Sources: the texts and the calculations
Every statement on this site points to a dated text or to a calculation anyone can repeat.
The texts
| Text | Date | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Arbatel. De magia veterum, Basel, [Pietro Perna] | 1575 | The born magician: “Magus est persona ex utero matris ad hoc genus operis prædestinata” (aphorism 42). Robert Turner’s 1655 English: “a Magitian is a person predestinated to this work from his mothers wombe”. Latin and English text. |
| Johannes Angelus, Astrolabium planum in tabulis ascendens, Augsburg | 1488 | The earliest printed edition of the 360 images, attributed to Pietro d’Abano. English by Raphael, The Faces and Degrees of the Zodiac, 1879: archive.org. This is the text quoted on every degree page. |
| P. Christian (Jean-Baptiste Pitois), L’Homme rouge des Tuileries, Paris | 1863 | The “Theban calendar”: the same 360 images in French, presented as Egyptian. This is where the two Magi appear. |
| Sepharial, La Volasfera (after Antonio Borelli) | 1898 | A second series of images, summarised here for the six degrees of the rule. |
| Janduz, Les 360 degrés du zodiaque, Paris | 1938 | Merges the two series: the magus who speaks an incantation before two interlaced triangles. |
What the Magus owes to Paul Christian
Comparing the editions shows that the Magus is not in the 1488 text.
| Degree | Angelus, 1488 (English of 1879) | Christian, 1863 (our translation) |
|---|---|---|
| the 21st degree of Sagittarius | “A man standing in the habit of a doctor.” It denotes a wise man. | “A Magus, the tiara on his brow and the sceptre in his hand.” Aptitude for the high sciences. |
| the 2nd degree of Libra | “A clergyman with a pot of incense.” It signifies a religious and faithful person. | “A Magus burning incense on an altar.” Contemplative character, religious leanings. |
| the 18th degree of Sagittarius | “A man holding a bird by the tail, and in the other hand a burning torch.” The person signified hereby will be a fowler, or a searcher of secrets. | “A man holding a bird by the tail in one hand and a torch in the other.” Aptitude for the study of the occult sciences. |
The doctor in his gown becomes a Magus with a tiara, the clergyman with his incense becomes a Magus, and the “searcher of secrets” becomes a student of the occult sciences. The Egyptian origin of the calendar is Christian’s assertion: no manuscript older than the Latin tradition of Pietro d’Abano is known.
What is said, and what the texts say
| What is said | What the texts say |
|---|---|
| The 21st degree of Sagittarius shows a robed magus in a tiara tracing a hexagram and a triangle. | Correct if two sources are joined: the Magus with the tiara (1863) and the interlaced triangles of the Volasfera (1898). |
| The 2nd degree of Libra is a degree of ceremonial magic. | Correct for 1863: “A Magus burning incense on an altar.” |
| The eye in the flaming triangle is on the 15th degree of Leo. | It is on the 8th degree of Leo, in the Volasfera. |
| A third degree, in Capricorn, concerns black magic. | None of the thirty degrees of Capricorn mentions magic in any of the three series. |
The calculations
Positions are computed with Astronomy Engine (MIT licence), accurate to about an arc-minute from 1700 to 2100. Apparent geocentric longitudes.
- Tropical zodiac: counted from the equinox of the date. The zodiac of everyday Western astrology, and of P. Christian.
- Sidereal zodiac: fixed to the stars, Lahiri ayanamsa (23°51′ on 1 January 2000). The “24-degree shift” sidereal practitioners speak of.
Both zodiacs are always shown side by side, because the rule was stated in one and the text was written for the other.
The people
Wikidata, CC0 licence, extracted on 2 October 2026. Only deceased people are published.