ASTROLOGY
It could hardly be expected that one in my position, having the
reputation of being one of those modern fools who go searching after
ancient wisdom, could write a book on Cosmic Symbolism and successfully
avoid the subject of Astrology. I admit to have trespassed on its
preserves more or less in every chapter of this book. Now I may as well
take a gun and make a day of it.
It is safe to say that no considerable argument has ever been
successfully raised against the claims of Astrology to a place among the
sciences. No valid reason can be given for disputing its principles, and
its facts have never been overset. It is true that Pico della Mirandola,
called Flagellum Astrologiæ because of his avowed hatred of the subject,
attempted to expel it from among the Latins and was an ardent
pamphleteer in the cause of its suppression. But he justified its claims
and practically unsaid all that he had written by dying at the time
predicted by the astrologers. Dr. John Butler, Chaplain to James Duke of
Ormonde, had a mind to inveigh against its teachings, which by some
misconception he fancied to be pagan and subversive of Christianity. He
studied the subject the more effectively to assail the assertions of the
astrologers, and ended his campaign by writing a book in support of its
teachings. It is a book rather well known to students of the subject and
can be seen at the British Museum.
But perhaps the most sounding rebuke that was ever given to such as
foolishly repudiate the whole thing without taking the trouble to
examine its principles and methods, was given by Sir Isaac Newton to Mr.
Halley of comet fame when he ventured to dispute the subject with the
great philosopher. The latter heard him to a finish and then quietly
remarked: “I have studied the subject, Mr. Halley, you have not.” I do
not know what was Halley’s perspective and therefore I cannot say in
what regard he held the author of the _Principia_, but personally I
would rather be swallowed by an earthquake than have such a rebuke from
the same source. There was always that about Newton which inspired
confidence in his utterances, for a more fearless and at the same time
humble-minded investigator of Nature never breathed God’s air. He spoke
of what he knew.
In the presentation of astrological evidence we are not called upon to
display the _modus operandi_ of planetary action in human life. We can
observe facts without references to their causes. We may legitimately
theorize as to the means whereby a universe is brought into existence,
but none can say why. One is relieved of the necessity from the fact
that he is not the Creator of it.
But there are many suggestions afforded by modern scientific discoveries
which lead us to the idea that planetary influence, apart from the
attraction of gravitation, may be due to the functions of subtle states
of matter such as we posit as properties of spatial ether. And since we
know nothing of force apart from matter it is reasonable to presume that
whatever forces are at play in the cosmos have their appropriate
material vehicles. Spectrum analysis does not lead us to suppose that
there is any material difference in the chemical constituents of the
various bodies of the system, and what you find in the planets you find
also in the Sun.
Certain considerations regarding the nature of matter lead us, however,
to the conclusion that, apart from its properties, it has
characteristics which depend not so much upon its atomic constituents as
upon their arrangement. From this we may argue that inasmuch as we are
all compounded of the same cosmic elements, differences of character and
temperament are due to the ascendancy of one over other of those
elements in individuals. This, so far as the personality is concerned,
may well be true, but because material atoms have no emotions,
aspirations, hopes and fears, and no moral sense, they cannot be said to
acquire such by mere conglomeration. To carry the argument further,
therefore, we should have to derive our atoms from something rather more
spiritual than the hydrogen base, the “happy hunting-ground” of the
physicists.
So far as the planets’ action on our organisms is concerned, it may be
that the brain cells, infilled as they are with a nervous pabulum, are
capable of responding to the more subtle vibrations of the ether. But
the immaterial parts of us must respond to immaterial stimuli, and we
know that there are other than merely physical effects due to planetary
influence. And whereas matter is continuous of matter throughout the
entire universe, mind is continuous of mind, and spirit of spirit. Thus
it is that “Soul to soul strikes through a finer element of its own.”
We must therefore recognize that there may be a supra-cosmical as well
as an intra-cosmical planetary action, and this follows from the
argument that, matter being the ultimate expression of Spirit, the
material planets have their spiritual counterparts.
However, to come to the practical side of the argument for and against
the subject, I may deal with some of the more weighty objections which
have been lodged against it.
First, there is the argument of coincidence which is used to explain
away the fact of successful prediction. This in cool logic is no
argument at all, for the only coincidence that is shown is that of the
prediction and the subsequent course of events. Now if there were a
single prediction which in human judgment could not have been otherwise
foretold but by the application of some commonly-called “occult”
knowledge, this would suffice to confirm the claim that foreknowledge is
scientifically possible. But what do we mean by coincidence. If apples
falling from a tree pursued different directions, some falling direct to
the earth and some in the contrary direction towards the sky, while
others went off at a tangent, it may be called a coincidence that one
should fall in the direction previously determined upon and named. But
if all the apples tend in the same direction and fall along the lines of
the earth’s radial magnetism direct towards its centre, then we may
posit a law of attraction.
Now if we can show a definite direction of all planetary influence—that
is to say, show that the same planet always maintains the same
significance in the astrological scheme, that its effects are always of
the same general character, and that these effects synchronize with the
arc by which the planet is separated from the position of any of the
prescribed Significators, then we may claim to have established the law
of planetary influence—or, if you will, of cosmic symbolism. We are not
now concerned with the question of the causative or symbolic relations
of our greater environment. This connection between planet and event we
can certainly show.
Another argument is that the discovery of the heliocentric system by
Copernicus invalidated the conclusions of the astrologers which were
based on the geocentric positions of the planets. We cannot allow this
for the following reasons. The Suryasiddhanta of India antedates the
system of Copernicus by many hundreds of years and it is heliocentric.
India is nevertheless the schoolhouse if not the nursery of Astrology,
and planetary influence in human life is practically an article of faith
with the Hindus. The conclusions of Copernicus were confirmed and
demonstrated by Tycho and Kepler. Tycho practised astrology while Kepler
confirmed its principles and added to its credentials by successful
prediction. In a universe of relativity, every planet is the centre of
its own system, as every man is the centre of his own world, and the
Astrologer who studies the action of the planets on this earth and its
inhabitants, rightly regards the latter as the passive centre of such
action. As the fortunes of a country centre in its Ruler, so those of
the individual centre in himself.
A further argument urged against the Science is that the discovery of
the planets Neptune and Uranus must vitiate conclusions drawn from an
incomplete cosmical system. The argument has really very little value.
The discovery of Argon as a constituent of the earth’s atmosphere does
not involve any change in our ideas about oxygen, hydrogen, or nitrogen.
What was argued in regard to the nature of Saturn a thousand years ago
is maintained by all modern Astrologers. It is the same with all the
other planets. Only we have the added knowledge of the nature and
influence of the two planets Neptune and Uranus to supplement what the
ancients knew about the rest of the solar system. In former days when
they could not discover adequate reasons for death, a man was said to
have died by “the visitation of God.” To-day with our extended knowledge
of the solar system it is found that Uranus or Neptune has been the
agent of the Lord of Life and Death.
Another objection raised against the idea of planetary influence is that
the bodies are so remote and insignificant as to be incapable of
producing any marked effects in mundane affairs. The objection is
grounded in ignorance. The distance of the planets bears no relation to
their influence or power to affect us. This will be obvious to those who
have reflected on the fact that etheric vibration becomes “light” only
when it impinges on the earth’s atmosphere, and the fact also that the
attraction of gravitation operates irrespective of distance and
maintains the solidarity of the system. Planetary perturbations due to
the mutual attraction of the several bodies is an adequate reply to the
objection of Cicero. Sir David Brewster argues that if light could reach
us from the distant stars and planets, other influences may also reach
us from the same sources. Cicero, on the other hand, while possessed of
magnificent ideas of the solar system and fully admitting its
solidarity, asks with evident lack of argument, “What contagion can
reach us from the planets whose distances are almost infinite?” We have
gone beyond the “infinite” of Cicero since that question was asked, and
modern astronomers are able to demonstrate the fact that the Sun, while
acting as the centre of attraction in its own system, is answering to
the gravitational pull of some star in the confines of space, and that
it has a proper motion of its own in a vast orbit about that centre. I
have already expressed the view that Plato knew of this and that it was
the basis of his Great Year. What hinders that our Sun may receive
influences from its own lode-star, and that these may be transmitted to
us in common with the other planets of our system? There is no harm in
using the scientific imagination providing that we have some fact from
which to proceed.
In connection with the teachings of astrology there is the scientific
fact of natural selection to be considered. What is it that determines
birth under particular astral conditions. We say that it is innate
tendency. Locke, who in his _Human Understanding_ argued for “no innate
ideas” had a faulty perspective. He failed to account for genius through
sense-impressions, as others have later failed to account for it through
cumulative heredity. We have instances before us where it is obvious
that there was nothing to accumulate so far as special forms of genius
were concerned.
If, on the other hand, we accept the human being as an evolving Monad
passing through a succession of incarnations for the purposes of
experience and ultimate specialization of faculty, we shall at once
understand how it is that certain persons are endowed with precocious
tendencies of a definite order from infancy, and indeed birth. Given the
time necessary to get into touch with the physical instrument and to
“tune up,” as it were, the appearance of unusual faculty can in no way
be hindered, because it is innate. In this connection Astrology affirms
that persons are born with particular horoscopes because when the
heavens are so disposed as to admit of, and indeed to favour, the
expression of certain forms of genius and faculty, the Soul requiring
those conditions is borne into earth-life. The doctrine involves the
suggestion that there is a purpose in human existence and that such
purpose is neither begun nor fulfilled in any one incarnation. Then, as
there is a Spiritual Law in the Natural World, and a supra-cosmic law of
planetary action, we can see how the line of least resistance is
determined by innate tendency. In the Wisdom of Solomon it is said: “I
am not good because I was born into an undefiled body, but being good I
was born into a body undefiled.” There is therefore an ancient belief in
the determination of birth conditions to innate character.
Colourless and purposeless individuals are found to be responsive to
general or group influences and to be moved by the feelings and thoughts
that animate the crowd. They have not yet attained that power of
self-direction which characterizes the highly evolved Monad. Accentuated
and purposeful characters, on the other hand, require specific
influences under which to be born, and these influences must be
conformable to the purpose in view. What that purpose is may be seen
from their life and actions, and indeed it is written all over them for
those who understand the physiognomy of Nature. Occasionally we have the
incarnation of special Messengers who are responsive to the collective
spirit of the superior world. These are found to voice the needs of the
soul rather than of the body of man and their minds answer to a higher
law than that which controls the average individual.
Very many factors conspire to the production of those astral conditions
which favour the expression of individual character of a high order.
Much depends on the sphere of life in which the purpose of evolution
requires that they shall function. We have such examples of marked men
in all spheres of life. But wherever they appear they are easily
discernible by their horoscopes. Nature is not so profligate as some
people imagine, for in the long run it is seen that her ways and means
are those which invariably secure the end in view. If she is apparently
careless of the mass she is at all events jealously careful in regard to
such as have specialized, and we find by practical experience that she
adapts environment to purpose with infinite care and foresight.
If we take the astral conditions obtaining over any particular period of
a year and consider them in relation to the number of births occurring
in any particular area, we shall find that so far as the cosmic
relations of the planets are concerned they will remain practically
undisturbed for a considerable time. Thus Neptune will be in the same
sign for about 14 years, Uranus for 7 years, Saturn for 2½ years,
Jupiter for one year, and Mars for nearly two months, Venus and Mercury
changing signs within the month. So that, from a cosmical point of view,
quite a large number of births will take place under similar conditions,
for even the Moon, which represents the element of variability, will
continue in the same sign for about 2½ days, and in a thickly populated
area such as the City of London, where the average birth-rate is 14 per
hour, we may have as many as 840 births under exactly the same zodiacal
conditions.
But it happens that the ancient astrologers thought out this problem
somewhat fully, and consequently they directed their attention to the
conditions obtaining in regard to a given locality. In other words, they
paid more attention to the rising, culmination and setting of the
planets than to their zodiacal positions. Now a simple calculation will
show that as 1° of the zodiac passes the meridian every four minutes,
and 15° every hour, there is enough and to spare for the fourteen births
which take place on an average in the most densely populated centre of
the world, so that each of them may be born under a separate degree. But
the fact probably is, and necessarily I am theorizing on the point, that
people are born in batches, for where special conditions are not
required the common experiences of life will serve for all the
evolutional needs of a large majority of those born into the world.
Moreover, as I have already said, the planets affect us in terms of
ourselves, so that the same planetary conditions will be variously
interpreted by individuals born at the same time, according to their
degree of evolution. Consequently I do not see any astrological
objection to any number of persons being born under the same stellar
conditions, and it is indeed probable that the horoscopes of all our
kings and leaders will find duplicates all over the country. All that we
note in such circumstances is that the events of their lives have a
certain set parallelism from birth until death, while so long as these
individual souls are under the sway of those stellar conditions, they
interpret them according to their own natures and in terms of their
sphere of life. A notable case, but by no means the only one that could
be cited is that of John Hemmings and King George III. Both were born on
the same day and at the same hour in the same parish of St.
Martins-le-Fields, in London. When George II died John Hemmings’ father
died. George III succeeded to the throne and John Hemmings to his
father’s business, which was that of an ironmonger. They were married on
the same day, had the same number of children of the same sexes, and
died on the same day and at nearly the same hour. The Webbs, the Cloughs
and the Morells are famous cases of twins whose lives were at all points
similar, and this, not because they were born of the same parents but
because they were born under exactly the same astral conditions.
The mundane factor as distinguished from the zodiacal, that is to say,
the positions of the planets in the prime vertical as distinguished from
their positions in the zodiac, is that which makes for individual
expression. Three hundred and sixty persons could be born in a single
day in any one locality and each of these could have a horoscope that is
distinct and individual. The highest record does not reach this number.
With this factor of variation in the expression of human character and
destiny, it is possible to understand how the Arch-arbiter of our
destinies may, for the ultimate purposes of our spiritual evolution,
determine the application of the individual psychoplasm to the physical
centres of life at times when the cosmical and mundane conditions are
harmonious to the end designed. From an astrological point of view there
is room and to spare for the expression of every phase of human
character and development, and that is the same as saying that the One
Life is capable of an infinite variety of manifestations in the process
of time. This doubtless was the thought animating Shelley’s oft-quoted
phrase—
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity.