| Astrological History |
*The history of astrology used to be the history of the world, but that ended when astrology fell out of favor during the “age of enlightenment” some 350 years ago. Astrological books were removed from libraries & no one bothered to preserve primary or secondary astrological source material. Few serious historians will bother with a discredited subject. As a result, much has been lost.
As a bookseller I hear a lot of gossip. How a book really came to be written, how one organization splintered to become another, who holds grudges & why, etc. I’ve recorded a few of these elsewhere on this website, but I want to encourage those who know to preserve their knowledge, while they still can. All of it, not just the nice parts. Historians can sort it all out later, that’s their job.*Donna Cunningham is doing a wonderful service with her Astrologers’ Memorial Web Page. We wish her much success.
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| A HISTORY OF HOROSCOPIC ASTROLOGY: From the Babylonian Period to the Modern Age - James Herschel Holden, $26.95 Contents: Preface; First Period: Babylonian Astrology: Technical proceedures. Second Period: Classical Greek Astrology: Technical proceedures; Astrology in the Roman Republic & under the Empire; Romulus & the founding of Rome; Manilius; Thrasyllus; Balbillus; Critodemus; Teucer; Dorotheus; Mantheo; Ptolemy & Valens; Antigonus; Antiochus of Athens; Porphry; Firmicus Maternus; Paul of Alexandria; The Astrologer of the Year 379; Hephaestio of Thebes; Proclus; Rhetorius the Egyptian; Hermetic & Pseudepigraphic writings on astrology; Some special features of Greek astrology. Third Period: Medieval Astrology: Arabian astrology; Theophilus of Edessa; Indian astrologers at Baghdad; Masha’allah; Omar Tiberiades; Albohali; Zahel; Albumasar; Al-Kindi, Albubater; The Nine Judges; Haly Embrani; Alchabitius; Haly Abenragel; Al-Biruni; Haly Abenrudian; Abraham Ibn Ezra; The 12th century translators; The Alfonsine tables; Albertus Magnus & Roger Bacon; Bonatus; Leopold of Austria; Two Byzantine astrologers; Two English astrologers; Campanus; Summary; Technical problems; Astrological images; The Mansions of the Moon; Centiloquies. Fourth Period: Early Modern Astrology: Regiomontanus; Symon de Phares; Astrology on the Continent after 1500; Mundane astrology; Gauricus; Schoner; Melanchthon; Cardan; Junctinus; Ranzovius; Naibod; Stadius; Garcaeus; A primary critic; Tycho Brahe; Magini; Logarithms - a revolution in calculating; Argol; Kepler; Morin de Villefranche; Placidus; Tattoni & de Bonattiis; The decline of astrology; de Boulanvilliers; Astrology in England; Three doctors; A minor but persistent annoyance; William Lilly; Culpeper; Gadbury; Coley; Patridge; Whalley. Fifth Period: Modern Astrology: Technical developments; Calendars & clocks; Methods of calculation; Planets, planets & more planets; And another Moon?; Availability of older books; Astrological libraries; Astrology since 1780; The Sibley brothers; Worsdale; Varley & Uranus; Corfield & Uranus; The asteroids; Wilson & Ashmand; The first Raphael; Zadkiel I & II; W.J. Simmonite; Ackroyd & Neptune; Alan Leo; Sepharial; Charles Carter; RH Naylor, Edward Lyndoe & newspaper astrology; Brig. Firebrace; Robson; Hone; Wemyss; Tucker; Gleadow; Davison; Olivia Barclay; Addey & Harmonics; Psychological astrology; Astrology & statistics; House division; Degree symbolism; Key words; History of Astrology; Astrology in America; Dr. Broughton; Professor Chaney; Weston & Vulcan; Dr. Cornell & medical astrology; Max Heindel & the Rosicrucians; Evangeline Adams; Llewellyn George; Alice Bailey; Johndro; C.C. Zain & the Church of Light; Marc Edmund Jones; Wynn; Goldstein-Jacobson; Ernest & Catherine Grant & the AFA; Dane Rudhyar; Cyril Fagan & Sidereal Astrology; Grant Lewi; Friends of the asteroids; Charles Emerson & the NCGR; Donald Bradley; T. Patrick Davis; Lois Rodden; Michelsen; Michael Erlewine & Matrix; Astro*Carto*Graphy; Robert Hand; Zoller; Financial astrology; Data collection; Linda Goodman & sun signs; The European revival of astrology; Julevno; Selva & Morin de Villefranche; Col. Caslant; Choisnard & astrological statistics; Picard; Hieroz; Gouchon; Volguine; Barbault; The Gauquelins & astrological statistics; Astrology in Belgium; Visc. de Herbais de Thun; Brahy; Antares; De Lescaut; Bessiere; Astrology in Germany; Kniepf; Tiede; Karl Brandler-Pracht; Glahn; Bethor; Vollrath & the Astrologische Rundschau; Witte & the Hamburg School; Dr. Korsch; Brunhubner & Pluto; Winkel; Koch & the Birthplace System of Houses; Von Kloeckler; Kuhr; Reinhold Ebertin & Cosmobiology; Parm; Troinski; Marr; Taeger’s horiscope lexicon; Astrology in Hungary; Astrology in the Netherlands; Hamaker-Zondag; Astrology in Austria; Sinbad the Sailor; Knappich; Gustav Schwickert; Countess Wassilko-Serecki; Belcsak; Astrology in Switzerland; Jung; Dr. Frankhauser; Krafft; Kundig; Ring; The Hubers; Astrology in Italy; Carelli; Capone; Ghivarelli; Sementowsky-Kurilo; Brunini; Morpurgo; Bordoni; Mirti; Bezza; Astrology in Greece; Astrology in some other countries; Argentina; Australia; Zariel; Kozminsky; De Dion; Furze-Morrish; Greaves; Brazil; Japan; Some Remarks on Astrology: Newspaper astrology - The daily guides; Different kinds of astrology; Astrological associations; Professional astrologers; Astronomy & astrology; Science & astrology; Astrology & medicine; Fate vs: free will; Psychology & astrology; Computerized astrology; Can astrologers predict the future?; The Three Wise Men - were they astrologers? Selected bibliography; Index notes; Index of persons & publishers; Index of subjects & book titles. List of illustrations: 1. A papyrus horoscope; 2. Augustus’s horoscope in the Alexandrian zodiac; 3. Augustus’s horoscope in the tropical zodiac; 4. Horoscope from Dorotheus set for 1-3 August 43; 5. Horoscope from Dorotheus set for 25-26 January 13; 6. Horoscope of Hadrian from Antigonus; 7. Horoscope of Hadrian in the tropical zodiac; 8. Question about a future battle; 9. A horse stolen. List of tables: 1. Terms according to the Egyptians. Comment: This is a true history of western astrology. Unlike Jim Tester’s book (below), this book includes a fairly complete survey of notable astrologers & their work through the ages, starting with the Greeks & continuing to the 1980’s. Where Tester claims that Roger Bacon (13th century) was bullied into accepting astrology, Holden notes that Bacon put forth powerful arguments in favor of it. Holden’s bibliographies (2) cite hundreds of persons & works mentioned in the text. Tester says any such lists would be “worse than useless” & suggests we look at his footnotes. Okay. All the sources Tester lists in footnotes come to perhaps a tenth of Holden, who, unlike Tester, gives evidence of actually having read the many books he cites. Holden digs into many of the areas that Tester wrote off as mere confusing jumble. Nor is Holden uncritical of the various subdivisions of the subject (he condemns the use of degree symbols, such as the famous Sabians). I like Holden’s book, I think it’s excellent, I use it daily as a reference. I only wish there were more of it. I wish it had been reviewed in the New York Times Book Review, instead of Tester’s. Holden’s book is more worthy of attention. AFA, 359 pages, paper. | |
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| A HISTORY OF WESTERN ASTROLOGY - Jim Tester, $29.95 NO LONGER AVAILABLE Despite the title, this is not a history, but a critique & not a very good one at that. Jim Tester was not an astrologer, nor, from evidence in the text, did he know any astrologers or even like the subject. This should give us pause. The production of a 256 page book is no small affair. Love of the subject is the best reason to undertake a large work, but Tester is contemptuous of astrology. A guess would be he undertook the project to curry academic favor. There are no clues in the preface, which was completed shortly before his death. (A lousy way to spend your last days, writing a book on a subject you don’t like!) Tester never gets beyond the superficial. The book is largely a critique of the books by Manilius, Ptolemy & Firmicus. The author wastes no time describing astrology as a confusing muddle, wonders openly at the gullibility of the Greeks for inventing it, pours over his selected texts looking, not at the sweep of the books, but for any minor inconsistencies he can find in them. He parades before us a series of mostly minor figures who condemned these works when they were new, or who were burned by their study. Along the way he criticizes F.E. Robbins (translator of Ptolemy) & Jean Rhys Bram (translator of Firmicus) for their sloppy work. Tester’s own writing is rambling & often off the subject. Perhaps a fourth of the book should have been presented as footnotes. Tester has his own mistakes: The illustration on page 27, for example. Perhaps if he had lived he might have revised the book into something coherent, which leaves us wondering why his publisher did not. Kepler College requires this book for one of its initial classes. In my view, that’s premature. This book profits from a much closer reading than can be expected in an “Astrology 101” class. This book is an excellent example of the academic bias against astrology, which for centuries has refused to sully its hands by actually reading astrological books - which is the real reason Tester’s book has no bibliography. Why does Tester end his book around 1700 AD? Because by that time the triumph of the rational mind was complete, at least to a certain noisy gang of rationalists who were so seduced by it. To these folks, rational thought is the ultimate form of mental expression. In the very last paragraph in the book, Tester credits the 20th century revival of astrology to “utterly foreign unreason (not irrationalism) of the east…” [emphasis in original]. So was Tester’s purpose in writing his book to defend his sacred western rationality from heathens at the gate? In every respect, Holden’s book (above) is superior. Boydell & Brewer, paper. | |
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| ANCIENT ASTROLOGY - Tamsyn Barton, $30.95 Primarily scholastic in tone, this is a readable account of astrology from early beginnings in Mesopotamia to the early Byzantine Empire, with a focus on the Greco-Roman world. After thrashing about in vague, almost useless Mesopotamian observations, we are suddenly thrust full-bore into the most sophisticated Greek astrological knowledge. Let’s stop here for a moment & reflect. How did this explosion of information happen? Was Greek astrology based on mere observation? If so, why has this never been replicated? (Folks have sure tried hard enough the last 20 years.) Scholars presume the world can only be known by observation, in part because that’s how they know the world. But it does not account for Sage Parasara of India, nor Greek astrology. The only explanation that I can find is that astrology is a form of received wisdom, “divinely inspired”, for lack of a better term. In chapter 5, Barton reads Prince Charles’s horoscope via Firmicus Maternus & Dorotheus of Sidon (two contrasting views). Both turn out to be masses of confusing babble, but neither had much nice to say about the Prince. Instead of writing off astrology (as did Tester), Barton says, “This finding demanded an explanation. Rather than assume that this was the result of corrupt texts or the stupidity of astrologers, the normal explanations for apparent confusion in astrological texts, I looked to the contemporary intellectual context. I suggested that different ideals & methods of education were operating. The process of learning was an apprenticeship, and it was akin to a process of initiation, like the mystery cults which were so important in the Greek world. The stages of initiation, in which each new level displaced the last, could explain the apparent reduplication of methods for finding out about any one matter.” (pg. 142) I don’t think that was the intention of Firmicus or Dorotheus, but at least Barton tries. Routledge, 270 pages, including glossary, notes, bibliography & index. | |
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| THE MOMENT OF ASTROLOGY, Origins in Divination - Geoffrey Cornelius, $29.00 Contents: Foreword, by Patrick Curry; Preface to the 2nd edition; Introduction. 1. The scourge of astrology; 2. An anti-astrology signature; 3. Science & symbol 1: Humpty-Dumpty; 4. Science & symbol 2: Two orders of significance; 5. Ptolemy’s broad shoulders: The moment of astrology in the western tradition; 6. The question of horary; 7. Katarche: The line of descent from augury; 8. Horary revived; 9. Some genius or spirit; 10. The unique case of interpretation; 11. Appearances: The symbol in context; 12. Images of birth; 13. Images of the world; 14. The fourfold symbol I: Divination & allegory; 15. The fourfold symbol II: Water into wine; 16. Astrology as the gift of the soul. Appendices: 1. Pico’s disputations; 2. The NCGR-Berkeley double-blind test; 3. Charles Carter on horary; 4. Frankland’s ‘missing father’; 5. Ashmole on astrology; 6. Reworking Sibley; 7. Case study: Stella. Index. Comment: Geoffrey Cornelius’s celebrated book is back in print. How are astrologers able to go about their craft, how are horary astrologers, in particular, able to give precise locations of missing persons & objects, and yet astrology, as a whole, remains incapable of scientific proof? (Did you ever wonder about that?) Using strict astrological symbolism, Cornelius demonstrates two axioms: The same-time coming together of OBJECTIVE EVENT and OBJECTIVE HEAVENS is not a necessary condition for the astrological effect to come to pass, and the very similar The same-time coming together of OBJECTIVE EVENT and OBJECTIVE HEAVENS is not a sufficient condition for the astrological effect to come to pass. (Both from pg. 83, emphasis in the originals.) What Cornelius means by this is that the existence of an object or event, and the astrological chart that may describe it, do not necessarily have any strictly defined linkage in time or space. The event & its astrological chart are linked because, at some other instant in time, an astrologer (or diviner) found the symbolisms that linked them. This is most obvious in horary astrology. If you lost your watch at 11:37 pm EST on Thursday in New York, but only phoned your horary astrologer in Los Angeles at 2:34 pm PST the following day, the critical link between these two seemingly unrelated moments in time is that of the astrologer who linked them. This despite the fact that neither the time nor general location where the watch was lost was of interest to the astrologer. Cornelius demonstrates this brilliantly. In the September/October 1975 issue of the Humanist was the famous Objections to Astrology, signed by 186 scientists, among them 18 Nobel Prize winners. It was a bold attempt to shatter astrology once & for all. Along with the broadside, the authors, Bok, Kurtz & Jerome, included an astrological chart picked at random, set for November 23, 1907, 4 am EST, New York. Bok found this chart in an unrelated article by Margaret W. Mayall from 1941, which Mayall, again, said was picked at random. So far as is known, this is not the chart of any person or thing. Its only stated purpose was to demonstrate chart construction (Cornelius notes it was not even calculated correctly, he reads it as is). Cornelius discovered this chart precisely described the Humanist attack that occurred 68 years later. Progressions taken from this chart precisely timed not only the Humanist attack, but also its previous use in 1941. The 1907 chart was, in astrological terms, radical, even though it should not have been. Cornelius writes, From these considerations I conclude that the 1907 horoscope, arbitrarily derived decades before its star turn, not only symbolizes the 1975 attack, it also times it. (pg. 31) In this second edition, the author has revised chapters 4 & 7, chapter 11 expands the discussion of Graeme Tobyn’s orange-omen, which concerns a chart in one of Culpeper’s books that diagnosed two pregnancies 337 years apart. Chapter 13 is wholly new, chapter 16 was completely reworked. Chapter 12, on Princess Diana & her two charts (both work, both exactly time events in her life, though they differ by more than five hours) is extended to her death in 1997. In the appendices, the notes on the famous US Sibley horoscope, are new. One of the great astrology books of the 20th century, one to be read & reread. It will change how you think about astrology. Wessex Astrologer, 386 pages. | |
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| FORESEEING THE FUTURE: Evangeline Adams & Astrology in America - Karen Christino, $14.95 Contents: Introduction; New York, 1899; Looking Backwards; Andover Days; A Whole New World; The Lure of the Occult; On Her Own; New York, New York; Problems & Publicity; Evangeline & the Law; The Magician; Here Comes Mr. Jordan; Big Business; Onward & Upward; Boom & Bust; Superstar; Fading Light; Epilogue; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Index. Comment: As is well-known among astrologers, Evangeline Adams was perhaps the most famous American astrologer to date. By the time of her death in 1932, she was a national media star with a thrice-weekly radio show, offices in New York’s Carnegie Hall (they’re at the back of the building) & some 25 assistants handling thousands of letters a week, all this & more among her many accomplishments. She was intensely talented right from the start & made no effort to hide her astrological work. As a result, she was unsuccessfully prosecuted several times while in New York City. The transcript of the most famous trial, in 1914, concludes with the famous words of Judge Freschi: “The defendant raises astrology to the level of an exact science…” Reading the transcript, I was struck by the similarity to William Lilly’s famous trial of the 1660’s: On the witness stand, both defendants weaseled their way out of trouble, in my view. But aside from that, Christino’s biography is excellent in all respects, one that repays close study. One Reed Publications, 217 pages. | |
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| THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF ASTROLOGY - Aleister Crowley, with Evangeline Adams, $80.00 Contents: Man & the Universe; Technical Elements of Astrology; How to Set Up a Figure of the Heavens; General Signification of Planets; General Signification of Signs; General Signification of Aspects; General Principles of Judging a Figure; Master Key to Astrology; Houses of the Heavens; Rising Signs; Ths Sun; The Moon; Mercury; Venus; Mars; Jupiter; Saturn; Uranus; Neptune; Appendices: My theory of astrology, How to learn the practice of astrology, How horoscopes are faked, Charts, biographies & index, Tables & diagrams; Editorial notes, Works cited; Index. Comment: From time to time I am asked for Evangeline Adams’ Astrology, Your Place in the Sun, and, Astrology, Your Place in the Stars, both of which are long out of print, both of which were actually written by Aleister Crowley. Behold: The text of both books, plus a bit of extra messing around, are now back in print. While this is no more than an introductory book on astrology, Crowley’s remarks are among the shrewdest I have read anywhere. The downside is this book, lavishly over-produced, hardly justifies its cover price. If Weiser had a fault as a publisher, it was with O.T.O. imprinted Crowley books, most of which are over produced and over priced. The editor, Hymenaeus Beta (presumably a pseudonym) is the current head of Ordo Templi Orientis, the esoteric order Crowley headed from the 1920’s to his death in 1947. Judging by what you may read on the [O.T.O.]](http://www.otohq.org/oto/history.html) site, it is today not a large group. Quote: Astrologers sometimes make mistakes. From this fact, which even they are scarcely sufficiently brazen to dispute, it follows with mathematical certainty that astrology is not a science but a sham, a quackery and a fraud. Contrast its shameful uncertainty with medicine, where no doctor every lost a patient; with law, where no lawyer ever lost a case; or even with arms, where no soldier ever lost a battle! (Preface, pg. 3) Weiser, 596 pages, oversize hardcover. | |
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| ASTROLOGICAL PIONEERS OF AMERICA - James H. Holden & Robert A. Hughes, $20.95 Comment: From 1988, this eventually formed the core of Holden’s A History of Horoscopic Astrology (above). This is a biographical dictionary of American astrologers: Professionals, teachers, writers & students, born 1923 or earlier, as well as younger astrologers who were already deceased, a total of some 1300 entries in all. Includes birth data when available, biographical information & selected bibliographic listings. Also included is an appendix of foreign astrologers associated with US astrologers, some 148 entries. Most of the entries are brief. This is a fascinating & essential catalog of the famous, near famous & completely obscure. Originally issued to commemorate AFA’s 50th anniversary in 1988. At the time the AFA was briefly using an inferior printer & as a result, the binding on this book will crack & the pages will fall out. Buyer beware! There are no returns for a bad binding with this book (apologies!). AFA, 237 pages, paper. | |
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| THE ASTRAL TRAMP: A BIOGRAPHY OF SEPHARIAL - Kim Farnell, $19.95 Sepharial died in 1929 (an event he foresaw) but though his books are as popular as ever, the man himself has disappeared. Sepharial was by turns an astrologer, a theosophist, an occultist, a psychic & much more. By the end of his life he was more-or-less a Christian fundamentalist. His nick-name, the Astral Tramp, was bestowed by H.P. Blavatsky (Sepharial was present at her death in 1891). He was an associate of Alan Leo, Aphorel, Charubel & C.E.O. Carter, among many others. Yet he missed enduring fame by a hairsbreadth - again & again. Read this fascinating account of the man who nearly was. 199 pages including index. Ascella Publications, paper. | |
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