ASTROLOGY

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) According to its derivation, this term should signify the science or knowledge of the stars. Originallv, the terms astrology and astronomy were used indifferently in the same sense; but for a long time the former has been employed to denote the vain and superstitious study of predictions and horoscopes; while the latter has been reserved to denote the true science of the celestial motions. According to Lalande, this distinction began to be observed in the time of Clement of Alexandria, that is, in the second century. Astrology is generally coupled with the epithet judicial, from the judgments drawn from it relative to future events. Judicial astrology is supposed to have had its origin in Chaldea, whence it pa ed into Egypt, Greece, and Italy. The desire of penetrating into futurity is so congenial to the human mind, that this pretended science has found favour in all ages and countries; and it is a remarkable fact, that astronomy, which demonstrates the frivolitjr and absurdity of its predictions, was long indebted to it for the principal part of its own progre . Kepler, in the preface to the Rudolphine Tables, observes, that astrology, though a fool, was the daughter of a wise mother, to whose support and life the foolish daughter was indispensable. At the present day it is only among the most ignorant vulgar, or the unenlightened tribes of Asia and Africa, that astrology is held in esteem; but the triumph of sound science and the spirit of philosophy has been slow and difficult. So late as the year 1705 the conductor of " The Con nai ance des Tems " thought it nece ary to apologise for the absence of all predictions in that astronomical work, by stating, that the Academy had never recognised the solidity of the rules which were given by the ancients for discovering the future by the configurations of the stars; and, what is still more surprising, the first lunar tables calculated according to the Newton i an theory were intended to be subservient to the calculation of nativities. Astrological predictions are founded on the positions or aspects which the sun, moon, and planets have relatively to each other at the moment of birth, or some other critical period of a person's life, and certain arbitrary influences supposed to belong to each of those bodies. For the purpose of facilitating the determination of the aspects, the whole heaven, visible and invisible, is divided into twelve equal parts by the horizon, the meridian, and four other circles pa ing through the north and south points of the horizon, and the points of the equator (or rather the prime vertical, or sometimes the ecliptic, for the practice was not uniform), which are at the distance of 30 and 60 degrees from the meridian. These equal spaces are called the twelve houses of the heavens, and the circles by which they are circumscribed are called circles of position. The circles of position are supposed to remain fixed, so that a celestial body is carried through each of the twelve houses In the course of a day by the diurnal rotation. The first house is contained between the eastern horizon and the next circle of position, going to the eastward; consequently the seventh will commence with the western horizon, and the tenth with the meridian or culminating point of the ecliptic. The beginning of the first house, or the point of the ecliptic just rising, is called the horoscope. The first house is the house of life; the second, of riches; the third, of brothers; the fourth, of parents; the fifth, of children; the sixth, of health; the seventh, o-f marriage; the eighth, of death; the ninth, of religion; the tenth, of dignities; the eleventh, of friends; and the twelfth, of enemies. Each of the houses has one of the heavenly bodies as its peculiar lord. They have also different powers, the strongest of all being the first, and the next in power the tenth; so that if two planets are equally powerful, ceteris paribus, that will prevail which is in the stronger house. Having made the preliminary arrangement of the heavens, the next object is to consider the aspects or configurations of the influential bodies. Aspect, as defined by Kepler, is the angle formed by the rays proceeding from two planets, and meeting at the earth, and which have the property of producing some natural influence. The ancients reckoned five aspects, namely, the conjunction denoted by the character (^, the opposition by §, the trine by A, the quadrile byD. and the sextile by ^. These names and characters, besides several others added in more recent times, are retained in our almanacks to the present day. In the aspect of conjunction the angle made by the two planets is 0; in the opposition it is 180°. The trine is the third part of a circle, or 1 20°; the quadrile is 90°, and the sextile 60°. With regard to the influences of the aspects, they are benignant, malignant, or indifferent. The quadrile and opposition are considered as malignant or adverse; the trine and the sextile as benignant or propitious; and the conjunction an indifferent aspect. [s. 111]