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In his
work the Tetrabiblos Ptolemy had this to say about the aspect of
Egyptain astrology involving 'terms';
There
are two methods of disposing the terms of the planets, in reference
to the dominion of the triplicities; one is Ægyptian, the
other Chaldaic.
But
the Ægyptian method preserves no regular distribution, neither
in point of successive order nor in point of quantity.
In
point of order it is defective, since it, in some instances, allots
the first degrees of a sign to the lord of the house, in others
to the lord of the triplicity, and in others again to the lord of
the exaltation. By selecting examples this failure in order will
easily be seen; for instance, if the order were regulated by the
government of houses, for what reason should Saturn take the first
degrees in Libra, since that sign is the house of Venus? or why
should Jupiter take them in Aries, which is the house of Mars? If
the government of triplicities were followed, for what reason should
Mercury take the first degrees in Capricorn, which is in the triplicity
ruled by Venus? If the government by exaltations, why should Mars
take the first degrees in Cancer? that sign being the exaltation
of Jupiter. And if the order were regulated even by considering
the planet which possesses most of these dignities in the sign,
for what reason should Mercury take the first degrees in Aquarius,
in which sign he rules only by triplicity, and why not Saturn, who
has government in it by house, as well as by triplicity? or why
in short should Mercury, who does not possess any kind of dominion
in Capricorn, receive the first degrees in that sign also? The same
want of order is abundantly evident in the rest of the distribution.
An
equal irregularity exists in the respective quantities of degrees
allotted by the Ægyptians to the several terms of the planets.
For it is by no means a proper nor sufficient demonstration of accuracy
that the aggregate sum of all the numbers of every single planet
amounts to the precise total requiring to be divided into portions
of time; since, even if it be admitted that this total, collected
from every single star, is correctly asserted by the Ægyptians,
it may still be objected that the same total, so collected by them,
may be found in many other ways by interchanging the numbers in
a sign.
Thus, by the Ægyptian distribution, it appears that the total
numbers of the degrees for each planet, added together, make 360:--viz.
for Saturn 57, Jupiter 79, Mars 66, Venus 82, and Mercury 76
Of
these two distributions of the terms, that of the Ægyptians
seems more to be relied on than the other; since it has been handed
down and recommended in the writings of the Ægyptian authors,
and also because the degrees of the terms, in nativities rectified
by them as examples, are universally in accordance with this distribution
while, on the other hand, neither the order nor the number of the
Chaldaic method has ever been recorded or explained by any writer--not
even by the writers of that very nation: the accuracy of that method
is consequently doubtful, and its irregularity as to the order of
placing the planets is widely open to censure.
www.sacred-texts.com
The bottom line
for Ptolemy was that fitting five planets into a twelve sign zodiac
through two houses each (for day and night)was messy and the Egyptian
numerics he was referencing just didn't seem to work, though they
came recommended!
There's
a reconstruction here though by a modern Russian astrologer that
demonstrates that the Egyptian figures work perfectly well if the
ecliptic is simply divided into ten sectors;
For 12 sectors the acceptable solution does not exist.
Actually,
it's absolutely clear even without any complex calculations. If
we assume, that two of five planets obtain their years by the way
of addition of rising times of not two, but three signs, it can
be Venus and Jupiter only, because they have maximal values of major
Egyptian years. In the standard rulerships Jupiter is placed between
Saturn and Mars, therefore its major years obtained by addition
of rising time of the signs of its rulership will be approximately
equal to a half-sum of Saturn and Mars major years, that is 61.5.
For Venus the similar half-sum of years of Mars and Mercury is 71.
In this case the missing years for Jupiter are 79 - 61.5 = 17.5,
and for Venus the missing years are 82 - 71 = 11. The obtained values--17.5
and 11--cannot be equal to rising time of Leo and Cancer at latitudes
of Egypt and Mesopotamia in any way. Thus it's absolutely clear,
that the major Egyptian years cannot be obtained by combination
of rising times of the 12 signs.
For 10 sectors there is an optimal solution:
25°10'
of northern latitude distance of vernal equinox point from the beginning
of the sidereal zodiac -- 29°02'
rulership:
Saturn
rules 1st and 10th sectors and obtains 57.51 years
Mars--2nd and 9th--65.62 years
Mercury--3rd and 8th--75.04 years
Jupiter--4th and 7th--80.48 years
Venus--5th and 6th--81.35 years
The
mean square deviation of the calculated years from the settled by
the ancient Egyptian astronomers is found within the tolerance of
the error of the ancient methods of determination of rising time
of the sectors on ecliptic.
It's easy to see, that the latitude retrieved from our solution
differs from latitude of Thebes 25N40--an ancient capital of Egypt--by
half-degree only.
If we take, that in 1st century BC -- 1st century AD the vernal
equinox point was in 8° Aries, than the retrieved coordinate
of the vernal equinox corresponds to approximately 17th-15th centuries
BC.
Thus, we obtain the dating and precise geographical place of fixation
of the Egyptian system of terms, passed to us through the Greeks:
Thebes, Egypt, 17th-15th centuries BC.
It's known from historically reliable sources, that in middle of
the 2nd millennium BC the system of decanes (36 stars, later simplified
to 36 equal sectors of ecliptic 10° each) was already developed
in Egypt, and in Mesopotamia the collecting of a major series of
omens Enuma Anu Enlil has already began.
Certainly, the dating the system of major Egyptian years by middle
of the 2nd millennium BC arouses some doubts, because the known
historical information tells us, that the astrology as system of
knowledge was developed only in middle of the 1st millennium BC.
However, we should not reject with a rush a possibility of existence
of much more ancient astrological tradition, than it is known to
us nowadays in conformity with archaeological discoveries.
Main conclusion that follows from the received reconstruction is
the necessity of complete recalculation of system of major years
and system of terms individually for each latitude, as the primary
system was constructed for Thebes and is applicable with relatively
small errors (less than 2 years) in a very narrow range of latitudes--approximately
from 22° to 29° of northern latitude only.
This fact completely explains why the Egyptian system of lifetime
determination doesn't work at all in the latitudes outside the mentioned
interval, including Alexandria--the center of the Greek astrological
school.
Other important conclusion is that the ancient Egyptian astrologers
used 10 signs zodiac closely connected with system of decanes.
The third important conclusion is that the rulers of the signs of
the zodiac were only the planets--wandering stars
www.astrologer.ru
The conclusion he reaches then is that the numerics of the Egyptians
were derived from a ten sector sub-division of the ecliptic, apparantly
relative to Thebes in terms of observational point, and that each
of the five planets ruled a sector by day and by night.
The exact
same geometry as employed in esoteric manner at Denderah can also
be located within the super-structure of the Aztec Sun Stone, animating
the entire superstructure, undoubtably relevant to the Pentangular
movements of the Planet Venus around the horizon, this determining
the sub-division of twenty seen in the design...
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