Lecture I

The position of Astrology among the Sciences is quite unique. Its origin is so remote as to antecede all written records: it has formed an important part of the life of every nation that has advanced beyond barbarism: it has been studied with enthusiasm not only by every European nation, but also by the Egyptians, the natives of India, the Chinese, the Arabs, the Jews, and by the Babylonians and the Chaldeans. It was studied in one long unbroken effort for thousands of years, and engaged the most strenuous endeavours of some of the greatest intellects in every age. Albertus Magnus was a convinced astrologer, and even Roger Bacon, that very great man, projected a universal medicine founded upon Astrology. A knowledge of Astrology was a necessary part of the equipment of all educated men; and Astrological terms form to this day an integral part of every European language. We still consider; we still find persons and things in opposition; we still suffer disaster; we still find some things exorbitant; and others in the ascendent; some persons are still fortunate enough to be born under a lucky star; we still deal in merchandise; with merchants; we are all familiar with the martial cloak of Sir J. Moore; we still describe dispositions and persons as Saturnine, Jovial, Martial or Mercurial; we still retain the names of Saturday, Sunday and Monday; in Medicine we retain the terms Lunatic and Venereal disease, and in the latter we still prescribe Mercury; and we still begin our prescriptions with the sign of Jupiter.

Yet these are the only remaining remnants of a science and an art that were once of paramount importance; and even medical men are ignorant of the very terminology of a science and an art that have been declared, by authority after authority, to be so necessary to the proper practice of medicine, that without them medicine could not be efficiently practised, and no medical practitioner was fully equipped for his task. Astrology is now utterly extinct. It began to decay at the renaissance; it languished in the seventeenth century; the last man of high distinction who practised it in this country was John Dryden; but though Peter Woulfe, a F.R.S., maintained the truth of Astrology at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it had really expired when it received its deathblow from the biting humour of Jonathan Swift. Yet when Walter Scott, less than a century afterwards, introduced into one of his novels the terms of the art, there was no one then living, nor has there been since any commentator of sufficient knowledge, to expose the blunders that he made.

The utmost malice of the stars is past— Now frequent trines the happier lights among, And high raised Jove, from his dark prison freed, Those weights took off that on his planet hung, Will gloriously the new-laid works succeed.

To such a record there is no parallel in the history of human endeavour. There are indeed two subjects of study that afford an approximation, but an approximation only, to the history of Astrology. The first of these is Alchemy, which really included what we now call Chemistry, and is therefore very far from extinct. Alchemy is usually, however, understood to mean solely, what it did in fact include as its principal objects, the search for the philosopher’s stone, and the search for the elixir of life. The philosopher’s stone was desired, not as an end in itself, but as a means to the transmutation of metals, which were not then known to be elements. I need not remind this audience that this endeavour, which has been the object for the finger of scorn for so many years, is now almost within sight of success. Certain elements are now transmuted, or transmute themselves; and one at least of the metals known to the ancient Alchemists is now made in the laboratory. Nor need I remind you that one eminent physician discovered, a few years ago, the elixir of life in orchidian extract; while another has still more recently made the surprising discovery that the elixir of life is neither more nor less than sour milk. He was more fortunate than a predecessor, who first isolated alcohol, and having drunk freely of the newly discovered elixir of life, died, by the irony of fate, of acute alcoholic poisoning.

A nearer parallel to the fate of Astrology is to be found in that of Aristotelian Logic; but the parallel is still not quite complete. It is true that Logic was once cultivated with the same universality and the same fervour as Astrology; that it was aforetime, like Astrology, a necessary part of the equipment of every man who pretended to be educated; and that it is now fallen into neglect and contempt that are well-nigh as universal as its former cultivation; but, unlike Astrology, Logic is not yet quite extinct. It is dying, indeed: it is in the very agony of death; but it still breathes. The lamp of Astrology is utterly gone out, but the expiring flame of Logic still flickers precariously in some of the dark places of the earth. We might still find, by diligent search, professors who know the meaning of Barbara and Celarent, of Bocardo and Baralipton, and can even subject them to the orthodox manipulations of logical art; but who now knows the meaning of a triplicity or a horoscope? or could cast a geniture, or rectify a nativity? Logic is moribund, it is true, but Astrology is already dead. It has been dead so long that it no longer stinks; perhaps because it is embalmed in the writings of so many men that were eminent in their day. We have even forgotten how conspicuous and important a position it occupied among the sciences, the arts, and the crafts of our forefathers; and it is because the long sleep of medicine, its stagnation and want of progress through so many centuries, was due in no small degree to the shackles of Astrology, and of the humoral pathology, which Astrology countenanced and corroborated, that I think it seemly and proper to bring before this College the elementary principles of Astrology, and the ways in which they were applied to medicine.

Astrology had a known history of nearly six thousand years. Its beginning seems to have been in Chaldea about 4000 B.C.: it was diffused throughout all nations and peoples that had any pretence to civilisation; and it engaged, throughout that immense time and that enormous area, the attention of innumerable votaries, among whom were some of the greatest intellects that have adorned the human race. It had consequently attained to a degree of elaboration and complexity which renders it difficult to give, within any reasonable compass, a clear account of its voluminous details, expressed as they are in highly technical terminology, and conveyed in Latin so canine and so extraordinarily abbreviated as to be obscure, often to the point of unintelligibility. In preparing the account that I shall give, I have had the advantage of appealing on different points, to a Latin scholar of rare attainments, to a Professor of Astronomy, and to a Professor of Ancient History, and I rejoice to say that one and all have been unable to solve some of the problems that had puzzled myself. Where such solar luminaries have failed to illuminate, it is no disgrace to my farthing candle if it gives no light.

The main factors in Astrology are three:—the Signs of the Zodiac, the Seven Planets, and the Houses of Heaven.

In Medical Astrology there is yet another factor, which is equally important, and without which Medical Astrology cannot be understood. This factor consists of the four Elementary Qualities, Heat, Cold, Dryness and Moisture; which correspond with the four elements, Fire, Earth, Air and Water; with the four humours, Yellow Bile, Black Bile, Blood and Phlegm; and with many other things.

Since there are twelve Signs of the Zodiac, Seven Planets, and twelve Houses of Heaven, it will be easily seen that the merely numerical combinations of any one of these with the others are indefinitely multitudinous; and when it is known that each may be combined with the others in many different ways, the complications become too great for the human intellect to follow; and since many of the combinations depend on considerations that are both vague and arbitrary, it is not surprising that scarcely any two Astrologers should combine them in the same way, or draw the same conclusions from the same disposition of the heavens.

Every Sign of the Zodiac, every Planet, and every House has certain special powers and influence, not only over mankind generally, but specially over individual men and women, according to the moment of their birth, according to their complexion, disposition and temperament, according to the place in which they live, and so forth; and in addition, every Sign, Planet, and House has special powers at certain times of life, and every Sign and Planet has its own elementary qualities, as hot and dry, cold and moist, and so forth, and has special power over some part of the body and some faculty of mind. Moreover, these powers, both general and special, are reinforced or diminished in so many ways that the memory can scarcely retain them; and since neither the reinforcement nor the diminution is susceptible of any exact computation, the result, even if all were to be allowed their proper weight, must always be dubious.

THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC.

These, of course, are twelve in number. In Astronomy they are disposed in the order in which the sun successively occupies them, Aries, Taurus and Gemini being the Signs of Spring; Cancer, Leo and Virgo those of Summer; Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius those of Autumn; and Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces the Signs of Winter. In Astrology, however, they are differently arranged, according to their several qualities or properties. They are still in groups of three, but each group forms, not a season of the year, but a Triplicity, thus:

Aries, the first month of Spring, Leo, the second month of Summer, and Sagittarius, the third month of Autumn, form the first Triplicity; every sign in which is hot and dry, regulates the Bilis flava, is masculine, diurnal, and is influential in youth. Its Lord is Sol by day and Jupiter by night.

The second Triplicity consists of Taurus, the second Sign of Spring, Virgo, the third Sign of Summer, and Capricornus, the first of Winter. These Signs are cold and dry; their corresponding humour is Bilis atra; they are feminine, nocturnal, and preside over decrepitude. Their Lords are Venus by day and Luna by night.

The third Triplicity is composed of Gemini, Libra and Aquarius; the third of Spring, the first of Autumn, and the second of Winter. These are hot and moist in complexion, their humour is Sanguis, they are masculine and diurnal; they preside over our childhood, and their Lords are Saturn by day and Mercury by night.

The Signs of the fourth Triplicity are Cancer, the first of Summer, Scorpio, the second of Autumn, and Pisces, the third of Winter. They are cold and moist; their humour is Pituita; they are feminine and nocturnal; they regulate the middle period of life; and their Lords are Venus by day and Mars by night.

It is also important to know that some signs are mobile, such are Cancer, Libra, Capricornus and Pisces; others are stable, and such are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius; while a third group is mediocre with respect to mobility, as Aries, Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius.

A masculine Sign is so called because a child conceived under the influence of that Sign will be a male; and children conceived under feminine Signs are female. (Yet it is a fixed rule that all children are born under Aries, just as by the common law, all children born at sea are parishioners in Stepney.)

A Sign is diurnal or nocturnal according as its power is greater by day or by night.

In addition, every Sign has an aspect towards some particular part of the human body.

Aries is the principal and most important sign of all. In whatever scheme the Signs are reckoned, Aries comes first: consequently its aspect is to the head. Taurus relates to the neck and shoulders, because a bull is in these parts very robust. Gemini relates to the arms and hands, because the twins are represented as embracing, and the quality of embracing is in the arms and hands. Cancer pertains to the chest and the adjacent parts, because a crab is very robust in the chest and thereabouts. Leo pertains to the heart and the mouth of the stomach, because the whole virtue of a lion is in his courage. Virgo relates to the intestines, the base of the stomach and umbilicus, because the virtue of a virgin resides therein. Libra relates to the kidneys, because they lie equally balanced, one on each side of the spine. Scorpio refers to the genitals, because the whole virtue of the scorpion is in his tail, and these are the caudalia of man. The aspect of Sagittarius is to the hips, of Capricornus to the knees, of Aquarius to the legs, and of Pisces to the feet, these being the parts of the body, as those are the Signs, that come next in order.

THE PLANETS.

It is scarcely necessary to remind this audience that in the time when Astrology came into being, the earth was the centre of the universe, and the Planets were seven in number, Uranus and Neptune being then as unknown as Pallas and Ceres, while the sun and moon differed from the other wandering stars only in their greater size and lustre, and in the greater regularity of their movements.

There was a certain conventional order, the origin of which cannot now be traced, in which the Planets were always enumerated; an order that does not correspond with their relative size and importance, for then the Sun would come first. It is Saturn, however, that takes precedence, and is followed by Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury and Luna, in the order in which I have named them.

The range of influence of the Planets over matters terrestrial was plenary. On the whole, the term influence best conveys the meaning of the Astrological term ‘aspect,’ which is more than ‘corresponds with,’ a term that is sometimes substituted for ‘aspect.’ Though as to some things which they aspected, or with which they corresponded, such as the Zodiacal signs and the four elements, the Planets were neither productive nor regulative, yet with respect to most things, they were at least regulative, and as to many were actually originating. For instance, Guy de Chauliac, called by Fallopius the father of Surgery, as Hippocrates is the father of Medicine, attributed the great plague of 1345 to the conjunction of the three planets, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, in Aquarius on March 24th of that year.

Torella, physician to Caesar Borgia and Pope Alexander VI, attributed syphilis to a peculiar conjunction of the Planets. So does Basil Valentinus, and so does Petrus Maynardus, who was able, moreover, to predict that it would come to an end in 1584. The College of Physicians of Paris attributed the Black Death of 1349 to a vapour or fog generated by the struggle between the constellations, which combated the rays of the sun and the warmth of the heavenly fire, struggling violently with the waters of the great sea. ‘This vapour,’ they said, ‘will continue to spread as long as the sun is in Leo.... We are of opinion that the constellations with the aid of nature strive by virtue of their divine might to protect and heal the human race.’

Taken together, the Planets had jurisdiction over everything, but not indiscriminately. Each Planet had its own peculiar jurisdiction over some things, while other Planets divided between them the jurisdiction over other things of that kind. Like the Signs of the Zodiac, each of the Planets had a jurisdiction over some part of the human body, but this was only a small region of its sway. Every Planet aspected its own element, and its own complexion, or pair of elementary qualities, so that Saturn, for instance, was cold and dry, Jupiter hot and moist, and so forth. Each Planet had its own colour, odour and taste; each its own groups of animals and plants; each its own metal, and we still speak of Saturnine poisoning, of crocus Martis, and of the metal Mercury; each has its own plants, its own day of the week and hour of the day; and what is more germane to the present purpose, every Planet had its corresponding humour, part of the body, sense, faculty, part of the mind, bodily configuration and mental temperament, its time of life, and its peculiar diseases and mode of death.

One or two instances will be enough to exemplify the way in which sublunary affairs are apportioned among the Planets. Take for instance animals: of these, Saturn has jurisdiction over the camel, the bear, the ass, the cat, the owl, the bat, the tortoise, the mouse, the beetle; and generally, over beasts of evil omen or of slow movement. The aspect of Jupiter is to the wise, the swift, and the strong: to the elephant, the stag and the bull. Mars aspects the horse, the wolf, the bee, the dog, the ostrich, venomous snakes, scorpions and spiders; all either fighters or noxious to human beings. Sol presides over regal and dominant animals, the lion, the eagle and the cock. Venus has jurisdiction over the goat, the sheep, the pheasant, the partridge, the pigeon, the dove and the sparrow; all amatory, and either polygamous or otherwise prolific. The aspect of Mercury is to the fox, the ape, the serpent, the parrot, the spider, the bee and the ant, and generally, to animals that are reputed wise or cunning. Luna influences the hare, the swan, the nightingale, the frog, fish, landsnails, crabs and shellfish, and generally, animals that are nocturnal or aquatic.

Of plants, Saturn has jurisdiction over the oak, the mespilus, the rue, the hellebore, and generally over those of slow growth, of narcotic virtue, and of crass substance. Jupiter over the laurel, the sandal-wood, the cinnamon, the balsam and the incense tree. Mars over pepper, ginger, mustard, jalap, scammony, colocynth, euphorbium, and generally over all bitter plants and hot poisons. Sol aspects the palm, rosemary, heliotrope, crocus, and all aromatics. Venus the olive, the pine, the lily, the rose and the pea; Mercury the corylus and the millefoil; and Luna the cucumber, the gourd, pepin fruits, i.e. apples and pears, and lettuce.

The minerals of Saturn are lead and all black stones; of Jupiter, tin, the sapphire, and the amethyst; of Mars, iron, jasper, and magnesia; of Sol, gold, carbuncles, and crysolite; of Venus, copper, smaragdus, turquoise, and coral; of Mercury, quicksilver, chalcedony, and cornelian; and of Luna, silver, crystals, beryl, and the diamond.

I defer to the next lecture the consideration of those planetary aspects that have a special bearing upon medicine, but this is perhaps the proper place to make the very important distinction between the benevolent, propitious, or fortunate Planets and those that are malevolent, unpropitious, or unlucky. The fortunate, or benevolent, or propitious Planets are Jupiter, Sol, and Venus, of which the first and last are lucky in the highest degree. Saturn, Mars, and Luna are malevolent, unpropitious, and unlucky. Mercury is variable in this respect. He has scarcely any character of his own, but he reinforces the benevolence or the malevolence, as the case may be, of whatever Planet may be in conjunction with him, or may be favourably aspected by him.

It is evident, if these premises are granted, that the course and termination of every malady in every sick person depend on the relative power, with respect to other Planets, of the particular Planet or Planets that have jurisdiction in the matter. They will depend, in the first place, on the Planet that has jurisdiction over the temperament, as Saturn if he is saturnine, Jupiter if he is jovial, Mars if he is martial, and so forth. They will depend also on the Planet that presides over the humour that is peccant, as yellow bile, black bile, blood or phlegm. They will depend on the Planet that governs the part of the body that is diseased; on that which governs the disease; on that which has jurisdiction at the time of life at which the sick person is arrived; on that which presided over his nativity, and so forth. Here are at least six circumstances to be taken into account, and of course, the Planet that governs one of these circumstances may not be the same, and in fact must be different from those which govern others. So that seven Planets may all be influencing the disease and the sick person at once, and may all be pulling in different directions, some towards health and some towards death, some towards acuteness and some towards chronicity of the disease. It is evident, therefore, that his fate must depend on the relative powers of the propitious and unpropitious Planets, and that it is of the utmost importance to determine the factors on which the powers of the Planets depend, and to estimate their strength in any particular case.

This is by no means easy, for the factors are very numerous. It will be enough to obtain an approximate estimate, however, if we confine our consideration to the ten in the following enumeration.

The power of a Planet at any given moment depends on:

1. The Sign of the Zodiac in which it is situated at that moment. 2. The Sign of which the Planet is Lord. 3. The Sign in which the Planet rejoices. 4. The Signs in which the Planet ascends or descends. 5. The House in which the Planet is situated. 6. The House in which the Planet rejoices. 7. The position or aspect of the Planet towards other Planets. 8. The aspect of the Planet to the Ascendent. 9. The motion of the Planet, as fast or slow, direct or retrograde. 10. The day and hour.

In this estimation of the powers of the Planets, much depends on the Houses of Heaven, and these must be described before we can proceed.

THE HOUSES OF HEAVEN.

We all recognise that, while the stars have an apparent motion from the eastern horizon up to the vertical meridian, and down again to the western horizon, yet the horizons and the vertical meridian keep their places with respect to us, and do not move. The eastern horizon and the vertical meridian enclose between them a fourth part of the heavens, whose content is continually changing, as the stars rise above the eastern horizon and reach and pass the meridian. Similarly, from the meridian to the western horizon is another fourth part; and the two remaining fourths are beneath the horizon, and are divided from one another by the inferior vertical meridian, all these fourth parts remaining stationary, while the stars occupy them each in turn in the daily revolution of the heavens. Now imagine each of these fixed quarters of heaven to be divided by three equidistant meridians: the heavens will then be divided into twelve parts, six above the horizon and six below, whose starry contents are continually changing. These twelve divisions are the twelve Houses of Heaven.

That is to say, they are so if the meridians which divide them meet at the north and south poles of the horizon of the place; and it was the usual rule in Astrology so to consider them; but it was not the invariable rule. Some astrologers put the meeting places at the celestial poles, and then the Houses were divided by the ordinary meridians. Others put the meeting places at the Zenith and the Nadir of the place. It is manifest that those astrologers who computed the positions of the Planets in one set of Houses, must arrive at very different results from those who computed the positions in another set; for a Planet might be in one House according to one computation, and in a different House according to another.

That House which is immediately below the eastern horizon, so that the stars therein are the next to rise above the horizon, is the first House, which is also called the Ascendent House, or shortly, the Ascendent. It is the principal House, the most powerful House, and takes rank over all the others. The Planet or Planets that occupy the Ascendent chiefly determine the fate of the native. The rest of the Houses are known by numbers, and follow one another widdershins, that is, in the order reverse to the movement of the hands of a clock. The second and third are between the Ascendent and the lower vertical meridian; the fourth, fifth and sixth between the lower vertical meridian and the western horizon; and so on until the twelfth house meets the first at the eastern horizon.

