Sect

Meaning

Sect divides the seven traditional planets into two teams, one belonging to the day and one to the night. The Sun leads the day team; the Moon leads the night team. Every chart is either a day chart (the Sun above the horizon) or a night chart (the Sun below it), and a planet whose team matches the chart is in sect. It works with the grain of the chart. A planet of the other team is out of sect, working against it.

The Greek word is hairesis, meaning a "choice" or a "party", the same word used for a school of philosophy. The planets of one sect are like members of one faction. Diurnal means "of the day" and nocturnal "of the night".

Mercury is the swing member. Ptolemy makes it diurnal as a morning star and nocturnal as an evening star [1].

Origin and history

Sect is one of the oldest organising ideas in Hellenistic astrology, and Brennan treats it as central to the whole system [3]. Ptolemy gives a physical rationale in his chapter on diurnal and nocturnal planets. Day is warmer and more active, night more moist and passive, so the Moon and Venus were assigned to the night and the Sun and Jupiter to the day. The two destructive planets were each put in the sect that tempers them: Saturn, the cold one, with the warm day; Mars, the hot and dry one, with the moist night [1]. Each malefic is softened by its own sect and made worse by the other.

Dorotheus shows how deeply sect was built into technique. His triplicity rulers come in a day lord and a night lord for each element, and which one leads depends on whether the chart is diurnal or nocturnal [2]. Many other Hellenistic methods, such as choosing the leading luminary and reversing certain lots by night, follow the same principle [3].

The Arabic astrologers kept sect and elaborated it into the finer conditions of ḥalb and ḥayyiz [4]. By Lilly's time sect had shrunk to a background idea. He still uses day and night triplicity rulers and defines hayz [5], but sect no longer organises his judgement as it did in the older texts. Its revival in modern practice followed the translation of the Hellenistic texts from the 1990s onward; Brennan gives a full modern account [3].

How it is used

Sect answers a practical question: in this chart, which benefic helps most and which malefic harms most?

The benefic of sect is the more reliably helpful of the two benefics; the benefic contrary to sect still helps, but less dependably. The malefic of sect is restrained: its difficulties tend to be manageable or even constructive. The malefic contrary to sect is the planet most likely to show the chart's hardest problems. In a day chart that is Mars; in a night chart, Saturn.

Sect also affects:

• which triplicity lord leads [2];
• which luminary is used for certain timing and longevity techniques;
• how some lots are calculated: many Hellenistic and medieval authors reverse the Lot of Fortune in a night chart [3]. Not everyone does; Lilly, for one, takes the Part of Fortune the same way by day and by night [5];
• the finer conditions of halb and hayz, which ask whether a planet is also on the right side of the horizon and in a sign of the right gender.

On this site each planet's detail says whether it is in sect or out of sect. Sect membership on its own adds no points; halb (+1) and hayz (+2) do.

Where authorities differ.

• Mercury. Ptolemy uses morning or evening star [1], and this is the rule most often given. Other tests are found in modern discussions, but they are not documented in the sources cited here. This site follows the morning/evening rule in a simplified form: Mercury counts as a morning star (diurnal) when its longitude is behind the Sun's, so that it rises first, and as an evening star (nocturnal) when it is ahead. It does not check whether Mercury is actually visible.
• How much it matters. Hellenistic practice builds almost everything on sect [3]; much later European practice uses it lightly or not at all.
• Mars's gender. Mars is nocturnal but traditionally masculine, which makes its hayz a special case. See hayz.

Examples

• Day chart, Mars rising in Aries. Mars is strong by sign but is the malefic contrary to sect, so its sharpness is less restrained. Saturn, the day malefic, is the gentler of the two in this chart.
• Night chart, Venus in the tenth house. Venus is the benefic of sect: her help is reliable and visible. Jupiter still helps, but less dependably.
• Mercury as a morning star in a night chart. Mercury rises before the Sun and so is diurnal. In a night chart it is out of sect.

See also

How to tell whether a chart is diurnal or nocturnal is covered in day and night charts.