Morin’s Book 21: Of the Active Determination of the Celestial Bodies & the Passive Determination of Sublunary Things

I had heard of Morin. As an astrologer in New York, I knew of Zoltan Mason, who had taught astrology there in the middle of the 20th century, and I later learned that Mason based his teachings on Morin. I had also heard, decades ago, that some astrologers were wishing and hoping for a translation of Morin’s work. That translation is now available thanks to the assiduous work of Penelope Sitter. And quite a job it must have been! Sitter gives us all we need to understand this challenging work. As the title alone suggests, Morin wrote in both long and involved sentences, and in the style of his day, which is anything but clear and concise. To top it off, he wrote in Latin rather than French.
Here’s an example of one of Morin’s sentences: “On the other hand, it is better for the Horoscope to be in the trine of Jupiter than for Jupiter to be the ruler of the Horoscope, which yet is understood with other things being equal; for if Jupiter, the ruler of the Horoscope, is in the Midheaven well conditioned by celestial state, it is far better than his being the eighth badly conditioned and trine the Horoscope; and the reasoning is the same about the rest.”
I understand what this means, including the use of the term “Horoscope” where we would today use “ascendant”, but it certainly requires a little extra work. Thankfully, Sitter’s notes help the reader through the complexities of Morin’s language as well as his terminology.
There’s too much to this volume to summarize. The book begins with a philosophical discussion of why astrology works, but the bulk of it is about the how-to of astrology. Morin’s ideas about astrology and chart interpretation will largely seem familiar to many astrologers, although – as seen in the sentence above – he brings an additional layer of insight to the subjects he presents.
Given all that is in Book 21, I was left wondering what was in the prior volumes.
The book has an appendix of charts, a bibliography, and an index. These are appropriate additions to what is essentially a scholarly work. In his preface, Robert Corre tells us that prior translations (dating back to the 1970s) were incomplete and filled with paraphrases. Part of me would have been quite happy with a good paraphrase rather than the complex linguistic structure of this translation, yet at heart I appreciate the accuracy and authenticity that Sitter’s translation provides.
It’s a little simplistic to say that Morin’s work lies somewhere on the cusp between traditional and modern astrology, yet his system will not be unfamiliar to contemporary astrologers despite clearly being from a previous era. It is not an easy read, and requires effort on the part of the reader. The style is far from the conversational tone that many of us have come to expect in astrology books. Yet for those with an interest in the history of astrology as well as those who want to work with a comprehensive system, Book 21 is well worth the effort.

Armand Diaz  – NCGR Member Newsletter

Jean-Baptiste Morin de Villefranche (1583-1656) was a physician, mathematician, astronomer, and the most famous astrologer in 17th-century France. Book 21 is understood to be the most essential of his 26-volume Astrologia Gallica (“French Astrology”). It is the main source for his theory and method of horoscope interpretation.

Through various vicissitudes of history, the work was published posthumously in 1661, when astrology was in decline in the West – Morin’s work has not reached the level of attention of many others, including his near contemporary William Lilly. Penelope Sitter’s new translation makes Book 21 available for the first time in English. Several earlier translations have been incomplete, or paraphrases of Morin’s work. In the United States, Zoltan Mason (1906-2002) was a proponent of Morin’s method and published a translation of Book 21 as AstroSynthesis in 1974. (I have a great appreciation for Morin; I was an occasional student of Mason’s and had a consultation with him in 1980.)

Book 21 details Morin’s theory and method of horoscopic, i.e., natal chart interpretation. Sitter writes that in Morin’s model of cosmology, “divine will moves through the signs, planets and fixed stars in causal chains and networks to bring fate to earthly creatures. In this view, fate – from fatum, ‘that which is said; an utterance’ – is divine will spoken through the celestial bodies to be given form in the sublunary realm.” His method is essentially based on determining very particular significations for what the celestial bodies represent in the horoscope.

Morin’s Book 21, produced by Wessex, is impeccable: Sitter’s introduction places the work in context for readers to whom Morin may be a new discovery. There are extensive translator’s notes, Index of Persons, Subject Index, Bibliography, and Appendix of Charts (depicted in Circular format as per modern convention).

Readers will enjoy Jean-Baptiste Morin’s Astrology (https://youtu.be/l9Ad6dQbmEo?si=7w8AS7AvIvcSeXXC), Chris Brennan’s recent interview with Penelope Sitter on The Astrology Podcast.

Mary Plumb for The Mountain Astrologer

I first became aware of Morin when I was still new to astrology. I was drawn to an offer for an 8-week class entitled the ‘Morin Method of Astrology’. It promised to provide clear structure for chart interpretation which, at that stage of my development, I had not yet found. Morin was my introduction to a ‘process’.

Morin’s Book 21 has been touted as the ‘crown jewel’ from his Astrologia Gallica which was, as Robert M. Corre tells us in the Foreword, written during the seventeenth century and intended to ‘present astrology as a practical discipline based on a solid classical philosophical foundation.’ As Corre points out, the intention of the work was to help the astrologer think for themselves, necessitating an ‘unbiased and disciplined frame of mind.’ Hallelujah!

With this translation from the Latin text by Penelope Sitter, her hope was that ‘Morin’s voice comes through to give the sense that he is talking directly to the reader with a great desire to explain his meaning.’ In my view she has succeeded admirably! She states that from her perspective, Morin’s Book 21 ‘has a beauty that only lucid reasoning, stated in a direct and honest voice, can bring to human thought and argument.’ Music to the ears of a Capricorn Moon, and reflective of what I had hoped to gain more than a decade ago, without the benefit of this text.

Throughout the book Morin sets a clear and valuable example, questioning traditional authorities and relying on reason and experience hence, speaking and thinking for himself. Sitter suggests that Morin ‘wants to reach back to his idea of the earliest authority to restore astrological method to its origins. He wants to discover the true foundations of the method and the true reasons for them.’ Drawing those ancient beginnings into the current day is almost refreshing, devoid of extraneous references and colloquialisms which can often cloud the meaning of what one is attempting to learn.

The text itself is not a quick or easy read. However, as is often the case, if one takes the time to read, consider and absorb, it is rich with meaningful detail. At times, Morin’s perspective on basic astrological elements differs from the ancient Astrologers whom he claims, ‘went astray’. Something he strives to correct within the first three chapters. If one of Morin’s goals was to make the astrologer think for themselves, then I can safely say he does that. One cannot help but pause to consider his views in contrast to some of his contemporaries (like Kepler for example), while contemplating one’s own approach to delineation. The scope and nature of his philosophy becomes more prevalent in the remainder of Part I, evidenced by the title of each chapter which is phrased as a question.

In Part II, the text takes on a different tone and texture. It becomes more focused on specifics of chart interpretation. Chapter III goes into depth about planetary placements, when there are ‘several planets in any house,’ including a discussion on approaching a ‘stellium’ (multiple planets within a house). I found this particularly interesting, and I think others might find it as useful and helpful as I did. All parts of this section are equally fascinating, reminding me of the value in utilizing the basics.

Following the main text, ‘THE END OF THE TWENTY-FIRST BOOK’, there is an Appendix of Charts which leads with Morin’s own horoscope. A wonderful perspective from which to reflect upon his work. Morin’s Book 21 is an appropriate volume for serious students and interested practitioners of astrology. Not an easy read but, definitely worthwhile!  No doubt it was a painstaking task to translate such a text, and Penelope Sitter is to be commended for her careful and organized presentation of this material. The result is a highly readable volume allowing Morin’s work to be more widely accessible and undeniably useful.

Jayne Logan www.astrobookclub.com

Jean Baptiste Morin de Villefranche’s magnum opus, Astrologia Gallica, a 26-volume text (most volumes are chapter-length) was published in Latin, posthumously in 1661.  Astrology was dying out on the Continent, and by roughly 1700 would be put on life support throughout the 18th century.  Morin’s work, which he hoped would elevate astrology to a higher level with his reforms, gathered dust.

In the English-speaking world, we were introduced to Morin first in 1972 with the book “Cornerstones in Astrology,” an incomplete version of Book 21 by Swickert and Weiss.  This was followed by two translations of the same book in 1974.  One, “Astrosynthesis,” was commissioned by Hungarian Born New York City Astrologer Zoltan Mason and translated by Lucy Little from an abridged French Translation by French astrologer Henri Selva in 1897.  The other is a translation from the original Latin by Richard S. Baldwin.  For the longest time, many of us assumed Baldwin’s was a complete translation.  Not so.  The author of this new translation, Penelope Sitter, learned that Baldwin’s translation is, at least in part, a paraphrase.  She’s performed a huge favor for astrology students by tackling the original and producing this new, complete translation.

One of the problems with Baldwin’s work that Sitter discovered was that he inadvertently changed the meaning of Morin’s original intent in multiple places. In addition, Baldwin’s translation results in a density of language that is not present in Sitter’s translation.  Morin was a well-educated man.  He was not only an astrologer, but a mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, and physician. He wrote for an educated 17th-century audience.  This new translation makes Morin’s ideas clear for a 21^st-century audience, and it is a complete translation – not a paraphrase.

Examples:

Section 1, Chapter 3

Sitter translation, p. 17:  On account of which those celestial causes, so long universally esteemed, able to signify universally but not of Peter or John or of anything particularly, are hooted offstage.
Baldwin translation, p. 20:  And so, this horoscope is an example of how the universal significators are not able to refer to any specific situation or event since, considered by themselves only, their meanings and application remain too general.
Baldwin’s version removes Morin’s voice and substitutes a much less memorable statement with a much less interesting and personable voice. And Baldwin makes a statement here that is different from, though similar to in some ways, Morin’s statement that it purports to translate.

Sitter:

Moreover, the Planet that presides over the cusp is to be preferred in the governance of the significations of that house, yet another [ruler] is not to be neglected.

Baldwin:

However, the planet that rules the cusp takes precedence when evaluating the affairs of that house, but the other planet should by no means be neglected.

There is a footnote, in Baldwin after the words “co-rulers:”

“The co-rulers refer to a house which contains an intercepted sign.”

Nowhere in this short chapter are the words “intercepted sign” present. What Baldwin’s translation says is this:

“but the other planet should by no means be neglected.”

Which other planet? The planet that rules the intercepted sign? That’s not in the text.  The planet that rules the other sign in the house?  Probably.  This gives “co-rulership” to virtually every house in every quadrant system.  In turn, this offers powerful material with which we are better able to completely delineate a house.

Furthermore, “however,” means “on the other hand.”   “moreover” means “in addition.” That single word changes the meaning.
While there is plenty here for all astrologers, serious students of Morin will appreciate the frequent references to early volumes in Astrologia Gallica for more in-depth explanations.  Students who do not possess the earlier translated volumes can continue without a loss of understanding. The serious student will wish to own those earlier translations for study and reference.

Most of the volumes translated into English follow the same format.  The first section is primarily devoted to the theory or the philosophy behind the subject of the volume.  The second section is devoted to practice.   Many students will be eager to get to the practice part and skip to section II. That can be done, but there is value in grasping the theory.  All volumes feed on the volumes that came before.  This is what makes the frequent references to earlier volumes so valuable.  If we spend the time to refer to the previous volumes, assuming we need to, we’ll be mastering the technique under discussion.  Can we learn from the book without making it a fetish?  Absolutely. However, it’s always good to know that we can delve deeper if we wish to.

There’s more.  Sitter has helpfully reproduced charts in the back of the book that we can refer to or use the data to cast our own and have handy for study. End notes are copious and informative and contain references to earlier volumes.

This translation is a must-have for students of Morin and a “should-have” for all astrology students who wish to add techniques to increase precision in their work.  While I would not recommend this book for absolute beginners, no serious student should be without it.

Tom Callanan

Definitely high time this was available properly in English and it’s beautifully and faultlessly rendered, including the chart diagrams. I imagine it will sit alongside Lilly’s Christian Astrology as the textbook on the state of the art at that historical time.

Paul F. Newman