Humours and their use in Astrology (part I)

by SHARON KNIGHT

In the English language we still use the word Sanguine to denote someone who is easy going and affable, often with a good colour on their cheeks. Although Choleric has fallen out of use in modern English, people still understand the term to indicate someone who gets hot under the collar, or can be argumentative. Melancholic has sadly been stolen to denote someone who suffers from depression or the Blues. It has lost its full descriptive meaning of someone who is thoughtful, considerate, and studious, who is happy in their own company. As for the word Phlegmatic, that has disappeared in all but a medical context when we talk about the amount of phlem we have during or after a cold!

So how did these words, that once were so descriptive of an individual’s state of mind or outlook on life, come about and endure until today?  These four words are connected to the Theory of the Humours.

In this brief article (the subject itself would be a huge book!) we will look at the history of the humours and how they are still used today in modern personality profiling; finishing up with a look at some methods to enable us as astrologers to identify the “temperament” of our client before we even meet them, so enabling us to consider our approach prior to the consultation to ensure we give a reading they can resonate with.   

The theory of Humours first appears in the texts written by Hippocrates who lived around 400-300BC. He wrote a huge corpus on medicine and how to live your life in order to avoid becoming ill.  One of his most famous dictates was “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”

He refers throughout his medical texts to the humours and their associations. He prescribed foods and exercise geared to the humoural complaint that presented and the humoural type of the patient.  He took into account, the age, gender, location and season of the year when prescribing treatment. The 4 humours equate to the 4 elements, 4 states of being and 4 Virtues. The humours are blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm.  The elements are air, fire, earth and water. The States are Hot, Dry, Cold and Wet. The four virtues are Digestion, Retention, Attraction and Expulsion. In the main illness is produced by the biles (which can heat up the body) or the phlegm (which can make the body too cold or wet) being excessive in the body and thus causing an imbalance which leads to disease.

On page 7 of the Loeb edition of Affections, he writes;-

All human diseases arise from bile and phlegm; the bile and phlegm produce disease when inside the body, one of them becomes too moist, too dry, too hot, or too cold…

When patients are bilious give medications that clean out bile and so on… Medicinal drinks that are not given to clean out bile of phlegm must, when they enter the body, exercise their faculty by cooling, warming, drying, moistening, collecting or dispersing. (page 59:36)

101 -2] Now all our diseases arise either from things inside the body, bile and phlegm, or from things outside it…

Bile and phlegm come into being together with man’s coming into being, and are always present in the body in lesser or greater amounts. They produce diseases, however, partly because of the effects of foods and drinks, and partly as the result of heat that makes them too hot, or cold that makes them too cold.

Hippocrates also considered it necessary for a physician to know and take into account the positions of the planets and the time of year when making a prognosis. In Volume 1, the section on Airs, Waters and Places, (page 73), it is written, ‘For knowing the changes of the seasons, and the risings and settings of the stars, with the circumstances of each of these phenomena, he will know beforehand the nature of the year that is coming . . . if it be thought that all this belongs to meteorology, he will find out, on second thoughts, that the contribution of astronomy to medicine is not a very small one but a very great one indeed.’ Here the translator has used astronomy wherein all possibility, this word may have been taken to mean astrology, however, one can only conjecture on this minor point. 

In 150-200AD along came Galen. He collated Hippocrates works and added to them. Galen promoted the theory of the 4 humours as giving certain personality types, much as Jung would in the 1930’s with his four archetypes.

Galen contributed a substantial amount to the Hippocratic understanding of pathology. Under Hippocrates’ bodily humours theory, differences in human moods come as a consequence of imbalances in one of the four bodily fluids: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Galen promoted this theory and the typology of human temperaments.   An imbalance of each humour corresponded with a particular human temperament (blood—sanguine, black bile—melancholic, yellow bile—choleric, and phlegm—phlegmatic). Individuals with Sanguine temperaments are extroverted and social. Choleric people have energy, passion and charisma. Melancholics are creative, kind and considerate. Phlegmatic temperaments are characterized by dependability, kindness, and affection. Galen’s doctrine has lasted through the Centuries until the present day.

The next most important Physician was Avicenna or Ibn Sīnā  (Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā)  was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of he most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age.  Born 22 August 980 AD, in the Bukhara Region of Uzbekistan.  Died June 1037, Hamadan, Iran.

 His Cannon of Medicine was the main text book in Europe until the 19^th Century.

 The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes.  Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health.

His work and writings brought together not only the four perceived humours of life, but also encompassed the variables of food, drink, exercise and the passions in determining the best way for an individual to take care of their life.

In the English Language we have the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer (c1343-1400) where in the Prologue to his Canterbury Tales when discussing the Physician, he wrote:

With us there was a doctor of physic;
In all this world was none like him to pick
For talk of medicine and surgery;
For he was grounded in astronomy.
He often kept a patient from the pall
By horoscopes and magic natural.
Well could he tell the fortune ascendent
Within the houses for his sick patient.
He knew the cause of every malady,
Were it of hot or cold, of moist or dry,
And where engendered, and of what humour;
He was a very good practitioner.
The cause being known, down to the deepest root,
Anon he gave to the sick man his boot.
Ready he was, with his apothecaries,
To send him drugs and all electuaries;
By mutual aid much gold they’d always won-
Their friendship was a thing not new begun.
Well read was he in Esculapius,
And Deiscorides, and in Rufus,
Hippocrates, and Hali, and Galen,
Serapion, Rhazes, and Avicen,(…)

Source: https://tigerweb.towson.edu/duncan/chaucer/duallang5.htm

Here we can see how the Humours were seen as part of everyday life in medieval England.

Although it may have appeared Avicenna did not take into account the placement of the planets at the time of an individual’s birth, there was no such reticence in the works of Ficino in the 15^th century.  Ficino was the son of a noted Doctor who was physician to Cosimo de’Medici. Ficino himself then worked for the Medicis’ and was sponsored by Cosimo to undertake translations of the entire works of Plato, the Hermetica, the works of Porphyry, Iamblichus and Plotinus. 

Ficino then took priestly orders and during this period he wrote the De vita libri tres (Three Books on Life) between 1480-89. The first book is about physical health, the second about prolonging life, and the third (De vita coelitùs comparanda) concerns the influences of the planets on the body and Soul. 

He was of the opinion the planets affected both the nature and vigour of the intellect and the health of the body. He gave remedies and information as to how balance the humours in the body principally by music, food and exercise. It seems he felt that if an individual followed his ideas, they would be able to mitigate the effects of bad stars and even change their fate.  It would appear the De vita libri tres had an influence on Paracelsus and his subsequent works.

Paracelsus (c1493-1541) was a Swiss physician who was seen as a pioneer in the field of Renaissance Medicine. He took on board a lot of Ficino’s ideas and used astrology and the theory of humours in his own medical work. His ideas and works were incorporated into the 1618 pharmacopeia by the Royal College of Physicians in London.

Coming forward to the 16^th and 17^th century in England, there were a number of physicians who used astrology in their work,  but it seems with the exception of one Nicholas Culpeper, the humours were already becoming a by-line in the use of medical astrology.

Culpeper primarily noted the humoural types of the various herbs available and gave guidance as to when use herbs of related qualities or antithetical qualities.

From the records available it seems it was rather rare for an astrologer physician to concentrate solely on the person’s humoral make up when prescribing treatment. If the humours were out of balance, the astrologer or physician would prescribe a treatment to restore the balance.  So, for one who had a surfeit of black bile, they would prescribe hot herbs or foods, such as those ruled by Mars, which included garlic, pepper and onions. There is even a note of prescribing the flesh of a rooster to an old man (who by definition would be deemed phlegmatic) to warm him up and dry him out!  

According to Lilly, (1647:68), herbs that attracted or drew choler by sympathy, such as radishes, could be used. Being melancholic, inferred one had a surfeit of cold and dryness, therefore you needed heating up and moistening. Generally it seemed there were four main ways of treating disease or illness: Bloodletting, Purging, Vomitting or Diet. However, we will not go into this area in this article.

As noted earlier, the Four Humours are derived from the metabolic fluids found in the body that relate to the four elements and four states of being or temperature. So Hot = Fire, Cold = Earth, Wet = moisture and Dry = wind/Air. The mix of humour gives a certain temperament or psychological type. The four types come from states relating to temperature and moisture or humidity. Countries are also classified according to their temperate state; Italians are sanguine – warm and moist, Arabs are Choleric, – hot and dry, English are phlegmatic, cold and wet, Russians are Melancholic, cold and dry.

