The "latent" Synastry of Donald and Melania Trump!

Although I am a sort of "synastry-holic" guy, the idea of studying Donald Trump's and Melania's synastry was never particularly appealing to me. As most people, I was seeing in these two an unscrupulous businessman and an avid "gold-digger". So, to me there wasn't interesting stuff there. Not to mention the fact that nobody seemed to know Melania's time of birth, meaning that an eventual synastric study of theirs would be rather incomplete. But things have changed and Donald Trump is now the elected president of the United States while his wife Melania the First Lady! A synastric study of theirs seems more appealing than ever.

America is turning against its own self (Trump's Plutonian demonization)

There is a very odd thing going on in the United States these days. The Americans are massively protesting against Donald Trump, the President that they themselves elected just a couple of months ago! They are marching all over the country, shouting some diminishing and degrading slogans against their head of State  - and even publicly swearing at him (i.e. Madonna's case). Apparently the Americans have "demonized" their own president - before him taking office! To the eyes of a neutral, European observer (like the writer of this article) this seems to be a rather strange, abnormal situation...

Astro-analysis of George Michael's death (& life) - a "stellar overdrive"!

George Michael - "Exposurephotos"

Superstar Yorgos Panayiotou (George Michael's true greek-cypriot name) left the earthy dimensions on the very Christmas day - ironically, as his "Last Christmas" super hit was torrentially playing and airing all over the planet - and vanished into the ethereal (that he so much longed to artistically reach)!

The 13 signs controversy is actually discrediting the astronomers (not the astrologers)!

The "12 signs" Zodiac as a "magnetic belt" around the Earth

There is something annoying about the "13 Signs" issue, which keeps popping up every now and then in the mainstream media. You see, over the last 25 years, I have been publishing articles that explain how the zodiacal signs are actually twelve and how they cannot be thirteen (or 14, 19, 27 or any other number, for that matter). I've now come to the conclusion that all of my attempts to explain have been futile because ever since the 13 Signs issue resurfaced recently (and made headlines for the umpteenth time) people all around me are rather acrimoniously asking me about it. 

At first, I figured it would be best to ignore this problem in hopes that it will ultimately fizzle out - as it has in the past. However, it appears that this time things are different. Astrology is taking a "double whammy" hit that is mostly the result of misinformation, and it is essential for us, the true (cultured) astrologers, to step in!

The astrological causes of the grim "zeitgeist" running now through Europe!

According to the myth, Jupiter the father of all gods in the disguise of a bull abducted the beautiful phoenician princess Europa and brought her to the european continent! In this way the continent of Europe was "inaugurated"! Every myth is rich in symbolism and this specific one is recounting to us the fact that the current European continent was bound to become a blessed land, a land that would display at its fullest the archetypes of royalty, of joviality and of taurean stability and prosperity.

France under Pluto's (and Mars' Uranus') spell! The Nice massacre

As I had written back in November 2015 (when the "Bataclan" terrorist attack occured in Paris) the latest horoscope of France (the one of the so called "Fifth Republic") is currently receiving some very hard and deeply transformative astrological influences! These influences are mainly stemming out from transiting Pluto, which is steadily hovering in our days over the Tenth House of France's Fifth Republic chart (6 October 1958, 18:30, Paris) opposing its Moon in Cancer and squaring its Sun in Libra! These are some tremendous cosmic influences!

Planet "Nine": the next "Big Kahuna" in astrology!

An artist's depiction of planet "Nine" as envisioned by scientists (Credit: Caltech/ R. Hurt (IPAC))

Many extraordinary discoveries go largely unnoticed at the time they occur. Take for example the discovery of planet Uranus in 1781. Not very many astrologers realized back in 1781 that this new, outlandish planet - which actually upset the millennia old established astrological model of the seven "planets" in our Solar System - would ensue a gigantic leap for astrology! For decades (and even centuries) after the discovery of Uranus the astrologers continued erecting their horoscopes as before, by using the traditional set of planets and paying little attention to the "misfit" planet Uranus. But today it would be unthinkable for an astrologer who practices modern astrology not to include Uranus (and Neptune and Pluto) in a chart! These three "transcendental" planets have tremendously enriched our interpretative capacities and it was a pitty that the astrologers of those generations did not take advantage of their enormous potentiality.

