The Astrology of Depression Judith Hill

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THE ASTROLOGY
OF DEPRESSION

Copyright © Judith Hill, 2016

1 /26
 THE ASTROLOGY
OF DEPRESSION

What insights can the natal chart lend to a psychiatric diagnosis of

“Chronic Depression?”

Popularly known in American street lingo as “the blues”, Chronic Depression,

or “dysthymia”, is characterized by protracted sadness and fatigue. Sufferers
can’t change their mood at will and may spend years immersed in ongoing
sorrow, despondency, guilt, regret, and suicidal ideologies. Sufferers
experience profound apathy and feel life as devoid of pleasure. There may
be changes of appetite, or weight. Excess sleeping is typical, or alternatively,
insomnia. Episodes may last from weeks to years, and are recurrent. This
condition is not prompted by grief, drugs or situational stress.

Many chronic depressives experience temporary episodes of a more severe

nature known as ‘Major Depression’. This conflation is known as “double
depression”. For our purposes here, the entire spectrum of Chronic and Major
Depression will be referred to as Chronic Depression.

As astrologers, we might assume that yes, the birth chart would display the
excesses of astrological energies causative to depression. This article and my
three case studies examine the planetary and elemental ‘signatures’ typical of
Chronic Depression.

Let ask a second, more pertinent question:

Can psychiatry benefit from understanding the astrological energetics expressing
themselves as chronic depression?

After all, the astrological understanding of the planetary and elemental

energetics of mental illness predates psychiatry by centuries!

2 /26
Types of Depression Currently Defined
Clinical Psychology currently defines nine types of depression: Chronic Depression;
Major Depression; Postpartum Depression; Seasonal Affective Disorder; Atypical
Depression; Psychotic Depression; Bipolar Disorder; Situational and Premenstrual
Dysphoric Disorder. We only have space to discuss Chronic Depression, our exclusive
focus of this study.

Traditional Views of Depression

Renaissance physician-astrologers recognized and documented planetary, sign, element
and ‘humor‘ (bodily fluid) energetics thought causative of depression, or “melancholia”.
We have space for a brief survey of these ideas. It is essential to note that Astrological
origin was accepted as but one of many possible causes, whereas astrological charts were
studied to determine all possibles sources for this influence was completely accepted
by Medieval and Renaissance physicians as a primary etiology underlying physical and
mental illness of all kinds.

Traditionally, all illness was thought to be precipitated by imbalances of four qualities:

heat, cold, dry and moist1. A wide variety of reasons (including constipation) were offered
to explain how humoral imbalances occur, including planetary beams! Yes, planets could
make you sick.

Ancient physicians were primarily concerned with the flow and balance of temperature
and moisture. Depression was recognized as energetically cold/dry or alternatively, cold/
moist. The astrological causes of depression were generally attributed to several sources,
primary being the cold influence of Saturn2-3 acting alone or through his signs Capricorn
and Aquarius. Dr. H.L. Cornell’s Encyclopedia of Medical Astrology lists “melancholy”,
and “morbid states of mind and body” under Saturn4. This opinion was widely held in
antiquity5.

Equally blamed was an excess of the cold, dry “melancholic humor” the bodily fluid black
bile; and sometimes an overabundance of the cold, wet “phlegmatic humor” or phlegm
(explained more thoroughly below).

Planetary energies, in addition to several other known causes might imbalance the four
bodily fluids or “humors”, precipitating depression. This could occur at birth (natally),
or by transit.

3 /26
Melancholy Folly: Why The Four Elements and Four ‘Humors’ Shouldn’t
Be Conflated

This small section offers a useful detour off the main theme of this article. Readers who have no
interest in the medical confusions wrought from conflating the astrological elements with classical
humors can skip down to the following section entitled “Water Signs and Chronic Depression”.
If you are a Medical Astrologer, this section is essential reading.

‘Phlegmatic’ types of depression were thought typical to water signs6

(Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces). However, the earth signs (Taurus, Virgo,
Capricorn) became strongly associated with depression despite their
practical traits not well matching symptoms typical of Chronic Depression7.
How did this conundrum occur?

The word “melancholy”, an alternate word for depression, literally means

“black bile” from the Greek melas, “black” + khole, “bile”. This bodily humor
was believed responsible for depression, i.e. “melancholia” when in excess.
(Centuries later, black bile was discovered to be either non existent or referring
to a brownish-grey sediment sometimes found in the blood rather then true
bile.)

Hippocrates (460-370BC) fathered this four-humor theory of health. There

were now four astrological elements and four bodily humors! Furthermore,
the four humors in excess, expressed themselves as four human physical-
psychological “temperaments”: Choleric, Melancholic, Sanguine and
Phlegmatic. (These temperaments are not identical to their predecessors, the
four ‘elements’.)

Humors and their designed temperaments were assigned both heat and
moisture levels in this manner: yellow bile-choleric: hot/dry; black bile-
melancholy:cold/ ry; bloodsanguine: hot/moist; and phlegm-phlegmatic:
cold/moist.

It must have seemed elegantly symmetrical to match up the four humors and
their four temperaments with the original four elements, without allowing
that perhaps these groups are not identical. The four temperaments were
assigned to the traditional four elements in the following manner: Choleric-
Fire; Melancholic-Earth; Sanguine-Air; Phlegmatic-Water. This system falls
apart when examining signs individually.

The humor ‘black bile’, i.e. melancholy, was designated as the metabolic
agent of its historic predecessor, the earth element. The logic now followed
that because black bile “caused” depression, and belonged to the earth

4 /26
element, then earth signs must be depressive by nature (even if many of the
more notorious traits associated to water signs fit the symptoms of Chronic
Depression best!)

Unfortunately the incorrect conflation of these four assumed bodily fluids, or

‘humors’ with “their” four astrological elements became so standard in early
writings as to typically occlude all mention of the elements themselves!

This causes a lot of diagnostic confusion because the two are not identical.
E.g. Aquarius, a mid-Winter, Saturn-ruled sign is correctly listed as “cold” in
some older texts. Aquarius as a sign type makes a good candidate for being
the coldest of signs. Mid-winter is typically the coldest time of year!

However, once the four humor theory appeared, then all three air signs,
including Aquarius were assigned the “sanguine” humor and thus listed as
“hot and moist”, and cheerful too, in alternate texts! Hot attributions make
no sense for Aquarius because this sign’s medical and temperamental traits
are all leaning cold, not hot! (Aquaria types are famous for freezing feet,
insufficient circulation, depression, anemia, low blood pressure and varicose
veins.)

Another argument against conflating the four bodily humors with four
elements is that of the “missing” temperatures “warm and cool”. In the humor
theory, signs of shared element are lumped together under “their” assigned
humor, and therefore must be either “hot” or “cold”. Unfortunately, life does
not work this way! And neither do the signs.

The signs are too variable to be lumped together by element under extremes
of temperature. For instance, air signs (Gemini, LIbra, Aquarius) are all
supposed to be “hot”, just because “their” assigned bodily humor, (blood)
is classified as such. On physical and psychological examination, neither
Gemini or Aquarius are hot, but we might easily conceive of temperate Libra
as “warm”. Classic Libra types are just exactly that, neither hot nor cold, but
warm. Libra is after all, the sign of balance!

The same conundrum holds for the other half of humoral division: that of
temperature: moist/dry. For example, the earth element is classified as “dry”
because its assigned humor, “back bile” was believed to be dry. Therefore, all
three earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) must now follow along and be
“dry” too! But, are they?

Its easy to debate that Taurus, one of our most fertile and magnetic signs is
hardly “dry”. Neither do Taurus natives suffer from the same level of “dry”
ailments as do their fellow earth signs Virgo and Capricorn. In fact, Taurus
folks are famous for their lustrous hair, luscious lips and sexy ways. And, why
would the most fertile time of year be energetically “dry”? Its just not a fit!

5 /26
 Signs are a hybrid of elemental, planetary, modal and seasonal energies.
Understanding this makes it easy to see that although a sign is assigned its
elemental group, it’s not the element itself. Conversely, and element is not a
sign! And neither are the elements identical to four bodily humors (my main
point!)

The best advice to confused astrologers is to use the classical four elements (fire, earth, air, water) and
not conflate them with the later four classical humors and four temperaments until you are well aware
of the profound differences. One can diagnose elemental imbalances directly from the birth chart, sans
physical examination. However, humor imbalances must be established from physical observation, as
was their intended medical use.

Water signs and Chronic Depression

In regards to depression, the classical character of water signs in excess precisely fits
the symptoms of chronic depression, i.e. ‘melancholia’ far better then do the practical,
hardy, and realistic earth signs. (Personally, I’ve not observed many earth sign natives
presenting the “sleepy” symptoms of this ailment.)

However, Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio in affliction are indeed famous for presenting (when
negative) all the clinical symptoms of chronic depression: fatigue, introversion, grief,
sorrow, apathy, no pleasure in life, aversion to exercise, fear, hopelessness, self loathing
and suicidal ideologies, plus a profound love of sleep. Water signs also comprise the three
“mute” signs of tradition, and are naturally associated with the 8th house of death and
the 12th house of sorrows. Weeping is a watery activity!

C.E.O. Carter’s, discussion of ‘Melancholy’ in his Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology

writes6 “the water signs all tend to moodiness”. Any random perusal through sign
descriptions of Pisces penned by historic authors lends keywords (when negative) as
“sensitive”, “repining”, “self abnegating”, “lazy”, “resigned”, etc. This reputation is firm.

Although some Pisces types are cheerful, if you want to learn to recognize the depressed
water sign type, observe the general affect and vocal tones of six famed Pisceans: Johnny
Cash, Ralph Nadir, George Harrison, James Taylor, Brian Jones and Kurt Cobain.
Perhaps we should include Billie Holiday and Marilyn Monroe, whose languid affects
mirrored their Pisces Moons! Get the picture? (Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio readers please
note that being born in water signs does not guarantee depression and that all signs have
their unique mental afflictions! Indeed, your inherent sensitivity has in fact produced
many of the world’s great geniuses.)

6 /26
Joseph Blagrave’s 1658 description of depression (below) is perhaps the most behaviorally
descriptive extant in early writings. He gives symptoms7!

“And such who are by nature Melancholy, and Mad, usually are given to sadness, sighing
and a much silence, seldom pleased. And those who by are by nature Phlegmatic Mad,
are usually sluggish, and idle, not caring to do anything, except forced thereto, and much
given to sleep, will lie in bed two or three days together if not disturbed.”

Blagrave had no knowledge of our recently categorized nine varieties of depression,

and his comments are based on the old Greek energetic paradigm, no longer in vogue.
We must remember that when he speaks of those “whose nature is Melancholy” he is
discussing the prominence of a bodily fluid, and not earth signs, per se. However, once
earth signs were assigned to this humor, the two ( the earth element and the melancholy
humor) became interchangeable. The same occurred when the ‘Phlegmatic humor’, or
lymph became interchangeably linked to the obviously moist water signs. (The humor
choler, or yellow bile, was given the fire element, and the humor sanguine, blood, was
allotted to air.)

Personally, I’ve found that water signs (particularly Cancer and Pisces) are dominant in
presenting symptoms of Chronic Depression, in addition to the signs of Saturn: Capricorn
and Aquarius. Water sign Scorpio appears to be more conducive to bouts of the more
extreme Major Depression.

The symptoms of Chronic Depression fit descriptions of water signs in excess better than
traits expected for abundant earth signs (i.e. practical, responsible, steady, unflappable,
hard working, tough). There are exceptions for all rules, but it’s obvious that Chronic
Depression resembles traits known for an excess of water signs combined with Saturnian
signs and the specific planetary signatures outlined below.

Tallying Elements: A Word of Warning

There are various systems afoot for tallying the elements within a chart for the purpose of
establishing elemental dominance or deficiency. However, without a proper knowledge
of planetary-sign co-mixture, it is all too easy to go astray!

E.g. should a chart display but one planet in water, and that planet is Saturn, we now have
“frozen” water. This condition hardly helps a chart with deficient water signs. Saturn
suppress fire, and this too must be noted when Saturn is the only planet found in fire
signs. Saturn, being earthy, strengthens the earth element and provides a nice steadying
force in air signs, while slowing it down.

7 /26
Mars’ qualities must also be understood before assuming this hot planet strengthens the
elemental energy of its natal position. Mars irritates air and boils water!

One must also know how to assign weight, or importance to a planet being tallied by
element. Outer planets shared by generations should not always assume the same weight
as personal planets, and one must use common sense before adding scores of asteroids to
your count! Obviously the two “lights” Sun and Moon should receive more points.

Sparse Research
Early astrological research in the mental health field is sparse at best, and ancient or
Renaissance writers limit their commentary to single cases, discussion of humors,
complex lists of signatures sans examples, or parrot previous texts. Few ancient or
Renaissance multiple case studies with documented symptoms and chart samples of
Chronic Depression were conducted as far as I know (or any other mental illness). The
work of Renaissance physician Joseph Blagrave offers some brief documentation of case
symptoms.

LOST CAUSES OF DEPRESSION

AND OTHER MENTAL ILLNESS (ETIOLOGIES)

Clinical diagnosis could benefit from reconsideration of depression etiologies lost in the
modern West’s wholesale adoption of a bio-chemical model of medicine. Renaissance
physicians considered a far wider array of causes for depression then we do today
including: constipation, shock, grief, bewitchment, fairy problems8 spirit interference9,
imbalance of the four humors, astrological elements and/or planetary rays 10. If included,
several formerly recognized types of depression would join today’s clinical “nine causes”,
including depression by astrological origin!

If one accepts reincarnation as valid, (as do most Hindu astrologers) then unresolved
past life memories are a plausible source for unexplained malaise, constituting a
tenth category of depression: the “past life hangover”! Modern astrologers are free to
consider these currently unfashionable etiologies. For instance, one friend shared that
he discovered at age sixty that his life long suicidal ideology was caused by the spiritual
presence of a boyhood friend whom had killed himself. Once he dismissed the spirit, the
problem abated. Nonsense?

Astrology holds that certain planetary patterns cause depression in ways we do not
fully comprehend. The adherent of reincarnation theory sees how well the natal pattern
reflects antecedent causes from past lives. From this point of view, many of us enter life

8 /26
burdened with sorrow, guilt, specific fears, anger or regret.

Psychologists certainly do inquire into our early childhood influences that might
precipitate depression, but rarely include causes further back in the DNA chain, and may
reject past life memory as invalid.

Ancestral family trauma, also largely ignored, can also be seen in the birth chart! Is
this family trauma somehow imprinted in the DNA of depression victims? All these
possibilities are worthy of our consideration. However, the sad fact remains that today’s
psychiatrists use a far narrower and less inclusive palette for determining the causes of
Chronic Depression then did their predecessors!

Modern psychology documents newly discovered depression etiologies such as ‘Seasonal

Affective Disorder’, so obvious in “light deficient” charts (see signature #3 below).

The wondrous astrological chart is able to see into all these possibilities, and was once
used to do so!

ASTROLOGICAL SIGNATURES OF
CHRONIC DEPRESSION: PRELUDE

Multiple Testimonies Needed:

Always look for “three testimonies”. Chronic Depression is a potential if three or more
of the below listed testimonies are observed in the same chart. If only one of the below
fifteen conditions is present, don’t assume the native suffers this malady. Most
people will have one of these conditions in their natal charts! Give added weight to
the first five signatures in the list. These five are very strong indicators.

Gross Imbalance of Astrological Energies:

Should the astrological conditions listed here occur simultaneously with a deficiency of
the opposite and balancing energies, we then have gross imbalance, a one sided teeter-
totter! This important point cannot be more forcibly emphasized! Mental health extremes
occur alongside astrological extremes. E.g. someone born with a predominance of water
signs and also a dominant Moon (also of cold, moist influence), would be further pushed
to their liquid extremes should they lack warm and dry fire signs and/or a strong Sun and
Mars in their birth chart! And, vice versa. (Signatures #11-12)

9 /26
What is Included in the Fifteen Signatures of Chronic Depression
Although I’ve established the below list of fifteen chart signatures for Chronic Depression
from decades of observation, it is undeniable that other researchers have, and will continue
to make new findings! For instance, midpoints, harmonics and asteroids are neglected
here. I’ve limited my case research to immediately obvious elemental, planetary, house and
sign patterns. The isolation of recognizable shared energy ‘signatures’ from highly unique
individual chart patterns is a bit like herding cats, but can be approximated. This is after
all, the chemistry of combinant cosmic vibrations.

FIFTEEN ASTROLOGICAL SIGNATURES OF

CHRONIC DEPRESSION

1) Sun, Moon, Ascendant or Mercury in water signs, especially Pisces and

Cancer (two or more placements).
Scorpio appear more prone to Major Depression, the more extreme form of the disease.

Note: Water is the most receptive and easily imprinted of the four elements¹¹. It is my
observation that natives of the water signs appear to more strongly retain childhood,
ancestral and past life memory then do other signs. Additionally, these same signs are
also famous for psychic and emotional sensitivity, hence their low threshold to psychic
interference. Though unrecognized by clinical psychiatry, psychic sensitivity can
significantly support Chronic Depression in those sufferers whose charts are dominated
by water signs in affliction.

2) Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Mercury, Venus or Jupiter in Saturn’s signs

(Capricorn or Aquarius, most especially Aquarius).
Note: This is much stronger when the planet is found simultaneously in hard aspect
to Saturn, or when two or more planets are in Saturn’s signs. E.g. Moon in Aquarius
conjunct Saturn.

3) Light Deprived Birth Charts and Depression: A New Finding.

Birth near dark of Moon, (in Last Quarter, Balsamic or early New phase), especially when
also born a night, and also during Winter (Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces). A midnight,
winter birth at New Moon would present the most extreme case! Last quarter Moon
qualifies.

Note: This condition suggests a deficiency of astral light, and a great need for sunlight.
Not surprisingly, light deficiency is now associated with depression in some individuals,

10 /26
and is called ‘Seasonal Effective Disorder.’ Serotonin levels decrease in the low light of
winter. Serotonin assists dopamine production. Lack of dopamine produces difficulty
feeling pleasure. Could it be that folks born in the winter signs Capricorn, Aquarius and
Pisces; and/or at the dark of the Moon, or at night, are prone to low levels of serotonin?

4) Saturn dominant in any sign or angle, or in hard aspect or quincunx

to Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus or Neptune (especially to the Moon),
contributes to this malady.

This condition is even stronger if conditions #1 or #2 are concurrent. Saturn’s cold,

oppressive beams were traditionally considered a preeminent cause of depression,
because melancholy was thought energetically “cold”.

5) Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter or Neptune closely conjunct the

natal South Node.

6) Heavily tenanted water houses (4th, 8th 12th whole sign houses)
Note: The 12th house is the traditional ‘house of sorrows.’ If there is a primary house of
depression, this is it! Saturn, Moon, Mercury or South Node in this house offer testimonies
for possible depression. (See also #15). Note: Early astrologers were dimly aware of the
mental health implications of this house (in opposite to the 6th house of physical health).
Writers assign depressive terms to this house: “fear”; “secret enemies”;“imprisonment”;
“lament”; “solitude”; “enslavement”; “self-undoing”; “nightmares”; “regret”; “unfinished
business”; “karma” etc. We must remember that this house also has fine positives i.e.:
“charity”; “universal love”; “spiritual work”; etc.

7) Great stress across the 3rd-9th house axis (whole sign houses).
Saturn or Lunar Nodes in 3rd, or 9th are typical, or several malefic posited across this
axis.

8) Mercury or Moon at 27-29 degrees of water signs or earth signs or

Saturn’s signs (Aquarius or Capricorn.)
These degrees are reliably productive of depression.

9) Neptune afflictions and conjunctions to Sun, Moon, Ascendant,

Mercury, Saturn. In particular, the Sun conjunct Neptune within one
degree produces strong utopian longings for escape from this world.

Note: Although symptoms may concur, “Neptunian” depression is of a different

psychological and energetic origin than is Saturnian depression.

11 /26
10) Moon ‘afflicted’:
Being our most emotionally responsive celestial body, the Moon was considered a
preeminent influence in all mental illness, once termed “lunacy”! There are a great many
ways a natal Moon qualifies as afflicted. Extreme and multiple afflictions can reflect
in odd mental states or derangement of various kinds. However, Chronic Depression
requires cold, dark energies, and their consequent emotions of fear, sorrow, hopelessness
or loneliness. We would look for afflictions suggestive of these feelings. Obviously, some
Moon signs would be more prone then would others.

Brief List: Moon ‘Besieged’ between malefic Saturn, Mars; in hard aspect to Saturn
or Neptune (#4, 9); conjunct either Node (especially the South); in “the bends”, i.e.
closely square her nodes; in 8th or 12 houses; in fall or detriment (Scorpio or Capricorn);
isolated by standing in a hemisphere or quadrant alone as a “singleton”, eclipsed, center
of T-square or Yod; quincunx Saturn, Mars, Uranus or Pluto; closely conjunct outer
planets Uranus, Neptune or Pluto.

11) An absence of natal fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) occurring with
any of the above testimonies.

Note: Fire is hot/dry and antidotes cold/wet energies of depression. Fire signs bring
warmth, purpose, fun, cheer, muscular activity optimism and stimulation. (Saturn in
fire signs does not necessarily help, because his cold nature suppresses fire.)

12) The Sun and Mars weak by sign and placement in the chart (occurring
with any of the above testimonies.)

The Sun is not only the giver of Light, but opposite Saturn by rulership.

Mars gives energy and courage. Energetic Martial types are seldom depressed, (they have
their other problems.) It takes skill and experience to weigh the strength of planets and
there are many ways that weakness occurs.

Brief example for Sun: Cadent, conjunct South Node, in hard aspect to Saturn or
Neptune, in Aquarius, Libra, Cancer or Pisces, in 6th, 7th or 12th whole sign houses.

Brief example for Mars: In Cancer, Libra, in hard aspect to Neptune, in 4th or
7th houses, center of Yod.

12 /26
13) Venus weak and afflicted: Lack or loss of affection and pleasure
contribute to depression.

Skill is required to judge the weakness of Venus.

Brief example: In detriment or fall (Virgo, Aries or Scorpio), conjunct South Node,
in hard aspect to Saturn, in 6th or 8th house, conjunct South Node. (Also see #2)

14) Jupiter afflicted, especially in earth or water signs: Deficient joy and
hope.

Note: A strong Jupiter does not necessarily check depression. A dominant Jupiter
juxtaposed to a depression signature or equally powerful Saturn produces extreme highs
and lows, so typical in bipolar signatures! If other testimonies agree, Jupiter in its home
sign Pisces can exacerbate depression (producing floods of tears). (Also See #2)

15) Malefic emphasis in the natal 12th whole sign house from the natal
Moon.
Saturn. South Node or other fearful combinations can sometimes testify to depression
when found in the sign posited just previous to the natal Moon. (See # 6).

13 /26
 THE CASE STUDIES
Let’s observe and compare the elemental, planetary and sign patterns in the charts of
three Chronic Depression sufferers: “Morris”, “Jennie” and the famous melancholic
Abraham Lincoln. Will their natal charts show the expected excess of cold, moist, dry
or dark and slow energies? Will Saturn or Saturn’s signs dominate? Will water or earth
signs be in excess with no counterbalance from the warming, playful fire signs? Will their
charts be “light deprived”?

The severity and duration of chronic depression makes an ideal subject for the astrological
study of natal energetics. The above fifteen signatures reveal how chronic depression,
(dysthymia), requires multiple testimonies, brilliantly displayed by the natal charts of all
three subjects.

Because of space limitations, a discussion of the transits and progressions of depression

onset are the province of another discourse.

The Charts (1, 2, 3)

The skeptic might propose that these three birth charts were cherry picked to fit my list
of fifteen astrological signatures for Chronic Depression. Absolutely not. Our first two
depression cases (Morris and Jennie), were my only personally documented depressives
for whom I could obtain permissions. Depression sufferer Abraham Lincoln is included
because he is perhaps America’s most noted historical melancholic.

The multiple signatures of chronic depression observed in these cases are typical of most
in my files. Still, this does not constitute scientific style research because we would need
a ‘sample’ of at least one hundred charts, plus replication studies. What we have here
is a useful guide extrapolated from one researcher’s years of observation. Those who
would enjoin this research should make sure to segregate their samples by established
depression type.

14 /26
 CHART 1: MORRIS

Chart 1: “Morris” Rodden AA

February 27, 1949, 1:21 p.m. PST
Los Angeles, California
(chart curtesy of Flatangle©)

Grandson of Holocaust survivors, Morris was born depressed, medicated for years,
nothing really helps. He seeks relief to no avail, remaining bereft of all joy. Despite
remarkable achievements, he feels without purpose. Friendly, caring, generous and
interested in friends, he suffers constant extreme emotional pain and intolerable self
loathing. Memories of past events torture him (water signs govern memory, most
especially Cancer). Unusually handsome, he pays scant concern to personal grooming or
worldly demands. Eschewing exercise, he dresses in dark clothes and maintains a sad,
flat affect, punctuated by an amazing array of cryptic facial expressions. Morris presents
a classic Piscean of the chronically depressed type, so often seen12.

15 /26
THE BIRTH CHART
Please refer by numbers below to the Signatures Listing

Morris’ chart shows undeniable testimonies of depression. Light Deficiency: Morris

was born at the dark of the Moon, in late Winter (signature #3) His Sun and Moon are
in water sign Pisces, while water sign Cancer rises, qualifying him as “triple water”, or
energetically cold and moist (#3). Mercury is also in Pisces (3). The only astrological body
in a warming fire sign is his North Node in Aries, suggesting more the cure. Fire is lacking
(#11). His Sun and Moon are both cadent in the 9th, and in mutable Pisces, diffusing his
vital force, sense of purpose and will to live (#12). Additionally, Saturn in Virgo afflicts
both Lights, (Sun and Moon), and Mercury by opposition, across the mental 3rd and
9th houses (#7). This suggests acute mental distress. Three planets tenant ‘Saturnian’
signs: Venus and Mars are in Saturn ruled Aquarius the ‘benefics’ Jupiter and Venus
are in Saturn’s signs (#15). Their normal ability to antidote Saturn are thus removed by
their placement in Saturn’s own signs.) Neptune is also near the South Node, increasing
psychic sensitivity and apathy, (#5).

The Moon indicates in part, our emotional comfort level in life and plays a large role in all
mental states. Morris’ natal Moon is extremely afflicted. Notice Luna’s severe entrapment
between her combustion with Sol, her opposition to Saturn plus a close conjunction with
Mars! (#10). Additionally, a weak Yod (two quincunxes) to the Moon from Pluto and
Neptune is the proverbial cherry on this depressing cake. No trines or squares relieve the
Moon (the ruler of his chart and indicator of feeling nature).

Comment: This horoscope is a classic example of an excess water/deficient fire

depression combined with an oppressively strong Saturn affliction. The chart suggests
Light, Oxygen and Exercise Deprivation! The uplifting planets Jupiter and Venus are
too weak to lend joy (#13-15). Furthermore, there are no strong squares in this chart
to help out. Squares, being activating, are not always “bad”. This chart needs them!
Energies are slowed. Morris’ Pisces-Cancer dominance suggests family PTSD, past life
memory burden or supernatural interference. Born depressed, there is also the possibility
of a past life memory “hangover”.

16 /26
 CHART 2: JENNIE

Chart 2: “Jennie” Rodden A

July 20, 1914, 7:30 p.m. EST
Brooklyn, NY
(chart curtesy of Flatangle©)

Born into the grinding poverty of immigrant Jewish Brownsville, New York. Jennie was
reared on over-salted herring and potatoes, in tenements crowded with pogrom survivors.
She fled her cruel mother at sixteen, commencing her lifelong cigarette habit of five packs
a day. Kind, brilliant, remote yet friendly, she drifted through life overwhelmed by grief,
convinced she would die before her 21st birthday. Lost in reverie, Jennie escaped into
books, art, writing, work. Her life long sadness deepened upon receiving news that her
partner had committed suicide after receiving his draft notice. She suffered tunnel vision
and sleep apnea.

We might rightly suspect an excess of water signs, (especially Cancer for family PTSD),
Neptune (sensitivity and discomfort with this world), Saturn (cold, dark feelings); and
perhaps a strong Moon (tenderness, good memory).

17 /26
THE BIRTH CHART
Please refer by numbers below to the Signatures Listing

Jennie’s Sun, Moon and Mercury are all three in the sentimental water sign Cancer
(signature #1). Light Deprivation is again obvious: Her night birth in a water sign under
a dark balsamic Moon testifies to extreme astral light deprivation (#3). Her close and
‘cadent’ Sun-Neptune conjunction explained her tendency to fall involuntarily into light
trances. I’ve rarely encountered someone born with an exact (partile) conjunction of Sun
with Neptune that was not depressed, (#9).

Cold Saturn is situated in the 12th house position to the Moon, (i.e. one sign behind both
Moon and Mercury), (#15), and in close conjunction to her Moon across the sign border
from previous sign Gemini. Luna is highly stressed between her across-sign conjunction
with chilly Saturn and a close same sign conjunction with intense Pluto in the sign
governing family memory: Cancer, (#10).

Jennie’s Moon reflects an excess of cold, moist, slow and dark energies, and explains her
bereaved emotional state (#10). Her Saturn-ruled Aquarius Ascendant tops off the load
of prominent depressive prone signs (#2). Jupiter is also in a Saturn ruled sign (#15).
Venus, planet of love’s happiness is thrice afflicted by its detriment in Virgo, conjunct
both the South Node and Mars, and in square by sign to Saturn (#13).

Notice the curious absence of close major aspects, suggesting inner disconnection. Jennie
suffered mental disconnects, often unaware of her surroundings.

The presence of her cheering first house Jupiter didn’t alleviate her sorrows because it
resides in Saturn’s sign Aquarius (#4), and lends no helpful aspect to either Sun nor
Moon. Instead, her life uplifted others! As a strong advocate of civil rights, desegregation
and peace, Jennie opened her table to many. Sadly, deepening depression contributed to
her untimely death at age fifty-five.

Gross Imbalance: Excess Water/Fire is Deficient

Notice the complete lack of warm, dry fire signs that would have counteracted Jennie’s
excess cold, moist water element! (#11). This is remarkably similar to Morris’ case.
Both examples are cold/moist with deficient hot/dry energies for balance. To reiterate:
Depression, as are most mental and emotional disorders, is energetically produced
or represented in a horoscope by a set of extremes: one energy is in excess while
simultaneously, its balancing energy is deficient.

Another testimony lies with the conjunction of Venus (love and happiness) to the South
Node (loss), (#5). The suicide of her first love burdened her heart with grief. Mars, the
“fiery” planet, is also disturbed by its conjunction on the Natal South Node. The partile
conjunction of her cadent Sun and Neptune testifies to a diffused vital force (#12), and
showed her disinclination towards the earth plane. Jennie sometimes fell into involuntary
light trances, and loved poetry. How Neptunian!

18 /26
Comment: Jenny’s chart provides another ‘classic example’ of light and oxygen
deprivation, with possible sad family or tribal memory overtones (Cancer dominant
and Venus conjunct South Node), plus longing for her true spiritual home (Sun
conjunct Neptune). The world is a harsh reality for Neptune’s natives! Could
she have suffered Inherited Depression? Water signs can signal “Family PTSD”.
Both our above examples came from Jewish families immediately, if not currently
devastated by genocide. Did Biblical King Saul’s epic depressions presage the fact
that depression is indeed higher in Jewish populations? (#10, 11). We speculate
that generationally inherited sorrow is somehow imprinted in our DNAand also
reflected as “sadness imprints” in the horoscopes of heirs.12, 13

19 /26
 CHART 3: ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Chart 3: “Abraham Lincoln” Rodden B

February 12, 1809, 6:54 a.m. LMT
Hodgenville, KY
(chart curtesy of Flatangle©)

American President Abraham Lincoln is well known for torturous depressions throughout
his adult life. The 1835 death of Lincoln’s sweetheart Ann Rut-ledge plunged him into a
depression so profound that we are still hearing about it!

Lincoln biographer Joshua Wolf Shenk presents the facts in his 2005 book: Lincoln’s
Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness. An excerpt
reads:

20/26
“For whatever reason, or combination of reasons, in the late summer of 1835 Lincoln’s
depression was pushed out into the open. After several weeks of worrisome behavior, talking
about suicide, wandering alone in the woods with his gun, an older couple in the area took
him into their home...When he had improved somewhat, they let him go, but he was, Mrs.
Green said, “quite melancholy for months”.

Depression episodes were recurrent, long and intense. Clearly he suffered from “double
depression” with episodes of the more serious Major Depression. Lincoln was also a
perfect physical example of lanky, deep, philanthropic and individualistic “Saturnian
Aquaria” type, seen occasionally in some Aquaria’s. Also, a good Saturn type14. As we
have noted, both Saturn and Aquarius have long standing traditional association with
“melancholy”.

What can Lincoln’s birth chart show us? Does it reveal signatures typical of chronic
depression? Was Saturn dominant or afflicting? Were Saturn’s signs or water signs
emphasized? Was he born in winter, at night, or in the dark of the Moon?

THE BIRTH CHART

Please refer by numbers below to the Signatures Listing

Lincoln’s Sun, Moon and Ascendant are all three in Saturn ruled signs (#2). Both his
Sun and Ascendant were in Aquarius and his Moon was in Capricorn. Furthermore,
Lincoln’s chart is Light Deficient (#3), a theme observed for both previous cases Morris
and Jennie. He was born in Winter during the Moon’s late waning phase, the ‘Balsamic’
Moon. Saturn, as Abets unrivaled chart ruler is near the Mid-heaven, (#4), and conjoined
Neptune (#4), while also afflicting Mercury (#4, 9). Mercury is in sorrowful Pisces (#1).
Lincoln was a perfect “Saturnian”. His Capricorn Moon is posited on the 27th degree of
this sign (#8), plus also “void of course” in the 12th house of sorrows (#6), while strongly
afflicted from Mars (#10). Saturn afflicts the 3rd axis of the daily mental function by
opposition (#7).

Comment: An aware astrologer would spot the overwhelming trend to chronic

depression in Abraham Lincoln’s birth chart. One might assert that baby Abraham
was born with a life-long disability that could be remediated but not entirely
prevented. Shenk’s research suggests that both of Lincoln’s parents displayed
symptoms of the affliction, suggesting the chart may reflect a genetic inheritance.

Had Lincoln realized his natal tendency toward chronic depression, could he have been
helped? Astrology is useful, or why do it! The Renaissance physicianastrologers and the
ayurvedic medicine-astrology tradition of India both have wide palettes of remedials
for adjusting the excesses and deficiencies of planetary and elemental energies inherent
in our birth energy patterns and reflected in the birth chart.

21 /26
 ASTROLOGY’S PLACE IN REMEDIATION
Knowledge of the natal chart is extremely useful in understanding and assisting victims
of a wide array of psychiatric disorders, including chronic depression. Space allows a
brief example from Chart 1: Morris.

We saw how Morris suffered a chronic depression of the excess water sign + Saturnian
variety. His is a classic cold, moist Chronic Depression. The pattern is in gross imbalance,
offering little in the way of balancing warm, dry fire signs.

A “triple water” Winter birth at New Moon suggests both light and oxygen starvation.
Indeed, he suffers sleep apnea. Today’s “Astrological Physician” might well suggest
breathing exercises or ‘Pranayama”. (HIs natal air sign planets can’t help much because
they are drowning in water houses).

Fire energy “starvation” is as obvious as his loathing for aerobic exercise. Muscular
exercise is a fantastic remedial for deficient fire signs. Morris’ sole fire sign placement
is his North Node in Aries - sign of the head and eyes. Perhaps light or color therapy
directed to this bodily region would help because the North Node represents a natural
entry portal. Dance is enjoyed by Piscine natives who otherwise hate to move, and forces
the needed oxygen intake!

The Liver is assigned to Jupiter and Virgo. Morris’ chart shows two testimonies of a
sluggish liver, because Jupiter falls in Capricorn and Saturn tenants Virgo13. Jupiter’s
emotions are expansive and joyful. Protracted liver damage affects the victim’s ability to
feel these uplifting feelings.

Piscine natives in particular respond to vibrational remedies such as flower essences,

homeopathy, gemstone prescriptions14 or music therapy. They are notably vulnerable
to supernatural interference and this should be investigated in many cases of mental
derangement. Where Pisces dominates, (as in Morris’ case), one might suspect past life
memories and/or negative psychic influences as contributing factors.

Morris’ dominant 9th house (Sun, Moon, Mars) is obviously central for both cause and
solution. However, he rebels against religion, (as one might suspect with the tense Mars/
Saturn opposition across his 3rd-9th house axis.) Perhaps a worthy battle would help.
Indeed, Morris’ immense courage awakens when fighting subversive causes against all
odds.

The cold, moist water signs are traditionally balanced by stimulating herbs and spices. We
would also suspect that cold, dark, moist environments would increase Morris’ “blues”,
as would wintertime. Morris can be helped if the right remedies were found!

22 /26
 CONCLUSION
The understanding of Chronic Depression is enhanced through a clear understanding
of each sufferer’s underlying astrological energetics as provided by their birth chart and
current transits. Truly, astrology is in itself one of the most ancient and sophisticated
systems for mapping the total human entity.

The traditional view that symptoms of ‘melancholy’ were produced by Saturn plus an
excess of the Melancholic and sometimes Phlegmatic ‘humors’ was incomplete at best, and
the influence of outer planets unknown. This ancient knowledge that cosmic cold, moist,
dark and slow energies underly depression is as a veritable gold mine for psychologists.
New research is also needed.

In understanding the astrology of Chronic Depression, we must first know its precise
symptoms and familiarize ourselves with the potentially causative planetary, sign and
elemental energetics. I’ve documented fifteen chart signatures that appear associated
with symptoms of Chronic Depression.

Saturn’s traditional role seems accurate, as does a prominence of planets in Saturn-ruled

signs Capricorn, and particularly Aquarius (maybe Capricorn types are too busy working
to be aware of a depressed state!)

However, the traditionally ‘phlegmatic’ water signs appear to match the symptoms of
chronic depression far better then do the supposedly ‘melancholic’ earth signs. This
error appears to have been caused when Hippocrates’ bodily humor ‘melancholy’ (or
black bile); and its assigned ‘melancholic temperament’ were wrongly conflated with the
astrological earth element (and therefore the three earth signs).

Neptune’s diffusive rays by conjunction or hard aspect plays a role in this malady too,
as does the South Lunar Node’s conjunctions. Both these bodies when negative can be
productive of “downer” influences, apathy and psychic sensitivity. (Neptune was first
discovered in water sign Cancer, and is now thought to be a co-ruler of water sign Pisces.)
Neptune expresses as a longing for the “other side” and a desire to escape this world. It is
also a notoriously sleepy planet.

Light deficiency in the birth chart appears an important theme! Winter births, night births
and late Moon Phase natives appear more likely to experience depression, especially
is all three conditions simultaneously attend the birth time. Curiously, I observed this
phenomenon years before ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’ was clinically established and
light deficiency designated as a unique category of depression!

23 /26
These examples show that Chronic Depression can occur when one energy is in excess
with the simultaneous deficiency of counterbalancing energies that would anti dote
the swing. A skilled astrologer learns to rate the balance of energies by noting the
preponderance of planets, signs and elements in the birth chart. To accomplish this, one
must first memorize the manifold conditions of planetary strength and weakness in a
birth chart, and understand how to realistically tally elements (see section on “Tallying
the Elements”.)

Traditionally, astrological energies were used to determine the balance of the four
states: hot, cold, wet and moist. We might also add dark/light, and fast/slow to this list.
Unbalanced extremes underly many mental and physical conditions.

In sum, a gross imbalance of energies potentiating Chronic Depression can occur when
a chart is cold/wet with little counteractive hot/dry. Cold/dry also shows depression. We
have also demonstrated that dark without light is preemptively depressive! Wintertime
night births during the moon’s last quarter or New Moon are especially prone. Slow
without fast is also contributive.

Furthermore, the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, including dysthymia,

would greatly benefit by considering long suppressed etiologies. In Blagrave’s Physick,
Renaissance physician-astrologer Joseph Blagrave documents wonderful cures of mental
health victims by treating constipation, or sometimes by removing causes far more
sinister.

It is time to reexamine the validity of at least three traditional etiologies no longer

acceptable to modern psychiatry: astrological, supernatural interference, and past life
memory imprints. To facilitate this need, I’ve created the annual Lost Secrets of Renaissance
Medicine Conference © and Medical Astrology 101.

Understanding planetary energetics from a physical and mental perspective helps us

qualify a world of unseen vibration ignored in all but the most maverick of psychiatric
practices.

Let us look forward to the day when astrology is reinstated as a useful tool for examining
the hidden energies and changing cosmic tides that contribute to mental illness, inclusive
of Chronic Depression.

As the great “Astrological Physician” Nicholas Culpepper said:

“A physician without astrology is like a pudding without fat”.

24 /26
 REFERENCES

1) Matthew Wood, The Practice of Traditional Herbalism, Chapter 1, “The Forgotten Energetics
of Western Medicine”, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA,
2) Claudius Ptolemy, Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, (140 A.D.) Chapter 4, p. 13; Chapter 16, p.101, Aries
Press, Chicago, Ill., 1936, 1944.
3) Patrick Ball, An Astrolo-Physical Compendium, p. 14, London, 1794.
4) Cornell, M.D., D.A., The Encyclopaedia of Medical Astrology, H.L. p.112, “cold”, Llywellyn
Publications, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1972.
5) Daniel De Foe, A Journal of the Plague Year, (written in 1722), pp. 20-21, footnote 9. W.W.
Norton and Company, New York, NY, 1992.
6) Joseph Blagrave, edited by William Roell, 2010 Blagrave’s Astrological Practice of Physick,
(1671), p. 180.
7) C.E.O. Carter, B.A.,The Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology, p. 125 Theosophical
Publishing House, 1972.
8) Patrick Logan, Irish Country Cures, pp.. 7, 61, 163-164, Apple Tree Press, Belfast, 1981.
Conrad M. Arensberg, The Irish Countryman: An Anthropological Study, Chapter 6: “The Good
People”, American Museum Sciences Books, Garden City, NY, 1937, 1968.
9) Judith Hill, Audio: “Supernatural Classes of Disease”, The Renaissance Medicine Conference
©, Portland, Oregon 2013
10) Dr. A.K. Bhattacharya and Dr. D. N. Ranchandra, The Science of Cosmic Ray Therapy or
Teletherapy, Firma KLM Private Limited, Calcutta 1972, reprint 1976
11) Maseru Emoto, The Hidden Messages in Water, Atria Books, 2011
12) Judith Hill, The Astrological Body Types, pp. 88, 137 revised 1997, Stellium Press, 1993,
1997, revised 2011.
13) Judith Hill, Medical Astrology: A Guide to Planetary Pathology, Stellium Press, 2005.
14) Harish Johari, The Healing Power of Gemstones in Tantra, Ayurveda, Astrology, Destiny
Books, Rochester, VT, 1988

25 /26
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
CONTRIBUTORY TEXTS

The Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick, Nicholas Culpepper,
1655, Astrological Classics, an imprint of The Astrology Center of America, Astrological Classics,
The Astrology Center of America
The Greatest Benefit to Humanity: The Medical History of Humanity, Roy Porter, 1997, W.W.
Norton & Company, NY, London.
Devils, Drugs and Doctors, pp. 369-371, Howard W. Howard, Blue Ribbon Books, 1929.
Paracelcus: Magic into Science, pp. 114, Henry Pachter, Collier Books, 1961.
Christian Astrology, William Lilly, 1947, p.p. 576-586, Astrological Classics, Astrology Center of
America, reprinted 2001.
The Ancient Astrological Gemstones and Talismans Richard, S. Brown, 1995.
Davidson’s Medical Lectures, Chapters 3,4,5, edited by Vivia Jayne, Astrological Bureau,
Monroe, NY.
The Cosmic Clocks, Chapter 9, 12, Michel Gauquelin, Avon Books, 1969
“Saturn as Fundamental”, p. 34, Medical Astrology, Judith Hill.
New York- “Understanding Depression in the Jewish Population”, VIN NEWS by Rabbit Doctor
Abraham J. Twerski., March 3, 2010.
“Higher Rate of Depression Found in Jewish Men”, The Associated Press, May 23, 1995.

26 /26
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Fig. 128.—Terra-cotta statuette.
Actual size. British Museum.
Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.
It may be thought, perhaps with truth, that the sculptor has
overdone these details, and that his figures are, in some degree,
sacrificed to the decorations about them. Other examples from the
same series, give a higher idea of the sculpture of this time; we may
cite especially a fragment possessed by the Louvre, in which the
treatment is of the skilfullest (Plate X). It represents Assurbanipal in
his war-chariot at the head of his army. The chariot itself, and all the
accessories, such as the umbrella and the robes of the king and his
attendants, are treated with great care but they do not unduly attract
the eye of the spectator. We can enjoy, as a whole, the group formed
by the figures in the chariot, and those who march beside and
behind it. Its arrangement is clear and well balanced; there is no
crowding, the spacing of the figures is well judged and the
movement natural and suggestive. The king dominates the
composition as he should, and his umbrella happily gathers the lines
of the whole into a pyramid. In all this there is both knowledge and
taste.
 The best of the Assyrian terra-cottas also belong to this period.
The merit of their execution may be gathered from the annexed
statuette, which comes from the palace of Assurbanipal (Fig. 128).
From the staff in its hands it has been supposed to represent a king,
but we know that every Assyrian was in the habit of carrying a stick
with a more or less richly ornamented head, and here we find neither
a tiara nor the kind of necklace which the sovereign generally wore
(see Fig. 116). I am inclined to think it is the image of a priest.
In conclusion we may say that, in some respects, Assyrian
sculpture was in a state of progression when the fall of Nineveh
came to arrest its development and to destroy the hopes it inspired.

§ 7.—Polychromy.

We have now studied Mesopotamian sculpture in its favourite

themes, in its principal conventions, and in the fluctuations of its
taste and methods of work; we have yet to ask whether this
sculpture, which differed in so many ways from the plastic art of
Egypt, differed from it also in absence of colour. We have put off this
question until now, because we had first to determine what materials
the architect and sculptor employed, how they employed them, and
what part was played by figures in relief and in the round in the
architectonic creations of Chaldæa and Assyria.
In speaking of Egypt we have explained how a brilliant light
destroys the apparent modelling of objects, how, by the reflections it
casts into the shadows, it interferes with our power to distinguish one
distant plane from another.[273] In every country where a vertical sun
shines in an unclouded sky, the decorator has had to invoke the help
of colour against the violence of the light, has had to accept its aid in
strengthening his contours, and in making his figures and ornaments
stand out against their ground. In describing Egyptian polychromy
we said that we should find the same tendency among other nations,
different in character and origin, but subjected to the influence of
similar surroundings. We also allowed it to be seen that we should
have to notice many changes of fashion in this employment of
colour. Colour played a different and more important part in one
place or period than in another, and it is not always easy to specify
the causes of the difference. In the Egyptian monuments hardly a
square inch of surface can be found over which the painter has not
drawn his brush; elsewhere, in Greece for instance, we shall find him
more discreet, and his artificial tints restricted to certain well-defined
parts of a figure or building.
Did Assyria follow the teaching of Egypt, or did she strike out a
line of her own, and set an example of the reserve that was
afterwards to find favour in Greece? That is the question to be
answered. Before we can do so we must produce and compare the
evidence brought forward by Botta, Layard, Place and others, who
saw the Assyrian sculptures reappear in the light of day. Ever since
those sculptures were recovered they have been exposed to the air;
they have undergone all the handling and rubbing involved in a
voyage to Europe; and for the last twenty or thirty years they have
been subjected to the dampness of our climate. We need, then, feel
no surprise that traces of colour still visible when the pick-axe of the
explorer freed the alabaster slabs from their envelope of earth have
now disappeared.
Before examining our chief witnesses, the men who dug up
Khorsabad, and Nimroud, and Kouyundjik, we may, to some extent,
foretell their answers. We have already explained how the
Mesopotamian architect made use of colour to mask the poverty of
his construction and to furnish the great bare walls of his clay
buildings. Both inside and outside, the Assyrian palaces had the
upper parts of their walls and the archivolts of their doors decorated
with enamelled bricks or paintings in distemper. Is it to be supposed
that where the reliefs began all artificial tinting left off, and that the
eye had nothing but the dull grey of gypsum and limestone to
wander to from the rich dyes of the carpets with which the floors
were strewn? Nothing could well be more disagreeable than such a
contrast. In our own day, and over the whole of the vast continent
that stretches from China to Asia Minor, there is not a stuff, however
humble, that is woven on the loom or embroidered by the needle, but
betrays an instinctive feeling for harmony so true and subtle that
every artist wonders at it, and the most tasteful of our art workmen
despair of reaching its perfection, and yet many of these faultless
harmonies were conceived and realized in the tent of the nomad
shepherd. We can hardly believe that in the palace where official art
lavished all its resources in honour of its master, there could be any
part from which the gaiety that colour gives was entirely excluded,
especially if it was exactly the part to which the eye of every visitor
would be most surely attracted.
Before going into the question of evidence one might, therefore,
make up our minds that the Assyrian architect never allowed any
such element of failure to be introduced into his work; and the
excavations have made that conclusion certain. The Assyrian reliefs
were coloured, but they were not coloured all over like those of
Egypt; the grain of the stone did not disappear, from one end of the
frieze to the other, under a layer of painted stucco. Flandin, the
draughtsman attached to the expedition of M. Botta, alone speaks of
a coat of ochre spread over the bed of the relief and over the nude
portions of the figures;[274] he confesses, however, that the traces
were very slight and that they occurred only on a slab here and
there. Botta, who saw the same slabs, thought his colleague
mistaken.[275] Place is no less decided: “None of us,” he says, “could
find any traces of paint upon the undraped portions of the figures,
and it would be very extraordinary if among so many bare arms and
bare legs, to say nothing of faces, not one should have retained any
vestige of colour if they had all once been painted.”[276] We might be
inclined to ask whether the traces of pigment that have been noticed
here and there upon the alabaster might not have been the remains
of a more widespread coloration, the rest of which had disappeared.
Strong in his experience, Place thus answers any doubts that might
be expressed on this point: “We never found an ornament, a
weapon, a shoe or sandal, partially coloured; they were either
coloured all over or left bare, while objects in close proximity were
without any hue but their own. Sometimes eyes and eyebrows were
painted, while hair and beard were left untouched; sometimes the
tiara with which a figure was crowned or the fan it carried in its hand
was painted while the hand itself and the hair that curled about the
head showed not the slightest trace of such an operation; elsewhere
colour was only to be found on a baldrick, on sandals, or the fringes
of a robe.” Wherever these colours existed at all they were so fresh
and brilliant at the time of discovery that no one thought of explaining
their absence from certain parts of the work by the destruction of the
pigment. “How is it,” continues Place, “that, if robes were painted all
over, we only found colour on certain accessories, on fringes and
embroideries? How is it that if the winged bulls were coated in paint
from head to foot, not one of the deep grooves in their curled beards
and hair has preserved the slightest vestige of colour, while the white
and black of their eyes, which are salient rather than hollowed,
remain intact? Finally, we may mention the following purely
accidental, and therefore all the more significant, fact: a smudge of
black paint, some two feet long, was still clearly visible on the breast
of one of the colossi in the doorway of room 19.[277] How can we
account for the persistence of this smudge, which must have fallen
upon the monster’s breast while they were painting its hair, if we are
to suppose that the whole of its body was covered with a tint which
has disappeared and left no sign?”
Such evidence is decisive. The colouring of the Assyrian reliefs
must always have been partial. The sculptor employed the painter
merely to give a few strokes of the brush which, by the frankness
and vivacity of their accent, should bring the frieze into harmony with
the wall that enframed it. Nothing more was required to destroy the
dull monotony of the long band of stone. At the same time these
touches of colour helped to draw attention to certain details upon
which the sculptor wished to insist.
For all this, four colours were enough. Observers agree in saying
that black, white, red and blue made up the whole palette.[278] These
tints were everywhere employed pretty much in the same fashion.
[279]

