CHAPTER 2

The Language of the Stars
TWENTIETH CENTURY ATTEMPTS TO PROBE INTO THE future are of two kinds. There are, first of all, the many scientific, and particularly economic, methods of prediction in specialised fields, which will be discussed in subsequent chapters. Side by side with these there exist completely childish tech- niques of prophecy, the like of which have not been known for the past 250 years. Even where they appeal to reason, these methods are an irrational mixture of crude superstition and traditional misconceptions that take us back thousands of years. No attempt whatsoever has been made to add anything new, and the most characteristic attributes of this kind of prophecy is its atavism, its uncritical reversion to outworn conceptions of the past.
Its second attribute is commercialisation. This, too, is not really anything new, for prophecy has always been a kind of business. Prophetic services are needed by a great many people, and these services must be paid for by those who use them. But lately the "profession" has become a large-scale industry prac- tised in the most unlikely quarters and particularly in news- papers and magazines.
There are many plausible reasons for this strange pheno- menon. To some extent, it may be a simple reaction to the rationalism of the 19th century. While the revolution which has been changing the Newtonian world picture ever since 1900 has made some people more sceptical, it has simply made others more credulous. Scientific laws which our textbooks have taught us to look upon as eternal truths have collapsed like ninepins, and new ones still lack the authority that their predecessors enjoyed. Scientists have grown a little more circumspect and no longer dare to proclaim general laws with the facility of their 19th century predecessors. Because of these developments, laymen have begun to feel that it is impossible to distinguish truth from hypothesis. Now, laymen have always been sticklers for
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certainty, and where truth is uncertain, they will accept anything that is presented as being simple and sure.
Things are made more difficult for them still by the fact that science has become increasingly mathematical, and couches its findings in terms which laymen cannot possibly hope to under- stand, however vaguely. Admittedly, even the 19th century laws of thermodynamics were quite beyond them, but these laws could, at least, be presented in popular form. Those days are past, and the gap had to be filled by something else, perhaps only temporarily, for ignorance is merely a matter of habit. If only we read or hear a formula mentioned often enough, we begin to think that we really understand it. Modem children will tell you about the splitting of atoms as though they had observed the process personally.
Prophetic utterances were given a great impetus by the two World Wars. True, there had been no shortage of large-scale wars even in the 18th and 19th centuries but previous military campaigns had always been confined to limited theatres, decisive battles had usually lasted for no more than one or two days, and — above all — between the wars, there were periods of relative peace. People did not have that permanent fear of the next cataclysm which is so characteristic of the Cold War, during which governments have managed to keep mankind on tenter- hooks from moment to moment. This constant fear of war, which had no parallel in earlier times — except perhaps the general dread of the Huns — is fertile soil, indeed, for the business of prophecy. Frightened people cling to the least semblance of reassurance, and prefer even the worst prediction to eternal uncertainty.
Symbolism triumphant
Mass anxiety leads to a flight into mysticism and the shadowy no-man's-land between this world and the beyond, in which man consorts, and sometimes becomes fused, with ghosts, gods and demons. A purely religious form of mysticism, which is divorced from man's mundane curiosity, appeals to only the few, since human beings are generally neither capable nor willing to exclude their rational faculties completely ; what most men can
THE LANGUAGE OF THE STARS 95
do is to blunt these faculties: reason becomes overshadowed by faith and by gullibility, becomes degraded into unreason, and frequently expresses itself in terrible absurdities and childish- ness.
By invoking their mystical insights, the victims of mysticism fall into apparent reveries which, when all is said and done, are no more than idle dreams. Nevertheless, such mystically tinged reveries are held in high regard even by educated people, parti- cularly when the "visions" are studded with mythological allusions, with ancient legends, and — better still — with elements of Red Indian or Negro folklore. The very word "myth" is enough to turn even the most tarnished alloy into the pure gold not of poetry or legend, but of down-to-earth reality since, as a modern psychologist has put it, "myth lives within us, because it is an archetypal property of us all, a lasting inheritance from time immemorial," Those who object to this kind of phrase- mongering are considered to be grossly out of step with the times.
The bridge between the mystical world and the world of reality is said to be the symbol. Man does not have to construct this iDridge, it is projected into him from another world, and, with some knowledge of signs, he can learn to understand its eternal sign-ificance.^ A good symbol is therefore a sign that helps us to understand past and future, and the true prophet will look upon the symbol as his essential tool. By using symbolic language he not only makes himself understood most easily, but he is most readily believed.
This symbol madness is the scourge of the 20th century. Its germs have entered the body politic and not only come from the profound mystical depths, but also from very pedestrian and terrestrial sources, not least from all those advertisements which scream at us day and night. Thus the up-to-date prophet cannot aiford to ignore the symbolic significance of dreams about detergents (the modem equivalent of dreams about angelic purity), or of dreams about "Halt" signals which nowa- days warn many a dreamer to tread the strait and narrow path.
By and large, however, professional prophets prefer to deal in more time-hallowed symbols, and continue to instruct their
^ Werner Kemper: Der Traum und seine Be-Deutung {Hamhurg 1935).
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clients in the use of high-sounding, if esoteric, professional terms borrowed from antiquity. They know full well that their illiterate clientele loves nothing better than to be blinded with science. In the words of Cardinal Caraffa — -populus vult decipi — decipiatur\
Lion into Crab
This is one of the main reasons why astrology, after its setbacks in previous centuries, has once again become the fashion. Modem astrology, as we have seen, is based on notions first propounded by the Alexandrian scholar Claudius Ptolemy in his Tetrabiblos, some 1800 years ago. But perhaps to say even that, is to be too generous to "modem" astrology, for we might be implying that contemporary star-gazers, though astro- nomically backward themselves, are nevertheless the intellectual heirs of a great master of the past. In fact, if Ptolemy could see them, he would turn in his grave.
Astrologers still see the sky as it looked to observers in the Eastern Mediterranean 2000 years ago. At that time, the vernal equinox stood in Ram (Aries), one of twelve sectors of the apparent orbit of the sun. The subsequent sectors (from west to east) were called the Bull (Taurus); the Twins (Gemini); the Crab (Cancer); the Lion (Leo); the Virgin (Virgo); and (in autumn and winter): the Scales (Libra); the Scorpion (Scorpio); the Archer (Sagittarius); the Sea-Goat (Capri- cornus); the Waterman (Aquarius); and the Fishes (Pisces). Unfortunately for astrologers, the ecliptic (the sun's apparent orbit through the stars ) is not uniformly inclined to the celestial equator, and hence undergoes fluctuations from a minimum of 22° 54' to a maximum of 25° 2 1' and back again over a period of 26,000 years. At present the ecliptic is tilted at an angle of 23° 27' and in the course of a century this angle changes at the rate of 50". Since it is at present decreasing, the minimum inclination will occur in 6600. Thereafter it will increase to reach a maximum of 25° 21' in 19,600, and so on.
Small though these fluctuations appear to be, they neverthe- less work great changes in the appearance of the celestial vault. Since Ptolemy's day — or more precisely since Hipparchus
THE LANGUAGE OF THE STARS
97
22. Zodiac from the Lucidarim (Augsburg, 1479). The
universe was still geo-centric: sun, moon, and planets revolve
about the earth.
(150 B.C.) on whose observation Ptolemy's system was based — the Zodiac has shifted by an entire "House", i.e. by a full twelfth of the sun's orbit. Thus, while Hipparchus observed the sun entering Aries in March, we have to wait one month longer for this event to occur. All the other signs of the Zodiac have been shifted correspondingly.
Astrologers have taken no notice of these changes, and their predictions are therefore based on the stellar picture which existed 2000 years ago, and not on the real position of the stars today. For them, a man bom between 22nd March and 20th April is born under Aries and not under Pisces, and so on. Since the particular "House" in which a man is born is said to stamp him for life, this slight discrepancy ought to worry astrologers far more than it does. Thus, all Pisceans born during past
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centuries should have been Arians, while astrologers have con- tinued to predict their future as though they were "Fishes".
True, it would not be too difficult to correct this historical error — which, needless to say, does not mean that astrological predictions would become more relevant — by modifying the traditional picture. Some astrologers have, in fact, done so, but their colleagues and the vast mass of astromancers have chosen to ignore them. They realise that in so fragile a structure as astrology, the slightest tremor may cause the whole thing to collapse like a house of cards.
Other astrologers have tried to find a way out of the impasse by asserting that the signs of the Zodiac have after-effects which are not influenced by mere astronomical shifts. This explanation reminds one of the theory which was fashionable with doctors and biologists in the 17th century: the doctrine of telegony according to which all the children of one mother but of different fathers resembled the father of the first child, since on first pregnancy the womb was so modified as to affect all future progeny.
Nowadays telegony is a mere historical curiosity while the doctrine of stellar after-effects, which is even more preposterous, continues in full sway. While telegony was at least theoretically possible, the stellar hypothesis is not even that, since the astro- logical Zodiac of Hipparchus was not, of course, the first. The precession of the equinoxes had by then been occurring for millions of years, and there is no means of saying which parti- cular position must be called the "original" one. Thus every new-born child can be said to have been born under all kinds of signs, and a horoscope based on any one sign must, therefore, be dismissed as utterly worthless — even within the framework of astrology.