Greek astrologers sentenced to 6 months of jail for insulting and libelling Thomas Gazis

On March 18, 2016 the greek astrologers Thanasis Matsotas, Katerina Saloniki and Dimitris Koronakis were tried at the 8th Athens magistrate's court, for the charges of unprovokedly insulting, defamating and libelling astrologer Thomas Gazis (charges pressed against the accused by Thomas Gazis back in 2010).

Both Matsotas and Saloniki were sentenced to six months of jail each!

Society as our Surrogate Family (the vital "Pillar" of our horoscopes)!

Every time I yield to the temptation of eating a delicious Greek candy I find myself crossing a high speed avenue, in order to get to my favorite pastry shop. There is a footbridge crossing over to the other side of that avenue and I often use the elevator to get up there. The elevator is a modern, "see through" one (even playing some lounge music). Inexplicably though (or not that much so) it is vandalized! Its glass paneling is cracked allover, as if wildly kicked or clubbed...And there is graffiti all over. It somehow makes me sad to see a communal good like this elevator in such a degraded state. You see, all the citizens of my area are benefiting from it, thus it should be kept as clean and intact as possible. Not everybody though is thinking it that way. To some this elevator is rather a target where they are unleashing their rage...But why?

The Antiochus of Commagene Lion Horoscope

Let me introduce you to the larger-than-life half-Greek, half-Armenian ancient king Antiochus I of Commagene. He lived in the first century BCE in Asia Minor (today’s Turkey) and apparently had a keen interest in astrology and hermeticism. Born on the 16th of the Greek-Macedonian month “Audynaios” which roughly corresponds to our month of December, Antiochus of Commagene was most likely a Sagittarius.

Jupiter in Virgo - the God of small things!

Without too much ado, planet Jupiter entered a few days ago (on August 11th) in the sign of Virgo! The event went largely unnoticed, probably because at the time most people in the northern hemisphere were taking their summer vacation! Thus, unlike the entrance of Jupiter in Leo a year ago, this was a "no fanfare", low profile event - but that's quite appropriate to the nature of Virgo!

The obscure Hitler's relationship with his niece Geli (an astrological analysis)

Astrology is a powerful tool! It enables us to transcend time and space, to penetrate entire centuries or even millennia and go back in the distant past and "experience" from an incredible vicinity some major historical occurrences that have been poorly recorded and thus remain obscure, to revive human stories and situations we know very little about. It enables us to probe and somehow "resuscitate" the lives, the character and the behaviours of historical key-figures and meaningful situations that would be otherwise irrevocably lost in the mist of the time....Thanks to astrology we are able of penetrating even the sanctuary of an intimate relationship (provided we are given the birth data of its members)!

The chart of the fatal “Air-Germanwings” pilot!

Pilot Andreas Lubitz (who according to the investigations intentionally crashed - on March 24th - the "Germanwings" plane into the French Alps) is not just a tragic suicidal figure but one of the major serial killers in world history as well (since he deliberately killed 149 innocent passengers and crew of the plane - among them several children )! This man somehow "sowed" an incredible amount of death into very many of his fellow-humans - while he brought hundreds of families on the verge of unfathomable pain and despair!

The Greek Declaration of Independence (and the true national horoscope of modern Greece!)

"If you can keep your head when all about you 
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, 
 If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 
But make allowance for their doubting too; 
 If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, 
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating
................................................................
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, 
And - which is more -you’ll be a Man, my son!"

This Rudyard Kipling's "If" poem was one of my favorites during my early adolescence. I couldn't entirely understand the melodramatic tone of the poem back then. I was just sensing that life - and the poet's talent - had distilled some omnipotent truth in this particular poem, so something was telling me to keep it in me as some precious resource. That proved to be a wise move because as the years were passing by I was ever more encountering situations were I had to make a stand against many individuals supporting a totally different point of view. I was thus resorting often to this poem, as I was struggling to maintain my inner balance. Because difficult as it might be to stand all alone against many it is (when creative) one of the holier tasks a human being can undertake...

