In the United States, a great surge of popular interest in astrology took place between 1900 through 1949. A very popular astrologer based in New York City named Evangeline Adams helped feed the public's thirst for astrology readings with many accurate forecasts, her biographers say. A famous court case involving Adams, who was arrested and charged with illegal fortune-telling in 1914 - was later dismissed when Adams correctly read the horoscope of the judge's son with only a birthdate. Her acquittal set an American precedent that if astrologers practiced in a professional manner that they were not guilty of any wrong-doing.
The hunger for astrology in the earliest years of the 20th century by such astrologers as Alan Leo, Sepharial (also known as Walter Gorn Old), "Paul Cheisnard" and Charles Carter, among others, further led the surge of interest in astrology by wide distribution of astrological journals, text, papers, and textbooks of astrology throughout the United States.
The serious and complex writings on astrological practice and concepts in America progressed from the turn-of-the-century years and into a new period of popular expansion in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Many complex astrological materials were simplified to attempt to carve a clear line through points of contention and controversy. The result of this attempt was to "simplify astrology" in the minds of professionals and gave the impression of settled and agreed positions on many points that were not resolved.
The period between 1920-1940 gave way to the popular media jumping on board the great public interest in astrology. Publishers realized that millions of readers were interested in astrological forecasts and the interest grew ever more intense with the advent of America's entry into the First World War. The war heightened interest in astrology. Journalists began to write articles based on character descriptions and astrological "forecasts" were published in newspapers based on the one and only factor known to the public: the month and day of birth, as taken from the position of the Sun when a person is born. The result of this practice led to modern-day publishing of Sun-Sign astrology columns and expanded to some astrological books and magazines in later decades of the 20th century.
Noted predictions
See also Mundane astrology, Horary astrology, Electional astrology
Throughout history many astrologers have made predictions about the future course of world events, and these are often remarkable either for their fulfilment or for the ruin and confusion they brought upon their authors.
A favourite topic of the astrologers of all countries has been the immediate end of the world. As early as 1186 the Earth had escaped one threatened cataclysm of the astrologers.
This did not prevent Stöffler from predicting a universal deluge for the year 1524 - a year, as it turned out, distinguished for drought. His aspect of the heavens told him that in that year three planets would meet in the aqueous sign of Pisces. The prediction was believed far and wide, and President Aurial, at Toulouse, built himself a Noah's ark - a curious realization, in fact, of Chaucer's merry invention in the Miller's Tale.
The most famous predictions about European and world affairs were made by the French astrologer Nostradamus (1503 - 66). [13] Nostradamus became famous after the publication in 1555 of his work Centuries , which was a series of prophecies in cryptic verse. So obscure are the predictions that they have been interpreted as relating to a great variety of events since, including the French and English Revolutions, and the Second World War. In 1556 Nostradamus was summoned to the French court by Catherine de Medici and commissioned to draw up the horoscope of the royal children. Although Nostradamus later fell out of favour with many in the court and was accused of witchcraft, Catherine continued to support him and patronized him until his death.
Historical figures and astrology
Throughout history many astrologers have made their mark, including such figures as Ptolemy, Albumasur, Tsou Yen and Nostradamus. In addition, many famous people over the centuries have expressed opinions either in favour or in opposition to astrology, and have either used it or refused to use it in their actions.
Historical proponents of astrology
The influence of the Medici made astrologers popular in France.
Richelieu, on whose council was Jacques Gaffarel (1601-1681), the last of the Kabbalists, did not despise astrology as an engine of government.
At the birth of Louis XIV a certain Morin de Villefranche was placed behind a curtain to cast the nativity of the future autocrat. A generation back the astrologer would not have been hidden behind a curtain, but have taken precedence over the doctor.
La Bruyère dares not pronounce against such beliefs, "for there are perplexing facts affirmed by grave men who were eye-witnesses."
In England William Lilly and Robert Fludd were both dressed in a little brief authority. The latter gives us elaborate rules for the detection of a thief, and tells us that he has had personal experience of their efficacy. "If the lord of the sixth house is found in the second house, or in company with the lord of the second house, the thief is one of the family. If Mercury is in the sign of the Scorpion he will be bald, &c."
Francis Bacon abuses the astrologers of his day no less than the alchemists, but he does so because he has visions of a reformed astrology and a reformed alchemy.
Sir Thomas Browne, too, while he denies the capacity of the astrologers of his day, does not venture to dispute the reality of the science. The idea of the souls of men passing at death to the stars, the blessedness of their particular sphere being assigned them according to their deserts (the metempsychosis of J. Reynaud), may be regarded as a survival of religious astrology, which, even as late as Descartes's day, assigned to the angels the task of moving the planets and the stars.
Joseph de Maistre believed in comets as messengers of divine justice, and in animated planets, and declared that divination by astrology is not an absolutely chimerical science.
Kepler was cautious in his opinion; he spoke of astronomy as the wise mother, and astrology as the foolish daughter, but he added that the existence of the daughter was necessary to the life of the mother.
Kepler may have said this with the cynical meaning that the "foolish" work of astrology paid for the serious work of astronomy - as, at the time, the main motivation to fund advancements in astronomy was the desire for better, more accurate astrological predictions.
Historical opponents of astrology
Lastly, we may mention a few distinguished men who ran counter to their age in denying stellar influences.
Panaetius, Augustine, Martianus Capella (the precursor of Copernicus), Cicero, Favorinus, Sextus Empiricus, Juvenal, and in a later age Savonarola and Pico della Mirandola, and La Fontaine, a contemporary of the neutral La Bruyère, were all pronounced opponents of astrology.
