Benefaction, or Intermediacy of Good Fortune, is the opposite of Besiegement: a highly favorable and significant advantage in a geomantic chart. It occurs when the figure occupying a house is placed between figures of the Benefics—K Jupiter and C Venus.
Benefaction does not have to be formed by K Jupiter and C Venus together. It may arise between two figures of K Jupiter, between two figures of C Venus, or between a figure of K Jupiter on one side and a figure of C Venus on the other. Caput Draconis may also take part in forming Benefaction, since it carries the favorable nature of both Benefics.
Meaning of Benefaction
Benefaction shows that the people, things, or circumstances signified by the benefited house are surrounded by benefactors, helpers, support, or favorable opportunities. They are, as it were, protected by good forces, assisted from both sides, offered several good options, or placed where fortune moves toward them from more than one direction.
In other words, this is a position between two goods: between a cushion and a featherbed, between two helping hands, between favor on one side and support on the other, sheltered by good fortune, or spoiled for choice.
Conditions of Benefaction
The rule of Benefaction applies when the figure occupying a house is placed between two benefic figures and forms Company with the neighboring figure with which Company is technically possible.
The figures of K Jupiter are:
- Lætitia;
- Acquisitio.
The figures of C Venus are:
- Puella;
- Amissio.
Caput Draconis may also participate in Benefaction, since it combines the nature of K Jupiter and C Venus.
Example of Application
- For example, Fortuna Minor in the tenth house may be benefited by Puella in the ninth house and Caput Draconis in the eleventh house.
The rule of Benefaction is also applied automatically in the author’s own application available at Geomancy.tools.
Quotes on Benefaction
When one of the planets is in one of the aforementioned conditions, its nature is strengthened and it signifies good fortune… Or if the planet is intermediate between two benefic planets… then the good fortune signified by it is increased and strengthened.
Abraham Ibn Ezra, The Beginning of Wisdom, Chapter V, § 1
The good fortune of the planets is that… they are besieged between two benefics.
Abu Maʿshar, The Great Introduction to the Science of the Judgments of the Stars, Part VII, Chapter 6, § 1–2
