Frustrate

latin: frustrare (verb); abscissio (Abscission, the configuration) · arabic: qaṭʿ al-nūr (cutting off the light)

Definition

To frustrate, in medieval and traditional Western horary, is the action by which a third planet interposes between two significators and prevents the perfection of an aspect that would otherwise have brought a matter to completion. The frustrating planet reaches exact aspect with the slower significator before the originally-applying significator can, cutting off the light of the first and diverting the matter. The configuration is named from the perspective of the originating significator; the same event seen from the perspective of the third planet receiving the light is called Return-of-Light.

In Tradition

Across the medieval Arabic-Latin horary tradition and the Western tradition extending through Lilly, frustration is read as one of the standard impediments to a perfection — closely related to Abscission ('cutting off the light') and Prohibition. The matter signified by the originally-applying aspect is judged not to come about along the path that aspect promised; the intervening planet draws the outcome to itself or to its own significations.

In Practice

Frustration is the verdict the astrologer delivers when an applying aspect that promised the matter is overtaken: a third planet perfects with the slower significator before the originally-applying one can, so the querent's matter — though it 'seemed about to be brought to perfection' — comes to nothing along the path that aspect promised. Where Abscission names the geometry (the cutting-off of light, with Bonatti's Sun–Saturn–Jupiter worked example), 'frustrate' names the disappointment from the querent's side: the Latin frustrāre, 'to render vain.' In judgment the practitioner reads the frustrating planet's nature, sign, house, and dignity to describe the agent and manner of the disruption — who or what intervened, and whether the loss is final or merely a delay — then weighs it against any contrary testimony before pronouncing the matter denied. Lilly carries the same judgment into English under the verb 'frustrate.'

Historical Origin

The doctrine is preserved in Bonatti's *Liber Astronomiae* Volume XI Part III Second Part Chapter XII (13th c.), translated by Robert Hand as 'Concerning the Return of the Light of the Planets and its Abscission.' Bonatti inherits the doctrine from the Arabic horary tradition (Sahl ibn Bishr and Masha'allah). Lilly's *Christian Astrology* (1647) Volume 2 preserves the doctrine into early-modern English under the verb 'frustrate' and the substantive 'cutting off the light.'

Etymology

Origin: Latin. Meaning: From frustrāre ('to disappoint, render vain, deceive'), built on frustrā ('in vain'). The English verb 'frustrate' carries the medieval Latin horary sense — the disappointment of a matter that seemed about to be brought to perfection..

Further Reading