crimsoncurrent ([personal profile] crimsoncurrent) wrote2024-04-05 03:37 pm
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Origin of Val Evans Method

That is very similar to the so-called lesser condition or minora esse taught by ʿUmar aṭ-Ṭabarī in the 8th century, basically profecting the ascendant of the revolution at a rate of 360° over a solar year. (Abū Maʿshar mentions it as well; Ben Dykes translates the Arabic term he used for the technique as 'the small days', contrasting with 'the great days' of the ordinary annual profections.) Of course, the ascendant of the revolution will be completely different depending on whether you use tropical or sidereal parameters: the two charts would be cast not only in different zodiacs, but for different times. The Persian ʿUmar presumably used sidereal tables.
Hi Martin, yes, I got the maiora esse and minora esse from Robert Hand's translation of Omar of Tiberias; he called them 'two states of being' and said they were to be "known from the sign of the profection" saying "you will always direct from the degree of the Ascendant to the rays of malefics and fortunes up until the completion of 360 degrees...at [the rate of] 59 minutes and 8 seconds from the second day be equal degrees" (p47). For the maiora esse he says "And you will direct from the sign of the profection" at the rate of 12 1/7 (365.25 / 30) days per degree.

In the intro Hand says "Then we have the annual profection, which is used to find the 'maiora esse'....This is contrasted to a second term, the 'minora esse', which is related to the direction of the above points at the rate of 59'08" per day....Certainly some of the directions involving 59'08" per day are in fact directions within the solar return" (p vii) so perhaps they are used in both chart types.
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