Astrology
Astrology was the art of telling the future by observing patterns in the skies. Astrologers answered their clients’ queries by drawing up elaborate charts that plotted the position of the heavenly bodies and assigned meaning based on their location and relation to one another. Astrology was divided into two branches, ‘natural’ and ‘judicial’. Natural astrology involved predictions about the weather, agriculture and medicine, while judicial astrology sought to uncover deeper secrets about the course of people’s lives or the world broadly. Theologians commonly endorsed natural astrology but condemned judicial astrology as heretical. This did not prevent it from being widely practised.
Some astrologers published annual almanacs containing predictions for the year to come. John Patridge’s predictions for January 1688 began: ‘At the beginning of this month the sun meets the square of Saturn, from which you may expect some damnable intrigue of the Papists [Catholics], newly contrived … But besides this, it shews the death of some old infirm statesman, or else he is turned out and discarded’.1John Partridge, Mr. John Partridge’s Wonderful Predictions, Pro Anno 1688 (London, 1687), p. 10. A woman called Sarah Jinner wrote several popular almanacs in the mid 17th century, with lines like ‘We find Mercury in Pisces retrograde in the 6th House, [which] denoteth that servants will generally be cross, vexatious, and intolerable, especially maidservants’.2Sarah Jinner, An Almanack for the Year of our Lord God 1664 (London, 1664), sig. C2.
Some opportunistic characters advertised themselves as astrologers without the requisite learning. In 1749, a London widow called Mary Smith defrauded a distiller’s apprentice called Samuel Meadwell by convincing him that she practised ‘the art of astrology, before very great people, princes, and the like’. She took Samuel’s money, wrapped it in a handkerchief with some salt, pepper and mould, then told him to wait three hours and he would find a pot of treasure. Samuel found only that his money had been swapped for bits of metal. Mary was originally sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to deportation.3Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 2 July 1755.
Men observing the sky in a 1532 woodcut about the weather.44Hans Weiditz, woodcut in Francesco Petrarch, De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae (Augsburg, 1532), bk. 1, ch. 86, the British Museum.
Above: A 1720 woodcut of an astrologer.5Astrologer from title page of John Melton, Astrologaster (London, 1720), Wellcome Collection.
Below: A mocking epitaph by Jonathan Swift on the astrologer and almanac-writer John Partridge (1644-c.1714).6Dean [Jonathan] Swift, ‘On Mr Partridge’ in A New Select Collection of Epitaphs, vol. 2 (London, 1775), p. 11.
Here, five foot deep, lies on his back,
A cobbler, starmonger, and quack;
Who to the stars in pure goodwill,
Does to his best look upward still.
Weep all you customers that use
His pills, his almanacs, or shoes;
And you that did your fortunes seek,
Step to his grave but once a week:
This earth which bears his body’s print,
You’ll find has so much virtue in’t,
That I durst pawn my ears ’twill tell
Whate’er concerns you full as well,
In physic [medicine], stolen goods, or love,
As he himself could, when above.
This is an approximation of how to calculate your ruling planet and determine your character and appropriate professions, according to early modern European astrological theory. It simplifies the process somewhat, as well as taking some shortcuts courtesy of modern technology.
Step 1: Go to https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/dominant-planets-astrology-online-calculator
Enter your date, place and time of birth. Under the ‘optional calculation method’ heading, change the setting from ‘modern rulership; 10 planets’ to ‘traditional rulership; 7 planets’.
Step 2: Which heavenly body has the highest score (SUM points)? This is your ‘ruling planet’ (it may not actually be a planet). If it’s a tie, go with the option that has the highest score in the first three columns (sign / house / angle). If it’s still a tie, read the descriptors (coming up) and see what suits you best.
Step 3: How high is the score? A higher score is better; it means your ruling planet has a strong position and is able to exert influence effectively.
The usual range is about 8-20, with 14 being average. If you have a score of 15+ you can count your ruling planet as well dignified; if it’s 13- you’re in the ill dignified bracket. A score of 14 is borderline; you incline towards both the good and the bad qualities listed below.
Step 4: Check your results below. How strongly the points about character apply depends on how well or ill dignified your ruling planet is.
Extracts from William Lilly, Christian Astrology (London, 1647), bk. 1, pp. 57-83.
The more influential a planet, the more impact it had on your character. This method of identifying a ruling planet looks at which sign of the zodiac and which house each planet was in at the time of your birth – that is, whereabouts it was in the sky. According to astrological theory, planets can exert a stronger influence if they are located in signs that have similar natures to them, or in more influential houses. The method also looks at how the planet is placed relative to key angular points in the ecliptic, and how they are placed relative to other planets.
There were different methods of calculating the ruling planet in early modern astrological theory. Some were much more complicated than this!
Manners and actions, when well dignified
Very faithful, keeping their promises with all punctuality, a kind of itching desire to rule and sway where he comes; prudent, and of incomparable judgment; of great majesty and stateliness, industrious to acquire honour … the solar man usually speaks deliberately, but not many words, and those with great confidence … full of thought … affable, tractable, and very humane to all people, one loving sumptuousness and magnificence, and whatever is honourable; no sordid thoughts can enter his heart…
When ill dignified
Then the solar man is arrogant and proud, disdaining all men, cracking of his pedigree … restless, troublesome, domineering … expensive, foolish, endued with no gravity in words, or soberness in actions, a spend-thrift … hanging after … other men’s charity, yet thinks all men are bound to him, because a gentleman born.
Quality of men and profession
He signifies kings, princes, emperors … dukes, marquesses, earls, barons, lieutenants, deputy-lieutenants of countries, magistrates, gentlemen in general … justices of peace, majors … great huntsmen … stewards of noble-men’s houses, the principal magistrate of any city … yea, though a petty constable, where no better, or greater officer is; goldsmiths … pewterers, coppersmiths, minters of money.
Manners and actions, when well dignified
She signifies one of composed manners, a soft, tender creature, a lover of all honest and ingenuous sciences, a searcher of, and delighter in novelties, naturally propense to flit and shift his habitation, unsteadfast, wholly caring for the present times, timorous, prodigal, and easily frighted, however loving peace, and to live free from the cares of this life; if a mechanic, the man learns many occupations, and frequently will be tampering with many ways to trade in.
When ill dignified
…a mere vagabond, idle person, hating labour, a drunkard … one of no spirit or forecast, delighting to live beggarly and carelessly, one content in no condition of life, either good or ill.
Quality of men and profession
She signifies queens, countesses, ladies, all manner of women; as also the common people, travellers, pilgrims, sailors, fishermen, fish-mongers, brewers … vintners, letter-carriers, coach-men, huntsmen, messengers … mariners, millers, ale-wives … drunkards, oyster-wives, fisher-women … and generally such women as carry commodities in the streets; as also, midwives, nurses … water-bearers.
Manners and actions, when well dignified
…a man of a subtle and politic brain, intellect, and cogitation; an excellent disputant or logician … a searcher into all kinds of mysteries and learning, sharp and witty, learning almost anything without a teacher; ambitious of being exquisite in every science, desirous naturally of travel … curious in the search of any occult knowledge; able by his own genius to produce wonders; given to divination and the more secret knowledge…
When ill dignified
A troublesome wit … his tongue and pen against every man … a great liar, boaster, prattler, busybody … given to wicked arts, as necromancy … easy of belief, an ass or very idiot, constant in no place or opinion, cheating and thieving everywhere; a news-monger, pretending all manner of knowledge, but guilty of no true or solid learning … if he prove a divine, then … of no judgment, easily perverted, constant in nothing but idle words and bragging.
Quality of men and profession
He generally signifies all literate men, philosophers, mathematicians, astrologers, merchants, secretaries … diviners, sculptors, poets, orators, advocates, schoolmasters, stationers, printers, exchangers of money, attorneys, emperors, ambassadors … accountants, solicitors, sometimes thieves, prattling muddy ministers … grammarians, tailors … messengers, footmen, usurers.
Manners and actions, when well dignified
…a quiet man, not given to law, quarrel or wrangling, not vicious, pleasant, neat and spruce, loving mirth in his words and actions, cleanly in apparel, rather drinking much then gluttonous … oft entangled in love-matters, zealous in their affections, musical, delighting in baths, and all honest merry meetings, or masks and stage plays; easy of belief, and not given to labour … a company-keeper, cheerful, nothing mistrustful, a right virtuous man or woman, oft had in some jealousy, yet no cause for it.
When ill dignified
Then he is riotous, expensive, wholly given to looseness and lewd companies of women, nothing regarding his reputation, coveting unlawful beds, incestuous, an adulterer … of no faith, no repute, no credit; spending his means in alehouses, taverns, and amongst scandalous, loose people; a mean lazy companion, nothing careful of the things of this life … a mere atheist…
Quality of men and profession
Musicians, gamesters, silk-men … linen-drapers, painters, jewellers … embroiderers, women-tailors, wives, mothers, virgins, choristers, fiddlers, pipers … ballad-singers, perfumers … picture-drawers, engravers, upholsterers … glovers, all such as sell those commodities which adorn women either in body (as clothes) or in face (as complexion-waters).
Manners and actions, when well dignified
In feats of war and courage invincible, scorning any should exceed him, subject to no reason, bold, confident, immoveable, contentious … valiant, lovers of war and all things pertaining thereunto, hazarding himself to all perils, willingly will obey no body, nor submit to any; a large reporter of his own acts, one that fights all things … and yet of prudent behaviour in his own affairs.
When ill
Then he is prattler without modesty or honesty, a lover of slaughter and quarrels, murder, thievery; a promoter of sedition, frays and commotions; and highway-thief, as wavering as the wind, a traitor, of turbulent spirit, perjurer, obscene, rash, inhumane, neither fearing God or caring for man, unthankful, treacherous, oppressors, ravenous, cheater, furious, violent.
Quality of men and profession
Generals of armies, colonels, captains, or any soldiers having command in armies, all manner of soldiers, physicians, apothecaries, surgeons, alchemists, gunners, butchers … sergeants, bailiffs, hangmen, thieves, smiths, bakers, armourers, watchmakers, butchers, tailors, cutlers of swords and knives, barbers, dyers, cooks, carpenters, gamesters, bear-wards, tanners, carriers.
Manners and actions, when well dignified
Then is he magnanimous, faithful, bashful, aspiring in an honourable way at high matters; in all his actions a lover of fair dealing, desiring to benefit all men; doing glorious things, honourable and religious, of sweet and affable conversation, wonderfully indulgent to his wife and children, reverencing aged men, a great reliever of the poor, full of charity and godliness, liberal, hating all sordid actions, just, wise, prudent, thankful, virtuous…
When ill
When Jupiter is unfortunate, then he wastes his patrimony, suffers everyone to cozen [deceive] him, is hypocritically religious, tenacious, and stiff in maintaining false tenets in religion; he is ignorant, careless, nothing delightful in the love of his friends; of a gross, dull capacity, schismatical, abasing himself in all companies, crouching and stooping where no necessity is.
Quality of men
He signifies judges, senators, councillors, ecclesiastical men, bishops, priests, ministers, cardinals, chancellors, doctors of the civil law, young scholars and students in a university or college, lawyers, clothiers, woollen-drapers.
Manners and actions, when well dignified
Then he is profound in imagination, in his acts severe, in words reserved, in speaking and giving very spare, in labour patient, in arguing or disputing grave, in obtaining the goods of this life studious and solicitous, in all manner of actions austere.
When ill
Then he is envious, covetous, jealous and mistrustful, timorous, sordid, outwardly dissembling, sluggish, suspicious, stubborn, a contemner [scorner] of women, a close liar, malicious, murmuring, never contented, ever repining.
Quality of men
In general he signifies husbandmen, clowns, beggars, day-labourers, old men, fathers, grandfathers, monks … miners underground, tinners, potters, broom-men, plumbers, brick-makers … chimney-sweepers, sextons of churches, bearers of dead corpses, scavengers, hostelers … gardeners, ditchers, chandlers [candle-makers], dyers of black cloth, a herdsman, shepherd or cow-keeper.
This discussion of divination appeared in a 1616 guide ‘Teaching the Interpretation of the Hardest Words Used in our Language’.7J.B., An English Expositor Teaching the Interpretation of the Hardest Words Used in our Language (London, 1616), entry on ‘Divination’, sig. F3v.
The second branch of natural divination, is that which a wise man may foretell by probable conjecture, being no way offensive, so long as it is only guided by reason; and overruled by submitting itself to the almighty power of God. And to this second kind of divination, may also astrology be referred (which by the motion and influence of stars and planets doth promise to foretell many things), so long as it keepeth itself in due limits, and arrogateth not too much to the certainty thereof: into which excesse of vanity if it should break forth, it can then be no longer called natural divination, but superstitious and wicked: for the stars may incline but not impose a necessity in particular things.
