5. Of Brothers and Sisters.

The preceding may perhaps have made clear the topic of the parents. As for that of brethren, if here too One examines only the general subject and does not carry beyond the bounds of possibility his inquiry as to the exact number and other particulars, it is more naturally to be taken, when it is a question of blood-brethren alone, from the culminating sign, the place of the mother, that is, that which contains by day Venus and by night the moon; for in this sign and that which succeeds it is the place of the children of the mother, which should be the same as the place of the brethren of the offspring. If, then, beneficent planets bear an aspect to this place, we shall predict an abundance of brethren, basing our conjecture upon the number of the planets and whether they are in signs of a simple or of a bicorporal form. But if the malevolent planets overcome them or oppose them in opposition, they signify a dearth of brethren, especially if they have the sun among them. If the opposition is at the angles, and especially at the horoscope, in case Saturn is in the ascendant, they are the first-born or the first to be reared; in case it is Mars, there is a small number of brethren by reason of the death of the others. If the planets which give brethren are in a favourable mundane position, we must believe that the brethren thereby given will be elegant and distinguished; if the reverse is the case, humble and inconspicuous. But if the maleficent planets overcome those that give brethren, or rise after them, the brethren will also be short-lived; and the male planets in the mundane sense will give males, the female females; again, those farther to the east the first and those farther to the west the later-born. Besides this, if the planets that give brethren are in harmonious aspect with the planet that rule!! the place of brethren, they will make the given brethren friendly, and will also make them live together, if they are in harmonious aspect with the Lot of Fortune; but if they are in disjunct signs or in opposition, they will produce quarrelsome, jealous, and for the most part, scheming brethren. Finally, if one would busy himself with further inquiries about details concerning individuals, he might in this case again make his conjecture by taking the planet which gives brethren as the horoscope and dealing with the rest as in a nativity.