ASTROLOGY.
Supposed Origin of Astrology--Butler on the Transmission
of Astrological Knowledge--Remarks on Astrology by
Hervey--Petrarch’s Opinion of Astrology--Catherine of
Medicis--Casting of Nativities in England--Moore’s
Almanack--Writers for and against Astrology--Horoscope of Prince
Frederick of Denmark--Astrologers contributed sometimes to
realize their own Predictions--Caracalla.
Astrology has been divided into natural and judiciary, or judicial;
but it is only the latter division which will come under present
consideration, and its definition has been said to be the art of
foretelling future events, from the aspects, positions, and influences
of the heavenly bodies.
The idea that they should have any influence, direct or indirect,
on our actions in this nether world, or that they obliged us to the
performance of any act, however extraordinary, may have been originally
supposed, by those who were familiar with the figurative language of
the Prophets, to receive confirmation from the facts, and the style
of the predictions, recorded in sacred history. They would find, for
instance, that the Star in the East was foretold, which at its coming
was to announce peace and goodwill towards men; and the later and more
solemn revelations, concerning the final consummation of all things,
typified that awful event by signal appearances in the heavens.
Traditionary knowledge of these events and predictions, coupled with
ignorance of the causes of meteorological phenomena, now better
understood, might easily lead the timid and superstitious to forebode
evil, from the disastrous twilight of the eclipse, or to impute a
favouring influence to the rising of certain stars at particular
seasons. The universal custom of traversing the deserts, or navigating
ships across the pathless ocean, by the observation of the stars,
previously to the discovery of the compass, led the imaginative to
conceive, that the moral path of life was equally to be regulated by
astral indications. It must be owned, too, that it was not unnatural
for simple unreasoning minds thus to connect the glorious sun, the
moon, when walking in brightness, queen of heaven, and the host of
stars, with the destinies of man.
Fear, it is said, first deified the ancient heroes. It was a storm and
an eclipse that first consecrated Romulus; nor had Jupiter himself
been master of heaven, or worshipped on earth, if the terrors of his
thunders had not advanced the conceit of his divinity. It is quite
certain that, by degrees, a system was formed, which took hold of
the imaginations of all classes of persons; and the truth of such a
doctrine, and its decisions, it was heretical to doubt. J. Butler, one
of the devout believers in astrology, far from thinking it a remnant
of Pagan superstition, calls it a divine science. He pretended, with
many others, “that Adam, after his fall, communicated it out of his
memories of the state of innocency, to Seth. He in his turn made
impressions of the same in certain permanent pillars, able to withstand
fire and water, by which means the science passed to Enoch and Noah.
Shem was instructed by his father, and communicated his knowledge to
Abraham, who carried it into Chaldea and Egypt. Moses, ‘skilled in all
the learning of the Egyptians,’ was also thought to have been an able
astrologer.”
Thus was the vanity of the more modern professors of the art
encouraged, and they maintained that the heavens were one great volume,
wherein God had written the history; and, of course, it was to be
understood, that the astrologers were the high-priests, who alone could
expound its mysterious pages.
The author of the “Contemplations on the Starry Heavens” has, with
great propriety, made the following remarks on this science:--“The
pretenders to judicial astrology talk of I know not what mysterious
efficacy, in the different aspects of the stars, or the various
conjunction and opposition of the planets. Let those who are
unacquainted with the sure word of revelation give ear to these sons
of delusion and dealers in deceit. For my own part, it is a question
of indifference to me, whether the constellations shone with smiles,
or lowered in frowns, on the hour of my nativity. Can these bodies
advertise me of future events, which are unconscious of their own
existence?”
In the time of Petrarch, though astrologers had great credit, that
learned man only laughed at their pretensions. Of one of them, in
particular, he says, “The astrologer was older and wiser than I was; I
loved him, and should have been still more attached to him if he had
not been an astrologer. I sometimes joked, and sometimes reproached
him, about his profession. One day, when I had been sharper than usual
with him, he replied, with a sigh, ‘Friend, you are in the right; I
think as you do, but I have a wife and children.’ This answer touched
me so much, that I never spoke to him again on that subject.”
Queen Catherine of Medicis, though a woman of strong mind, was deluded
with the more ignorant, by the vanity of astrological judgments; the
professors of the science were so much consulted in her court, that the
most inconsiderable act was not to be done without an appeal to the
stars.
In England, William Lilly, John Gadbury, and others, set up for
prophets; and nativities were cast for all who could afford to pay for
the privilege of searching into futurity. It was but natural that the
inquirers should have to reward such intelligence in proportion to the
distance it was brought, or its flattering nature; events, however,
soon proved it to be far-fetched and nothing worth.
The volumes of tiresome absurdity, written on this subject, about the
beginning and middle of the seventeenth century, would exceed present
belief; and nothing but a thorough though unaccountable conviction, in
their readers, that they spoke the language of truth, could have ever
made the perusal of them tolerable.
Moore’s “Prophetic Almanack,” with its astrological predictions and
“hieroglyphic for the year,” is the only legacy left to us of this
species of composition and imposition. It would be beneath the dignity
of such a philosopher to be guilty of a pun; though the more irreverent
of his readers might naturally have suspected him of such an intention,
when, a few years since, he prophesied that, “Towards the close of the
year _Turkey_ will be much embroiled.”
Some writers, in the more fortunate era of astrology, ventured to
impugn the truth of the doctrine, and to ridicule its professors,
particularly in the persons of Lilly and Gadbury, who retorted with
acrimonious and arrogant vulgarity. Further curiosity on this subject
may be gratified, by turning to such works as “Supernatural Sights and
Apparitions, seen in London by William Lilly;” or the reply to it,
“Black Monday turned White, or a Whip at Star-gazers.”
One of the opposers of this science argued, naturally enough, that God
had assigned the stars their site and course, which no power of man or
angel was able to alter; but man’s fancy had built us imaginary houses
in the heavens, to which were attached such qualifications, affections,
&c., as the framers pleased.
These houses were twelve in number; in one or other of which, according
to the hour and season of the person’s birth, did he take his position,
as pointed out in the horoscope. An outline of a general horoscope is
annexed, and, in explanation of it, Mr. William Lilly is pleased to
say, “When I speak of the tenth house, I intend somewhat of kings or
persons represented by that house, which is also called _medium cœli_,
the mid-heaven; when mention is made of the first house, ascendant or
horoscope, I intend the commonalty in general. Dic et eris mihi magnus
Apollo.”
[Illustration: PLAN OF A HOROSCOPE.
THE SIGNIFICATION OF
THE TWELVE HOUSES OF
HEAVEN, IN AN ANNUAL
REVOLUTION, BY WHICH
EVERY ONE IS DIRECTED
TO THE KEY OF THE
BOOK.
1 Ascendant.
Commonalty.
Vulgar Life of
every Man.
2 Wealth.
Riches. Estate.
Moveable
Goods.
3 Kindred.
Neighbours.
Small Journeys.
4 Fathers. Towns.
Castles.
King’s Wives.
5 Children.
Ambassadors.
Commissioners.
6 Servants.
Small Cattle.
Sickness.
7 Women.
Wars.
Lawsuits.
Suitors.
8 Death.
Inheritance.
9 Clergymen
Long Journeys.
Religion.
10 Kings.
Emperors.
Princes. Generals.
Commanders of Armies.
11 Friends in general.
Servants in particular;
their aid or
service.
12 Whispering.
Great Cattle.
Envy.
Sorcery.
]
Mr. Gadbury, also, in the nativity cast for the illustrious Prince
Frederick of Denmark, informs us, that “It is an aphorism nearly
as old as astrology itself, that if the lord of the ascendant of a
revolution be essentially well placed, it declares the _native_ to be
pleasant, healthful, and of a sound constitution of body, and rich in
quiet of mind all that year; and that he shall be free from cares,
perturbations, and troubles. The nativity of Frederick Prince of
Denmark, astrologically performed by John Gadbury, 1660.”
It often happened, with regard to the responses given by the oracles,
that they in some measure corresponded with the subsequent events;
in like manner did the astrological casters of nativities seem to
have their presumptuous pretensions verified by after circumstances.
Caracalla lost his life by seeking to preserve it from supposed
treachery; for, while in Mesopotamia, being jealous of a plot against
him, he sent to the Roman astrologers for the particulars of it. They
accused Macrinus, his faithful prefect, of a conspiracy, which nothing
but his death could frustrate. This answer coming while the emperor was
intent on some sport, he gave it to Macrinus to read; who, finding his
innocent life in danger by this trick of the astrologers, secured it by
the murder of Caracalla, of which, even in thought, he had before been
innocent; though the result proved the apparent truth of the prediction
of the astrologers.