Astrology For Dummies. Rae Orion
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use of fictional devices and sought to “correct” Dante’s literary errors with a poem of his own while simultaneously trying to strike up a correspondence with him. Although D’Ascoli worked for Pope John XXII, he had ideas that did not sit well with the church, as a result of which he was put on trial for heresy and instructed not to teach. He failed to get the message. A few years later, teaching once again, he cast a horoscope for Jesus Christ, thereby implying that the stars, rather than God, controlled Christ’s fate. For this, he was burned at the stake, the only astrologer and the first university professor to be so punished.
Astrology fully infiltrated medieval life. When the Black Death raced across Europe in 1348, wiping out at least a third of the population, the King of France asked the medical faculty at the University of Paris to look into it. They soon determined that the bubonic plague was a result of a spectacular conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars in March 1345. A lunar eclipse that same month only heightened the cosmic malevolence. Although people had other theories about the cause of the plague, this one made the most sense and was widely accepted, even if the conjunction preceded the plague by a full three years. The doctors had diagnosed the problem.
In the centuries that followed, astrology permeated every corner of society, and every castle. At times there was controversy. Astrologers were feted by some and condemned by others. They consulted with popes and kings, chose propitious times for battles and coronations, were caught up in royal scandals, debated with theologians and philosophers, were knighted, and once — in England in 1441 — drawn and quartered. But that unfortunate astrologer had cast a chart that foresaw the death of the king. In other words, he had committed treason.
Celebrating the Renaissance
During the Renaissance, astrology continued to thrive even as science became more prominent. Astrologers enjoyed social prestige and, with it, access to the rich and powerful.
In Florence, the philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) translated the works of Plato and other Greek writers into Latin. An astrologer, physician, and Catholic priest, he headed an academy that aimed to replicate Plato’s academy in Athens and was largely responsible for the revival of classical learning in the Renaissance. But in 1489, someone reported him to Pope Innocent VIII, accusing him of heresy and magic. Ficino had influential friends — an ambassador, an archbishop — who were able to plead his case with the pope. He was not charged, and the pope asked to meet with him. Whether the meeting occurred is unknown. But Ficino must have been considering it, because he asked the archbishop to send him a description of the pope’s horoscope, temperament, and state of health, and he promised to prepare a beneficial medication.
Discovering Dr. Dee
In England, John Dee (1527–1608) also knew people in high places. He was a mathematician, a magician, a mapmaker, a master of stage craft, a philosopher, a bibliophile who compiled the best private library in England, a collector of astronomical and mathematical instruments, an astronomer who supported the radical theory that the Sun, not the Earth, was the center of the universe, and an astrologer who was accused of treason for casting charts for Queen Mary, her husband, and her half-sister Elizabeth, a charge he was somehow able to dodge.
When Elizabeth became queen, he became her advisor, the role for which he is best known. Dee tutored her in astrology, chose the time for her coronation in 1559, advised her regarding foreign policy, calmed her fears about a large comet, and received her more than once at his home, although he never received quite the recognition he wanted from her, or the money.
In 1582, Dee became embroiled with a charismatic medium, alchemist, and convicted forger named Edward Kelley. An aficionado of the occult, Dee had long tried to see images in crystals and to communicate with angels, skills he longed to possess. Kelley, a flamboyant Leo with an eighth house Sun, assured him that he had those gifts. And so began a drama-filled association that developed in England, migrated for several years to eastern Europe, and was dominated by angelic communiqués. Once, for instance, Kelley had visions — a message on a scroll, a scantily clad angel — which he understood to mean that Kelley and Dee must share their wives. This was a spiritual crisis for Dee, but he went along, and nine months later his wife Jane gave birth to a child they named Theodore: gift of God. When Dee returned to England shortly thereafter, he discovered that his famous library had been vandalized: a crushing blow. He never saw Kelley again but he learned that his former compatriot had been knighted by Emperor Rudolf II in Prague and later, when his alchemical skills proved inadequate, imprisoned. Dee returned to casting horoscopes. He never ceased trying to communicate with the angels.
A note about Nostradamus
John Dee was far from the only Renaissance astrologer to serve royalty. Another such seer was Michel de Nostradame (1503–1566), astrologer to Catherine de Medici, queen of France. Nostradamus was the author of a collection of 942 inscrutable prophesies in verse form. Although making predictions using these ambiguous verses has proven to be a formidable task, applying them to events that have already occurred is another story, the opacity of the verses being easily pierced with wild interpretative leaps, anagrams, numerology, and mistranslations. The prophecies are also easily imitated. Despite multiple hoaxes perpetrated in his name, including a quatrain invented by a college student that supposedly predicted the events of 9/11, Nostradamus continues to mystify and intrigue.
DR. DEE AND 007
With the Sun, Mercury, and Jupiter in the eighth house of mysteries and Mars in Scorpio in the twelfth house of hidden things, John Dee could not resist the lure of anything arcane. He loved crystals, magic mirrors, and secret symbols, a few of which he invented. Among them:
A capital letter E with a crown on top that he used to represent Queen Elizabeth.
Two symbols that he used to represent himself: a Greek delta (∆) and a complicated design that combined symbols for the Sun, the Moon, the elements, and fire. It looks something like the glyph of Mercury and also resembles the image invented by the musician Prince (who also had an eighth-house Sun and plenty of Scorpio).
A symbol he used in correspondence with Queen Elizabeth that looked like a numeral seven with two zeroes tucked beneath its extended roof, signifying that this letter was for her eyes only. Centuries after Dee’s death, that symbol caught the attention of the novelist Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, and 007 was reborn.
Was he at least a good astrologer? Catherine de Medici didn’t seem to think so; she preferred someone else. But certainly he knew something about astrology, for his prophecies are filled with specific planetary references. One such prophecy inspired Orson Welles to predict a 1988 earthquake in Southern California. You could argue that it’s not that hard to predict an earthquake in California. And this one didn’t even happen. But there was an earthquake in Northern California the following year, so if you want to believe…
Wandering through Shakespeare’s star-crossed world
In the Renaissance, astrology saturated everyday life, so it’s no surprise that the plays of Williams Shakespeare (1564–1616) are pumped full of comets, eclipses, Suns, Moons, planets, and stars, few of which arrive without an adjective. In addition to being constant, blazing, shining, shooting, sparkling, wandering, fixed, and Earth-treading, Shakespeare’s stars are auspicious, charitable, chaste, comfortable, fair, favorable, glorious, good, happy, jovial, and lucky — or angry, bad, revolting, base, mortal, thwarting, homely, inauspicious, malignant and ill-boding. But astrology’s primary influence on Shakespeare is more than a matter of description. He thinks astrologically. His plays are shaped by signs (Scorpio and Macbeth; Cancer and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Gemini and Romeo and Juliet). His characters are molded in the light of the four elements or modeled after planets such as quick-witted Mercury (Romeo’s friend Mercutio) or melancholy Saturn (King Lear). Even his plots are shaped by astrology. In Shakespeare’s plays, portents are never false alarms.