The mysterious March 20th, 2015 “twin” Solar Eclipse

There is a particular factor that makes the March 20th, 2015 Solar Eclipse special: it falls right on the very last degree of the zodiac (on the last degree of Pisces – which is of course the last degree of the zodiac too). So this is a somehow “threshold” eclipse, ushering us into a state of “limbo”. It is a rather “dissolving” eclipse, whose basic task is to irrevocably close a cycle of things – but it is apparently encountering a lot of resistance in doing so. Some highly unstable and unpredictable conditions are likely to occur now and lead us into a state of a “dead-end path”, recycling things and ever returning us to the same point – producing thus global confusion, fatigue and unrest…

The astrological implications of lifting planet Pluto’s veil!

A monumental astronomical/ astrological event is going to occur in just a few months time! An event oddly coinciding with the Pluto’s “taking over” of the “World Zenith” (you may read about it here) and with the end of the Uranus - Pluto “seven fold” cosmic dance. I am talking about the first encounter ever of planet Pluto with a human artifact: the “New Horizons” space probe which was launched back in 2006 – destined to Pluto and beyond!

By now “New Horizons” is so close to Pluto that we are about to resolve this mysterious planet’s surface features - through the probe’s telescope! You see, living up to its namesake god’s reputation, Pluto has kept  its face strictly hidden from us till now (even with our strongest telescope we could just get a blurred image of it - of just a few pixels)! But all this is going to change and for the first time ever we are going to disclose the “awful face” of the god of the underworld!

That seems to be - on its own - a sort of “hubris” (in the Greek sense of the word)! Let us thus hope that no fatal event (fatality being a Plutonian attribute) will occur and the probe will successfully complete its mission. And without doubt, the arrival of “New Horizons” to Pluto will be celebrated as a major astronomical / space event. The fact is though that - under a “Semiotics” point of view - this flyby should be heralded as a major astrological event too!

For some mysterious (Plutonic?) reason, the major astronomical breakthroughs are all along triggering astrological breakthroughs too. This is not a conclusion stemming out purely from some theoretical, abstract field – such as the aforementioned “Semiotics”. There is ample evidence of it, drawn out of a series of similar past events. To cite one, the astronomical discovery of the “awaking” and revolutionary planet Uranus back in 1781 paradoxically coincided with a very radical and enlightened period in the world history, a period that ultimately bred the historical USA and French revolutions!

Thus, the imminent disclosure of Pluto’s face – for the very first time ever in the history of humanity – should be considered a meaningful event on an astrological level too! Shedding light on an archaic archetype of invisibility, of obscurity and darkness, seeing it from such a proximity and “stealing” with our cameras its face is entailing some kind of “intrusion” into the realm of the “under world“. The cosmic balance is going to be disrupted in some sense…

Don’t get me wrong though here! I am not against such a “disruption” – out i.e. of some shamanic ideology. I just regard this mission as a pivotal event that will produce a “quantum leap” for mankind and for our collective consciousness! It is very likely to trigger a chain of events around the Pluto flyby (on July 14), events mainly of an esoteric character that will entail a deep transformation for humanity …

In fact, as Pluto will be revealing to us for the first time ever its occult face it might as well bring us into contact with our own “shadow”! And it might eventually reveal to us some deep mysteries! Mysteries related to the life/death process, to some new intricacies of the human soul/unconscious or shocking discoveries regarding the universe (or the multi-universes), the nuclear physics and the paradoxical world of the “quantistic dimensions”…

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis

An original ancient horoscope (from the Oxyrhynchus collection)!

It doesn't seem like much but the image you see above depicts a  miraculously preserved ancient horoscope! It is a horoscope in its textual form that was habitual in that period and it derives from the Hellenistic Egypt, which is the cradle of modern, "horoscopic" Astrology! There, the ancient Greeks (in collaboration with Egyptian, Jewish etc. priests and scholars) created two thousand years ago an incredibly sophisticated Astrology, which is the precursor to the one we are practicing today.

