A TEST OF VALUE
The Old Philosopher of China has said that the virtue of everything is
in its use. If Cosmic Symbolism cannot be applied to the practical ends
of life it will not succeed in appealing to the average intellect, which
sets for its standard the single test of utility. In these pages I have
endeavoured to show that the Universe as Symbol is best studied in
relation to its bearing on the common needs of humanity. I have also
shown that Astrology is the only system of thought and practice that
attempts the application. I propose now to examine the educational value
of this study and its practical use in daily life, and thus to place it
among the list of those subjects that have a serious claim to the
consideration of enlightened people.
Tracing our way through the Encyclopædia of knowledge we find that most
of the deeper studies that engage the powers of men are valuable, not so
much for the ends they lead to, as for the mental training obtained in
their pursuit. It is one of the outstanding features of modern
scientific methods that we are required to bring our theories into
agreement with known facts. The facts themselves are often uninteresting
and of small practical value, but they serve as landmarks by which to
direct our course towards conclusions which in themselves are often
valuable. It is thus with astronomy. The application of the _Principia_
or of the Laws of Kepler to the cosmos as we know it is an exercise
requiring the greatest possible care, considerable mathematical ability,
and the patience of a Prometheus. The bare facts of astronomy are not
generally interesting. We are not solicitous of knowing in exactly how
many days, hours, minutes and seconds the planet Jupiter completes its
course about the Sun. What is of more practical interest to us as
terrestrials is to know Jupiter’s relations to this world of ours, what
it stands for in the economy of life, and what influence, if any, it
exerts over us.
Now Astrology, while employing all the elements of astronomy that have
any certain foundation in fact, is calculated as a study to engage all
the highest faculties of the human mind, while it brings to the results
obtained the added virtue of utility.
The late Professor Max Müller once paid Astrology a great tribute when
he said that many of our most distinguished men of intellect were at
this day practiced astrologers, but that “few cared to let their studies
be known, so great was the ignorance which confounded a science
requiring the highest education with that of the ordinary gipsy
fortune-teller.” Possibly he had in mind the late Lord Chief Justice, or
Dr. Richard Garnett, or indeed any one of the host of intelligent
students who have secretly avowed their adherence to the science. That
which held the admiration of Claudius Ptolemy, and received the
imprimatur of Tycho and Kepler, which attracted Lord Verulam, Francis
Bacon, and was held in the highest esteem by that trained scientific
observer and profound thinker, Sir Isaac Newton, and which in all ages
and nations has included the highest intellects among its votaries, is
affirmed by the great Orientalist to have a real value in the estimation
of modern students whose attainments have placed them in a position to
judge in the matter.
Let us, therefore, look soberly and carefully at this science of
Astrology and see if its study is likely to be at all profitable from
the point of view of education.
Astrology is both a science and a philosophy. As science it is concerned
with the facts of astronomy and as philosophy with the application of
those facts to the problems of life and mind. The astronomical facts are
of first interest. Before we can say anything at all about the interplay
of planetary action in human life we have to be able to set a map of the
heavens for any time and place at which a person may have birth. For
this purpose one can avail himself of the Ephemerides of the _Nautical
Almanac_, the _Connaissance des Temps_, or any of those cheaper
publications which are extracted from them. From various handbooks
written by astrological authors he may then learn how to erect a
horoscope or map of the heavens for any time and place. Such practical
knowledge is not to be found in any exposition of astronomy that I have
yet come across. It enables the student to observe with perfect accuracy
in what relations the various heavenly bodies were at the given time and
exactly where they were situated as seen from a particular locality on
the earth’s surface. The student finds considerable satisfaction in this
piece of practical work. But it is only preliminary to the further study
of the subject. For it will be seen that whereas the positions of the
planets at the moment of birth have a symbolical value as regards the
whole tenor and course of the life, the particular times at which events
prefigured are likely to take place can only be known from a study of
the subsequent motions of the heavenly bodies after the date of birth.
For it is from the constant changes taking place in the kaleidoscope of
the greater world about us that we draw our conclusions as to the time
and nature of events. The planets are continually altering their
relative positions owing to their different velocities and they thus
form aspects or certain angular distances in regard to the places of the
planets in the horoscope of birth and also among themselves in the
heavens. The process of bringing a planet to the place of another in the
horoscope of birth is called “directing” and involves a knowledge of
spherical trigonometry. This brings me to an interesting fact. It is
that the whole science of astronomy and the art of making ephemerides of
the planets’ positions was kept alive solely by the personal labours and
special knowledge of a handful of practical astrologers.
The Alphonsine Tables which were composed by the Arabian and Spanish
astrologers and which were collected under the command of Alphonso X of
Castile at a cost of four hundred thousand crowns, and published with a
royal preface in the year 1252, are among the earliest examples of their
great devotion. The Almagest of Ptolemy was completed about A.D. 148 and
was inscribed in the Temple of Serapis. The Rudolphine Tables composed
by Tycho and completed by Kepler were digested and recomposed by
Morinus, Mathematical Professor to the King of France, and printed at
Paris in the year 1650. Ptolemy, Tycho, Kepler and Morin were all
practiced astrologers. The _Nautical Almanac_ was first published in
1767 by Dr. Neville Maskelyne, and afterwards greatly improved in 1834.
The _Connaissance des Temps_ was published in 1699. Whence, think you,
did the astrologers obtain their information regarding the positions of
the planets prior to these years of authorized publication? They
calculated them for themselves. Without astronomy there could be no
Astrology. They kept astronomy alive.
Very few people understand what labour there is attaching to the
production of the various elements that one finds in the common almanac.
How many of my readers are prepared to calculate for themselves the time
at which the Sun will rise or set upon the horizon of a particular
locality? How many could say with any certainty at what time the Moon
would south, or cross the upper meridian? What percentage of people
could say when and where an eclipse of the Sun or Moon would occur,
where it would be visible, its extent and duration? The modern
astrologer has a remarkably easy time compared with the labours of his
predecessors. He can refer to his official guide, or consult the popular
almanac for all his elements. But for the working out of a horoscope and
its subsequent directions, he must certainly have a practical knowledge
of the use of an astronomical ephemeris.
From astronomy his attention is turned at once to Geography. He has to
determine the exact longitude and latitude of a place, the name only of
which is given, for he has to make his map of the heavens as seen from
the place of birth. Here he gets a practical knowledge of localities and
of the orientation of horoscopes. In his pursuit of Astrology the
student will find himself tracking back through the biographies of great
men and women in order to find data from which to test the various
ascriptions of the astrologers. He will turn up cases of dementia and
insanity in persons of repute and compare the data afforded by their
horoscopes with the rules of Ptolemy, Morinus and Cardan. He will
incidentally acquire a considerable knowledge of men and things which
else had been to him an unwritten book.
Further, testing the theory of eclipse influences he will inevitably
find his way back to the ruined cities of Nineveh and Babylon and the
three historical eclipses which preceded the downfall of the great
Empire, which eclipses we have received from Hipparchus through the
Syntaxis of Ptolemy. As to the latter there are the Greek, Latin and
English editions of the work open to his study.
The student will not proceed far before he comes up against the problem
of Calendarics. He will find it impossible to understand and follow the
works of the ancients without some notion of the equilization of Eras,
and it will become imperative, if he would check the statements made in
their works, as he should do, that he undertake the task of converting
ancient into modern calendars. He may even find it necessary to know the
names of the Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek, Indian and Chinese months. It is
all involved in the process of his study. He will certainly require to
know what are the Eras of the Hegira, the Salivahana, the Olympiads, and
the Kali Yuga.
Keen on the track of this ancient lore he may elect to study the
primitive Chinese language, and the noble Sanskrit of India, the more
perfectly to acquaint himself with the traditions of these peoples and
to study their ancient presentment of the science of Astrology. He may
conveniently follow up the record through the Greeks and Latins.
Assuredly he will need to acquaint himself, at least superficially, with
the anatomy of the human body, its physiology, pathology and hygiene. In
the allocation of faculty to environment he will come into touch with
sociology and will discriminate between the planetary occupations cited
by Ptolemy and those that enter into the complex of modern life. In
connection with the questions of marriage and progeny, the study of
eugenics and gynecology will claim his attention. The study of character
as revealed by the planetary dispositions at the moment of birth will
bring him into touch with the profound and as yet only partially
developed science of Psychology.
Cosmogony will inevitably hold his attention while studying the effects
of planetary action in the world at large, and seismology and
meteorology are branches of mundane astrology that cannot be overlooked
by any thorough student. For the argument comes easily to hand that if
the planets do not affect the world at large they cannot affect us as
denizens of the world.
From this by no means exhaustive category of subjects directly connected
with the study of Astrology, it will be seen that it entails a liberal
education and one, moreover, that cannot be matched by the curriculum of
any of our schools or colleges. So that, whether we regard Astrology as
a science, a philosophy or an occult art, it is certain that its
pursuit, if carried out consistently, cannot fail to improve the mind of
all who engage in it.
But as Laotze has said, the virtue of everything is in its use. If
Astrology has no practical advantages to offer us it will at best only
secure a place of academical repute. Those who have followed it out into
the broad issues of life will, however, be able to affirm that in
infancy, youth, adolescence and old age, Astrology is adequate to the
needs of all as a source of guidance and information. From the very
outset of life we are faced by considerations of health, questions
regarding the continuance of life, matters connected with education, the
development of special faculty, and all those problems that vex the
parental mind. Then later on we have to decide upon the choice of
occupation, and later still on the all-important question of marriage.
Then come the host of considerations hedging the welfare of the average
man, questions regarding business affairs, travelling, partnerships,
alliances, and the final disposition of one’s affairs. There are also
the financial problems to be dealt with, matters of investment and of
speculation—for it is never wise to speculate unless you know—and on the
domestic side of life we have a multitude of problems which can easily
be imagined but are difficult to recite.
In all these matters Astrology is found to be consistently useful as a
guide and system of foreknowledge. Let me take some practical
illustrations of the value of foreknowledge. The Russo-Japanese War and
its outbreak in the Korea was foreseen and specifically predicted by me
from the Eclipses of 1893. The fact that thousands of persons are
directly or indirectly concerned in the appreciation or depreciation of
the commercial interests and Government securities of those countries
will point the practical value of this piece of intelligent
anticipation.
The Hispano-American War of 1898 was predicted and the corner in wheat
coinciding with the outbreak of that event was foreseen. Was this of any
value to those whose business it is to anticipate the price of
commodities and to arrange their shipments accordingly? Was the fall in
Consols in 1899 on the outbreak of the Boer War of no consequence to
trustees and financiers? Consols were then at 112 and they fell to 88.
My statement to the _Daily Mail_ twelve months before the event was that
Consols next year would, on account of war, be as much below par as they
were then above it. These are not isolated predictions carrying with
them a fictitious value as spasmodic evidences, but they form part of a
coherent and consistent system of forecast which has been available to
the public for many years and of which many have taken advantage.
Judged by the test of fact and utility it will be seen that Cosmic
Symbolism as developed in the science of Astrology is everywhere and in
all directions abundantly justified in its claim to a patient and
dispassionate investigation at the hands of competent critics, and
universally it will be found to answer the common problems of life and
to throw a flood of light upon some of the more recondite mysteries of
our being.
In this work I have sought to be rather suggestional than informing, to
stimulate rather than to satisfy curiosity, and to entice the reader to
a consideration of some few ideas which arise out of the study of the
Universe as Symbol. In this I trust I have been successful.
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● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
○ Footnotes have been moved to follow the chapters in which they are
referenced.