Judicial Astrology--Reading the Heavens--Lucky and
Unlucky Days discovered--Kings' and Queens' Unlucky
Days--Highland Superstitions--Climacterics--Priests
foretelling Children's Future Destiny--Astrologer and
Charles IX.--Influence of the Moon--Official
Air-gazers--Sacrificing to Planets--Children born
under different Phases of the Moon--Dryden's Faith in
Astrology--Dryden calculating the Nativity of his
Children--Predictions concerning his Son fulfilled.
Judicial astrology, it is supposed, was invented in Chaldaea, and
thence transmitted to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, but there are
persons who think it commenced with the Arabs.
Astrologers, in reading the heavens, had recourse to a semicircle
which they called Position, by which they represented the six great
circles passing through the intersection of the meridian and horizon,
and dividing the equator into twelve equal parts. The spaces included
between these circles were styled the Twelve Houses, which referred to
the twelve triangles marked in their theme, placing six of these
houses above and six underneath the horizon. The first of the houses
under the horizon towards the east they named the Horoscope, or House
of Life; the second, the House of Wealth; the third, the House of
Brothers; the fourth, the House of Parents; and so on to the twelfth
house, each having reference to a particular subject. All matters
relating to issue, diseases, wedlock, death, religion, honour,
friendship, and woe could be foretold by astrologers.
In the time of the civil wars the royalists and the rebels had their
astrologers as well as their soldiers; and the predictions of the
former had great influence over the latter. By means of astrology,
lucky and unlucky days were discovered. Thursday was the unlucky day
of Henry VIII. He, his son Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth,
and many other illustrious persons, died on a Thursday, as had been
foretold; and we have already pointed out that the 3d of September was
a memorable day in the life of Cromwell.
The Highlanders of Scotland entertained many superstitions in regard
to the moon as well as in reference to the sun. A Highlander would not
willingly commence any serious undertaking in the waning of the
moon--such as marrying, flitting, or going on a far journey. When the
roth, rath, or circle of the moon was full, then was the lucky time
for beginning serious or important matters.
Astrologers have employed all the rules of their art to show that the
years of man's age, called climacterics, are dangerous, even
threatening death. The first climacteric is in the seventh year of
life, the rest are multiples of the first--as 21, 49, 56, 63, and 84,
which two last are called the grand climacterics. Marc Ficinus
accounts for the foundation of this opinion. He says there is a year
assigned for each planet to rule over the body of a man, each in his
turn; and that Saturn, being the most malignant planet of all, every
seventh year (which falls to its lot) becomes very dangerous,
especially those of 63 and 84, when the person is advanced in years.
There were those who pretended that the climacteric years were fatal
to political bodies as well as to individuals. Pythagoras based his
calculations very much on numbers. He thought considerable importance
should be attached to the number 7.
In France the new-born child was often presented naked to the
astrologer, who read the first lineaments in its forehead, and the
transverse lines in its hands, and from these he wrote down its future
destiny. Catherine de Medicis brought Henry IV., then a child, to old
Nostradamus, to ascertain the youth's destiny. An astrologer having
assured Charles IX. that he would live as many days as he would turn
on his heels in one hour, his Majesty, putting faith in the
prediction, performed the exercise of revolving, as directed, every
morning during the prescribed period of an hour.
The Egyptian astronomers held that the moon influenced all sudden
matters of importance, but others not less learned affirmed that
portentous events were regulated by wandering stars. Seneca speaks of
a custom which prevailed, of appointing official air-gazers to give
notice of an approaching storm, similar to the practice at the present
day, of having persons at meteorological stations throughout the
country to forecast the state of the weather. When they observed a
cloud which indicated a hail-shower, they warned the people in order
that they might protect their crops. The peasants, to propitiate the
planets, offered in sacrifice fat cocks and white lambs; and the poor,
who had neither fowls nor four-footed beasts to offer, cut their
thumbs, in the full expectation that this insignificant libation of a
few drops of human blood would secure the favour of the heavenly
bodies, and avert the threatened calamity.
A child born on the first day of the new moon is likely to live long
and happy, if it survives infancy. The child born on the second day
of the moon shall grow strong, and be noted for wisdom. This day is
fortunate in many respects. If one wishes to inquire into secrets,
let him begin before the clock strikes the midnight hour. The infant
born on the third day will never want an influential friend to lend
him a helping hand in time of need. The fourth day is not quite so
lucky, and the infant who comes into the world will require to be
honest and diligent, to support an honourable position in life. The
child born on the fifth day of the moon will turn out to be fickle
and capricious. It is a good day, however, for beginning any new
undertaking--particularly for laying the foundation of a building.
Promises made on the sixth day will be long of being fulfilled. On
this day people ought to take good heed to their ways, for on it they
are very liable to err. The parents of children born at this time had
better nurse the little ones tenderly, for nothing but scrupulous
attention will sustain them through the dangers of youth. Dreams of
the seventh day of the moon must not be revealed. Long life is
promised to the child born this day; and if a person be stricken with
sickness on it, a speedy cure will be effected. Tricksters and all
sorts of dishonest people will be disappointed on the eighth, ninth,
and tenth days of the moon; and children born on any of these days
will be blessed with long life and health, if they escape certain
contingencies known to the wise. The child born on the eleventh day
will go far from home, and may expect to die in a foreign country,
unless he make a fortune and return home, or have an estate left him.
The child born on the twelfth day of the moon will be wise and
long-lived; but the infant born on the following day will be of slow
understanding--in fact, will be a stupid creature, unless the
disadvantage can be overcome by hard study. Children born on the
fourteenth will excel in everything they may apply their minds to, or
which they may take in hand. Every girl who comes into the world on
the fifteenth will be beautiful, and have many admirers. Those born on
the sixteenth day may expect to have many enemies; and those who are
born on the seventeenth day are not likely to become rich by their own
industry, but they may look for money from rich friends. The man-child
born on the eighteenth day of the moon is likely to rise to honour and
distinction, after encountering much opposition in his upward career.
He or she born on the nineteenth day will require to pray for grace to
subdue the natural disposition. The individual born that day will be
churlish, perverse, and combative; and the infant who first draws the
breath of life on the following day will be covetous and parsimonious.
The infant born on the twenty-first day of the moon may possess a
strong constitution, but it is not certain that the mind will be
vigorous. If the child of the twenty-second day survive infancy, long
life will be awarded it, though much grief will be met with in life's
rough path. Fair promises, with certain drawbacks, are made to
children of the twenty-third day; and infants of the twenty-fourth day
will be good-tempered, perhaps sottish. One who has been born on the
twenty-fifth day of the moon had better walk carefully, lest adversity
and danger overtake him. The young lady who has been born on the
twenty-sixth day will, in all probability, be courted and married by a
rich gentleman, who will ardently love her. Those born on the
twenty-seventh day must not expect to become famous; and children born
on the twenty-eighth day are more likely to be pious than rich. The
twenty-ninth day of the moon does not promise prosperity to the
children born on it; if they rise in the world, it will be in spite of
great opposition, even from those near, if not dear, to them.
Dryden put faith in judicial astrology, and used to calculate the
nativity of his children. On the birth of his son Charles, he caused
the exact minute of his coming into the world to be noted. He
calculated the child's nativity, and observed with grief that he was
born in an evil hour; for Jupiter, Venus, and the sun were all under
the earth, and the lord of his ascendant afflicted with a hateful
square of Mars and Saturn. Dryden told his friends that if the child
lived to the eighth year, he would narrowly escape a violent death on
his very birthday; but if he should then overleap danger, he would in
his twenty-third year be under the same influence; and if he should
escape the second time, the thirty-third or thirty-fourth year would
prove fatal. The boy's eighth birthday was looked forward to with
great anxiety by his parents. On the dreaded day, Dryden, with the
view of keeping him indoors and away from danger, gave him a double
exercise in Latin. Charles was complying with his father's command,
when a stag pursued by hounds was seen making towards the house. The
noise reached the servants' ears, and they rushed out to see the
chase. A manservant seized Charles by the hand, and took him out with
him. Just as they reached the gate, the stag, being at bay, made a
bold rush and leaped over the court wall, which, being old and low,
the dogs followed, threw down a part thereof, and the unfortunate boy
was buried in the ruins. He was much bruised, so that he was six weeks
in a dangerous state. In the twenty-third year of the son's age he was
at Rome, where he fell from an old tower belonging to the Vatican,
which so greatly injured his head that he never fully recovered the
accident. In his thirty-fourth year he was bathing in the Thames with
another gentleman, when he was seized with cramp while in the water,
and drowned before assistance could reach him. Thus the father's
astrological calculations proved correct.
DIVINATION AND ORACLES.