ASTROLOGY IS SUPERSTITION 



281 



Astrology Is Superstition. 



In an interesting article in the "\e\v 

 York Journal" Mr. Garrett P. Serviss, 

 that popular wruer on astronomy, tells 

 how early mankind happened to believe 

 not only in the signs presumabl}' revealed 

 by the entrails of animals slain before an 

 altar, in the direction of a tii.g-ht of birds, 

 but also in the position and movements 

 of the planets. It was, as he says, a 

 strange dark world over which astrology 

 and its cognates ruled, but the astonish- 

 ing thing is that even at the present time 

 there are some honest believers in astrol- 

 ogy, and that false prophets catch fees 

 from the unwary in this foolishness. Why 

 can we not ring out the false and ring 

 in the true? The study of the planets 

 is helpful as a mental recreation, but when 

 we think about and believe in their in- 

 fluence on human beings, we think and 

 believe the rankest sort of nonsense. 

 Before science was cultivated, and before 

 men began to use their brains rather than 

 their fears and fancies, the planets were 

 regarded as celestial rulers. Mr. Serviss 

 appropriately writes as follows : 



"On the contrary those wonderful lights 

 in the sky, some of which were seen to 

 move about with slow and majestic mo- 

 tions, now advancing, now retreating, 

 now drawing close together and shining 

 for a while side by side, as if in fateful 

 consultation, or conspiration, and now 

 glaring at one another from diametrically 

 opposite quarters of the heavens, like spir- 

 its of celestial space watching and perhaps 

 contending over the fates of the helpless 

 beings on the earth beneath them ; the 

 menacing color of such a planet as Mars, 

 always associated with blood and disaster ; 

 the golden glow of Jupiter, suggesting 

 wealth and good fortune ; the quick move- 

 ments of Mercury, suddenly disappearing 

 from the west onlv to reappear in the east, 

 and seemed to docj the sun; the marvel- 

 lous splendor to which Venus periodicallv 

 attains, now in the evenins: and now in 

 the morning- sky, the 'inconstant moon,' 

 continuallv chaneino- her face like a mask, 

 and sometimes eclipsed as by the shadon^ 

 of a ereat hand, moving invisiblv across 

 the firmament — all these thing-s, before 

 thev had been scientificallv explained, lent 

 themselves naturallv to the notion that 

 thev were portents and powers apnointed 



to sway and fortell the fates of men. 



"And this notion had nothing ridiculous 

 about it in an age when the earth w'as 

 thought to be the centre of the universe, 

 and men were regarded as the constant 

 playthings, pets or v'ictims alternately, of 

 a multitude of jealous, man-minded and 

 woman-minded gods and goddesses. 



"You should no more believe what an 

 astrologer tells you the stars say than 

 you believe what Alother Goose tells 

 you the fairies say, for a soothstying 

 star or planet is as much a product of 

 the imagination as a fairy." 



^ :i: * :;; :ic 



Humanity is to be congratulated upon 

 the fact that slowly and surely these non- 

 sensical notions about the influence of the 

 planets and stars are being banished into 

 the garbage heap of superstition. But 

 there is one phase of astrology that is still 

 pretty generally accepted, namely the be- 

 lief that the signs of zodiac represent cer- 

 tain parts of the human body. 



Recently on a lecture tour in the West 

 and South and also nearer home. I have 

 inquired at drug stores and have found 

 that patent medicine almanacs with these 

 figures showing internal, human anatomy, 

 with arrows pointing to various parts of 

 the body are still in demand. At some 

 of the stores I inquired, "Do you think 

 the people care for these monstrosities?" 

 "Yes," laughed the clerk. "If they could 

 not get something to show how their in- 

 sides looked and in what part of the body 

 the constellations are, they would think 

 the almanac is worthless. It is as Bar- 

 num said, the poeple like to be fooled, 

 though I suppose they do not realize it." 



Further inquiries, not only at the stores 

 but of some of the members of my audi- 

 ences, elicited this fact ; there is still a 

 widespread belief that this picture must be 

 consvilted to ascertain in what part of the 

 body is the zodiacal sign of the time, es- 

 pecially the time for weaning pigs, calves 

 and babies, and for surgical operations on 

 animals. These signs are also consulted, 

 or perhaps reference made to the p^^'-'.ses 

 of the moon, either separately or in con- 

 nection with the signs of the zodiac, for 

 horticultural and agricultural purposes. 

 Potatoes, beans, peas, corn, etc., must be 

 planted at a certain sign or phase of the 

 moon. 



