CHAPTERXXVIIIA TEST OF VALUE
The Old Philosopher of China has said that the virtue of everything is in its use. If Cosmic Symbolism cannot be applied to the practical ends of life it will not succeed in appealing to the average intellect, which sets for its standard the single test of utility. In these pages I have endeavoured to show that the Universe as Symbol is best studied in relation to its bearing on the common needs of humanity. I have also shown that Astrology is the only system of thought and practice that attempts the application. I propose now to examine the educational value of this study and its practical use in daily life, and thus to place it among the list of those subjects that have a serious claim to the consideration of enlightened people.
Tracing our way through the Encyclopædia of knowledge we find that most of the deeper studies that engage the powers of men are valuable, not so much for the ends they lead to, as for the mental training obtained in their pursuit. It is one of the outstanding features of modern scientific methods that we are required to bring our theories into agreement with known facts. The facts themselves are often uninteresting and of small practical value,but they serve as landmarks by which to direct our course towards conclusions which in themselves are often valuable. It is thus with astronomy. The application of thePrincipiaor of the Laws of Kepler to the cosmos as we know it is an exercise requiring the greatest possible care, considerable mathematical ability, and the patience of a Prometheus. The bare facts of astronomy are not generally interesting. We are not solicitous of knowing in exactly how many days, hours, minutes and seconds the planet Jupiter completes its course about the Sun. What is of more practical interest to us as terrestrials is to know Jupiter’s relations to this world of ours, what it stands for in the economy of life, and what influence, if any, it exerts over us.
Now Astrology, while employing all the elements of astronomy that have any certain foundation in fact, is calculated as a study to engage all the highest faculties of the human mind, while it brings to the results obtained the added virtue of utility.
The late Professor Max Müller once paid Astrology a great tribute when he said that many of our most distinguished men of intellect were at this day practiced astrologers, but that “few cared to let their studies be known, so great was the ignorance which confounded a science requiring the highest education with that of the ordinary gipsy fortune-teller.” Possibly he had in mind the late Lord Chief Justice, or Dr. Richard Garnett, or indeed any one of the host of intelligent students who have secretly avowed their adherence to the science.That which held the admiration of Claudius Ptolemy, and received the imprimatur of Tycho and Kepler, which attracted Lord Verulam, Francis Bacon, and was held in the highest esteem by that trained scientific observer and profound thinker, Sir Isaac Newton, and which in all ages and nations has included the highest intellects among its votaries, is affirmed by the great Orientalist to have a real value in the estimation of modern students whose attainments have placed them in a position to judge in the matter.
Let us, therefore, look soberly and carefully at this science of Astrology and see if its study is likely to be at all profitable from the point of view of education.
Astrology is both a science and a philosophy. As science it is concerned with the facts of astronomy and as philosophy with the application of those facts to the problems of life and mind. The astronomical facts are of first interest. Before we can say anything at all about the interplay of planetary action in human life we have to be able to set a map of the heavens for any time and place at which a person may have birth. For this purpose one can avail himself of the Ephemerides of theNautical Almanac, theConnaissance des Temps, or any of those cheaper publications which are extracted from them. From various handbooks written by astrological authors he may then learn how to erect a horoscope or map of the heavens for any time and place. Such practical knowledge is not to be found in any exposition of astronomythat I have yet come across. It enables the student to observe with perfect accuracy in what relations the various heavenly bodies were at the given time and exactly where they were situated as seen from a particular locality on the earth’s surface. The student finds considerable satisfaction in this piece of practical work. But it is only preliminary to the further study of the subject. For it will be seen that whereas the positions of the planets at the moment of birth have a symbolical value as regards the whole tenor and course of the life, the particular times at which events prefigured are likely to take place can only be known from a study of the subsequent motions of the heavenly bodies after the date of birth. For it is from the constant changes taking place in the kaleidoscope of the greater world about us that we draw our conclusions as to the time and nature of events. The planets are continually altering their relative positions owing to their different velocities and they thus form aspects or certain angular distances in regard to the places of the planets in the horoscope of birth and also among themselves in the heavens. The process of bringing a planet to the place of another in the horoscope of birth is called “directing” and involves a knowledge of spherical trigonometry. This brings me to an interesting fact. It is that the whole science of astronomy and the art of making ephemerides of the planets’ positions was kept alive solely by the personal labours and special knowledge of a handful of practical astrologers.
The Alphonsine Tables which were composedby the Arabian and Spanish astrologers and which were collected under the command of Alphonso X of Castile at a cost of four hundred thousand crowns, and published with a royal preface in the year 1252, are among the earliest examples of their great devotion. The Almagest of Ptolemy was completed aboutA.D.148 and was inscribed in the Temple of Serapis. The Rudolphine Tables composed by Tycho and completed by Kepler were digested and recomposed by Morinus, Mathematical Professor to the King of France, and printed at Paris in the year 1650. Ptolemy, Tycho, Kepler and Morin were all practiced astrologers. TheNautical Almanacwas first published in 1767 by Dr. Neville Maskelyne, and afterwards greatly improved in 1834. TheConnaissance des Tempswas published in 1699. Whence, think you, did the astrologers obtain their information regarding the positions of the planets prior to these years of authorized publication? They calculated them for themselves. Without astronomy there could be no Astrology. They kept astronomy alive.