This horoscope was found in the ruins of the Hellenistic city of Oxyrhynchus (160 km south of modern Cairo), which is located on the banks of a Nile's tributary. In this region the holly egyptian fish which in Greek is called "oxyrhynchus" (sturgeon) was abounding, hence the name of the city (which was the third largest in Hellenistic Egypt). It is a horoscope written on papyrus, which remained relatively intact for 18 whole centuries because it was buried in the Egyptian desert sand - in some ideal that is for its maintenance conditions. In fact this papyrus was found - along with thousands of others and dozens of horoscopes - in the ancient rubbish dump of the city of Oxyrhynchus!

As you can see, the above papyrus looks like eaten by bugs and it has major voids in it. The experts however managed (by the method of "crossword") to restore a large portion of the text. Let's see below its full "transcription":

(figure 2)

This is the horoscope of a person that was born (as you can see in the second paragraph of figure 2) in the third year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexander (this was the way they were identifying a particular year back then, on the base of the emperor ruling at the time). The individual was born in the sixteenth day of the Egyptian month "Choiak", in the fifth hour of the night (five "nocturnal" hours after sunset that is). This puzzling date actually corresponds to the date December 14, 223 CE at 9 pm. You can see the modern version (created by "Solar Fire Gold") of this ancient horoscope below :

If you watch closely, you will notice that some of the planets in figure 2 are in a different sign than the one given in the above modern horoscope (i.e. the Moon according to figure 2 is in Pisces but in the above modern horoscope is in Aquarius. Venus is in Sagittarius in figure 2 but in Scorpio in the modern horoscope  - and Mars is ultimately not in Scorpio but in Sagittarius). Actually behind this controversy lies a short story. Or rather, three stories!

I am inviting you to check carefully the photo of the papyrus horoscope at the top of this article! You might notice there three different handwritings (meaning that three different people wrote something on this papyrus)! At the very top of the papyrus there is the first handwriting (with the large capital Greek letters). It is providing us the original info for this horocope (written as I mentioned in a textual form, according to the habit of that era). But at the bottom left of the papyrus there is a different handwriting. A rather feisty character, writing with "lowercase" letters and at an upward angle. Actually, this person is correcting the spelling of certain words in the original text (he is correcting i.e. the greek word for the sign of Capricorn - which is originally written as "Εγοκερω" - into its right form "Αιγοκερω". Such a rare misspelling for the sign of Capricorn indicates that the astrologer who wrote the original text in this papyrus was either very poorly educated or a Greek speaking foreigner - usually an Egyptian or Hebrew).

Finally, there is a third handwriting at the bottom right of the papyrus. This is the handwriting of a second astrologer who seems to be more competent than the first one - not only in terms of spelling but in calculating the planetary positions too. You see him revising the planetary positions indicated by the first (not very competent) astrologer, marking with a tick - better distinguished in figure 2 - each planetary position he is checking over. He has identified two erroneous planetary positions, which he is marking with a symbol that looks like a greek lambda (λ): the Moon which is not in the sign of Pisces but in Aquarius and Mars which is not in Scorpio but in Sagittarius! The impeccable modern astrological program "Solarfire Gold" fully concords with him! It puzzles us though the fact that although this secod astrologer seems to be far more competent he fails to produce the proper position  of Venus (it is in Scorpio, not in Sagittarius). Maybe the ephemeris or the almanac the second astrologer used to calculate the position of Venus was somehow flawed in Venus' case...

We can say that the man for whom this horoscope was cast was not very happy with the first astrologer. Thus he eventually requested a second opinion from an apparently more competent astrologer. And today we are in the position to know that his second choice was the right one!

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis

A Fascinating Glimpse Into the Hellenistic Astrology through the miraculously Preserved Oxyrynchus Papyri !

The Oxyrhynchus papyri are a sort of time capsule miraculously preserving not only the literature but the daily life as well that was taking place some 2000 years ago, in the so called "Hellenistic Era"! Actually these papyri were discovered at an archeological excavation of an ancient rubbish dump near the Hellenistic city of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (one of the largest cities back then). Among some unknown-until-now literary works and many everyday, prosaic documents (like transactions' receipts, petitions and wedding invitations) there have been found many scraps of horoscopes - mostly in a textual form. These horoscopes are revealing to us the methods, the skills and the shortcomings of the astrologers of the time!

You may attend my online lecture "A Fascinating Glimpse Into the Hellenistic Astrology through the miraculously Preserved Oxyrynchus Papyri!" at the IAA's "Breaking down the Borders III" mega online Astrology Conference, taking place at the weekend Friday 14 - Sunday 16, November 2014. You will find my lecture at the "Traditional Track", on Saturday, Novemeber 15, 2014 - at 11:30 am U.S.A. EST time. At 4:30 pm European GMT time. At 3:30 am Australian EDT (Sun., Nov. 16, 2014)

Thomas Gazis  

A fatal kind of Synastry that resulted in Michelangelo's disfigurement!

                                                                 Michelangelo 

It is an irony that Michelangelo, the man who produced some of the finest works our world has ever seen and who glorified earth with heavenly beauty, was physically "ugly" himself! And not just ugly but actually disfigured! Not by nature but out of an act of violence inflicted upon him by one of his fellow students bearing the name Pietro Torrigiano!

Torrigiano was anything but a minor personality. In time he would become a great artist himself. He is accredited as the person who kick-started the British Renaissance (he escaped to England after injuring Michelangelo - as the latter was a protegee of the omnipotent Florentine family of the Medici)! Torrigiano was gifted alright but somehow unlucky too, as he was born at the same time and place as Michelangelo. This meant that he was condemned to live at the shadow of Michelangelo's towering geniusness. Thus, it does not surprise us at all the fact that he was very jealous of him.

All in all, he was a tough, "macho" kind of man (he was even drafted at some point as a mercenary soldier). Obviously he was longing for any kind of pretence that would offer him the chance to unleash his smouldering grudge towards Michelangelo. And this chance was  given to him on a day when the two were copying - as apprentists - side by side some frescoes. Michelangelo made some snide remark to Torrigiano who was so much enraged by it that he punched him on the nose, breaking it.

According to Torrigiano's own testimony of the event:

"This Buonarroti (Michelangelo) and I used when we were boys to go into the Church of the Carmine to learn drawing from the chapel of Masaccio. It was Buonarroti’s habit to banter all who were drawing there; and one day, among others, when he was annoying me, I got more angry than usual, and clenching my fist, gave him such a blow on the nose, that I felt bone and cartilage go down like biscuit beneath my knuckles; and this mark of mine he will carry with him to the grave."

There is obviously too much jealousy and animosity involved in the Michelangelo - Torrigiano relationship (especially from Torrigiano's part). And since the quality of a relationship depends largely on the type of Synastry that is formed between its members it seems as though the Michelangleo - Torrigiano Synastry was not a particularly happy one. And as we will soon see, indeed it wasn't!

We do have in our disposition the complete birth data for Michelangelo (his time of birth as well) so we can cast his complete natal chart (you may see it below). He was a double Pisces (Sun and Moon in Pisces) with a Sagittarius Ascendant! His natal Moon and the ruler of his horoscope (Jupiter) are both residing in his Second House (in a very "solid", down to earth and artistic House, that is)! His Sun is conjuncted by the ultra-energetic and bellicose planet Mars. Being a double Pisces he was meek alright but he was probably exhibiting as well some sudden Martian outbursts!

We know as well Torrigiano's date of birth: November 24, 1472 (Old Style of course - Julian Calendar). As you can see below Torrigiano was a Sagitturius with a Virgonean Moon. And as in Michelangelo's case he has a bellicose Sun / Mars conjunction too (in a fiery sign this time - no coincidence he is described as a man with a rather violent temper):

Although we don't know Torrigiano's time of birth we can still conduct a decent synastric study for these two Italian Renaissance artists. You may see their Synastry below (Michelangelo's chart in the inner wheel and Torrigiano's in the outer one):

We should start with the fact that their solar signs (Pisces and Sagittarius) are inharmonious. Although they traditionally share the same ruler - Jupiter - their natures (feminine - masculine, aquatic - igneous) are quite different and it is very hard for them to find some common ground. Michelangelo's and Torrigiano's respective Marses are not helping them either in that sense, as they are forming a square aspect among them - magnifying and exacerbating even the most trivial friction in their interaction. And since both their Marses are aspecting their respective Plutos' too the slightest friction among them was producing extreme turmoil in their souls and was thus escalating into a deadly hostility - as if their very existence were in jeopardy!

If we had to associate envy with a specific planet then most probably this would be Saturn (and Saturn is particularly envious in front of accomplishments, recognition and fame). And in the current Synastry Torrigiano's Saturn is forming a harsh square aspect to both Michelangelo's Sun and Mars! This means that Torrigiano was feeling somehow inadequate in front of Michelangeo. He must have been cultivating in his soul a deadly envy for the latter's brilliance, vivacity and talents! And as he was a couple of years senior to Michelangelo he probably tried to control and manipulate him, untill things escalated into that famous punching!

You see, although Torrigiano was too "macho", his Virgonean Moon was very sensitive to criticism.  Thus, Michelangelo's remarks seem to have upset him rather excessively and disproportionately to the occasion. And this due to the fact that Michelangelo's Mars and Pluto are forming stressful and somehow "corrosive" aspects with Torrigiano's Moon in Virgo.

This brief synastric analysis would be rather incomplete if we did not mention the fact that Torrigiano's Sun, Mars and Venus are all "falling" in Michelangelo's Twelfth House. The Twelfth House is a somehow "debilitating" area of the chart. Thus, if you are a tough guy you don't want your Sun and your Mars to fall in some other guy's Twelfth House - especially if you consider him a competitor of yours. In such an eventuality, you feel rather weak and confused when interacting with that guy. We might say that Torrigiano was somehow feeling "belittled" even by Michelangelo's mere presence! And that's a very discomforting sensation to someone who has not worked with himself and has not experienced the transcendental "Ego dissolution" state as a potentially "elevating" thing...The only alternative left then to the "raw" kind of people - in order for them to jump out of the numbing and humiliating limbo of the Twelfth House - is to resort to spasmodic acts and to an apparently unmotivated aggression...

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis

The (erected by Cardanus) horoscope of the top Byzantine/ Renaissance astrologer Trapezuntius!

                            (Portrait of the top Byzantine/ Renaissance astrologer George Trapezuntius)

Many historians nowadays are beginning to realize that the contribution of the Byzantine scholars to the Italian Renaissance - although much praised  - in reality has been underestimated! I could share my own testimony here - for the little it counts for - since I am researching Byzantine astrology for many years and I have come to the conclusion that the Byzantines Astrologers have substantially influenced their European colleagues - and the Renaissance Astrology in general!

A leading figure of the Byzantine and Renaissance Astrology - a figure that directly and indirectly influenced many European astrologers - is George of Trebizond (or George Trapezuntios)! He was born in 1396 in the island of Crete. His family originated from Trebizond in Pontus (now Trabzon in Turkey but back then a major Greek-Byzantine city and an important astronomical and astrological center). Trapezuntius was a true cultured Astrologer (we might call him today an "omniscient" as he was an astronomer, a mathematician, a translator, orator, philosopher, physician etc.).

People know next to nothing about Byzantium and the Byzantines. So, to make you realize - in the blink of an eye  - how important Trapezuntius has been to the European astrology I am inviting you to take a look at the photo below. It shows a list of the books that the famous English astrologer William Lilly had in his possession (he enlists them himself at the end of his book "Christian Astrology"). In this list we can clearly see that Lilly was studying the Georgius Trapezuntius' book "In centum Ptolomei Aphorismos"!

In those times Crete was under Venetian rule. Thus, in 1496 Trapezuntius - having already distinguished himself in literature, philosophy and science - moved to Venice in order to work as a secretary at the powerful politician and humanist Francesco Barbaro. Alongside his work he began teaching Greek (which was becoming "fashionable" back then in Italy) and probably astrology too! His fame spread rapidly throughout Italy and he was soon receiving invitations to teach at various universities (he taught at the ones of Vincenza, Florence and Rome). A few years after, an even greater recognition came for him by the hand of the very Pope Gregory IV (a great lover of literature and the arts) who appointed him an apostolic secretary!

In all those years Trapezuntius (apart from teaching letters, phisosophy, oratory and eventually translating greek texts into latin) was most probably practicing and teaching astrology too! We have a testimony on this from the famous Italian astrologer Lucas Gauricus. In his popular book "Tractatus astrologicus" Gauricus collected/ computed the horoscopes of the most illustrious scholars of his era and among them he displays the one of Trapezuntius! You may see it below in its square form that was very popular up to a couple of centuries ago. Gauricus is "tagging" Trapezuntius as an astronomer (a term that in the language of that era means mostly an astrologer!)

