ANCIENT AND MODERN EXAMPLES
Among the earliest of the great readers of the Symbolism of the universe
was Thales of Miletus, who during the sixth century B.C. formulated a
true theory of the cause of eclipses, and proved his theory by
predicting the eclipse of May 28, 585 B.C. He founded the Ionic sect of
philosophers, which was distinguished for the profundity of its
speculations, to which his successors and pupils, Anaxagoras,
Anaximander, Anaximenes and Archelaus so largely contributed. Archelaus
became the master of Socrates. Anaxagoras proved himself as skilful as
his Master in the use of the sphere and in astronomical studies, for he
predicted the eclipse of the Sun which was seen at Athens in the first
year of the Peloponnesian War. From Thucydides we learn that it happened
after noon in the summer, and that the Sun assumed a crescent shape and
that some of the stars shone out.
Sir J. Herschel has spoken of this eclipse as total, but this cannot be,
as the Moon’s apparent diameter was less than that of the Sun, so that
even where it was central it would be but annular.
Now of Thales it is recorded that he foresaw by his reading of the
symbols that there would be a great dearth of olives in a certain year,
and he accordingly bought up all the stock of olives that was on the
market and chartered all the stalls, so that when the dearth occurred he
was able to sell at his own price, and thereby made a great sum of
money. This was at Alexandria. He then went to Athens and found the
plague raging there. He at once took the matter in hand and was speedily
successful in purging the city, so that the people erected a statue in
his honour to commemorate the event. Seeing his end approaching and
knowing that it would be due to the fall of some heavy body, if indeed
he himself did not receive a fall, he thought to circumvent the evil by
taking necessary precautions. To this end he retired to a field where he
established himself. Being thus far removed from any buildings and
himself in no danger of falling from a height, he thought himself to be
secure, and looked forward to the time when the evil indications should
have passed by. But it happened that an eagle, having secured a
particularly fine tortoise as prey, carried it aloft and sought for
somewhat whereon to break its shell. Seeing the bald head of the
philosopher and mistaking it for a stone, the eagle promptly let the
tortoise fall. Exit Thales!
The general truth of the Hebrew records has been abundantly established
by archaeologists both in regard to the Babylonian and Egyptian
captivities and the sojourn in the wilderness. Their prophets were men
skilled in the reading of the universal symbolism, and they described
events centuries before they happened. Daniel so correctly portrays the
career of Alexander that the early opponents of the Bible sought to
prove, but without success, that the prophet was describing what was
past instead of predicting what was in the future. However this may be,
we cannot get away from the fact that the ruin and desolation of many
cities which were in a high state of prosperity in Daniel’s time and for
some centuries after, such as Moab, Edom, Amalek, Tyre and Sidon, and
Ammon, were undoubtedly predicted. These cities were to be blotted out.
They were in existence in the first centuries of our era, but now they
no longer exist. The subjugation of Egypt was clearly foretold and has
accordingly happened. Nineveh and Babylon were condemned to desolation
and utter ruin when in the height of their prosperity. They were to be
places of eternal solitude, the haunt of wild beasts, and the palaces a
hiding-place for jackals. Daniel’s famous prophecy of the coming of the
Messiah after Seventy Weeks, _i. e._ 490 years from the time of the
going forth of the order to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. The prophet
clearly indicates the source whence he was able to obtain initial light
upon the basis of prophecy, for he informs us that in the first year of
the reign of Darius (521 B.C.) he “understood by books the numbers of
the years,” etc. Thereafter by prayer and fasting he attained great
illumination, but in all his prophecies, where he makes use of the
symbolism of Nature, he uses the day for a year that is still pursued by
the student of Astrology.
Coming to more modern times of which we have closer record, we find in
Michael Nostradamus, Physician to Henry II of France and Catherine de
Medici, something of the same flame that animated the ancient prophets.
He carried his Astrology to a fine art, and among his predictions are
many that deserve notice. The death of the King in a duel is well
pourtrayed by him in a stanza—
Le lion jeun le vieux surmontera
En champ bellique par singulier duel,
Frappe a cage d’or
Deux plaies d’une, et puis un mort cruel.
Henry II was killed by Montmorency on the 10th July, 1547, while engaged
in a tourney at the nuptials of his sister with the Duke of Savoy. The
lance of the Comte de Montmorency struck the gilded vizor of the King
and penetrated to the eye. A tumour subsequently developed and the King
died of it. This is in agreement with the prophecy of Morin, who in his
horoscope of the King gave his death from a hurt to the head.
