Combustion with regard to Planetary Powers
© 2010, Nov 7 Curtis Manwaring
Combustion interferes with the ability of the planet to produce it's effects (which is not the only thing that can interfere - there are several factors to consider). A planet in the first square is actually quite powerful because it is oriental, but in the latter square, it is waning in power. Typically a planet opposite the Sun is retrograde, and this too is a sort of interference. If one takes the opposition to be in the nature of Saturn and the squares to be of the nature of Mars, a retrograde is this sort of hindrance where a planet is not able to produce because it is subtractive in numbers (or stumbling backwards). But the first square is where a planet is young in the cycle and still vigorous (like Mars) up until first station. When it passes the retrograde period of middle age, it gains a second wind, but with less power, up until old age where it disappears into the rays of the Sun where it can't be seen anymore (symbolic of death and renewal). There are said to be exceptions to these conditions of combustion, such as the "being in ones own chariot" that Schmidt speaks of...
2/22/2015 - Schmidt once said that there is a connotation to signs that are upright (rise more straight relative to the local horizon) as opposed to those that rise more obliquely. The crooked signs are thought to be more dishonest. When planets are in the crooked signs they require more time to escape the beams of the Sun and interestingly enough the degrees before the Sun (the degrees that rise before the Sun in the morning) are called the pious (clean) degrees while those on the other side of the Sun (the ones about to be burned up) are "impious". The result is that planets that are in "upright signs" come out of the beams more quickly at a given latitude and are therefore more "forthcoming with the truth". Those planets that require more degrees to become visible are thought motivated to hide the truth or act in secret more readily. This has some interesting implications for certain types of horary questions. Schmidt said about 10 years ago that he thought that the 15 degree interval is an ideal proposed by Ptolemy from which the standard of truthfulness or deceptiveness can be judged and that their actual visibility coming before or after that mean value helps to define the character of that planet.
