit to the stars.

For this reason he is called an animal and foolish person, a slave to foul servitude and all earthly things, although in Paradise he received from God the privilege of ruling and commanding all other creatures rather than obeying them. God therefore created him last, after all the others. Through the Fall the human being subsequently lost this right. Yet human wisdom itself has not become servile, nor has the wise person surrendered his freedom. The stars must therefore follow and obey him, rather than he the stars. Even if he is a son of Saturn and Saturn is his ascendant, he can withdraw himself and overcome Saturn so as to become an offspring of the Sun, submitting himself to another planet and making himself its son. Something much the same happens to a miner who has hired out his labour for a time to the owner of mines and performed his task properly at the risk of his life, but at last reasons with himself: “What will become of you if you spend your whole life underground and, besides enduring constant labour, put your body and life at risk? Once I obtain my master’s leave, I shall seek another employer, where life flows pleasantly, food and drink abound, clothes shine, there is no work and much pay, and no mountain threatens to crush me.” By this means he can make himself his own master, whereas otherwise he would have remained a servant and wage labourer throughout life, wasting away in hard work and scant nourishment.

The wise learn from another’s loss, not their own.

As you have already understood, a wise person can rule the stars, withdraw from an evil planet and submit to a better one, pass from servitude to freedom and escape the prison of an evil planet. So too the animal person who is a child of the Sun, Jupiter, Venus or Mercury can withdraw from a kindly planet and submit to Saturn or Mars. He resembles someone who runs away from a religious community and, unable to bear a comfortable life, becomes a soldier or some other worthless fellow, obliged thereafter to spend his whole life in pain and hardship. The same applies to a rich man who, driven by frivolity, wickedly squanders and consumes his goods in gambling, feasting and whoring, which he pursues until everything is swallowed up. At last he is needy, miserably struggling with infamous poverty, and deservedly becomes everyone’s laughingstock and object of contempt. Even children in the streets say: “Look at that worthless good-for-nothing! He could have been his own master, but, despising mastery, preferred to be a servant, beggar and slave of slaves, and cannot now even aspire to mastery again.” An evil star or ascendant has driven him to this. Had he not been foolish and wicked, he would not have left the stars such certain mastery over him but would have resisted them completely. Even if he did not himself know how to resist the stars, he could have attended to the example of others and thought: “See how wealthy that man was, yet through frivolous and shameful pursuits he cast himself into utter poverty. That other man lived splendidly, receiving abundant food and generous pay without great bodily labour, yet could no longer tolerate those comforts. Now he must live meanly and poorly and drink water instead of wine, while his work increases daily and his wages diminish.”

How often, I ask, does a person in such a plight speak to himself like this: “What have I done? Into what ruin have I thrown myself by so shamefully wasting the property I gathered and acquired? Who will restore it? If I recover what was lost, I shall adopt a very different way of life. I shall learn wisdom through my own loss and make amends for wrongdoing with sounder judgement.” Yet you should know that nobody gains wisdom through his own loss. To learn through one’s own loss is foolish and animal. The wise learn from another’s example, not their own. Whoever has squandered his property once will squander it again; whoever has been ruined once will be ruined again; whoever has thrown the dice once throws them again; whoever has stolen once and escaped the gallows attempts theft a second time. He thinks: “My attempt succeeded once and twice; why should it not succeed a third and fourth time? If God once restored what was lost, he will restore it a second and third time. If I was not abandoned in my first misery, neither shall I be abandoned in the second or third.” All this is done by the animal person, the servant and slave of the stars, driven and pushed about by them like a reed in the waves. This is also why he must spend his life in misery and die in disgrace. Who, then, would endure that foul servitude and not disentangle himself from so squalid a prison? Anyone can tear himself out and become free by his own wisdom, aided by his star. Consider it this way. A fowler relying on his own prudence and overcoming another star with the aid of his own need not pursue birds: they follow him, flying to unfamiliar places even against their nature. So fish swim of their own accord to the fisherman who attends to the wisdom God has given him, even allowing themselves to be caught by hand. A hunter employing his wisdom compels beasts by his star so that he need not pursue them; they pursue him, even without nature’s bidding or impulse. So too with other living creatures.

The stars are of two kinds.

The purpose of the stars is to serve the human being, not to command.

To understand these matters, know that the stars are twofold: earthly and heavenly, the former belonging to folly and the latter to wisdom. As there are two worlds, greater and lesser, and the greater rules the lesser, so the heavenly star governs and overcomes the star of the microcosm. God did not create the planets and the other stars of heaven so that they should rule the human being, but so that, like the other creatures, they should obey and serve him. Although the upper stars give inclination and mark the human being and other earthly bodies with natural signs according to their mode of generation, this is no power or dominion, but only a predestined commission and office, so that nothing may remain hidden or concealed and the inward force and power may be disclosed through outward signs.

Signs are of two kinds.

What physiognomic signs are.

Returning to our purpose concerning human physiognomic signs, know that they are twofold, similar in outward appearance but different in powers and effect. Some come from the upper stars of heaven, others from the lower stars of the microcosm. Whatever the upper star marks according to generation up to middle age is a predestined sign, possessing its own particular powers, for it testifies to the person’s nature and condition. Whatever the lower star of the microcosm marks from generation has its origin in father and mother, whenever the mother by imagination, desire, fear or terror, through contact, has affected the body of her offspring with supernatural signs called maternal or uterine marks. We have discussed these already and can rightly avoid the labour of repetition. Our purpose is only to teach physiognomic signs, presenting the predestined signs of the upper star alone. By these we mean those human signs which neither father nor mother bore in the same form on their own body: black, grey-blue, small or large eyes; a long, curved or pointed nose; dimples in the cheeks; a raised jaw; a snub or broad nose; slender or large ears; a long neck; an elongated face; a wide, stretched mouth; thick, fine, abundant or dense, sparse, black, blond or red hair. If one or more of these signs appears in a person, know that they are not without their indications. You must, however, consider them according to the science of physiognomy and possess sure skill in the art of signs, through which you can know the inward person from outward signs.

What black eyes signify.