Kentron

KEN-tron

greek: κέντρον (Kentron)

Definition

Kentron (Greek kentron, plural kentra, 'pivot' or 'centre') is the Hellenistic name for any of the four turning-points of a chart — the Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant, and Imum Caelum. The kentra are those points themselves, the geometric pivots of the daily rotation of the sky. They are kept separate from the houses that sit on or beside them.

In Tradition

For Hellenistic astrologers, the four kentra are the main pivots a chart is built around, and they mark its strongest places — a planet sitting right on a kentron is at its most visible and most effective. Next to each kentron stand the epanaphora, the place that rises just after it, and the apoklima, the place that has just risen before it; Hellenistic authors read these as succedent and cadent in character.

In Practice

Astrologers used the kentra as fixed reference points for judging how strong a planet is. A planet on one of the kentra by degree is read as angular and given full force to act on what it signifies; a planet in an epanaphora sign (succedent) carries moderate strength; one in an apoklima sign (cadent) is weakest. Modern traditional revival keeps the kentron (the point) distinct from the angular house (the place sitting on that point): kentra are degrees on the four axes, while angularity is a quality of a house. The phrasing 'in the kentron' for a planet that shares a degree with a turning-point survives in Pseudo-Manetho and is recorded by Lightfoot. The Latin tradition translates kentron as cardo, the cardinal point; modern English calls them the angles.

Historical Origin

The kentra are documented across the whole Hellenistic corpus — Dorotheus, Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos III, Vettius Valens's Anthologiae, Firmicus's Mathesis II, the Pseudo-Manethonian poems, and Hephaestion's Apotelesmatika. Crane, in Astrological Roots, and Lightfoot, in The Apotelesmatika of Manetho (2020), record the term's use in modern critical edition and translation.

Etymology

Origin: Greek. Meaning: Pivot, centre, point of turning.

Further Reading

  • Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos
  • Joseph Crane, Astrological Roots: The Hellenistic Legacy
  • J. L. Lightfoot, The Apotelesmatika of Manetho