The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

Guide to the Historical Signifer

The 1650 Signifer is a square arrangement of zodiac signs and planetary rulers, framed by directional and seasonal labels. The upper side reads ‘Northerne Signes. Summer’; the right reads ‘Easterne Signes. Spring’; the bottom reads ‘Southerne Signes. Winter’; and the left reads ‘Westerne Signes. Autumn.’ These are the historical diagram’s orientation labels, not a modern astronomical map.

Its paired houses belong to the planets of the traditional scheme: Saturn has Capricorn and Aquarius; Jupiter Sagittarius and Pisces; Mars Scorpio and Aries; Venus Libra and Taurus; Mercury Virgo and Gemini; the Moon has Cancer and the Sun Leo. The later interpretation begins the philosophical year in Capricorn, moves through blackening, whitening and the solar work, and concludes under Jupiter. The sequence is that of the reception document and must not be mistaken for an independently established key to every canon.

The original 1623 Arcanum has printer’s ornament but no corresponding Signifer diagram in the complete body examined. This reproduced 1650 image is placed with the later interpretation, where its historical source and purpose remain visible.