I thought I’d share the funniest chapter I read in Carmen Astrologicum namely “Knowledge of Sodomy”. You must excuse the wordings, the text comes from the 1st Century AD and certainly doesn’t reflect modern views. Dorotheus has written this book as ‘letters’ to his son, which may be an important bit of information regarding the writing style. Here’s his writings on what he calls “sodomy”.

Now I will make clear to you sodomy and [what is] like that of what is in men and women. If Venus is in the house of Mercury and Mercury is in a bad place, then the native will not love women, but his pleasure will be in boys. If the lot of Wedding is with Mercury and Mercury is in a masculine sign which is Cardine, he will be desirous of boys, [but] will not love intercourse with women. If you find Mars in the house of Mercury and Mercury in the house of Mars, then he will be covetous of males; the aspect of Mars to Mercury from quartile or opposition indicates the same.

As you can see this bit of text is quite full of information and for proper understanding I wanted to elaborate on what he meant so it can be taken in better.

If I understood correctly, what he means with “Venus in the house of Mercury” should not be confused with modern astrology’s assigning of natural rulers over houses. It is to be derived from the individual’s natal chart. So I think what he’s basically saying is whether Venus is in a house with Gemini or Virgo on it’s cusp or rather simply; in one of these signs. Next up is Mercury. You’d think “a bad place” is somewhat vague, right? Well, while I was looking on the internet what “in cardine” actually meant next to my associations with “cardinal” I found a site that mentioned the houses as “astrological places”. Dorotheus also mentions it this way in Carmen Astrologicum. So that either means Mercury is in 6 or 12, which Dorotheus calls ‘the worst of the worst’. He also mentions 2,3 and 8, but they are not nearly as severe. Not exactly failsafe now is it! The same could actually be said by the last sentences about Mars in the house of Mercury and Mercury in the house of Mars. Mars in Gemini/Virgo and Mercury in Aries equals gay and an opposition or a square between these planets equals gay. That’s quite a bunch of gay people according to Dorotheus. It’s obvious that this theory is unlikely to hold up in practise.

Dorotheus describes the Lot of Wedding as follows:

Count from the degrees of Saturn to Venus and add to it the degrees of the Ascendant [by day] or subtract it thirty at a time from the ascendant [by night]; where ever it reaches, then there is the lot of wedding.

It comes close to this formula:
Asc + Ven – Saturn.

Dorotheus seems to differentiate when it comes to day or night birth, and unfortunately it’s not the only Arabic Part he mentioned that has something to do with Marriage (handy…). You can find more about this at this site.

Modern astrology’s stance regarding sexual preference is: none. A majority says they can’t distinguish gay from straight from the natal chart, myself included. The only thing we seem to agree on is that Uranus, as the planet of unconventional things creates some deviations from the norm, if in the correct place. That on itself, doesn’t necessarily make anyone gay.