Below this horoscope Gauricus is adding some info on Trapezuntius (in Latin): "He was born in the island of Crete, whose latitude is 36 degrees. He has been a professor of letters in many Italian cities and a distinguished astronomer. He himself recorded all his relative birthday events (Gauricus means here the specific date and time of every Trapezuntius' Solar Return) and he computed this particular natal chart, in various Greek and Latin forms"!

The above horoscope looks neat and well calculated but in reality it is somehow inconsistent! First of all, it indicates as Trapezuntius birth year the one of 1395. In his biographies though Trapezuntius is reported as been born in 1396. To make things more complicated, the planetary positions in this horoscope do not correspond to the very year indicated on it (1395) but to the year 1396! Furthemore, the indicated time of birth is 12:20 "An. Mer." (meaning "Ante meridiem"), resulting to 00:20 AM. Thus Trapezuntius' full data of birth should be April 4, 1396, 00:20 in Iraklion - Crete. By providing these data to the overall infallible astrology program "Solar Fire Gold" we get the chart you see below (I am using the Porphyry house system that was the most popular in that period - Gauricus is using another house system that is none of the ones we are familiar with. I think it is the obsolete by now "Bianchinus").

What strikes us immediately is the fact that the Moon is in Aquarius and not in Pisces. Actually it is in the 16th degree of Aquarius, almost half a sign away from the position indicated by Gauricus (1 degree of Pisces). In fact, on that specific date the Moon would enter the sign of Pisces at 22:18 - almost 22 hours after the time indicated on Gauricus chart! For the rest, the other planetary positions are almost coinciding!

There is though another major Italian Renaissance astrologer who somehow paid tribute to Trapezuntius by publishing his horoscope as well: Hieronymus Cardanus!  In his book "Liber de exemplis centum geniturarum" ("A Book of a hundred nativities' examples", in which Caedanus is analyzing many horoscopes that were already present in Gauricus "Tractatus Astrologicus" - plagiarizing thus Gauricus, a common practice back then - he includes as well the horoscope of our brilliant Byzantine scholar. Cardanus was a "Ptolemaic" astrologer and that was an additional reason for him to honor the "par excellence: Ptolemaic Trapezuntius - whose books most probably had thoroughly read! Actually, he is presenting the horoscope of Trapezuntius on the very first pages of his book - second only to the horoscope of Petrarch!

Cardanus is using the Equal House planetary system and certain planetary positions in his chart are identical to the Gauricus ones - to the minute! (Venus', Saturn's and the North Node's)! But we find again here a wrong natal Moon for Trapezuntius: 2 degrees and 20 minutes of Pisces - instead of the 16 degrees and 52 minutes of Aquarius). So, either the birth data of Trapezuntius is wrong and he indeed has a Pisces Moon or his data is right and his Moon is in Aquarius (it was miscalulated by both Gauricus and Cardanus - or simply Cardanus blatantly copied Gauricus, changing slightly the positions of some planets so that they do not all match the ones provided by Gauricus...). 

In any case, we are rather perplexed by the apparent miscalculation of the Moon from the part of both Gauricus and Cardanus. Especially Cardanus - apart from being an excellent astrologer / astronomer - is considered one of the greatest mathematical minds in the history of mankind! And even if this Trapezuntius' horoscope was casually found by Gauricus and Cardanus in some manuscript and was merely copied to their books, they should have accurately verified every single planetary position on it before publishing it.

We should add a precious piece of information here: John Monfasani - a major Trapezuntius'  modern biographer -  is arguing that this great personality was born on April 3, 1395 (if this is the case then his Moon is in Virgo - and that Moon reflects very well the fact that he was very productive, that he worked for a long time as a secretary and that he was attracted by young girls). Apparently though Monfasani is not a great astrology connoisseur, because he draws the conclusion that Trapezuntius was born on the 3rd of April out of a personal note the latter wrote, stating that on the 3rd of April 1453 he was having his 58th Solar Revolution. Every astrologer knows though that a solar revolution may occur a day before our calendric birthday - so Trapezuntius might very well have had his 58th Solar Return on the 3rd of April 1453 while actually his birthday was on the 4th of April.

