22-04-2026, 03:45 AM
I have a small but tantalizing observation about this. It began by noticing that Pisces is unique for having 30 labels but one of them is in the center.
In the paranatellonta traditions that people on this thread are citing, the first degree is often fairly obviously associated with the sign at hand---two brothers for Gemini, a man with a bull for Taurus, and Hercules with the lion's head for Leo. (The first of those presents a small problem with this speculation, by the way.) Sometimes it is less obvious; Pisces as two men with one head seems to me to be related to the cord tying the two heads together. In this view, however, note Sagittarius is problematic, unless someone more literate than I sees how either the three birds in Astromagia or the three headless men elsewhere arose.
The other fact is that in the VMS Pisces---albeit, Pisces alone---seems to count degrees including the central sign. The inconsistency makes it hard to say with certainty, but conjecture with me that the first degree and the sign are conflated in the artist's mind.
There are four signs with two human figures in these sources: Pisces, Gemini, Capricorn, and Cancer. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. gives, "Ascendit vir et mulier manibus iuncti simul letantes":
Like the two men with one head given for Pisces, they are touching, would could, if you'll humor me, explain the band between the two crawfish in the VMS as a recontextualization of the cord in Pisces.
This does not, admittedly, help with the stars, no in Pisces nor in Scorpio and Virgo.
I am not prepared to defend this read to the death or anything---there's too much speculation and reliance on trying to interpret the drawings for that---but it was something I wondered while reading up on the ascendents.
In the paranatellonta traditions that people on this thread are citing, the first degree is often fairly obviously associated with the sign at hand---two brothers for Gemini, a man with a bull for Taurus, and Hercules with the lion's head for Leo. (The first of those presents a small problem with this speculation, by the way.) Sometimes it is less obvious; Pisces as two men with one head seems to me to be related to the cord tying the two heads together. In this view, however, note Sagittarius is problematic, unless someone more literate than I sees how either the three birds in Astromagia or the three headless men elsewhere arose.
The other fact is that in the VMS Pisces---albeit, Pisces alone---seems to count degrees including the central sign. The inconsistency makes it hard to say with certainty, but conjecture with me that the first degree and the sign are conflated in the artist's mind.
There are four signs with two human figures in these sources: Pisces, Gemini, Capricorn, and Cancer. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. gives, "Ascendit vir et mulier manibus iuncti simul letantes":
Like the two men with one head given for Pisces, they are touching, would could, if you'll humor me, explain the band between the two crawfish in the VMS as a recontextualization of the cord in Pisces.
This does not, admittedly, help with the stars, no in Pisces nor in Scorpio and Virgo.
I am not prepared to defend this read to the death or anything---there's too much speculation and reliance on trying to interpret the drawings for that---but it was something I wondered while reading up on the ascendents.