Prohibition

Definition

Prohibition is one of the ways a horary chart says no. A third planet steps in between the two main significators — in fewer degrees than one of them — so it reaches the significator first, before the two can complete their own aspect. That early contact "cuts off" the matter you asked about. The Arabic term is al-manʿ, the medieval Latin prohibitio. Prohibition is the broad family; its two named members are frustration, where the slower significator perfects with a different planet first, and abscission of light, where a faster third planet reaches its aspect to one significator first.

In Tradition

In the Arabic, Persian, and Latin horary tradition, prohibition is one of the standard sixteen modes that show whether a question succeeds or fails. Sahl ibn Bishr catalogued it in his Introduction to Astrology (9th century), and Bonatti, Lilly, and the wider medieval and Renaissance tradition kept it. The planet that steps in is read as a particular person or thing getting in the way; the house it rules and its overall condition describe what kind of obstruction it is.

In Practice

Astrologers spot prohibition by checking whether a third planet will reach an aspect — or a bodily conjunction — with one of the main significators before those two reach their own aspect. Sahl describes three specific ways it can happen (§5.7), with the rule that "a conjunction annuls an aspect but an aspect does not annul a conjunction" — a bodily conjunction cuts the matter off more decisively than an aspect alone. The house the prohibiting planet rules tells you who or what is blocking the matter; its dignity and aspect-condition tell you how serious the block is. In practice, prohibition is weighed alongside the other no-modes — frustration, abscission, refranation, void-of-course — when deciding whether and how a question fails. It is kept separate from refranation, where one significator simply turns retrograde with no third planet involved, and from translation and collection of light, which are yes-modes.

Historical Origin

Prohibition is attested in Arabic horary doctrine in Sahl ibn Bishr's Introduction to Astrology §5.7 (9th century) and in Masha'allah and the early ʿAbbasid school. Bonatti gives a systematic Latin account in the Liber Astronomiae (13th century), and Lilly carries it into English in Christian Astrology (1647). Holden lists prohibition among the sixteen Arabic horary modes in his History of Horoscopic Astrology. Its modern revival comes through Project Hindsight and Dykes.

Etymology

Origin: Latin. Meaning: From prohibitio, "a hindering," from prohibere, "to hold back" (pro- "before" + habere "to hold")..

Further Reading