FIGURE OF A STAR

This figure is included in this science to enable one to recognize the proportional disposition of the influences instilled by the stars in things below, so that through these influences there is order between causes and their effects. And given that there are 4 elements, and each element has 4 species of degrees in elemented things, like fire, which is in the fourth degree of heat in pepper, in the third degree of heat in cinnamon, in the second in fennel and in the first in anise, the star must therefore have 4 rays with which it instills its virtue into fire, according to the way fire has its degrees in plants, so that with one ray, the star satisfies the fourth degree of heat, and the third degree with another ray, and so on in sequence; and it must have four other rays with which it satisfies air, and likewise with water and earth. Hence, the star must have 16 rays with which it instills its virtue more strongly in some elements and less so in others, according to the order called for by reason of the degrees that elements have in elemented things, as discussed in the figure of the degrees of the elements. Therefore, it is useful for natural philosophers and astronomers to know the conditions and circumstances of this figure.