CHAPTERXXVASTROLOGY
It could hardly be expected that one in my position, having the reputation of being one of those modern fools who go searching after ancient wisdom, could write a book on Cosmic Symbolism and successfully avoid the subject of Astrology. I admit to have trespassed on its preserves more or less in every chapter of this book. Now I may as well take a gun and make a day of it.
It is safe to say that no considerable argument has ever been successfully raised against the claims of Astrology to a place among the sciences. No valid reason can be given for disputing its principles, and its facts have never been overset. It is true that Pico della Mirandola, called Flagellum Astrologiæ because of his avowed hatred of the subject, attempted to expel it from among the Latins and was an ardent pamphleteer in the cause of its suppression. But he justified its claims and practically unsaid all that he had written by dying at the time predicted by the astrologers. Dr. John Butler, Chaplain to James Duke of Ormonde, had a mind to inveigh against its teachings, which by some misconception he fancied to be pagan and subversive of Christianity. He studied the subject the moreeffectively to assail the assertions of the astrologers, and ended his campaign by writing a book in support of its teachings. It is a book rather well known to students of the subject and can be seen at the British Museum.
But perhaps the most sounding rebuke that was ever given to such as foolishly repudiate the whole thing without taking the trouble to examine its principles and methods, was given by Sir Isaac Newton to Mr. Halley of comet fame when he ventured to dispute the subject with the great philosopher. The latter heard him to a finish and then quietly remarked: “I have studied the subject, Mr. Halley, you have not.” I do not know what was Halley’s perspective and therefore I cannot say in what regard he held the author of thePrincipia, but personally I would rather be swallowed by an earthquake than have such a rebuke from the same source. There was always that about Newton which inspired confidence in his utterances, for a more fearless and at the same time humble-minded investigator of Nature never breathed God’s air. He spoke of what he knew.
In the presentation of astrological evidence we are not called upon to display themodus operandiof planetary action in human life. We can observe facts without references to their causes. We may legitimately theorize as to the means whereby a universe is brought into existence, but none can say why. One is relieved of the necessity from the fact that he is not the Creator of it.
But there are many suggestions afforded bymodern scientific discoveries which lead us to the idea that planetary influence, apart from the attraction of gravitation, may be due to the functions of subtle states of matter such as we posit as properties of spatial ether. And since we know nothing of force apart from matter it is reasonable to presume that whatever forces are at play in the cosmos have their appropriate material vehicles. Spectrum analysis does not lead us to suppose that there is any material difference in the chemical constituents of the various bodies of the system, and what you find in the planets you find also in the Sun.
Certain considerations regarding the nature of matter lead us, however, to the conclusion that, apart from its properties, it has characteristics which depend not so much upon its atomic constituents as upon their arrangement. From this we may argue that inasmuch as we are all compounded of the same cosmic elements, differences of character and temperament are due to the ascendancy of one over other of those elements in individuals. This, so far as the personality is concerned, may well be true, but because material atoms have no emotions, aspirations, hopes and fears, and no moral sense, they cannot be said to acquire such by mere conglomeration. To carry the argument further, therefore, we should have to derive our atoms from something rather more spiritual than the hydrogen base, the “happy hunting-ground” of the physicists.
So far as the planets’ action on our organisms is concerned, it may be that the brain cells, infilled as they are with a nervous pabulum, are capable ofresponding to the more subtle vibrations of the ether. But the immaterial parts of us must respond to immaterial stimuli, and we know that there are other than merely physical effects due to planetary influence. And whereas matter is continuous of matter throughout the entire universe, mind is continuous of mind, and spirit of spirit. Thus it is that “Soul to soul strikes through a finer element of its own.”
We must therefore recognize that there may be a supra-cosmical as well as an intra-cosmical planetary action, and this follows from the argument that, matter being the ultimate expression of Spirit, the material planets have their spiritual counterparts.
However, to come to the practical side of the argument for and against the subject, I may deal with some of the more weighty objections which have been lodged against it.
First, there is the argument of coincidence which is used to explain away the fact of successful prediction. This in cool logic is no argument at all, for the only coincidence that is shown is that of the prediction and the subsequent course of events. Now if there were a single prediction which in human judgment could not have been otherwise foretold but by the application of some commonly-called “occult” knowledge, this would suffice to confirm the claim that foreknowledge is scientifically possible. But what do we mean by coincidence. If apples falling from a tree pursued different directions, some falling direct to the earth and some in the contrary direction towards the sky, while otherswent off at a tangent, it may be called a coincidence that one should fall in the direction previously determined upon and named. But if all the apples tend in the same direction and fall along the lines of the earth’s radial magnetism direct towards its centre, then we may posit a law of attraction.
Now if we can show a definite direction of all planetary influence—that is to say, show that the same planet always maintains the same significance in the astrological scheme, that its effects are always of the same general character, and that these effects synchronize with the arc by which the planet is separated from the position of any of the prescribed Significators, then we may claim to have established the law of planetary influence—or, if you will, of cosmic symbolism. We are not now concerned with the question of the causative or symbolic relations of our greater environment. This connection between planet and event we can certainly show.
Another argument is that the discovery of the heliocentric system by Copernicus invalidated the conclusions of the astrologers which were based on the geocentric positions of the planets. We cannot allow this for the following reasons. The Suryasiddhanta of India antedates the system of Copernicus by many hundreds of years and it is heliocentric. India is nevertheless the schoolhouse if not the nursery of Astrology, and planetary influence in human life is practically an article of faith with the Hindus. The conclusions of Copernicus were confirmed and demonstrated by Tycho and Kepler. Tycho practised astrology while Kepler confirmedits principles and added to its credentials by successful prediction. In a universe of relativity, every planet is the centre of its own system, as every man is the centre of his own world, and the Astrologer who studies the action of the planets on this earth and its inhabitants, rightly regards the latter as the passive centre of such action. As the fortunes of a country centre in its Ruler, so those of the individual centre in himself.
A further argument urged against the Science is that the discovery of the planets Neptune and Uranus must vitiate conclusions drawn from an incomplete cosmical system. The argument has really very little value. The discovery of Argon as a constituent of the earth’s atmosphere does not involve any change in our ideas about oxygen, hydrogen, or nitrogen. What was argued in regard to the nature of Saturn a thousand years ago is maintained by all modern Astrologers. It is the same with all the other planets. Only we have the added knowledge of the nature and influence of the two planets Neptune and Uranus to supplement what the ancients knew about the rest of the solar system. In former days when they could not discover adequate reasons for death, a man was said to have died by “the visitation of God.” To-day with our extended knowledge of the solar system it is found that Uranus or Neptune has been the agent of the Lord of Life and Death.
Another objection raised against the idea of planetary influence is that the bodies are so remote and insignificant as to be incapable of producing anymarked effects in mundane affairs. The objection is grounded in ignorance. The distance of the planets bears no relation to their influence or power to affect us. This will be obvious to those who have reflected on the fact that etheric vibration becomes “light” only when it impinges on the earth’s atmosphere, and the fact also that the attraction of gravitation operates irrespective of distance and maintains the solidarity of the system. Planetary perturbations due to the mutual attraction of the several bodies is an adequate reply to the objection of Cicero. Sir David Brewster argues that if light could reach us from the distant stars and planets, other influences may also reach us from the same sources. Cicero, on the other hand, while possessed of magnificent ideas of the solar system and fully admitting its solidarity, asks with evident lack of argument, “What contagion can reach us from the planets whose distances are almost infinite?” We have gone beyond the “infinite” of Cicero since that question was asked, and modern astronomers are able to demonstrate the fact that the Sun, while acting as the centre of attraction in its own system, is answering to the gravitational pull of some star in the confines of space, and that it has a proper motion of its own in a vast orbit about that centre. I have already expressed the view that Plato knew of this and that it was the basis of his Great Year. What hinders that our Sun may receive influences from its own lode-star, and that these may be transmitted to us in common with the other planets of our system? There is no harm in using the scientificimagination providing that we have some fact from which to proceed.
In connection with the teachings of astrology there is the scientific fact of natural selection to be considered. What is it that determines birth under particular astral conditions. We say that it is innate tendency. Locke, who in hisHuman Understandingargued for “no innate ideas” had a faulty perspective. He failed to account for genius through sense-impressions, as others have later failed to account for it through cumulative heredity. We have instances before us where it is obvious that there was nothing to accumulate so far as special forms of genius were concerned.
If, on the other hand, we accept the human being as an evolving Monad passing through a succession of incarnations for the purposes of experience and ultimate specialization of faculty, we shall at once understand how it is that certain persons are endowed with precocious tendencies of a definite order from infancy, and indeed birth. Given the time necessary to get into touch with the physical instrument and to “tune up,” as it were, the appearance of unusual faculty can in no way be hindered, because it is innate. In this connection Astrology affirms that persons are born with particular horoscopes because when the heavens are so disposed as to admit of, and indeed to favour, the expression of certain forms of genius and faculty, the Soul requiring those conditions is borne into earth-life. The doctrine involves the suggestion that there is a purpose in human existence and that such purpose is neitherbegun nor fulfilled in any one incarnation. Then, as there is a Spiritual Law in the Natural World, and a supra-cosmic law of planetary action, we can see how the line of least resistance is determined by innate tendency. In the Wisdom of Solomon it is said: “I am not good because I was born into an undefiled body, but being good I was born into a body undefiled.” There is therefore an ancient belief in the determination of birth conditions to innate character.