The anterior boundary of each House, the meridian which the stars in that House will cross next, is called the cusp of that House; and from the cusp the position of the Planets in the House is measured in degrees and minutes. The cusp of the Ascendent House is called the horoscope; and I may here correct a prevalent error with respect to this term. It is customary to speak of casting a horoscope, as if that were a possible and usual operation in Astrology. What is meant by the expression is casting a nativity or geniture; that is to say, setting out, on a plan of the Houses of Heaven, the position of the Signs of the Zodiac and of the Planets in the respective Houses that they occupied at the moment of birth. Similarly, we may cast a decumbiture, that is, we may set out a similar plan for the moment a disease begins; and such an operation was as necessary in the daily routine of a physician as is now the taking the temperature of the patient: but it is manifest that we cannot in this sense cast a horoscope, for the horoscope is but the cusp of the Ascendent.

This is the most obvious method of setting out the Houses, but it was not usually adopted, perhaps because compasses were not common, and circles not so easy to draw as straight lines. The conventional figure, on which the positions of the heavenly bodies were always set out, was thus:

Each House of Heaven, like each Sign of the Zodiac and each Planet, has its special aspect, jurisdiction, or influence over human affairs; but unlike the Signs and the Planets, the Houses are not complexionate: they are neither hot nor cold, neither moist nor dry.

Just as Aries is the first, the most powerful and important of the Signs, and Luna the most powerful and important of the Planets, so the Ascendent is the most powerful and important of the Houses. When a Planet is in the Ascendent, its power is paramount over all the other Planets, wherever they may be; still, it may be strongly influenced by them. The Ascendent is the House of projects, of the beginnings of things, especially of journeys; it is the House of life, of movement, and of questions and answers.

The second House is the House of riches, and of servants; and signifies the end of youth, and the lessening of the years of life.

The third House is the House of brothers and sisters; of acquaintances and friends; of heirs; of changes; of continuance of journeys; of quiet of kingdoms; of religion, and ministers of religion.

The fourth House is the House of parents; of heredity; of towns in which the native lives, and in which he is born, and of his fate after death.

The fifth House is the House of children; of eating and drinking; of games; of fighting; of pictures, vessels and money.

The sixth House is the House of sickness and health; of servants; of domestic animals; and of receiving.

The seventh House is the House of women; of marriage; of contentions and strife; of saints; and of thieves; and signifies the middle of life.

The eighth House is the House of Death; of fear; of riches; and of the last years of life.

The ninth House is of pilgrimages and journeys; of faith; of wisdom and philosophy; of books; of rumours; and of sleep.

The tenth House is the Royal House. It is the House of dignities; of laws; of princes and magistrates; of memories; of mothers; and of half of the years of life.

The eleventh House is the House of fortune; of good faith; of friends and allies.

The twelfth House is the House of unfriends, and of bad faith; of labour; of battles; of sadness; and of beasts and birds.

The strongest House of all is the Ascendent. Next to this are the other angulares, which immediately precede the other cardinal points, viz.—the fourth, seventh and tenth, all powerful and propitious Houses. The next in succession are called the successors of the angulares, and are less powerful than the angulares, but still disposed to be good, or propitious. The remaining Houses, the third, sixth, ninth and twelfth, are called ab angulis cadentes, and are unpropitious, and disposed to evil.

We are now in a position to discover the ways in which the power of a Planet is increased or diminished.

In the first place, every Planet is related to certain Signs of the Zodiac in three different ways. First, it has a Sign or Signs peculiar to itself, which are called the houses of the Planet, and of this house, or of these houses, the planet is Lord. Second, every Planet has a Sign in which it rejoices. When situated in any of these Signs, and especially when in its house, the power of the Planet is augmented. Third, every Planet is exalted in a certain Sign, and depressed in that which is diametrically opposite, and the power of the Planet is increased or diminished according as the one or the other of these Signs is in the Ascendent.

For instance, Saturn is Lord of Capricorn essentially, and of Aquarius accidentally; he rejoices in Aquarius, is exalted in Libra, and depressed in Aries. Consequently, his power is at its maximum when he is in Capricorn, and is augmented when he is in Aquarius. It is increased when Libra is in the Ascendent, and subdued when Aries is in that House. Saturn (chronos) regulates the beginnings of things, especially of things relating to the earth, such as planting, sowing, ploughing, and other operations of agriculture. Such operations ought therefore to be begun when Saturn has power, as when he is in the Ascendent, or in Capricorn or Aquarius, provided that Aries is not in the Ascendent. If Libra should be in the Ascendent, however, such operations can scarcely fail to be successful.