Of course, if Trapezuntius in 1453 was celebrating  his 58th (and not his 57th) Solar Return  then he must have been born in 1395 and not in 1396! There is though an elemenet capable of causing a certain confusion: a byzantine year was starting on the 1st of September! The byzantines that is were celebrating the first day of their new year 4 whole months before the Italians! This sort of discrepancy might have brought a certain difficulty in the conversion of the byzantine years into the corresponding Italian ones.

In 1447 the patron of Trapezuntius Pope Eugene died and Nicholas V took his place. Nicholas maintained Trapezuntius as an apostolic secretary - and as a translator of Greek secular and religious texts! At about this time Trebizond translated into Latin the "Almagest" of Ptolemy adding to it a commentary of his own in Latin - a commentary that would become very popular throughout Europe for the next four centuries!

                                   (A commentary of Trapezuntius on Ptolemy's "Almagest")

In the new papal entourage though another scholar figure was becoming the center of attention: Poggio Bracciolini. Perhaps in order to differentiate himself from Trapezuntius - or to advance a "fellow patriot" of his in front of the unstoppable stream of Greek culture that was ever more sweeping Italy - Bracciolini imposed the rather minor (as we know today) Latin orator Quintilianus as the supreme intellectual figure of the day! Trapezuntius - who obviously felt unfairly sidelined by this meteoric rise of Bracciolini - began to feverishly shatter Quintilianus in his speeches and letters. Thus he inevitably came into conflict with Bracciolini himself - and obviously with the circle of Bracciolini's "supporters". That was a big mistake, because no matter how just Trapezuntius was (and how unfair Bracciolini) ultimately Trapezuntius was all alone in this fight - while Bracciolini as a typical Aquarius (and as an Italian of course) had numerous and powerful allies.

The pretence for dismissing Trapezuntius was given to the Bracciolini's entourage at a meeting of the apostolic secretaries. There, Bracciolini made ​​an ironic comment to Trapezuntius who got up and  threw a powerful punch in his face (we shouldn't forget that Trapezuntius was as Aries - and if he was born in 1396 he had his Mars in Aries too!). By committing this explicitly violent act against the vain reviver of Quintilianus he fell completely out of favour and eventually was forced to leave Rome in 1452 and move with his family to the - ruled by the Spaniards' back then - city of Naples.

In Naples George of Trebizond worked as a secretary to the King Alfonso of Aragon. This was one of the his most flourishing periods, as he wrote then his two major astrological essays: the "A Short essay on Antiscia" ("Brevis de antisciis tractatus") and "Why the judgements (predictions) of the astrologers are failing in our times" ("Cur his temporibus astrologorum judicia fallant "). At the same time, he translated into Latin the astrological work of pseudo-Ptolemy "Centiloquium", which became as well a mega hit throughout Europe. Furthermore, he continued teaching and one of his disciples - in this dominated by Vesuvius city - was Giovanni Pontano, who would later on become a major humanist and astrologer! And while his Naples sojourn started pretty well, after a few years Trapezuntius began experiencing problems there too...

At a certain point Pope Nicholas V summoned Trapezuntius back to Rome. There he met (and probably even taught) Regiomontanus, who around the year 1462 was living  at the Roman villa of the Byzantine cardinal Bessarion - who had turned his house into a cradle of hellenism and humanism). But the environment in Rome was still "toxic" to this Greek emigre and he consequently fell victim to new adversities and intrigues. He left Rome and travelled to his fatherland Constantinople - which had fallen by then to the Ottoman Turks. Apparently the Turks were not very much thrilled by the Trapezuntius' literary and astrological virtues, so he returned to Rome. But he was again treated in a hostile manner (as he had sought to establish relations with the arch enemies of Christendom the Turks). He finally died around 1473, destitute and suffering from dementia (he was wandering like a fool through the streets of Rome), without ever been acknowledged for the pivotal role he played in the revival of the ancient Greek-knowledge (and of astrology in particular) in the renascent Europe...

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis