problem translating a passage

Latin Learning Latin
1

I am trying to understand a passage I’m having trouble with. My question is mainly about the last phrase, in bold type below. The reverse of what seems to me to be said here is true. That is, the truth is that the celestial bodies are passively determined by the suffering subjects, and the latter are actively determined by the former. I am thinking maybe the author made an error in the Latin text and accidentally switched the words active and passive. But I suspect I simply may misunderstand. I also have a question about words that I believe are adjectives and not nouns (e.g., bilious and not biliousness), but for which it seems to me a pronoun is needed where I don’t see one, and where I reluctantly interpolate [him]. I take the final words of the passage–sibi congruentium to be a reference to the suffering subjects themselves.

Preceding this passage, the text refers to subjectis patientibus, so the passage that follows assumes the prior reference to those suffering subjects. I retain the word Caelum as a kind of term-of-art.

Coelum determinatur ad species accidentium subjectis ipsis patientibus congruentium, per situm partium suaram in figura genethliaca ipsius subjecti quod producitur. Ratione cujus situs, efficit subjectum ipsum, accidentium naturae suae congruentium diversimode susceptivum; quippe Aries in prima domo efficit biliosos, audaces, generosos, &c; unde constat quod coelestia corpora determinantur active, quoad speciem effectus substantialis, a subjectis patientibus; haec vero ab illis determinantur passive quoad species & qualitates accidentium sibi congruentium.

“The Caelum is determined to the kind of accidents, congruent with those suffering subjects, that are produced by the location of its parts in the genethliacal figure of the subject himself. By reason of its location, it makes that subject susceptible in diverse ways to accidents congruent with his own nature; indeed, Aries in the first house makes [him] bilious, audacious, generous, &c; Taurus, lustful; Gemini, talented, and so on for the rest of the signs; from which it is evident that the celestial bodies are actively determined to a kind of substantive effect by those subject to them, but the latter are passively determined by the former to the kinds and qualities of accidents congruent with themselves.”

Thank you in advance.

2

I’m not an expert, so feel free to disregard, but it seems to me that the author is using Aristotelic-Scholastic terminology. Anyway, here’s my take.

The Caelum is determined according to the species of the accidents that are congruent with the passive subjects themselves, through the site of its parts in the sketch of the birth hour of the subject itself that is produced. On account of the site thereof, it makes the subject itself susceptible in diverse ways to accidents congruent with its own nature.
[…]
from which it is evident that the celestial bodies are actively determined, as to the species of the substantial effect, by the passive subjects, but these [celestial bodies] are passively determined, as to the species and qualities of the accidents congruent with themselves.

3

bedwere, You are right that the author, Morin de Villefranche, a 17th century French mathematician and astrologer, writes in the Aristotelian/Scholastic tradition. I had misunderstood something about his somewhat complex, and somewhat unusual, theory about the active and passive determinations of the celestial bodies and the sublunary things they influence. Because of that misunderstanding, I was trying to get the passage to say what I thought it should say rather than what it does say. Your statement of what it says is in accord with what I now understand, after freeing myself from that misconception. Thanks very much for your reply.