A hot Planet in a hot Sign will have its heat augmented; but in a cold Sign its heat will be reduced; and so of the other elementary qualities. A moist Planet in a humid Sign will be dripping wet, and will aggravate diseases due to moisture.

We have seen that certain Houses are more propitious than others, those, namely, whose cusp is on the horizon or on one of the vertical meridians. A benevolent Planet will be doubly so when in a propitious House, but will have little power to benefit when it is in an unpropitious House.

The House in which it is situated influences a Planet in more ways than this. Every Planet has not only a Sign, but a House also in which it rejoices; and when it is in this House its power is augmented. Mercury rejoices in the Ascendent, Luna in the third House, Mars in the sixth, Sol in the ninth, Jupiter in the eleventh, and Saturn in the twelfth.

Perhaps the most important factor in modifying the power of the Planets, and certainly the factor to which the most importance is attached, is their relative position or aspect with respect to one another, and to the Ascendent.

The first aspect of Planets to one another is Conjunction, which, like other terms in Astrology, and in its congener, Logic, is not always used in the same sense. Planets are said by some authorities to be in conjunction when they are within 2° of one another; by others, when they are within 15° of each other; by others, when they are in the same Sign, and by others when they are in the same House. All are agreed, however, that whenever a Planet is within 15° of Sol, it is combust, and its powers are for the time abolished. Otherwise, when Planets of the same qualities are in conjunction, they corroborate and reinforce one another; but when Planets of opposing qualities are in conjunction, each cancels a part of the power of the other; so that when a good Planet is conjoined with an evil one, the malice of this is tempered, and the benevolence of that is debilitated. One of my authorities, Arnaldus de Villanova, gives the following instance. ‘When you are anxious to begin some good work, you should see that Luna makes junction with benevolent Planets, or at any rate, is well separated from bad ones; but he who wants to do evil, as for example, to poison a little girl, or anything of that kind, ought to choose a time when Luna is conjoined with bad, or is separated from good Planets.’

The second aspect is Sextile. This is when two Planets are separated by a sixth part of the Zodiac, or by two Signs. Such an aspect is moderately friendly—not manifestly, but occultly, or of hidden benevolence.

The third aspect is Quartile, and is when a Planet aspects another through three Signs, which is a fourth part of the Zodiac. Such an aspect is of moderate or occult unfriendliness or conflict.

The fourth aspect is Trine, when a Planet aspects another from a distance of four Signs, or a third part of the Zodiac. This is the aspect of warm friendship, and perfect benevolence.

The last aspect is Opposition, when one Planet is distant from another by half the Signs of the Zodiac. This is the most hostile aspect of all; it is the aspect of open unfriendliness, hatred, and perdition.

Every Planet has two movements. First, it partakes of the general movement of the heavenly bodies, rising in the East and setting in the West, a movement due to the primum mobile; and second, it has its own proper motion among the stars, which varies in rapidity, and is sometimes direct, sometimes retrograde, and sometimes abolished, so that the Planet is stationary among the stars. The speed of this proper motion varies greatly, Luna completing her course in 28 days, or thereabouts, and Saturn requiring 29 years. The motion of the Planets is of much importance in medicine, for acute diseases, whose course is rapid, are governed by the moon, whose motion is rapid, while chronic diseases, whose course is slow, are governed by the sun, whose course is likewise slow. If any Planet that is regulating the course of a disease should become retrograde in its motion, the patient will of course get worse.

Lastly, every Planet has its hour, in which it is dominant; and, subject to the dominance of the Planet that rules the hour, every Planet dominates that day of the week of which its hour is the first. Thus, Saturn dominates completely the first hour of Saturday, and in a less degree, and subject to the influence of the other Planets, the whole of the dies Sabbathum. Jupiter rules the second hour of Saturday, Mars the third, and so on until Luna dominates the seventh hour, and then Saturn again takes up the tale, and rules the eighth. The rotation is then continued, so that Saturn comes in again at the fifteenth and twenty-second hours; Jupiter follows at the twenty-third; Mars at the twenty-fourth, which completes the day. The next Planet on the rota is Sol, which therefore takes the first hour, and in less degree the whole, of the following day, which is accordingly Dies Solis, or Sunday.

It is scarcely necessary to point out that every undertaking to which any given Planet is propitious ought to be begun in the hour in which that Planet is dominant, and if possible on his day. So all operations of husbandry should be begun on Saturday, or if on any other day, then in the hour of Saturn. When written directions are given as to any undertaking, the Planet that is propitious to that undertaking should be signified, so that the undertaking, whatever it may be, may be begun in the hour of that Planet. If we give written directions for sowing seed, or planting, or any of the operations of husbandry, we should preface our directions with the sign of Saturn. If we write to a commercial correspondent instructions to buy or sell, we should remind him of the hour and day propitious to the transaction by placing at the head of our instructions the sign of the Planet Mercury. Now, the Planet that is most propitious to the operation of letting blood, and to taking medicine, is Jupiter, and therefore all written directions for letting blood or administering medicine should bear the sign of Jupiter; and the sign of Jupiter is ♃ = ℞, which still heads all our prescriptions, and testifies to the intimate connexion that existed aforetime between Astrology and Medicine.

If we keep at our fingers’ ends the knowledge we have now gained of the rudiments of Astrological lore, we shall be in a position to turn that knowledge to practical use, to erect a scheme of the heavens at the nativity of any given person, and to interpret that scheme so as to predict at least the general course of his life, and, if we have sufficient skill, the individual incidents therein. For this purpose it is convenient to select a person whose career is closed, because this gives us the double advantage of ascertaining whether our predictions are correct, and of keeping an eye on his career during the course of our interpretations, so that they may not go too wide of the mark. I select therefore a distinguished man, Charles XII of Sweden, whose career is familiar to you all.

As is usual, the pole of the Houses is at the horizontal north of the place, Stockholm, and not at the celestial pole, and therefore the latitude is given, and the Houses do not correspond with the Signs of the Zodiac. Taurus, for instance, occupies the whole of the fifth House, with six degrees of the fourth, and twenty of the sixth; while Aquarius lies wholly within the second, which includes also seven degrees of Capricorn and five of Pisces.

The first omen that attracts our attention is that Mars, the military planet, occupies the twelfth House, the House of battles and of enemies. We predict, therefore, that

No joys to him pacific scepters yield, War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field;

* * * * *

Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain; ‘Think nothing gain’d,’ he cries, ‘till nought remain!’

Venus, in the second House, does not aspect the native, and exerts no influence over him; and Charles XII was notoriously insusceptible to the charms of love. He was a neglecter and despiser of women—

O’er love, o’er fear extends his wide domain, Unconquer’d lord of pleasure and of pain.

Sol, in the Ascendent, predicts for the native an illustrious and glorious career, and equips him with the necessary qualities—

A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, No dangers fright him, and no labours tire;

* * * * *

Behold surrounding kings their pow’r combine, And one capitulate, and one resign.

But Mars is an unpropitious Planet, a Planet of ill omen, and his presence in the House of battles cannot but signify military disaster: Luna, in sextile to the Ascendent, exerts an evil influence, which Jupiter, sequestered in the second House from exerting any counteracting sway, is powerless to restrain. What is the inevitable consequence?—

He comes, not want nor cold his course delay;— Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa’s day: The vanquish’d hero leaves his brok’n bands, And shews his miseries in distant lands; Condemn’d a needy supplicant to wait, While ladies interpose, and slaves debate.

Finally, Saturn, a very malevolent Planet, is most ominously situated in the eighth House, the House of Death, a certain indication that death will come early and in disastrous circumstances. How true the indication let the poet testify:

But did not Chance at length her error mend? Did no subverted empire mark his end? Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound? Or hostile millions press him to the ground? His fall was destin’d to a barren strand, A petty fortress, and a dubious hand; He left a name, at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale.