Short Ascensions

latin: signa breviorum ascensionum / signa obliquae ascensionis · greek: ζῴδια ὀλιγοχρόνια — short-time-rising zoidia

Definition

The six zodiac signs that ascend rapidly over the eastern horizon at northern temperate latitudes — Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini. These six signs are also called signs of crooked ascension or signs of short ascension. The classification arises from the oblique angle between the ecliptic and the equator: at northern latitudes the winter-and-spring signs cross the horizon at a shallow angle and ascend through fewer equatorial degrees of right ascension than the summer-and-autumn signs.

In Tradition

Across the Hellenistic-Arabic-Latin lineage the six short-ascension signs are the Northern Hemisphere counterpart to the six long-ascension signs (Cancer through Sagittarius). Crane's *Astrological Roots*: ascensions tell us how many degrees pass the Midheaven during the time it takes a particular zoidion to fully ascend, expressed in degrees corresponding to years of life. Because the zoidia rise at different rates depending on latitude — Pisces and Aries quickly, Leo, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio slowly in the Northern Hemisphere — ascensional times vary widely.

In Practice

Practitioners use the short-ascension classification in three classical contexts. In primary directions and ascensional-time techniques the doctrine supplies the rate at which each sign converts degree-of-ecliptic into year-of-life, so that planets and angles in short-ascension signs cover less directional ground per unit of zodiacal degree than planets and angles in long-ascension signs. In horary practice the short-ascension signs are read as signifiers of swift outcomes, quick journeys, and matters expected to perfect rapidly, paired with their long-ascension opposites which are read as slow or protracted. In rectification the doctrine bears on the time the rising degree spends on the horizon: when a short-ascension sign is on the ascendant, the rising degree turns over more quickly per minute of clock-time than when a long-ascension sign is rising, so timing precision matters more. The classification is latitude-dependent and inverts in the Southern Hemisphere, where the same signs become long-ascending.

Historical Origin

The short-ascension and long-ascension distinction is foundational Hellenistic astronomical doctrine, present in Ptolemy's *Tetrabiblos*, Hephaistio of Thebes, and Paulus Alexandrinus, and carried forward into Arabic, medieval Latin, and Renaissance English horary, where William Lilly's *Christian Astrology* (1647) gives the standard English-language statement. The arithmetic ultimately derives from the obliquity of the ecliptic and is identical in principle to the spherical-astronomy treatment in Ptolemy's *Almagest*.

Etymology

Origin: Latin / English. Meaning: Short ascension renders the Latin signa breviorum ascensionum, the signs of shorter ascensional time — the signs that pass the horizon in fewer than thirty degrees of right ascension. Crooked ascension renders the obliquus mode in which the ecliptic crosses the horizon at a shallow angle..

Further Reading