Very few people understand what labour there is attaching to the production of the various elements that one finds in the common almanac. How many of my readers are prepared to calculate for themselves the time at which the Sun will rise or set upon the horizon of a particular locality? How many could say with any certainty at what time the Moon would south, or cross the upper meridian? What percentage of people could say when and where an eclipse of the Sun or Moon would occur,where it would be visible, its extent and duration? The modern astrologer has a remarkably easy time compared with the labours of his predecessors. He can refer to his official guide, or consult the popular almanac for all his elements. But for the working out of a horoscope and its subsequent directions, he must certainly have a practical knowledge of the use of an astronomical ephemeris.
From astronomy his attention is turned at once to Geography. He has to determine the exact longitude and latitude of a place, the name only of which is given, for he has to make his map of the heavens as seen from the place of birth. Here he gets a practical knowledge of localities and of the orientation of horoscopes. In his pursuit of Astrology the student will find himself tracking back through the biographies of great men and women in order to find data from which to test the various ascriptions of the astrologers. He will turn up cases of dementia and insanity in persons of repute and compare the data afforded by their horoscopes with the rules of Ptolemy, Morinus and Cardan. He will incidentally acquire a considerable knowledge of men and things which else had been to him an unwritten book.
Further, testing the theory of eclipse influences he will inevitably find his way back to the ruined cities of Nineveh and Babylon and the three historical eclipses which preceded the downfall of the great Empire, which eclipses we have received from Hipparchus through the Syntaxis of Ptolemy. As to the latter there are the Greek,Latin and English editions of the work open to his study.
The student will not proceed far before he comes up against the problem of Calendarics. He will find it impossible to understand and follow the works of the ancients without some notion of the equilization of Eras, and it will become imperative, if he would check the statements made in their works, as he should do, that he undertake the task of converting ancient into modern calendars. He may even find it necessary to know the names of the Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek, Indian and Chinese months. It is all involved in the process of his study. He will certainly require to know what are the Eras of the Hegira, the Salivahana, the Olympiads, and the Kali Yuga.
Keen on the track of this ancient lore he may elect to study the primitive Chinese language, and the noble Sanskrit of India, the more perfectly to acquaint himself with the traditions of these peoples and to study their ancient presentment of the science of Astrology. He may conveniently follow up the record through the Greeks and Latins.
Assuredly he will need to acquaint himself, at least superficially, with the anatomy of the human body, its physiology, pathology and hygiene. In the allocation of faculty to environment he will come into touch with sociology and will discriminate between the planetary occupations cited by Ptolemy and those that enter into the complex of modern life. In connection with the questions of marriage and progeny, the study of eugenics and gynecologywill claim his attention. The study of character as revealed by the planetary dispositions at the moment of birth will bring him into touch with the profound and as yet only partially developed science of Psychology.
Cosmogony will inevitably hold his attention while studying the effects of planetary action in the world at large, and seismology and meteorology are branches of mundane astrology that cannot be overlooked by any thorough student. For the argument comes easily to hand that if the planets do not affect the world at large they cannot affect us as denizens of the world.
From this by no means exhaustive category of subjects directly connected with the study of Astrology, it will be seen that it entails a liberal education and one, moreover, that cannot be matched by the curriculum of any of our schools or colleges. So that, whether we regard Astrology as a science, a philosophy or an occult art, it is certain that its pursuit, if carried out consistently, cannot fail to improve the mind of all who engage in it.
But as Laotze has said, the virtue of everything is in its use. If Astrology has no practical advantages to offer us it will at best only secure a place of academical repute. Those who have followed it out into the broad issues of life will, however, be able to affirm that in infancy, youth, adolescence and old age, Astrology is adequate to the needs of all as a source of guidance and information. From the very outset of life we are faced by considerations of health, questions regarding the continuance oflife, matters connected with education, the development of special faculty, and all those problems that vex the parental mind. Then later on we have to decide upon the choice of occupation, and later still on the all-important question of marriage. Then come the host of considerations hedging the welfare of the average man, questions regarding business affairs, travelling, partnerships, alliances, and the final disposition of one’s affairs. There are also the financial problems to be dealt with, matters of investment and of speculation—for it is never wise to speculate unless you know—and on the domestic side of life we have a multitude of problems which can easily be imagined but are difficult to recite.
In all these matters Astrology is found to be consistently useful as a guide and system of foreknowledge. Let me take some practical illustrations of the value of foreknowledge. The Russo-Japanese War and its outbreak in the Korea was foreseen and specifically predicted by me from the Eclipses of 1893. The fact that thousands of persons are directly or indirectly concerned in the appreciation or depreciation of the commercial interests and Government securities of those countries will point the practical value of this piece of intelligent anticipation.
The Hispano-American War of 1898 was predicted and the corner in wheat coinciding with the outbreak of that event was foreseen. Was this of any value to those whose business it is to anticipate the price of commodities and to arrange their shipments accordingly? Was the fall in Consols in 1899 onthe outbreak of the Boer War of no consequence to trustees and financiers? Consols were then at 112 and they fell to 88. My statement to theDaily Mailtwelve months before the event was that Consols next year would, on account of war, be as much below par as they were then above it. These are not isolated predictions carrying with them a fictitious value as spasmodic evidences, but they form part of a coherent and consistent system of forecast which has been available to the public for many years and of which many have taken advantage.
Judged by the test of fact and utility it will be seen that Cosmic Symbolism as developed in the science of Astrology is everywhere and in all directions abundantly justified in its claim to a patient and dispassionate investigation at the hands of competent critics, and universally it will be found to answer the common problems of life and to throw a flood of light upon some of the more recondite mysteries of our being.
In this work I have sought to be rather suggestional than informing, to stimulate rather than to satisfy curiosity, and to entice the reader to a consideration of some few ideas which arise out of the study of the Universe as Symbol. In this I trust I have been successful.