Besiegement

Meaning

A planet is besieged when it is caught between the two malefics, Saturn and Mars, one on each side. The image is military: a town surrounded by hostile armies, cut off from supplies and help. A besieged planet is squeezed. Whatever it signifies is pressed on from both directions and has no easy way out.

The Greek term is emperischesis, "enclosure" or "hemming in". Arabic authors call it ḥiṣār, "siege" [3], and the Latin and English tradition inherited the siege image. In the older, broader form of the doctrine a planet can also be enclosed by the two benefics, Jupiter and Venus, which is a protection rather than a threat.

Origin and history

Enclosure belongs to the Hellenistic list of conditions that make a planet better or worse off, which Brennan groups under "bonification" and "maltreatment" [2]. The definitions that survive come mainly through the introduction attributed to Porphyry, which drew on the lost work of Antiochus of Athens [1]. In that account a planet can be enclosed in more than one way:

• bodily, with a malefic on each side in the same sign or close by;
• by rays, when one malefic casts an aspect to the degrees just ahead of the planet and the other to the degrees just behind it;
• within a limit of distance, which Brennan reports from Porphyry as 7° on either side [2];
• and the enclosure is broken if another planet (for a malefic enclosure, a benefic) casts a ray into the space between.

Al-Bīrūnī, writing in 1029, keeps the broad version. A planet is besieged when it sits between two others in the neighbouring signs, or between two in its own sign ("bodily" besieging), or when one planet aspects it from in front by sextile or square and another from behind by the same aspect ("besieged by the rays"). Between the two infortunes the effect is very bad; between the two fortunes it is very good [3]. Arabic and Latin authors such as Abū Maʿshar, al-Qabīṣī and Bonatti also describe a dynamic version: the planet separates from one malefic and applies straight to the other, with nothing in between to rescue it [4] [5]. (The exact section numbers in these two translations have not been checked for this article.)

Lilly pares all this back. For him besieging is a planet placed between the bodies of Saturn and Mars, and his example has all three in one sign. He adds that the ancients mention other such accidents, but that he has omitted them as of little use in judgement [6]. In his table of fortitudes and debilities, "besieged of Saturn and Mars" costs five points [6].

How it is used

Besiegement is an accidental debility: it describes the planet's company in this chart, not its sign. It suggests pressure, confinement, or being trapped between two difficulties. In horary it can describe a person caught between two threats. In a birth chart it colours the matters the planet rules, and practitioners look for relief: a benefic aspect into the gap, strong essential dignity, or reception from one of the malefics.

This site scores besiegement at −5, following Lilly [6]. It checks the simplest geometric form: it looks along the zodiac in both directions from the planet, and if the first planet met each way is a malefic within 12°, the planet is besieged. Only the seven traditional planets count as neighbours, and the 12° limit is fixed: the website does not change it. If a neighbour sits exactly on the planet's degree, or two neighbours are equally close, the site leaves the question open rather than guessing. Enclosure by aspect, by benefics, and the "separating from one, applying to the other" form are not scored. They remain worth checking by eye.

Where authorities differ. The main disagreement is scope. The Hellenistic and early Arabic sources treat enclosure as a family of conditions, good and bad, bodily and by aspect [1] [3]. Lilly keeps only the bodily form between the two malefics [6]. Authors also differ on distance: a fixed limit such as 7°, the neighbouring signs, or no stated limit. Most modern software follows Lilly's narrow version because it is easy to test, but readers of Hellenistic material should know that the older doctrine was wider and included a favourable form.

Examples

• Mars at 10° Aries, Venus at 13° Aries, Saturn at 15° Aries: this is Lilly's own example. Venus sits between the two infortunes with nothing between them and her. She is besieged (−5) [6].
• Mars at 4° Virgo, the Moon at 9° Virgo, Saturn at 14° Virgo, and no other planet in between: the Moon is besieged on this site. In a Hellenistic reading with a 7° limit she would also count, and a ray from Jupiter falling between the malefics and her would be seen as relief.
• Mars at 2° Gemini, Mercury at 10° Gemini, Venus at 12° Gemini, Saturn at 20° Gemini: Mercury's nearest neighbour ahead is Venus, not Saturn, so Mercury is not besieged. Venus is the planet "breaking" the siege.

See also

Besiegement sits beside combust and under the beams among the heavier accidental debilities. Whether Mars or Saturn is the more harmful of the two depends on sect.