From: Stephanie Johnson
Date: Thu Jan 18, 2001 6:36 am
Subject: Lunar Mansions
Hi There,
The following is a copy of an article, which recently appeared in the Federation of Australian Astrologers Journal, December 2000. I hope it helps to shed some light. There are not a lot of sources available on the Arabic Lunar Mansions. ...
The Moon is playing an increasingly important role in my own personal astrology, and I have discovered that in ancient times astrologers gave the Moon equal importance to the Sun with an ancient system of Lunar Mansions. This fascinating system has lost some of its significance through the years and many modern astrologers may not even be aware of its existence. However, it is my personal belief that this system can help shed light on the role of the Moon in Natal and Electional astrology. This article is a result of personal exploration of this Lunar Mansion system, with an emphasis on its possible application to Natal astrology.
Ancient astrologers emphasized the role of the Moon by using a system of dividing the Zodiac into Lunar Mansions (or Houses). This system of Lunar Mansions was adopted by dividing the Zodiac into 28, the distance traveled by the Moon in one day. The Chinese, Arab and Renaissance astrologers used 28 Mansions, but the Hindu astrologers preferred a system of 27.
There are marked differences between the Mansion systems, in terms of the actual stars included in them, although certain bright stars close to the ecliptic feature in all systems.
In this article I am investigating the Arabic tradition of 28 Lunar Mansions beginning with the 1st Lunar Mansion at the 1st degree of Aries. By dividing the Zodiac into 28 Mansions, each Mansion equals 12 degrees, and 51 minutes, and 26 seconds. The Arabs named these Mansions "Manazil al Qamar", and even today the Arabs use the Crescent Moon symbol for their religion and a Lunar Calendar.
For a listing of the Mansions see Arabic Lunar Mansions Table 1.
The Manazil or Mansions are roughly the same as the Hindu Nakshatras and Chinese Manazils.
This system calculates the degrees of the Mansions by referring them to the ecliptic circle thus making them of equal length with boundaries as follows:
A D G J 0x0y 12x51y 25x43y
B E H K 8x34y 21x26y
C F I L 4x17 17x9y
The Lunar Mansions can be used in relation to either the Tropical or Sidereal Zodiac.
The positions start at the Vernal Equinox (the Aries point) using the Tropical (Western) Zodiac, not Sidereal, but were originally derived from the Sidereal positions. The Arabic names are sometimes derived from Zodiacal constellations found in the Mansions.
Some astrologers argue that because the meanings of the Mansions are related to stars in the fixed Sidereal Zodiac, the Mansions should therefore be used only with the Sidereal Zodiac. This argument is closely analogous to the argument that we should use Sidereal signs of the Zodiac rather than Tropical signs, because the meanings of the signs of the Zodiac are related to the constellations in the same way that the meanings of the Mansions are related to certain stars or groups of stars. However, the precessing Tropical Zodiac is firmly entrenched in Western astrology, and the link between the starry sky and the divisions that we use to interpret meanings from planetary positions is therefore not fixed in this system. Hence it is quite reasonable for Western astrologers to use the Lunar Mansions in relation to the Tropical Zodiac.
Regardless of the arguments on both sides, it is always the best policy in such cases to carefully observe a range of case studies, and thus determine empirically whether the Lunar Mansions work best for us in either the Tropical or Sidereal Zodiac. In this article I am investigating the use with Tropical positions. By the end of this article we should be in a position to see if this has any validity.
Ancient Arabic astrologers predominantly used the Mansions in Electional astrology with different Mansions favourable and unfavourable to different events. i.e. electing a chart for travel, marriage, starting battles, harvesting of produce etc. The casting of spells was also linked strongly to the timing of the Moon
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om a vam ram ham kham om a vi ra hum kham om a ra pa ca na 紫微神咒
星平透壬穿禽網站我的FB網頁om namo manjusriye namah susriye nama uttama sriye svaha
namah saddharma pundarika sutra svaha namah Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājaḥ svaha namo Mahamayuri Vidyarajni Sutra namo Karunikarāja Rāṣṭrapāla Prajñāpāramitā sūtra namo Caturmahārājakayikas om a hum om a vam ram ham kham a vi ra hūm kham a ra pa ca na om alolik svaha om gagana sambhava vajra hoh om trum svaha Taiwan Love & Peace
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廣修供養 懺悔業障
隨喜功德 請轉法輪
請佛住世 常隨佛學
恒順眾生 普皆回向
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得入無上慧 速成就佛身
--妙法蓮華經
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