In the Hellenistic and Roman Empire eras, a number of notable philosophers and scientists, such as Diogenes of Babylon (Middle Stoic), Galen, and Pliny accepted some aspects of astrology while rejecting others.[1]
The hunger for astrology in the earliest years of the 20th century by such astrologers as Alan Leo, Sepharial (also known as Walter Gorn Old), "Paul Cheisnard" and Charles Carter, among others, further led the surge of interest in astrology by wide distribution of astrological journals, text, papers, and textbooks of astrology throughout the United States.
The serious and complex writings on astrological practice and concepts in America progressed from the turn-of-the-century years and into a new period of popular expansion in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Many complex astrological materials were simplified to attempt to carve a clear line through points of contention and controversy. The result of this attempt was to "simplify astrology" in the minds of professionals and gave the impression of settled and agreed positions on many points that were not resolved.
The period between 1920-1940 gave way to the popular media jumping on board the great public interest in astrology. Publishers realized that millions of readers were interested in astrological forecasts and the interest grew ever more intense with the advent of America's entry into the First World War. The war heightened interest in astrology. Journalists began to write articles based on character descriptions and astrological "forecasts" were published in newspapers based on the one and only factor known to the public: the month and day of birth, as taken from the position of the Sun when a person is born. The result of this practice led to modern-day publishing of Sun-Sign astrology columns and expanded to some astrological books and magazines in later decades of the 20th century.
Noted predictions
See also Mundane astrology, Horary astrology, Electional astrology
Throughout history many astrologers have made predictions about the future course of world events, and these are often remarkable either for their fulfilment or for the ruin and confusion they brought upon their authors.
A favourite topic of the astrologers of all countries has been the immediate end of the world. As early as 1186 the Earth had escaped one threatened cataclysm of the astrologers.
This did not prevent Stöffler from predicting a universal deluge for the year 1524 - a year, as it turned out, distinguished for drought. His aspect of the heavens told him that in that year three planets would meet in the aqueous sign of Pisces. The prediction was believed far and wide, and President Aurial, at Toulouse, built himself a Noah's ark - a curious realization, in fact, of Chaucer's merry invention in the Miller's Tale.
The most famous predictions about European and world affairs were made by the French astrologer Nostradamus (1503 - 66). [13] Nostradamus became famous after the publication in 1555 of his work Centuries , which was a series of prophecies in cryptic verse. So obscure are the predictions that they have been interpreted as relating to a great variety of events since, including the French and English Revolutions, and the Second World War. In 1556 Nostradamus was summoned to the French court by Catherine de Medici and commissioned to draw up the horoscope of the royal children. Although Nostradamus later fell out of favour with many in the court and was accused of witchcraft, Catherine continued to support him and patronized him until his death.
Historical figures and astrology
Throughout history many astrologers have made their mark, including such figures as Ptolemy, Albumasur, Tsou Yen and Nostradamus. In addition, many famous people over the centuries have expressed opinions either in favour or in opposition to astrology, and have either used it or refused to use it in their actions.
Historical proponents of astrology
The influence of the Medici made astrologers popular in France.
Richelieu, on whose council was Jacques Gaffarel (1601-1681), the last of the Kabbalists, did not despise astrology as an engine of government.
At the birth of Louis XIV a certain Morin de Villefranche was placed behind a curtain to cast the nativity of the future autocrat. A generation back the astrologer would not have been hidden behind a curtain, but have taken precedence over the doctor.
La Bruyère dares not pronounce against such beliefs, "for there are perplexing facts affirmed by grave men who were eye-witnesses."
In England William Lilly and Robert Fludd were both dressed in a little brief authority. The latter gives us elaborate rules for the detection of a thief, and tells us that he has had personal experience of their efficacy. "If the lord of the sixth house is found in the second house, or in company with the lord of the second house, the thief is one of the family. If Mercury is in the sign of the Scorpion he will be bald, &c."
Francis Bacon abuses the astrologers of his day no less than the alchemists, but he does so because he has visions of a reformed astrology and a reformed alchemy.
Sir Thomas Browne, too, while he denies the capacity of the astrologers of his day, does not venture to dispute the reality of the science. The idea of the souls of men passing at death to the stars, the blessedness of their particular sphere being assigned them according to their deserts (the metempsychosis of J. Reynaud), may be regarded as a survival of religious astrology, which, even as late as Descartes's day, assigned to the angels the task of moving the planets and the stars.
Joseph de Maistre believed in comets as messengers of divine justice, and in animated planets, and declared that divination by astrology is not an absolutely chimerical science.
Kepler was cautious in his opinion; he spoke of astronomy as the wise mother, and astrology as the foolish daughter, but he added that the existence of the daughter was necessary to the life of the mother.
Kepler may have said this with the cynical meaning that the "foolish" work of astrology paid for the serious work of astronomy - as, at the time, the main motivation to fund advancements in astronomy was the desire for better, more accurate astrological predictions.
Historical opponents of astrology
Lastly, we may mention a few distinguished men who ran counter to their age in denying stellar influences.
Panaetius, Augustine, Martianus Capella (the precursor of Copernicus), Cicero, Favorinus, Sextus Empiricus, Juvenal, and in a later age Savonarola and Pico della Mirandola, and La Fontaine, a contemporary of the neutral La Bruyère, were all pronounced opponents of astrology.
In the Hellenistic and Roman Empire eras, a number of notable philosophers and scientists, such as Diogenes of Babylon (Middle Stoic), Galen, and Pliny accepted some aspects of astrology while rejecting others.[1]
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