Bestial Signs

latin: signa ferina ('wild' or 'beast' signs)

Definition

Bestial signs (Latin signa ferina, 'wild' or 'beast' signs) are the zodiac signs whose iconography depicts an animal rather than a human figure. The traditional Lilly-era horary list comprises Aries (ram), Taurus (bull), Leo (lion), the second half of Sagittarius (the centaur's horse-half, conventionally from 15° Sagittarius onwards), and Capricorn (sea-goat). The contrasting classification is the human signs, which name the signs depicted with a human image. Bestial sign-class membership is a fixed sign-attribute used as a technical-term in lost-object horary, native-type determination, and related applications.

In Tradition

The bestial / human sign division is a technical classification of the zodiac inherited through the Arabic-Persian and Hellenistic transmission into the Lilly-era horary tradition. Abu Bakr's *On Nativities* Book I.8 uses 'bestial signs' as a canonical technical term within the native-type determination procedure — whether the chart signifies a human or a 'brute animal' fetus — by reading the planet-motion plus human-signs plus angles together. The sign-class membership is treated as a fixed zodiacal attribute on the same footing as triplicity-element or modality.

In Practice

Practitioners apply the bestial-signs classification in three main registers. In lost-object horary (Lilly-tradition): if the significator of the lost object falls in a bestial sign, the object is read as being near animals or in a location associated with animal-keeping. In native-type determination (Abu Bakr): the twelfth-part of luminaries falling in a bestial sign together with the Lot of Fortune in the Ascendant counts as one indication of a beast-like or otherwise atypical native — a technique within a broader monstrous-birth diagnosis whose other signatures include Mars-and-Saturn aspecting from specific configurations. In animal horary and electional work, bestial-sign emphasis informs questions about livestock, hunting, and animal-related transactions. The class operates independently of triplicity, modality, and sect.

Historical Origin

The bestial / human sign division is attested in the Arabic-Persian tradition: Abu Bakr's *On Nativities* Book I.8 (preserved in Dykes's *Persian Nativities* Vol II) uses the term 'bestial signs' as a canonical technical-term in the native-type procedure, attributing the elaborate configurations to Hermes ('head of the sages'). The specific Lilly-era horary list (Aries / Taurus / Leo / second half of Sagittarius / Capricorn) descends through the medieval Latin transmission to *Christian Astrology* (1647).

Further Reading