Nostradamus is also believed to have foreshadowed the Fire of London in
1666 in the following lines—
Le sang de juste à Londres fera faut
Brusler par feu de vingt et trois les six.
The blood of the just (spilled) in London requires that it be burned by
fire in Sixty-six.
This prophecy is in line with that of the famous astrologer, William
Lilly, who was patronized by King Charles I, and whose works were
collected by Sir Elias Ashmole. Lilly so clearly predicted the Plague
and Fire in two hieroglyphics that he was subsequently arraigned before
Parliament concerning his more intimate knowledge of the source whence
he drew his inspiration. His statement contained in _Christian
Astrology_ is that he founded his prediction on the ingress of the
aphelion of Mars into the sign Virgo, which he affirmed was the ruler of
the Monarchy then reigning.
The Aphelion of Mars was on Jan. 1, 5_s_ 2° 23´ 19´´
1800
From this take for 200 years motion 3° 39´ 40´´
_______________
Position for Jan. 1, A.D. 1600 4_s_ 28° 43´ 39´´
Add motion for 66 years 1° 12´ 29´´
______________
Position for Jan. 1, A.D. 1666 4_s_ 29° 56´ 8´´
Therefore in about four years from the time of the Fire the aphelion of
Mars would enter the sign Virgo. Kepler’s Tables, which were current in
Lilly’s time, show the date of entry to be 1654, and a mean of these
shows the year 1662. Therefore, as the hieroglyphic was published some
years before the events to which it refers, I think there can be no
doubt that Lilly has given us a true explanation of his reasons for the
prediction.
Kepler, the great Astronomer, not only affirmed his belief in the
principles of Astrology, but gave illustration of them by his prediction
of the rise and fall of Wallenstein.
Of Jerome Cardan, the astrologer and mathematician, who compiled the
Centiloquia of Ptolemy, and made important contributions to the study of
Algebra, there is a remarkable story on record concerning his prescience
of his own death and the manner of it.
It appears that from a study of his own horoscope he came to the
conclusion that at a certain time he would be in danger of death by
human violence. He therefore took precautions, and, having stored his
larder with sufficient material to see him through the evil period, he
securely bolted and barred all the doors and windows of the house, and
thus thought himself to be in great security. But it happened that a
band of robbers passing that way saw the house closed up, and, finding
it to be very securely protected, they fancied that some great treasure
might lay hidden away in it. They were not long in breaking into the
place, and, meeting Jerome at the foot of the stairway, brutally
murdered him.
John Dryden, the poet, studied Astrology very carefully, and the
excellence of his faculty may be judged from the precision with which he
predicted the career of his own son Charles. Congreve gives us the
account very circumstantially. It is said that when his lady was about
to give birth to this child, Dryden left his watch upon the table,
instructing the attendants to be very careful in noting the time of the
child’s birth. The event having been carefully timed, Dryden computed
the horoscope and made the usual calculations. He was thus able shortly
to inform his lady that at eight years of age the boy would be in danger
of death by a fall. If he survived this he would be again in danger from
a similar accident at twenty-three years of age, but that should he yet
survive then at thirty-three or thirty-four he would certainly succumb
to the malefic influences which then had indication in the horoscope.
In effect it was seen that when the boy arrived at the age of eight
years he nearly met his death. His father, being intent on going to a
hunt, left the lad at home with a Latin exercise, enjoining him strictly
not to leave the house until his return. As fate would have it, however,
the stag in breaking away from the hounds jumped the wall of Dryden’s
garden, and the boy running out to see what the noise was all about,
came by the wall just as the hounds were scaling it. The wall gave way
under the pressure of the pack, and Charles was buried beneath it. After
a long illness he was restored to comparative health. At twenty-three
years of age, when descending the steps of the Vatican, he fell and
received such a severe blow upon the head as to render him unconscious.
From this, however, he recovered, and might have lived to defeat the
sinister predictions of his father, but that at the age of thirty-three
he was tempted one day to indulge in a swimming feat in the Thames.
Having crossed the river twice in succession he essayed to perform the
feat a third time, but being caught with cramp or heart failure he was
soon seen to be in difficulties; and before assistance could be rendered
he sank and was drowned.
Thus we see that among the readers of the Symbols some were able to
admonish others and to give timely warning of the evils which beset
them, while themselves unable to provide against those troubles of which
they had equal prescience. One is indeed tempted to say with Philip
Bailey, “Free will in man is necessity in play.” But we know that the
reading of the symbols is not the same as the understanding of the law,
and it is quite reasonable to affirm that the ability to foresee and
predict a danger does not carry with it the ability to avert it. That
such power lies to the hand of man we may assume from the fact that
successive rulers of ancient China were able to continue in vigorous
life long past the age at which astrological indications extend. Thus
Fuh Hi reigned 115 years, Shin Nung 140 years, while Hwang Ti lived 110
years and reigned 100. Show Hao lived 100 and reigned for 84, and
several others lived over 100 years each, and according to astrological
principles all the “arcs of direction” would be completed in 112 years.
Thus Fuh Hi began the Patriarchal Dynasty in 2943 B.C., and the
obliquity of the Ecliptic was then 24° 7´, and taking the capital of the
Yellow Empire as in latitude 39° 54´ the product of their tangents will
amount to about 22°, which added to 90° will give 112° or about the same
number of years.
But we are also told that these men understood the Tao-tien, or
universal laws, and were in possession of the efficacious Word, so that
by their knowledge, allied to their great virtues and simplicity of
life, they were enabled to withstand the assaults of cosmical forces and
extend their years beyond the low average to which modern civilization
has brought us. It has been suggested by some controversialists that the
age of Methuselah, which is given as 969 years, should be reckoned as
lunar years, that is to say, as nine hundred and sixty-nine lunations.
But this would yield a period of about 78 years and 120 days merely, and
by the same computation he would be just over 15 years of age when he
begat Lamech, for it is said that he was then 187 years of age, and 187
lunations equal 15 years and 47 days. But this would falsify the whole
of the chronology, which, although not established, is found to be
consistent in itself. Thus both the Chinese and the Hebrews agree as to
the date of the Flood, 2348 B.C. At that time Noah was the Patriarchal
ruler in Chaldea and Yaou and Shun were joint riders in the Yellow
Empire. The curious agreement of the Hebrew and Chinese records is
presumptive evidence of something in the nature of a vast and probably
universal cataclysm. The following is the computation from Genesis—
Age of Adam at the birth of Seth, 130 years.
” Seth ” ” Enos, 105 ”
” Enos ” ” Cainan, 90 ”
” Cainan ” ” Mahalaleel, 70 ”
” Mahalaleel ” ” Jared, 65 ”
” Jared ” ” Enoch, 162 ”
” Enoch ” ” Methuselah, 65 ”
” Methuselah ” ” Lamech, 187 ”
” Lamech ” ” Noah, 182 ”
” Noah at the time of Flood, 600 ”
——
Total of years from Epoch 1656 ”
Beginning of the record, B.C. 4004 ”
——
Date of the Flood, B.C. 2348 ”
It is quite clear, therefore, that if we reduce the natural years of
Methuselah to lunar years the result would be to vitiate the whole of
the chronology, and, moreover, if we did so in regard to the years of
Methuselah we must also do so in regard to others of the Patriarchs.
This would mean that Mahalaleel was born to Cainan when the latter was
just over seven year of age; or that Methuselah was born to Enoch in the
sixth year of his age! If there is any improbability in the record at
all, it is rather in the idea of these patriarchal infants than in that
of the extreme longevity of Methuselah. If a mere tortoise can live for
500 years, why not a human? What the simple life is capable of, we of
this age have no knowledge from experience, but I see no reason why
certain souls, fitted by spiritual selection for the performance of some
great work or the up-holding of a holy tradition, should not incarnate
under cosmical conditions which are also so select as to withstand the
concatenation of natural forces which make for dissolution. At all
events we have here a rather interesting problem for the Eugenists, who,
basing their principles on purely physiological grounds, are confronted
and disarmed on every side by these occult forces in Nature which they
have failed to take into account. While they base all their calculations
on physical heredity, the occultist points silently but impressively to
the fact of psychic tradition, and in support of the occult position we
are able to point to a hundred cases of insanity which can be
specifically predicted from the moment of birth and years before the
symptoms of mental disorder begin to manifest. A theory to have a
working value must include all the facts, and so far as human genetics
are concerned not the least among these facts is that of the cyclic
rebirth of souls and the continual importation of new psychic forces
into the line of physical heredity. The study of Eugenics should begin
in the study of psychology. We know, for instance, that progeny
generated during intoxication will probably turn out epileptic, but that
does not answer the question as to why one soul rather than another
should animate that body. Yet out of a dozen horoscopes an astrologer
will unhesitatingly pick out any one that may happen to belong to a body
thus afflicted. This fact should give us pause to re-examine the
foundations of our system of genetics. The secret of health and
longevity is not to be found on this side of the spiritual equator.