In those figures in which drapery covered all but the head, the
latter was, of course, more important than ever. The artist therefore
set himself to work to increase its effect as much as he could. He
painted the eyeball white, the pupil and iris, the eyebrows, the hair
and the beard, black; sometimes the edges of the eyelids were
defined with the same colour. The band about the head of the king or
vizier is often coloured red, as well as the rosettes which in other
figures sometimes decorate the royal tiara. The same tint is used
upon fringes, baldricks, sandals, earrings, parasols and fly-flappers,
sceptres, the harness of horses and the ornamental studs or bosses
with which it was covered, and the points of weapons.[280] In some
instances blue is substituted for red in these details. Place speaks of
a fragment lost in the Tigris on which the colours were more brilliant
than usual; upon it the king held a fan of peacock’s feathers coloured
with the brightest mineral blue.[281]
When figures held a flower in their hands it was blue, and at
Khorsabad a bird on the wing was covered with the same tint.[282] In
some bas-reliefs red and blue alternate in the sandals of the figures
and harness of the horses.[283] We find a red bow with a blue quiver.
[284] The flames of towns taken and set on fire by the Assyrians were

coloured red in many of the Khorsabad reliefs.[285]

A few traces of colour may still be discovered upon some of
Sargon’s sculptures in the Louvre and upon those of Assurnazirpal in
the British Museum.[286] I could find no remains of colour either upon
the reliefs of Assurbanipal or upon those of Sennacherib, where,
moreover, Layard tells us he could discover none.[287]
It would be very strange however, if in these palaces of the last of
the Sargonids the decorator had deliberately renounced the beauties
of that discreet system of polychromy of which the traces are to be
found in all the earlier palaces. It is possible that these touches of
colour were reserved for the last when the palaces were erected,
and that something may have happened to prevent them from being
placed on the sculptures of these two sovereigns.
So far as we can discover, no trace of colour has been found on
any of the arched steles or isolated statues left to us by Chaldæa
and Assyria. This abstention is to be explained by the nature of the
materials at the disposal of the sculptor in Chaldæa, the cradle of his
art. These were chiefly igneous rocks, very hard, very close in grain
and dark in colour, and susceptible of a very high polish. The
existence of such a polish disposes of any idea that the figures to
which it was given were ever painted. The pigment would not have
stayed long on such a surface, and besides, the reds and blues
known to the Ninevite artists would have had a very poor effect on a
blue-black ground.
On the other hand, when they set to work to model in clay the
Assyrians could give free rein to their love for colour. Most of the
statuettes found in the ruins of their palaces had been covered with a
single uniform tint, which, thanks to the porous nature of the
material, is still in fair preservation. The tint varies between one
figure and another, and, as they are mostly figures of gods or
demons, the idea has been suggested that their colours are
emblematic.[288] Thus the Louvre possesses a statuette from
Khorsabad representing a god crowned with a double-horned tiara,
and covered all over, flesh and drapery alike, with an azure blue.[289]
A demon with the head of a carnivorous animal, from the same
place, is painted black, a colour that seems to suggest a malevolent
being walking in the night and dwelling in subterranean regions.[290]
The Assyrians also made use of what has been sometimes called
natural polychromy, that is to say they introduced different materials
into the composition of a single figure, each having a colour of its
own and being used to suggest a similar tint in the object
represented. Several fragments of this kind may be seen in the
cases of the British Museum.[291] We may give as examples some
eyes in black marble; the ball itself is ivory while the pupil and iris are
of blue paste, a sandy frit in which the colour sank deeply before
firing. Beards and hair were also made of this material; they have
been found in several instances, without the heads to which they
belonged. In the ruins from which he took these objects, Layard saw
arms, legs and torsos of wood. They were so completely carbonized
by fire that they could not be removed; at the least touch they
crumbled into powder.
With wood, with enamel and coloured earths, with stones, both
soft and hard, and metals both common, like bronze, and precious,
like gold and silver, the sculptor built up statues and statuettes in
which the peculiar beauty to be attained by the juxtaposition of such
heterogeneous materials, was steadily kept in view. With inferior
taste and less feeling for purity of form than the Greeks, this art was
identical in principal with the chryselephantine sculpture that created
the Olympian Zeus and the Athene of the Parthenon.
The idea that sculpture is the art in which form is treated to the
exclusion of colour is quite a modern one.[292] The sculptor of
Assyria was as ready to mix colour with his contours as his confrère
of Egypt, but he made use of it in more sober and reserved fashion.
How are we to explain the difference? It is easier to prove the fact
than to give a reason for it. It may be said that the sunlight is less
constant and less blinding in Mesopotamia than in the Nile valley,
and that the artist was not called upon to struggle with such
determination, by the profusion and brightness of his colours, against
the devouring illumination that impoverishes outlines and obliterates
modelling. We must also bear in mind the habits formed by work in
such materials as basalt and diorite, which did not lend themselves
kindly to the use of bright colours.
In any case the fact itself seems incontestable. We cannot say of
the Ninevite reliefs as we said of those of Thebes, that they
resembled a brilliant tapestry stretched over the flat wall-surfaces. If,
in most of the buildings, touches of paint freely placed upon the
accessories and even upon the figures and faces, lightened and
varied the general appearance of the sculptures, still the naked
stone was left to show all over the bed and over the greater part of
the figures. From this we must not conclude, however, that the
Assyrians and Chaldæans did not possess, and possess in a very
high degree, the love for bold and brilliant colour-schemes which
even now distinguishes their degenerate posterity, the races
inhabiting the Euphrates valley and the plateau of Iran. But they
gratified their innate and hereditary taste in a different way. It was to
their woven stuffs, to their paintings in distemper and their enamelled
faïence that the buildings of Mesopotamia owed that gaiety of
appearance which has led us to compare them with the mosques of
Turkey and Persia.
 § 8.—Gems.

“Every Babylonian had a seal,” says Herodotus;[293] this fact

seems to have struck him directly he began to explore the streets
and bazaars of the great oriental city. These seals, which appear to
have attracted the eye of the historian by the open manner in which
they were carried and the continual use made of them in every
transaction of life, public or private, are now in our museums. They
are to be found in hundreds in all the galleries and private collections
of Europe.[294]
When Chaldæan civilization became sufficiently advanced for
writing to be in widespread use and for every man to provide himself
with his own personal seal, no great search for convenient materials
was necessary. The rounded pebbles of the river beds gave all that
was wanted. The instinct for personal adornment is one of the
earliest felt by mankind, and just as the children of to-day search in
the shingle of a beach for stones more attractive than the rest, either
by their bright colours, or vivid markings or transparency of paste, so
also did the fathers of civilization. And when they had found such
stones they drilled holes through them and made them into earrings,
necklaces and bracelets. More than one set of pebble ornaments
has been preserved for us in the Chaldæan tombs. In many
instances forms sketched out by the accidents of nature have been
carried to completion by the hand of man (Fig. 129). They were not
long contented with thus turning a pebble into a jewel. The fancy
took them to engrave designs or figures upon them so as to give a
peculiar value to the single stone or to sets strung into a necklace,
which thus became a kind of amulet (Fig. 130).
In the first instance this engraving was nothing more than an
ornament. But one day it occurred to some possessor of such a
stone to take an impression upon plastic clay. Those who saw the
image thus obtained were struck by its precision, and were soon led
to make use of it for authenticating acts and transactions of every
kind. The presence of such an impression upon a document would
perpetuate the memory of the man who put it there, and would be
equivalent to what we call a sign manual.
 But even when it developed into a seal the engraved stone did
not lose its talismanic value. In order to preserve its quasi-magic
character, nothing more was required than the presence of a god
among the figures engraved upon it. By carrying upon his person the
image of the deity in which he placed his confidence, the Chaldæan
covered himself with his protection as with a shield, and something
of the same virtue passed into the impressions which the seal could
produce in such infinite numbers.
 Fig. 129.—River pebble
which has formed part of a
necklace.

Fig. 130.—River pebble engraved; from De

Gobineau.
No subject occurs more often on the cylinders than the celestial
gods triumphing over demons. Such an image when impressed upon
the soft clay would preserve sealed-up treasures from attempts
inspired by the infernal powers, and would interest the gods in the
maintenance of any contract to which it might be appended.[295]
To all this we must add that superstitions, of which traces subsist
in the East to this day, ascribed magic power to certain stones.
Hematite, for instance, as its name suggests, was supposed to stop
bleeding, while even the Greeks believed that a carnelian gave
courage to any one who wore it on his finger.
When engraving on hard stone was first attempted, it was, then,
less for the love of art than for the profit to be won by the magic
virtues and mysterious affinities, both of the material itself, and of the
image cut in its substance. Then, with the increase of material
comfort, and the development of social relations, came the desire of
every Chaldæan to possess a seal of his own, a signet that should
distinguish him from his contemporaries and be his own peculiar
property, the permanent symbol of his own person and will. So far as
we can tell, none but the lowest classes were without their seals;
these latter when they were parties or witnesses to a contract, were
contented with impressing their fingernails on the soft clay. Such
marks may be found on more than one terra-cotta document; they
answer to the cross with which our own uneducated classes supply
the place of a signature.
When the use of the seal became general, efforts were made to
add to its convenience. In order to get a good impression it was
necessary that the design should be cut on a fairly even and regular
surface. The river pebbles were mostly ovoid in form and could
easily be made cylindrical by friction, and the latter shape at last
became so universal that these little objects are always known as
cylinders. These cylinders were long neglected, but within the last
few years they have been the subject of some curious researches.
[296] They may be studied from two different points of view. We may
either give our attention to the inscriptions cut upon them and to their
general historical significance, or we may endeavour to learn what
they may have to teach as to the religious myths and beliefs of
Chaldæa. As for us we are interested in them chiefly as works of art.
It will be our duty to give some idea of the artistic value of the figures
they bear, and to describe the process by which the engraving was
carried out.
The cylinders are, as a rule, from two to three-fifths of an inch in
diameter, and from three quarters of an inch to an inch and a half in
length. Some are as much as an inch and three quarters, or even
two inches long, but they are quite exceptional.[297] The two ends
are always quite plain—the engraving is confined to the convex
surface. As a rule the latter is parallel to the axis, but in some cases
it is hollowed in such a fashion that the diameter of the cylinder is
greater at the ends than in the middle (Fig. 131).
Nearly every cylinder is pierced lengthwise, a narrow hole going
right through it. Those that have been found without this hole are so
very few in number that we may look upon them as unfinished. In
some cases the hole has been commenced at both ends, but the drill
has stopped short of the centre, which still remains solid.

Fig. 131.—Concave-faced
cylinder; from Soldi.

Fig. 132.—Cylinder with modern

mount; from Rawlinson.
The cylinders were suspended by these holes, but how? In
casting about for an answer to this question, the idea that the
Babylonian attached the greatest importance to the clear
reproduction, in the clay, of every detail of the design engraved upon
his seal, has been taken as a starting point, and a system of
mounting invented for him which would leave nothing to be desired
in that respect (see Fig. 132). It is a reproduction, in small, of a
garden roller; as a restoration, however, it can hardly be justified by
the evidence of the monuments. Examine the terra-cotta tablets on
which these seals were used, and you will see that their ancient
possessors did not, as a rule, attempt to impress the whole of the
scenes cut in them upon the soft clay. It is rare to find an impression
as sharp and complete as that on the tablet from Kouyundjik, which
we borrow from Layard (Fig. 133). In the great majority of cases
signatories were content with using only one side of their seals,
usually the side on which their names were engraved. Sometimes
when they wished to transfer the whole of their cylinder to the clay,
they did so by several partial and successive pressures.[298]
The imperfect stamp with which the Chaldæans were satisfied
could easily be produced without the help of such a complicated
contrivance as that shown in our Fig. 132. Nothing more was
necessary than to lay the cylinder upon the soft clay and press it with
the thumb and fore-finger. The hole through its centre was used not
to receive an armature upon which it might turn, but merely for
suspending it to some part of the dress or person. In most cases it
must have been hung by a simple cord passed round the neck. Now
and then, however, the remains of a metal mount have been found in
place, but this is never shaped like that shown above. It is a bronze
stem solidly attached to the cylinder, and with a ring at its upper
extremity (Fig. 134).[299] Cylinders are also found with a kind of ring
at one end cut in the material itself (Fig. 135).
How were these cylinders carried? They must have been
attached to the person or dress, both for the sake of the protecting
the image with which most of them were engraved, and for
convenience and readiness in use as seals. In Chaldæa the fashion
seems to have been, at one time, to fasten them to the wrist. In
those tombs at Warka and Mugheir that we have described, the
cylinders were found on the floors of the tomb-chambers, close to
the wrist-bones of the skeletons; and the latter had not been moved
since the bodies to which they had belonged were laid in the grave.
[300] This fashion was apparently abandoned by the Assyrians, for in
those reliefs which reproduce the smallest details of dress and
ornament with such elaboration, we can never find any trace of the
seal beside the bracelets. It is probable that it was hung round the
neck and put inside the dress, in front, for greater security. It never
occurs among the emblematic objects of which the necklace that
spreads over the chest outside the robe, is made up. To this day
traders in the East keep their seals in a little bag which they carry in
an inside pocket.
Fig. 133.—Tablet with impression from a
cylinder; from Layard.
Fig. 134.—Cylinder with ancient
bronze mount; from Soldi.

Fig. 135.—Cylinder and

attachment in one; from Soldi.
 Fig. 136.—Chaldæan cylinder;
from Ménant.

Fig. 137.—Impression from the same cylinder.

The practical requirements of the Mesopotamians were satisfied
with a hasty impression from their seals, but we must be more
difficult to please. Before we can study the cylinder with any
completeness we must have an impression in which no detail of the
intaglio is omitted; such a proof is to be obtained by a complete turn
of the cylinder upon some very plastic material, such as modelling-
wax, or fine and carefully mixed plaster-of-Paris. The operation
requires considerable skill. When it is well performed it results in a
minute bas-relief, a flat projection, in reverse, of the whole intaglio.
The subject represented and its execution can be much better seen
in a proof like this than on the original object, it is therefore by the
help of such impressions that cylinders are always studied; we make
use of them throughout this work. Our Figs. 136 and 137 give some
idea of the change in appearance between a cylinder and its
impression.
The cutting on the cylinders, or rather on all the engraved stones
of western Asia, is in intaglio. This is the earliest form of engraving
upon pietra-dura in every country; the cameo is always a much later
production; it is only to be found in the last stage of development,
when tools and processes have been carried to perfection. It is much
easier to scratch the stone and then to add with the point some
definition to the figure thus obtained, than to cut away the greater
part of the surface and leave the design in relief. The latter process
would have been especially difficult when the inscriptions borne by
many of the seals came to be dealt with. What long and painful
labour it would have required to thus detach the slender lines of the
cuneiform characters from the ground! And why should any attempt
of the kind be made? As soon as these engraved stones began to be
used as seals, there was every reason why the ancient process
should be retained. The designs and characters impressed upon
deeds and other writings were clearer and more legible in relief than
in intaglio. And it must be remembered that with the exception of
some late bricks on which letters are raised by wooden stamps, the
wedges were always hollowed out. We find but one period in the
history of Chaldæa when, as under the early dynasties of Egypt, her
written characters were chiselled in relief. It is, then, apparent that
the artists of Chaldæa would have done violence to their own
convictions and departed from long established habits, had they
deserted intaglio for work in relief. That they did not do so, even
when their skill was at its highest point, need cause us no surprise.
The Chaldæans naturally began with the softest materials, such
as wood, bone, and the shells picked up on the shores of the
Persian Gulf. Fragments of some large pearl oysters and of the
Tridacna squamosa, on which flowers, leaves, and horses have
been engraved with the point, have been brought from lower
Chaldæa to London (see Fig. 138).[301] Limestone, black, white, and
veined marble, and the steatite of which most of the cylinders are
made, were not much more difficult. These substances may easily
be cut with a sharp flint, or with metal tools either pointed or chisel-
shaped. With a little more effort and patience still harder materials,
such as porphyry and basalt; or the ferruginous marbles—
serpentine, syenite, hematite—could be overcome. The oldest
cylinders of all, those that are attributed to the first Chaldæan
monarchy, are mostly of these stubborn materials; their execution
was easy enough to the men who produced the statues of Gudea.
[302] All that such men required to pass from the carving of life-size
figures to the cutting of gems was good eyesight and smaller tools.
It was only towards the end of this period that more unkindly
stones began to be used, such as jasper and the different kinds of
agate, onyx, chalcedony, rock-crystal, garnets, &c. The employment
of such materials implies that of the characteristic processes of gem-
cutting, whose peculiarity consists in the substitution of friction for
cutting, in the supercession of a pointed or edged tool by a powder
taken from a substance harder, or at least as hard, as the one to be
operated upon. “The modern engraver upon precious stones,” says
M. Soldi, “sets about his work in this fashion. He begins by building
up a wax model of his proposed design upon slate. He then takes
the stone to be engraved, and fixes it in the end of a small wooden
staff. This done he makes use, for the actual engraving, of a kind of
lathe, consisting of a small steel wheel which is set in motion by a
large cast-iron flywheel turned by the foot. To the little wheel are
attached small tools of soft iron, some ending in a rounded button,
others in a cutting edge. The craftsman holds the staff with the stone
in his left hand; he brings it into contact with the instrument in the
lathe, while, from time to time, he drops a mixture of olive oil and
diamond dust upon it with his right hand; with the help of this powder
the instrument grinds out all the required hollows one after the
other.”[303]