Transmissions

greek: Ἐπεμβάσεις (Epembaseis)

Definition

Transmissions are what Hellenistic astrologers called transits — the moments when a moving planet "steps upon" a natal planet, a sensitive point, or a sign, switching it on and passing along its current sky-state. The Greek name is epembaseis (ἐπεμβάσεις). Hellenistic practice reads a transmission first in whole-sign units — a planet entering the sign that holds a natal point — and only then refines it to the exact-degree contact, which differs from modern practice, where the degree-aspect alone often carries the weight.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic doctrine — preserved in Vettius Valens's Anthologiae and Dorotheus's Carmen Astrologicum — and in the modern Hellenistic-revival synthesis (Brennan, Greenbaum, Crane, Hand), transmissions are read mainly as ways the underlying time-lord framework gets activated, not as events standing on their own. A transit matters most when the transiting planet is the Lord of the Year, or the active time-lord, or aspects one of them. Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae carries the doctrine into the medieval Latin reception.

In Practice

Once you have the natal chart and the active time-lord framework — profections, zodiacal releasing, primary directions — you scan the current sky for two things: planets entering significant signs (a whole-sign transmission) and exact-degree aspects to natal points (a degree-perfect transmission). A transmission to or by the Lord of the Year switches on that year's themes. A transmission to a natal benefic in good condition tends to deliver the favorable side of the transiting planet, while a transmission to a natal malefic in poor condition tends to deliver the afflicted side. Sahl's On Times and Masha'allah's On Revolutions of the Years of the World preserve the medieval Arabic rules for transmission by aspect. Crane and Brennan stress that the natal chart's own structure — its house-rulerships, lots, and time-lord assignments — decides what each transmission means; the transit by itself is rarely the whole signal.

Historical Origin

The term epembaseis is named in Vettius Valens's Anthologiae (2nd c. CE Greek, public domain) and Dorotheus's Carmen Astrologicum (1st c. CE, surviving in Greek, Pahlavi, and Arabic, public domain). The doctrine carries forward through the Arabic transmission — Sahl ibn Bishr, Masha'allah, 'Umar al-Tabari, and Abu 'Ali al-Khayyāt (9th-c. Arabic, public domain) — and is set down in medieval Latin by Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae Vol XI (13th c., public domain).

Etymology

Origin: Greek. Meaning: Stepping upon, treading over.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading