Radix

Definition

Radix (Latin 'root') is the technical name for the foundational chart from which all derivative charts — progressions, directions, returns, revolutions — are computed. In medieval and Renaissance Latin astrology it specifically named the natal chart (radix nativitatis); in mundane astrology Masha'allah's On the Roots of Revolutions (Arabic original lost, Latin via John of Spain) uses the term for the foundational Aries-ingress chart from which the year's revolution-charts derive. The cognate revolutio names the cyclical-return chart that flows from the radix.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic, Arabic, and traditional Western practice the radix is the immovable reference chart — natal for the individual, Aries-ingress for the year, foundation-chart for the polity — to which all subsequent timing techniques are anchored. Masha'allah's mundane treatise codifies the doctrine for Aries-ingress yearly revolutions: the radix establishes the year's prevailing significators, and quarterly and monthly revolutions inherit and modify the radix-significations.

In Practice

You compute the natal radix at the precise birth time and location and treat it as the master chart against which all further work proceeds. Secondary progressions, solar arcs, primary directions, and transits all refer back to natal radix positions; each technique advances or activates the radix rather than replacing it. In mundane practice the Aries-ingress chart for a given year (computed for the relevant national capital) serves as the year's radix; revolutions of the year per quarter and per month inherit from it. The traditional terminology 'radical positions' (positions in the radix) survives in horary judgment to distinguish natal-chart factors from transiting ones.

Historical Origin

The term radix is medieval Latin, descending from the Arabic astrological vocabulary of the 8th-13th centuries. Masha'allah's De Radicibus Revolutionum (likely Latin title from the John-of-Spain translation at Lunia in Galicia) is one of the foundational treatments — a complete twelve-chapter mundane-astrology treatise establishing Aries-ingress and revolution doctrine. The Arabic original is lost; the John-of-Spain Latin translation preserves the work and underwrites Abu Ma'shar's elaboration of the great-conjunction chronocrator cycle.

Etymology

Origin: Latin. Meaning: From radix ('root'), the medieval Latin technical term for the foundational starting-point chart of any astrological inquiry — the 'root' from which derivative charts grow..

Further Reading

• Masha'allah, On the Roots of Revolutions
• Benjamin N. Dykes, Works of Sahl & Masha'allah
• James H. Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology