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Via Combusta
What it is
The Via Combusta, Latin for "the burnt way" or "the combust way", is a stretch of the zodiac from about 15° Libra to 15° Scorpio. Traditional astrologers treated it as a troubled zone for the Moon in particular: a Moon passing through it was read as weakened and unsettled, much as a planet close to the Sun is weakened by combustion — hence the name.
Why there
The reasons given vary, and none is entirely settled.
- The signs themselves. The stretch spans the end of Libra, where the Sun is in its fall, and the beginning of Scorpio, where the Moon is in hers. Both lights are at their weakest there by essential dignity.
- The stars. The stretch held several fixed stars reckoned violent or unfortunate in the old star lore, among them the claws of the Scorpion, the stars now in Libra.
- Inheritance. Al-Biruni and later Arabic writers already list the "burnt" degrees; medieval Latin authors such as Bonatti passed them on, and Lilly includes the Via Combusta among his considerations before judgement in horary.
Because the zodiac has drifted against the stars since the rule was made, astrologers who follow the star explanation sometimes move the zone on with precession — deVore reckoned it would now centre on about 10° Sagittarius, around Antares. Most traditional practice keeps the tropical 15° Libra to 15° Scorpio.
How it is used
In horary. Lilly warns that when the Moon is in the Via Combusta at the moment a question is asked, the astrologer should take care: the matter may be confused, or the figure hard to judge. It is one of the considerations before judgement, not a reason on its own to refuse a chart.
In elections. For choosing a moment to begin something, the electional books keep the Moon out of it altogether. Ramesey, giving rules for something as homely as cutting the nails, adds "let her not be in Via combusta (which is in the first 15 degrees of Scorpio, and the last 15 degrees of Libra)" — though he allows the first half of Libra. The same caution appears in elections for marriages, journeys and building.
In a birth chart. Some modern astrologers read a natal Moon there as an emotional life that has to pass through intensity or upheaval; others give it little weight. It is a minor testimony, easily outweighed.
How to read it
Treat the Via Combusta as one of the Moon's minor afflictions, worth noticing for elections and horary and rarely decisive anywhere else. The Moon crosses it for about two and a half days every month, so it is common, not ominous.
In the almanac
The Almanac's Moon panel notes when the Moon is in the Via Combusta, and the rules it shows for beginnings, contracts and other elections take it into account.