Medical astrology: the assignment of the body regions

The assignment of the twelve signs to the regions of the body is called melothesia, and it is one of the oldest and most enduring doctrines in astrology. It is also the one where the line has to be drawn most clearly.

The sequence

It runs from head to foot, in the order of the zodiac:

Aries — head, face, brain
Taurus — neck, throat, nape
Gemini — shoulders, arms, hands, lungs
Cancer — chest, stomach
Leo — heart, back
Virgo — abdomen, intestines
Libra — kidneys, loins
Scorpio — excretory and sexual organs
Sagittarius — hips, thighs
Capricorn — knees, bones, skin
Aquarius — lower legs, ankles, circulation
Pisces — feet

The order is remarkably stable: it appears practically unchanged in Manilius in the first century and in the calendars of the eighteenth century.

What it was used for

Not for diagnosis, but for choosing the moment. For centuries the most widespread rule of practical medicine ran: no procedure on a part of the body while the Moon stands in the corresponding sign.

The bloodletting calendar that every almanac printed is exactly that. It is the most widely used astrological application in history — more widespread than the natal chart.

Alongside that, melothesia served to name the vulnerable places from the birth chart: an afflicted ruler of the sixth house in a particular sign pointed to the corresponding region.

Why this does not diagnose anything today

Let there be no mistake: no illness can be read off a chart.

There is no evidence for it, and the attempt does harm in two ways. A false alarm creates fear of something that is not there. A false all-clear keeps someone away from the doctor — and that can end in death.

Melothesia describes an assignment, not a prediction. That Taurus is assigned to the neck says nothing about whether a particular person will develop throat trouble.

What remains interesting about it

The history. Melothesia is the link between astrology and medicine, which for centuries shared the same conceptual framework — the four qualities. When that framework fell away in the nineteenth century, the connection ended. See astrology and medicine.