ASTROLOGY

ASTROLOGY, Astrologia, the Art of foretelling future Events, from the Aspects, Positions, and Influences of the Heavenly Bodies. See ASPECT, INFLUENCE, etc.
The Word is compounded of the Greek ἄστρον, Star, and λόγος, Discourse; whence, in the literal sense of the Name, Astrology should signify no more than the Doctrine or Science of the Stars; which we read was its original Acceptation, and made the ancient Astrology; though, in Course of Time, an Alteration has arisen; that which the Ancients called Astrology being by us termed Astronomy. See ASTRONOMY. Astrology may be divided into two Branches, Natural and Judicial. To the former belong the predicting of natural Effects; as, the Changes of Weather, Winds, Storms, Hurricanes, Thunder, Floods, Earthquakes, etc. See NATURE. See also WEATHER, WIND, RAIN, HURRICANE, THUNDER, EARTHQUAKE, etc. To this our Countryman Good chiefly keeps, in his two Volumes of Astrology; wherein he pretends, that Inundations may be foretold, and an Infinity of Phenomena explained from the Contemplation of the Stars.—Accordingly, he endeavors to account for the Diversity of Seasons, from the different Situations and Habitudes of the Planets, from their Retrograde Motions; the Number of fixed Stars in the Constellations, etc. The Art properly belongs to Physiology, or Natural Philosophy. The Foundation and Merits the Reader may gather from what we have said under the Articles, Air, Atmosphere, Weather, Ether, Fire, Light; Comet, Planet, Magnetism, Effluvias etc.



For this Astrology, Mr. Boyle has a just Apology in his History of the Air.—Generation and Corruption being the Extremes of Motion, and Rarefaction and Condensation the Mean ones; he shows, that the Effluvia of the Heavenly Bodies, as we find them immediately contribute to the latter, must also have a mediate Influence on the former; and consequently, all physical Bodies be affected thereby. See GENERATION, CORRUPTION, RAREFACTION, CONDENSATION, etc.

'Tis evident, that the Properties of Moisture, Heat, Cold, etc., employed by Nature to produce the two great Effects of Rarefaction and Condensation almost wholly depend on the Course, Motion, Position, etc. of the heavenly Bodies—And 'tis also clear that every Planet must have its own proper Light, distinct from that of any other; Light not being a bare visible Quality, but endued with its specific Power. The Sun, we know, not only shines on all the Planets, but by his genial Warmth calls forth, excites, and raises the Motions, Properties, etc. peculiar to them; and his Rays must share or receive somewhat of the Tincture thereof; and thus tinged be again reflected into the other Parts of the World, and particularly the adjacent Bodies of the planetary System. Whence, according to the Angle the Planets make with that grand Luminary, and the Degree wherein they are enlightened, either by his direct or his oblique Rays; together with their Distance and Situation in respect of our Earth; the Powers, Effects, or Tinctures, proper to each, must be transmitted hitherto, and have a greater or less effect on sublunary Things. See Apotelesmatikē de Imperio Solis et Lunae, etc.

Judiciary, or Judicial Astrology, which is what we commonly call Astrology, is that which pretends to foretell moral Events; i.e., such as have a Dependence on the Will and Agency of Man; as if that were directed by the Stars. See WILL; ACTION, etc.
The Professors hereof maintain, "That the Heavens are one great Volume, or Book wherein God has wrote the History of the World; and in which every Man may read his own Fortune, and the Transactions of his Time.—The Art, say they, had its Rise from the same Hands as Astronomy itself: While the ancient Assyrians, whose serene unclouded Sky favoured their Celestial Observations, were intent on tracing the Paths and Periods of the heavenly Bodies; they discovered a constant settled Relation or Analogy, between them and things below; and hence were led to conclude, these to be the Parcae, the Destinies, so much talked of, which preside at our Births, and dispose of our future Fate. See PARCAE, DESTINY, FATE.

The Laws therefore of this Relation being ascertained by a series of Observations, and the Share each Planet has therein; by knowing the precise Time of any Person’s Nativity, they were enabled from their Knowledge in Astronomy, to erect a Theme or Horoscope of the Situation of the Planets, at that Point of Time; and hence, by considering their Degrees of Power and Influence, and how each was either strengthened or tempered by another, to compute what must be the result thereof. See HOROSCOPE, NATIVITY, HOUSE, etc.
Thus the Astrologers.—But the chief Province now remaining to the modern Professors, is the making of Calendars or Almanacks.
See CALENDAR and ALMANACK.
Judicial Astrology is commonly said to have been invented in Chaldea, and thence transmitted to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.—Though it is to the Arabs we owe it.
At Rome the People were so infatuated with it, that the Astrologers, or as they were then called, the Mathematicians, maintained their Ground in spite of all the Edicts of the Emperors to expel them out of the City. See MATHEMATICKS.
Add, that the Brahmins, who introduced and practiced this Art among the Indians, have hereby made themselves the Arbiters of good and evil Hours, which gives them a vast Authority: They are consulted as Oracles; and they have taken care never to sell their Answers but at good Rates. See BRAHMAN. The same Superstition has prevailed in more modern Ages and Nations. The French Historians remark, that in the Time of Queen Catherine de Medicis, Astrology was in so much Vogue that the most inconsiderable thing was not to be done without consulting the Stars. And in the Days of King Henry III. and IV. of France, the Predictions of Astrologers were the common Theme of the Court Conversation. This predominant Humour in that Court was well rallied by Barclay, in his Argenis, Lib. II. on Occasion of an Astrologer, who had undertaken to instruct King Henry in the Event of a War then threatened by the Faction of the Guises. "You maintain," says Barclay, "that the Circumstances of Life and Death depend on the Place and Influence of the Celestial Bodies, at the Time when the Child first comes to Light; and yet own that the Heavens revolve with such vast Rapidity, that the Situation of the Stars is considerably changed in the least Moment of Time—What certainty then, can there be in your Art; unless you suppose the Midwives constantly careful to observe the Clock; that the Minute of Time may be conveyed to the Infant as we do his Patrimony? How often does the Mother’s Danger prevent this Care? And how many are there who are not touched with this Superstition?" But suppose them watchful to your Wish: If the Child be long in Delivery, what if, as is often the Case, a Hand or the Head come first, and be not immediately followed by the rest of the Body; which State of the Stars is to determine for him? That, when the Head made its Appearance; or when the whole Body was disengaged? I say nothing of the common Errors of Clocks, and other Time-keepers; sufficient to elude all your Cares.

Again, why are we to regard only the Stars at his Nativity, and not those rather which shone when the Fetus was animated in the Womb? And why must those others be excluded which presided while the Body remained tender, and susceptible of the weakest Impression, during Gestations?But setting this aside; and supposing, withal, the Face of the Heavens accurately known: Whence arises this Dominion of the Stars over our Bodies and Minds, that they must be the Arbiters of our Happiness, our manner of Life, and Death? Were all they who went to Battle, and died together, born under the same Position of the Heavens? And when a Ship is to be cast away, shall it admit no Passengers but those doomed by the Stars to suffer Shipwreck? Or rather, do not Persons born under every Planet go into the Combat, or aboard the Vessel; and thus notwithstanding the Disparity of their Birth, perish alike? Again, all who were born under the same Configuration of the Stars do not live or die in the same manner. Are all who were born at the same Time with the King, Monarchs? Or are they all even alive at this Day? View M. Villeroy, here; nay view yourself: Were all that came into the World with him as wise and virtuous as he; or all born under your own Stars, Astrologers like you? If a Man meet a Robber, you will say he was doomed to perish by a Robber’s Hand; but did the same Stars which, when the Traveller was born, subjected him to the Robber’s Sword; did they likewise give the Robber, who perhaps was born long before, a Power and Inclination to kill him? For you will allow it as much owing to the Stars that the one kills, as that the other is killed.

And when a Man is overwhelmed by the fall of a House, did the Walls become faulty because the Stars had doomed him to die thereby; or rather, was not his Death owing to this, that the Walls were faulty? The same may be said with regard to Honours and Employs: Because the Stars that shone at a Man’s Nativity promised him Preferment, could those have an influence over other Persons not born under them, by whose Suffrages he was to rise? Or how do the Stars at one Man’s Birth annul or set aside the contrary Influences of other Stars, which shone at the Birth of another?The Truth is, supposing the reality of all the planetary Powers; as the Sun which visits an Infinity of Bodies with the same Rays, has not the same effect on all; but some things are hardened thereby, as Clay; others, softened, as Wax; some Seeds cherished, others destroyed; the tenderer Herbs scorched up, others indemnified by their coarser Juice: So, where so many Children are born together, like a Field tilled so many different Ways, according to the various Health, Habitude, and Temperament of the Parents, the same Celestial Influx must operate differently. If the Genius be suitable and cowardly, it must predominate therein: If contrary, it will only correct it. So that to foretell the Life and Manners of a Child, you are not only to look into the Heavens, but into the Parents, into the Fortune which attended the pregnant Mother, and a thousand other Circumstances utterly inaccessible.

Further, does the Power that portends the new-born Infant a Life, for Instance, of 40 Years; or perhaps a violent Death at 30; does that Power, I say, endure and reside still in the Heavens, waiting the destined time, when, descending upon Earth, it may produce such an effect? Or is it infused into the Infant himself; so that being cherished, and gradually growing up together with him, it bursts forth at the appointed Time, and fulfills what the Stars had given it in Charge?Persist in the Heavens it cannot; in that depending immediately on a certain Configuration of the Stars, when that is changed, the effect connected with it must cease, and anew, perhaps a contrary one, take place. What Repository then have you for the former Power to remain in, till the Time come for its Delivery? If you say it inheres or resides in the Infant, not to operate on him till he be grown to Manhood; the Answer is more preposterous than the former: For this, in the Instance of a Shipwreck, you must suppose the Cause why the Winds rise, the Ship is leaky, or the Pilot, through Ignorance of the Place, runs on a Shoal or a Rock. So the Farmer is the Cause of the War, that impoverishes him; or of the favourable Season which brings him a plenteous Harvest.

You boast much of the Event of a few Predictions, which, considering the Multitude of those your Art has produced, plainly confess its impertinency.—A Million of Deceptions are industriously hidden and forgot in favour of some eight or ten which have succeeded. Out of so many Conjectures it must be preternatural if some did not hit; and 'tis certain, that considering you only as Guessers, there is no room to boast you have been successful therein.
Do you know what Fate awaits Sicily in this War; and yet are not apprehensive what shall befall yourself? Did not you foresee the Opposition I this Day to make you?If you can say whether the King shall vanquish his Enemies; find out, first, whether he will believe you.

ASTROLOGY