The Sanguine humour was due to an excess of blood. They were said to be hot and moist. Sanguine humour was related to the liver, the planet Jupiter, the element of Air and the period of Spring and youth.

The Choleric personality had an excess of choler, or yellow bile. They would appear yellowish. They were seen as being hot and dry. Yellow Bile is related to Mars, element of Fire and the organ in the body was perceived to be the Spleen. The Choleric period was related to Summer and from youth to middle age.

Melancholics were seen to be those who had an excess of black bile; they were cold and dry. Melancholia came from the Gall Bladder, the element of Earth. Saturn was the ruling planet and the season related to Autumn, when the fields begin to lie fallow. This corresponded with middle to old age.

The Phlegmatic had an excess of phlegm or white water. They were cold and moist, related to the Brain and Lungs, and are ruled by the Moon. The Phlegmatic period corresponded to Winter and old age, when things start to dissolve and get washed away.

The following is taken from a very good website – Greekmedicine.net  –

The Four Humors are not just gross, physical substances.  They also pervade the whole organism as subtle vapors, even affecting the mind, thoughts, and emotions.  And so, the Four Humors also have psychological effects, making them capable of affecting both body and mind:

Blood promotes a feeling of joy, mirth, optimism, enthusiasm, affection and wellbeing.

Phlegm induces passivity, lethargy, subjectivity, devotion, emotionalism, sensitivity and sentimentality.

Yellow Bile provokes, excites and emboldens the passions.  Being inflammatory, irritating and caustic, it provokes anger, irritability, boldness, ambition, envy, jealousy and courage.

Black Bile makes one pensive, melancholy and withdrawn. It encourages prudence, caution, realism, pragmatism and pessimism.  The Four Humors tend to have negative effects on the mind and emotions only when they’re excessive or aggravated.  Otherwise, they can also strengthen positive aspects of character.

The four types were paired with a temperature in common, so Sanguine and Choleric shared the element of heat.  One was Fire, the other Air, these two elements are sextile one another.  The other two shared the element Cold   – earth and water, these two are also sextile one another.

There are pairings between all four elements: Fire shares the dry element with Earth and Air shares the moist or wet element with water.

These humours gave us four basic Personality types.

A very simple breakdown of the four types are as follows:

Sanguine – Cheerful, agreeable, lusty, light hearted, forgetful, easily moved by emotions, irresponsible, passionate, warm appearance. Appear to glide or saunter when they move.

Choleric – Hot tempered, rash, hasty, brave, courageous, full of energy, sharp, ambitious, quick movers, always on the go, like a coiled spring.

Melancholic – Introspective, persistent, good memory, attention to detail, pedantic, irritable, shy, quiet. Walk with heads down, often carry books.

Phlegmatic – Sensitive, slow, ponderous, can appear a little dull, calm, reliable, thoughtful. Soft of touch, plump and move slowly.

It was also thought the humoural types give rise to certain appearances. A Phlegmatic person will walk slowly or ponderously, they may be large or flabby or carry excess weight.  They may be slow and precise in speech.  Shakespeare makes use of the temperament types; Shylock in the Merchant of Venice was Melancholic, dark, prodigious memory, miserable. Kate in Taming of the Shrew was Choleric, hot tempered and quarrelsome with red hair.

As noted, there are four basic temperaments, but the mixes of the humours, give a total of nine primary temperament types. Many modern psychologists used these humoural types as the basis of their work, including Jung, Adler, Pavlov, Eysenck, Steiner and Meyers Brigg. The Steiner schools teach children according to their humoural type, lessons are structured around the phases of the Moon and the days are associated with the colours of the ruling planet.

So how to assess Temperament?

To be continued…

Sharon Knight MA. QHP has studied and worked with traditional astrology for over 30 years and was personally taught by Olivia Barclay and Rob Zoller.  She is a Tutor for the QHP which was the first traditional course in astrology and gave rise to such notables as Deb Holding, Sue Ward, Dr. Barbara Dunn, Lee Lehman and John Frawley to name just a few!  Sharon also runs her own professional accredited course specialising in traditional natal techniques. She has lectured abroad in Turkey, Taiwan, India (where she 2016 won Astrologer of the Year in 2016) and of course here in wonderful Romania.  She is Chair of the APAI and  a Fellow of the same.

Articolul tradus în limba română poate fi citit aici: https://www.astrele.ro/2024/08/14/umorile-si-utilizarea-lor-in-astrologie-partea-i/