Colourless and purposeless individuals are found to be responsive to general or group influences and to be moved by the feelings and thoughts that animate the crowd. They have not yet attained that power of self-direction which characterizes the highly evolved Monad. Accentuated and purposeful characters, on the other hand, require specific influences under which to be born, and these influences must be conformable to the purpose in view. What that purpose is may be seen from their life and actions, and indeed it is written all over them for those who understand the physiognomy of Nature. Occasionally we have the incarnation of special Messengers who are responsive to the collective spirit of the superior world. These are found to voice the needs of the soul rather than of the body of man and their minds answer to a higher law than that which controls the average individual.
Very many factors conspire to the production of those astral conditions which favour the expression of individual character of a high order. Much depends on the sphere of life in which the purposeof evolution requires that they shall function. We have such examples of marked men in all spheres of life. But wherever they appear they are easily discernible by their horoscopes. Nature is not so profligate as some people imagine, for in the long run it is seen that her ways and means are those which invariably secure the end in view. If she is apparently careless of the mass she is at all events jealously careful in regard to such as have specialized, and we find by practical experience that she adapts environment to purpose with infinite care and foresight.
If we take the astral conditions obtaining over any particular period of a year and consider them in relation to the number of births occurring in any particular area, we shall find that so far as the cosmic relations of the planets are concerned they will remain practically undisturbed for a considerable time. Thus Neptune will be in the same sign for about 14 years, Uranus for 7 years, Saturn for 2½ years, Jupiter for one year, and Mars for nearly two months, Venus and Mercury changing signs within the month. So that, from a cosmical point of view, quite a large number of births will take place under similar conditions, for even the Moon, which represents the element of variability, will continue in the same sign for about 2½ days, and in a thickly populated area such as the City of London, where the average birth-rate is 14 per hour, we may have as many as 840 births under exactly the same zodiacal conditions.
But it happens that the ancient astrologers thoughtout this problem somewhat fully, and consequently they directed their attention to the conditions obtaining in regard to a given locality. In other words, they paid more attention to the rising, culmination and setting of the planets than to their zodiacal positions. Now a simple calculation will show that as 1° of the zodiac passes the meridian every four minutes, and 15° every hour, there is enough and to spare for the fourteen births which take place on an average in the most densely populated centre of the world, so that each of them may be born under a separate degree. But the fact probably is, and necessarily I am theorizing on the point, that people are born in batches, for where special conditions are not required the common experiences of life will serve for all the evolutional needs of a large majority of those born into the world. Moreover, as I have already said, the planets affect us in terms of ourselves, so that the same planetary conditions will be variously interpreted by individuals born at the same time, according to their degree of evolution. Consequently I do not see any astrological objection to any number of persons being born under the same stellar conditions, and it is indeed probable that the horoscopes of all our kings and leaders will find duplicates all over the country. All that we note in such circumstances is that the events of their lives have a certain set parallelism from birth until death, while so long as these individual souls are under the sway of those stellar conditions, they interpret them according to their own natures andin terms of their sphere of life. A notable case, but by no means the only one that could be cited is that of John Hemmings and King GeorgeIII. Both were born on the same day and at the same hour in the same parish ofSt.Martins-le-Fields, in London. When GeorgeIIdied John Hemmings’ father died. GeorgeIIIsucceeded to the throne and John Hemmings to his father’s business, which was that of an ironmonger. They were married on the same day, had the same number of children of the same sexes, and died on the same day and at nearly the same hour. The Webbs, the Cloughs and the Morells are famous cases of twins whose lives were at all points similar, and this, not because they were born of the same parents but because they were born under exactly the same astral conditions.
The mundane factor as distinguished from the zodiacal, that is to say, the positions of the planets in the prime vertical as distinguished from their positions in the zodiac, is that which makes for individual expression. Three hundred and sixty persons could be born in a single day in any one locality and each of these could have a horoscope that is distinct and individual. The highest record does not reach this number.
With this factor of variation in the expression of human character and destiny, it is possible to understand how the Arch-arbiter of our destinies may, for the ultimate purposes of our spiritual evolution, determine the application of the individual psychoplasm to the physical centres of life at times when the cosmical and mundane conditions areharmonious to the end designed. From an astrological point of view there is room and to spare for the expression of every phase of human character and development, and that is the same as saying that the One Life is capable of an infinite variety of manifestations in the process of time. This doubtless was the thought animating Shelley’s oft-quoted phrase—
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,Stains the white radiance of Eternity.
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,Stains the white radiance of Eternity.
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,Stains the white radiance of Eternity.
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity.