Abscission

latin: abscissio · arabic: qaṭʿ al-nūr

Definition

Abscission (Latin abscissio, "cutting off") describes the configuration in which a planet seeking the aspect of another is prevented from completing the aspect because a third, intervening planet forms the connection first. From the perspective of the seeking planet, its light is cut off; from the perspective of the third planet receiving the light it had hoped to deliver, the same configuration is called Return-of-Light (redditus luminis).

In Tradition

In medieval Arabic-Latin and traditional Western practice, abscission is read as one of the standard impediments to a perfection: an aspect that would have brought a matter to completion is intercepted by another planet's earlier contact. Horary judgment treats abscission as decisive testimony that the matter in question will not come about along the path the original aspect promised.

In Practice

Astrologers track aspects between the two significators in a horary question, then check whether any other planet will reach exact aspect with the slower of the two before the faster does. If so, the original aspect is cut off and the matter is denied or diverted. Bonatti's worked example: Sun at 12° Cancer applies by square to Saturn at 18° Libra, but Jupiter at 15° Gemini reaches Saturn first by trine — Jupiter's trine cuts off the Sun's square. Bonatti illustrates with a merchant-bidding analogy: a buyer hopes to purchase an item when a second buyer arrives unexpectedly from another quarter with a higher offer, frustrating the first. The doctrine applies through aspect (not body); the related concept of Transfer-of-Light can operate through bodily conjunction or aspect.

Historical Origin

Abscission is a medieval Arabic horary doctrine transmitted into the Latin West through Sahl ibn Bishr and Masha'allah, and worked into systematic form by Guido Bonatti in *Liber Astronomiae* (13th c.) Tractatus III Second Part Ch. XII "Concerning the Return of the Light of the Planets and its Abscission." Lilly later incorporated the doctrine into *Christian Astrology* (1647) under the English term "cutting off the light."

Etymology

Origin: Latin. Meaning: Cutting off, severance.

Further Reading