ASTRONOMY 



ASTRONOMY 



business venture, office, death, over the planets 

 and constellations (Jupiter for the jovial, 

 Venus for love-affairs, Mars for war, Mercury 

 for business, Leo for courage, Libra for justice, 

 etc.,) it was easy to lay out the course of a 



career by means of a horoscope. 

 The twelve signs of the zodiac were as- 

 signed to different portions of the body: Aries 

 (ram) for the head; Taurus (bull) for the 

 neck and the shoulders; the Twins (Hercules 

 and Apollo) for the arms and hands; Pisces 

 (fish) for the feet; specific diseases were thus 

 predicted and cures prescribed. (The fanciful 

 analogy is readily observed: the ram has a 

 conspicuous head, the bull a strong neck, etc.) 

 The system left room for adjustments in inter- 

 pretation toward the pleasant fates, especially 

 in casting the horoscopes of kings or nobles 

 and while occasional successes were heralded, 

 failures or vague issues were naturally ignored. 

 The interest in astrology is centered in the 

 early religious type of conception out of which 

 it grew; as a system of divination, it follows 

 the usual elastic adjustment of sign to fate. 

 It developed such fantastic predictions as that 

 of the end of the earth in 1524 by a flood, 

 because three planets would then meet in the 

 aqueous sign of Pisces; or that if at the time 



of a theft the "lord of the sixth house" (i.e., 

 the constellation conspicuous in the sixth di- 

 vision of the zodiac) is in the second house, 

 the thief is a member of the family Astrol- 

 ogy rapidly degenerated to fortune-telling and 

 pretense. Its motive was quite unrelated to 

 that which made astronomy possible. 



Astrological notions are treated so fully in 

 these volumes under SUPERSTITION and DIVINA- 

 TION that this account is limited to the essen- 

 tial features of the system. It is interesting 

 to note how many words such as disastrous 

 (evil-starred) have astrological origin. j j. 



Relating; to Vnrloim Belief*. The articles 

 on the following topics, while not bearing on 

 astrology, are of interest in this connection be- 

 cause they, too, deal with pseudo-sciences or 

 superstitions : 



Alchemy Palmistry 



Clairvoyance Phrenology 



Conjuring Physiognomy 



Demonology Psychical Research 



Divination Psycho-Analysis 



Faith-Cure Spiritualism 



Hypnotism Subconscious 



Magic Suggestion 



Medium Superstition 



Mesmerism Telepathy 



Mind Reading Theosophy 



Necromancy Trance 



Occult Witchcraft 



.STRONOMY. Who that has 

 watched the heavens on a calm, clear night, 

 when the canopy of blue seems so thickly 

 gemmed with stars that room could not be 

 found for more, can wonder that the shepherd 

 races of the East were thoughtful men? 

 Guarding their flocks by night in those cloud- 

 leas lands they must all have felt with David, 

 the shepherd king 



"When I consider the heavens, the work of thy 



fingers, 

 The moon and the stars which thou haat or- 



dained, 

 What IB man, that thou art mindful of him? 



before Davids time, even before Abra- 

 ham came out of Chaldea 4,000 years ago, tin- 

 wise men of that nation had made the study 



of the stars a serious business, and had in a 

 sense laid the foundations of the modern 

 science of astronomy. In the same age, far 

 away in the same continent, the Chinese were 

 also observing the heavens, and at a time not 

 much later the Egyptians and Greeks became 

 skilful astronomers. 



In those days all men believed as many did 

 in Shakespeare's time that 



"It la the stars, 

 The stars above us, govern our conditions," 



and their studies took the form of astrology 

 more than of astronomy; that is, they cared 

 more for divining the supposed influence of 

 the stars on individual destinies than for ac- 

 quiring .-in understanding of their true nature 

 and relation to the universe (see DIVINATION). 



