Pushing Nature (Daf'a Tab'a)

Definition

In medieval Arabic horary astrology, pushing-nature is the move in which one planet hands its own character over to another by sitting in a sign that the second planet rules. It is one of the four pushing moves Sahl ibn Bishr lists among his sixteen accidents of planetary motion. Arabic astrologers called it dafʿ al-tabīʿa, "pushing of nature"; medieval Latin kept it as emissio naturae. For example, Mars in Sagittarius pushes its own qualities to Jupiter, the lord of that sign.

In Tradition

Medieval Arabic-Persian and Latin astrologers read pushing-nature as the way a planet hands its own qualities to its dispositor — the planet ruling the sign it sits in — through rulership rather than an aspect. Sahl, Masha'allah, Abu Ma'shar, and Bonatti treat it as the qualitative counterpart of the other three pushing moves: pushing-strength hands over essential dignity, pushing-disposition hands over charge of the matter, pushing-light hands over the active aspect. The receiving lord then carries those qualities forward.

In Practice

You trace the dispositorship chain in a horary or natal chart — which planet rules the sign each planet sits in — and follow how each one pushes its nature on to its sign-lord. The qualities carried over belong to the giver: a hot, dry Mars in Sagittarius pushes martial drive to Jupiter; a cold, moist Venus in Cancer pushes Venusian receptivity to the Moon. You read this alongside reception (the receiver agreeing to take it on) and the other three pushing moves, to see how matter, virtue, and quality flow through the chart. Bonatti keeps this distinct from pushing-strength (which hands over essential dignity) and pushing-light (which hands over a completed aspect), preserving the full four-part Arabic toolkit in Liber Astronomiae.

Historical Origin

Pushing-nature is set out in Sahl ibn Bishr's Introduction to Astrology (early 9th century) and Masha'allah's On Reception (c. 770-815 CE) as one of the sixteen accidents of planetary motion. Al-Biruni preserves all four pushing moves in the Kitab al-Tafhim §§504-511 (1029). The doctrine enters the medieval Latin horary tradition through the John of Spain and Hugo of Santalla translations, is drawn together in Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae (c. 1277), and survives in early-modern English horary through Lilly's Christian Astrology (1647).

Further Reading

• Sahl ibn Bishr, Introduction to Astrology
• Guido Bonatti, Liber Astronomiae
• Al-Biruni, Kitāb al-Tafhīm