Concerning the More Certain Fundamentals of Astrology by Johannes Kepler.pdf

CONCERNING THE MORE CERTAIN FUNDAMENTALS OF

ASTROLOGY

Johannes Kepler

FUNDAMENTIS. ASTROLOGIAE CERTIORIBUS

NOVA

DISSERTATIUNCULA AD COSMOTHEORIAM

SPECTANS

cum prognosi physica anni ineuntis a nato Christo 1602

Ad philosophos scripta

M. JOANNE KEPLERO

Mathematico

Vim coeli reserate viri: venit agnita ad usus:

Ignotae videas commoda nulla rei.

Sit labor in damno: faciet victoria lucrum:

Naturae ingenio vim reserate viri.

Republished by Canopus Publications

Box 774

Kingston, Tasmania 7051

Australia

Retyped by Sue Toohey

This Publication has been reproduced from the original text in the interest of

preserving and disseminating old Astrological texts. This version may not be

reproduced or transmitted by any means electronic or mechanical or

recorded in any form including photocopying or by any storage or retrieval

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The publishers and editor have taken all measures to ensure this

publication is an accurate reproduction of the original but cannot guarantee

it to be free of errors.

Thesis 1

It is generally considered the duty of mathematicians to write annual

Prognostics. Since, therefore, I have resolved to afford satisfaction for the

approaching year 1602 from the birth of Christ our Savior in limiting the

prognostics not so much to the curiosity of the public as to the duty of a

philosopher, I will begin rather with that which can be predicted most safely;

a rich crop of prognostics for this year is forthcoming, as the number of

authors is increasing daily, owing to the growing curiosity of the people.

Thesis 2

In those booklets some things will be said which time will prove, but many

things will be refuted by time and experience as vain and worthless; as is

customary with the people, the latter will be committed to the winds, and the

former, entirely to memory.

Thesis 3

For truly, as the cause, so is the effect. In their predictions the

astrologers, surrendering their pens to enthusiasm, carried away by it, admit

causes that are partly physical and partly political, and for the greater part

not sufficient, often imaginary, vain and false and partly, at least of no value

whatsoever. If they at times do tell the truth, it ought to be attributed to

luck, yet more frequently and commonly it is thought that this comes from

some higher and occult instinct.

Thesis 4

Some physical causes are recognized by all; others, by only very few

people; indeed, many things exist naturally, but from causes hitherto known

to no man. And of the causes, which we know, there are some whose kind

and nature we all usually understand, and others whose kind or indirect

cause are understood by very few people, or by nobody.

Thesis 5

The most general, effective and certain cause that is known to all men is

the approach and recess of the Sun. Now, the latter brings about the winter

solstice, i.e. on December 21 st , shortly before the sixth p.m.; and the summer

solstice on June 21 st at 10:30p.m In the first case then, there will be the cold

of winter, whereas (in the second case). the heat of summer. 1

Thesis 6

The nature of this cause can be seen from the following: At Prague,

Bohemia, the altitude of the pole is 50º 5' 45". But the inclination of the

ecliptic in this century is 23º 31' 30" as discovered by that Phoenix of the

astronomers, Tycho Brahe, whom we have recently lost. Thus, the Sun,

which is for us the originator of heat, does not shine for more than 7 hours

and 49 scruples (minutes) above the horizon in winter, and thus heats our air

for (only) a short time, and then lying (hidden) below the horizon doubly

longer and more (completely) it ceases to heat. Yet, on the other hand, in

the summer the sun remains for 16 whole hours and 22 scruples above the

horizon and continues to heat, ceasing from this action only for a period less

than half of that time.

Thesis 7

Yet air, as well as water and earth (as far as it is an element) except when

continuously heated, returns at once to its nature (natural disposition), and

grows cold. The (well-known statement) of Aristotle, that the nature of the

air is hot per se, is false indeed.

Thesis 8

Whatever participates in matter, insofar as it participates in it, is cold by

its nature. And whatever is hot by potency has this nature from an animal

force, either implanted or generated.

Thesis 9

Another and more important reason why the Sun, when it is high , heats

more than when it is low, is that when the Sun is low it strikes our horizon

obliquely and weakly, whereas when it is high, it (strikes our horizon) more

strongly at a right angle. No one has been able to explain to this day why

the immaterial solar ray behaves here in the same way as dense and material

bodies when impinging upon each other.

1 Words in brackets were inserted by the translator

Thesis 10

Therefore, as the Sun in summer passes almost four times higher than in

winter at Prague, it follows from this and the above stated reason that on the

shortest day there is not more than an eighth part of the amount of heat

which descends to the elements (of nature) on the longest summer day.

Thesis 11

But not even all of this eighth part of the heat that is left in winter acts to

our benefit. For the Sun, which rises but little above our horizon in winter, is

set more obliquely against our thick air. Let us assume, then, that the surface

of the vapid air, which refracts the solar ray, is at a perpendicular distance of

one German mile from us (it could hardly be higher, for in fact, the altitude of

the matter which produces the twilight, and of that which refracts the rays of

the stars is not the same). Accordingly, a thickness of one and a ninth

German miles is opposed to the solar ray in summer and three and a third

(German miles) in winter. Thus, the solar ray is three times weaker in winter

for this reason; and taking these three reasons together, in winter there

remains barely a twenty-fourth part of the Sun’s summer heat.

Thesis 12

Although these three causes are most evident on the very days of the

winter and summer solstice, the cold will not necessarily be greatest on the

former day nor the heat on the latter; there is in fact another cause, which of

itself makes the winter more intense in the beginning of February and the

summer in the beginning of August, or thereabouts. For earth and water and

dense bodies, and cannot be heated instantly; when they are heated about

the month of June, when the Sun is highest, they retain the deeply impressed

heat for some time, on account of the density of the matter and the

magnitude of the bodies; therefore, they combine the heat of June with the

heat of July and August. The same , conversely, with regard to the cold of

winter.

Thesis 13

The same opinion should be held as to the second hour , which is warmer

than the twelfth, despite the fact that the Sun is already on the decline. In

this case, the air shows the same behavior as the earth showed in the above

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