THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS
PLYMOUTH
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON
PRINTERS
[Illustration: WHEEL OF PYTHAGORAS. FACSIMILE FROM AN OLD WOODCUT
DATE. 1657.
_Frontispiece and Cover._]
THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS
A Book of Old World Lore
BY
_ROSA BAUGHAN_
AUTHOR OF "THE HANDBOOK OF PALMISTRY"; "CHARACTER IN HANDWRITING";
ETC., ETC.
_IN THREE PARTS_
PART I. ASTROLOGY.
PART II. CHIROMANCY
PART III. PHYSIOGNOMY
TO WHICH ARE ADDED
CHAPTERS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOLES OF THE BODY ASTROLOGICALLY
CONSIDERED,
THE MYSTICAL WHEEL OF PYTHAGORAS AND THE METHODS OF WORKING IT
FOURTH EDITION,
REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR
_ILLUSTRATED WITH TEN PLATES_
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LTD.
DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, SOHO
1904
Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Dialect spellings, contractions and inconsistencies in
the text have been retained as printed. Words enclosed by square
brackets replace the symbol, as it is not possible to represent the
symbol itself in plain text.
"Ye stars which are the poetry of Heaven!
If, in your bright leaves we read the fate
Of men and empires--'tis to be forgiven,
That in our aspirations to be great,
Our destinies o'erleap this mortal state
And claim a kindred with you; for ye are
A beauty and a mystery and create
In us such love and reverence from afar,
That Life, Fame, Power, and Fortune have named themselves a star."
Byron.
CONTENTS
Part I.
ASTROLOGY
CHAPTER PAGE
I. ASTROLOGY 4
II. THE ALPHABET OF ASTROLOGY 12
III. CONCERNING THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC 17
IV. OF THE NATURES OF THE SEVEN PLANETS AND OF THEIR
ESSENTIAL AND ACCIDENTAL DIGNITIES 23
V. OF THE INFLUENCES OF THE SEVEN PLANETS 34
VI. CONCERNING THE TWELVE HOUSES OF HEAVEN AND THEIR POWERS 50
VII. AN EXPLANATION OF VARIOUS TERMS USED IN ASTROLOGY 54
VIII. OF THE FIGURE OF THE HEAVENS 59
IX. OF THE INFLUENCES OF THE FIXED STARS 65
X. OF THE EFFECT OF EACH PLANET IN EACH OF THE TWELVE
HOUSES 70
XI. ON FORMING A GENERAL JUDGMENT ON A NATIVITY 76
XII. CONCERNING DIRECTIONS AND HORARY QUESTIONS 92
XIII. SOLAR HOROSCOPES 103
XIV. APHORISMS CULLED FROM THE WORKS OF PTOLEMY AND OTHER
ANCIENT ASTROLOGERS 120
PART II.
CHIROMANCY
XV. CHIROMANCY AND ITS ORIGIN 125
XVI. CONCERNING THE PRINCIPAL LINES IN THE HAND AND THE
MOUNTS 129
XVII. THE LINE OF LIFE 137
XVIII. THE LINE OF HEART AND LINE OF HEAD 143
XIX. THE SATURNIAN LINE 150
XX. THE LINE OF THE SUN AND LINE OF HEALTH 155
XXI. ON THE RING OF VENUS, THE WRIST LINES AND THE LETTER
M TO BE SEEN IN MOST HANDS 160
XXII. CONCERNING CHANCE LINES; THAT IS, LINES WHICH ARE
SOMETIMES--BUT ONLY RARELY--SEEN ON ANY HAND 166
XXIII. CONCERNING THE FINGERS AND THUMB AND NAILS 169
XXIV. OF THE VARIOUS MARKS TO BE SEEN ON THE HAND 177
XXV. THE TRIANGLE, THE QUADRANGLE AND THE HAPPY HAND 182
Part III.
PHYSIOGNOMY
XXVI. PHYSIOGNOMY 185
XXVII. THE FOREHEAD AND EYEBROWS 194
XXVIII. THE EYES AND EYELASHES 201
XXIX. THE NOSE 211
XXX. THE MOUTH, TEETH, JAW AND CHIN 221
XXXI. THE HAIR AND EARS 231
XXXII. THE SIGNATURES OF THE PLANETS 237
XXXIII. THE MOLES ON THE FACE 246
XXXIV. MOLES HAVING NO CORRESPONDING MOLES ON THE FACE 254
XXXV. THE ZODIACAL MARKS 258
XXXVI. CONCERNING ALFRIDARIES 263
XXXVII. CONCERNING THE WHEEL OF PYTHAGORAS AND THE METHOD
OF WORKING IT 267
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
WHEEL OF PYTHAGORAS _Frontispiece and Cover_
THE EARTH _To face Chapter VI._
NATUS. 9TH JANUARY, 1889 " " _VIII._
FACSIMILE OF A MAP OF A HORARY QUESTION FROM LILLY'S
"ASTROLOGY" " " _XII._
PRINCIPAL LINES ON THE PALM OF THE HAND " " _XVI._
THE LINE OF LIFE " " _XVII._
CHANCE LINES ON THE HAND " " _XXII._
VARIOUS MARKS ON THE HAND " " _XXIV._
THE HAPPY HAND " " _XXV._
THE PLANETS' PLACES ON THE FACE " " _XXVII._
ALFRIDARY TABLE " " _XXXVI._
FOREWORD
Of all subjects that have at any time engaged the attention of the
world, there is none more ancient than astrology. In the East--where it
first arose at a period of very remote antiquity--it still holds sway
and in every part of the world (especially among the learned) it
reigned supreme until the middle of the seventeenth century. That it
not only ruled the daily actions of individuals but swayed the councils
of princes, is shown by the records of every nation that has a history
(and by none more fully than by that of England); yet the present
generation seems never, until quite lately, to have cared to inquire on
what basis this belief could have been for so many ages supported.
During the past ten years, however--possibly from a reaction growing
out of the realism by which we have been so long oppressed--a new
interest in these old-world beliefs has sprung up and it is to satisfy
that interest that this book (containing the results of many years'
study) was written.
Chiromancy and Physiognomy are both based on astrology and are,
therefore, quite in place as the second and third parts of a work
treating of the influence of the stars. Many of the modern writers on
Chiromancy seem disposed to deny its affinity to astrology, with which
it is, however, inseparably connected. Dr. Saunders, in the preface to
his exhaustive work on Chiromancy and Physiognomy, published in 1671,
and dedicated to his friend Lilly, the great astrologer, says: "For our
more orderly proceeding with the body of this work, it is in the first
place necessary to be observed that there are seven planets, named
_Stellæ Errantes_--wandering stars--which have each of them its
separate character as they are used in astrologie; the which stars have
great power over inferior bodies and do, each of them, govern some part
or other of man's body and they _especially have their material
existence in the hand_ and without astrology Chiromancy could not
subsist and be subservient to true wisdom."
Now, why, in the face of this and many other equally forcible words
among the old-world authorities, do the modern writers try to force
their own crude theories upon us? To drag the time-honoured study of
Chiromancy into the turmoil of nineteenth-century existence and--by
robbing it of its mysticism--to strain it into unison with the realism
of modern thought, strikes the earnest student with the same sense of
incongruity as would the hanging of a carnival mask over the mystically
calm features of an antique statue.
ROSA BAUGHAN.
_November, 1904._
THE INFLUENCE OF THE STARS
ASTROLOGY
"To doubt the influence of the stars is to doubt the wisdom and
providence of God."--TYCHO BRAHE.
CHAPTER I.
That a certain power, derived from æthereal nature, pervades the whole
earth, is clearly evident to all. Fire and air are altered by the
motions of the æther, and these elements, in their turn, encompassing
all inferior matter, vary it, as they themselves are varied, acting
equally on earth and water, on plants and animals. The Sun, not only by
the change of the seasons, brings to perfection the embryo of animals,
the buds of plants and the springs of water, but also, by his daily
movement, brings light, heat, moisture, dryness and cold.
The Moon, being of all the heavenly bodies the nearest to earth, has
also much influence, and things animate and inanimate sympathise and
vary with her. By her changes rivers swell or are reduced, the tides of
the sea are ruled by her risings and settings, and animals and plants
are influenced as she waxes or wanes. The stars also produce in the
ambient[1] many impressions, causing heats, winds and storms, to the
influence of which earthly things are subjected. The force of the Sun,
however, predominates, because it is more generally distributed; the
others either co-operate with his power or diminish its effects. The
Moon more frequently does this at her first and last quarter; the stars
act also in the same way, but at longer intervals and more obscurely
than the Moon. From this it follows that not only all bodies which may
be already in existence are subjected to the motion of the stars, but
also that the impregnation and growth of the seeds from which all
bodies proceed are moulded by the quality in the ambient at the time of
such impregnation and growth. When, therefore, a person has acquired a
thorough knowledge of the stars (not of what they are composed, but of
the _influences_ they possess), he will be able to predict the mental
and physical qualities and the future events in the existence of any
one whose actual moment of birth is accurately given to him. But the
science of astrology demands great study, a good memory, constant
attention to a multitude of different points and much power of
deductive judgment; and those persons who undertake to cast horoscopes
without possessing these qualities, must necessarily make frequent
mistakes in their judgments, which, perhaps, accounts for much of the
disbelief which exists as regards the power of astrology; but it is
unfair to blame the science for inaccuracies which are only the result
of the ignorance of its exponents. No one should attempt to pronounce
judgments on the influence of the stars without having first given
years of study to the subject; and even then, unless he should have
been born under certain influences,[2] he will never become a
proficient astrologer.
[1] The ambient means the heavens when spoken of in a general
manner.
[2] Saturn, Mercury and the Moon.
The practice of observing the stars began in Egypt in the reign of
Ammon (about a thousand years before the Christian era), and was spread
by conquest in the reign of his successor into the other parts of
Africa, Asia, and Europe; but it appears to have been taught in the
earliest ages by oral tradition only, for there is no good evidence of
its having been reduced to written rules before some years after the
first century of the Christian era, when Claudius Ptolemy (who was born
and educated in Alexandria) produced a work called _Tetra-biblos_,
or _Quadripartite_, being four books of the influences of the stars. In
this treatise (translated into English by John Whalley--Professor of
Astrology--in the year of 1786) Ptolemy seems to have collected all
that which appeared to him of importance in the science. Another
translation of the _Tetra-biblos_, rendered into English from the Greek
paraphrase of that work by Proclus, was made in 1822 by J. M. Ashmand
and this is, by most people, preferred to the translation made by
Whalley. Somewhere between 1647 and 1657, Placidus di Titus, a Spanish
monk, published a system of astrology, founded, to a great extent, upon
Ptolemy's calculations. This work was printed in Latin and is called
the _Primum Mobile_, or _First Mover_, and was translated by John
Cooper in 1816; other translations have appeared, but his is the best
among them.
The planetary orbs, which the ancients recognised as having the most
powerful influence, were seven in number (now known under the Latin
names of the principal deities of the heathen mythology), viz.:
Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Moon.
It may be objected that science has long since revealed to us many more
planets than the seven known to the ancients; but, in considering a
study so mystical as that of astrology, it is better to adhere to the
theories of the old-world writers. In the earliest ages almost all the
inhabitants of the earth led pastoral lives--were, in fact, merely
shepherds--but amongst these shepherds there naturally arose, from time
to time, men of superior intelligence, whose imaginations (purified and
strengthened by solitude and the constant communion with Nature which
grew out of that solitude) led them to the study of those distant
lights which they saw, night after night, appear and disappear in the
wide expanse of the heavens above them. Of purer lives and more
impressionable than we moderns, they were necessarily more open to the
influences of nature; and all their thoughts being given to the study
of the mysteries by which they felt themselves surrounded, their
intuitive perception is likely to be a safer guide on mystical subjects
than the scientific conjectures of our day. Besides, as the results
produced by their methods were astoundingly correct, why should we
imagine ourselves capable of bettering their theories? Jupiter, Saturn,
Mars and Mercury are _still_ the most important planets, whilst the
Moon (though so small) has a more subtle influence in consequence of
her nearness to us; whilst of the Sun's power over us and the whole
creation there can, of course, be no question. Each of these seven
planets is in the ascendant once during the space of the twenty-four
hours forming the day and night; and according to the junction of two
or more planets under which a person is born, his outward appearance,
character and fate, will be influenced. The sign of the zodiac, too,
under which a child comes into the world, possesses a power to produce
a particular form of body and mental inclination, always, however,
_subject to the influence_ of the seven planets.
It must also be borne in mind that the planets dominating the lives of
both parents would, to a certain extent, have an influence not only
during the pre-natal period of our existence, but also in arresting or
hurrying forward the moment of our advent into life. The father's
influence is strong at the moment of conception; the mother's during
the whole period of pre-natal existence. In this way we can account for
the resemblance between parents and children, and also for the physical
and mental qualities which we see constantly reproduced through a long
line of ancestry. It is rarely that one planet is the sole influence of
a life, for the child at birth may, and more generally does, receive
influences from several planets, and some not those of the father or
mother; and thus we can account for the innumerable differences of mind
and body to be found among members of the same family.
For the benefit of those who object that there is too great a leaning
to what they would call "the dangerous doctrine of fatalism" in these
old-world beliefs, it may be well to quote a few reassuring words from
a very able and voluminous writer on these subjects, Dr. Richard
Saunders, who modestly styles himself on the title-page of his learned
work (published in 1671) student in astrology and physic. "The stars,"
he says, "have such an influential power over us that we act by them
and, though _they are but second causes_, their influences do so
necessitate us that we cannot avoid their fatality, _unless_ we have
recourse to the First Cause which governs this all." In other words,
though the stars influence us, God rules the stars.