Nor does this exhaust the (tremendous) list of astronomical objections to astrology.^ Another objection is that, since the different stars and planets are all at different distances from the earth, their alleged effects on mankind cannot possibly be equal. Astrologers, on the other hand, continue to look upon the Zodiac as a circle that is at all times equi-distant from the House of an individual's birth. Mathematical considerations do not seem to worry them at all. 1 Paul Couderc: L'Astrologie (Paris 1951) p. 52 ff.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE STARS
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23. Mercury and his children. From an EngUsh astrological calendar
of 1503.
Good constellations and bad
Clearly, therefore, modem astrology has no point of contact with astronomical science, and, if such contact ever existed, it was definitely lost as growing astronomical knowledge was increasingly forced to refute every one of the astrologers' absurd premisses. Not that astrologers are perturbed: they have withdrawn into a symbolic ivory tower where, as we must admit, they live in great comfort. Astrology, far from bothering about real stars, simply operates with signs, words, and symbols which, though derived from ancient astrology, have no real relevance to any known processes.
The astrologer's is an extremely primitive faith which is nowadays completely devoid of the philosophical content and poetic beauty once associated with it. Socially speaking, astrology has become a parlour game with seven pieces (sun, moon, and the five planets of antiquity) on twelve fields (the "Houses" of the Zodiac). Some astrologers have raised the
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number of pieces to nine by including the planets Uranus and Neptune, and others, more "progressive" still, to as many as ten by including the planet Pluto (discovered in 1930), as well. But even these great innovators will admit the predominance of the first seven pieces. Every house of the Zodiac is governed by a planet and, according to the classical rules. Mercury, Mars, and Venus act as "rulers" twice a year.
Every planet — and the sun is considered one, as well — ^has certain characteristics which, in the main, correspond with the characteristics of the Greek and Roman gods after whom they have been named. Astrologers have always been optimists and "good" stars are therefore in the clear majority. Thus Sun, Moon, Jupiter, and Venus are considered to be generally favour- able to men and only Saturn and Mars to be unfavourable. Mercury, like its Babylonian predecessor Nabu — the Royal Star — is a rather unreliable fellow: while he means men no real harm, he causes ugly and nervous people to be born when he is "in the ascendant".
The signs of the Zodiac, too, have characteristics corres- ponding to their names. This becomes clearest in those named after animals, and in the effects these signs have on men. Thus men born under Aries are said to be much more temperamental than those born under Taurus, who far from being fighting bulls, are, in fact, tame domestic oxen; the protegees of Taurus are diligent, careful, reflective, patient, and even a little slow.
In addition to the twelve classical constellations which, by the way, play a rather insignificant role in the appearance of the sky, some astrologers also include a number of stars in their pro- phecies; Sirius, Vega and Antares are considered particularly effective in horoscopes. Still, even by considering no more than the seven planets and the twelve signs of the Zodiac, a consider- able number of prophetic combinations can be produced. Here, too, luck is generally with mankind. Thus houses I and X (Aries and Capricomus) are most propitious; houses IV and VII (Cancer and Libra) are only very slightly less favourable; and houses II, V and XI (Taurus, Leo, and Aquarius) are fairly satis- factory. House VIII (Scorpio) is a little disappointing and only the other houses are downright bad, particularly houses VI and XII (Virgo and Pisces).
24. Saturn, the evil star, bringing mankind troubles,
imprisonment, illness, and death. (From Meister des
Hausbuches).
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Still, these general characteristics are not enough for casting horoscopes, and astrologers, being most anxious to please their customers, therefore add careful calculations of the position of the planets inside a given house. If two planets are in a direct radial line or separated by an angle of at most 10°, astrologers speak of "conjunctions". Conjunctions of the sun and the moon are favourable, and so are sextiles (angles of 60°), and trigons ( 120°). On the other hand, right angles and above all "opposi- tions" ( 180°) are unfavourable. These additional considerations by no means exhaust the rules of the game. Houses could be sub-divided into decans (10 days), and there were other tricks of the trade, too numerous to mention. The more complicated the tools, the more accurate apparently the look into the future, and the greater, certainly, the mystification of the customers.
Birth or Conception^
Try as they will, however, astrologers can do little to meet any serious criticism. Even if we ignore their astronomical ignorance and consider them as merely playing a game with symbols, we still have the right to demand a minimum of logic from them. But what we get is the precise opposite. The over-confident astrologer thinks nothing of over-riding what little knowledge we have of hereditary processes, and ignores all the findings of modem genetics. True, when a good customer makes a point of asking for it, the obliging astrologer may provide him with his parents' or forefathers' horoscopes, but such horoscopes have no more than historical value and can have no influence on the present client, whose future is solely determined by celestial events at the moment of his own birth, and not by such trifles as genes and chromosomes.
If that assumption were correct, everyone bom at the same hour would have to have an identical future, for not only do the stars determine his luck, they also provide him with a fixed ability of making use of his opportunities. Now, ever since an exact record has been kept of birth dates, and even of the hours and minutes of birth, the asininity of this contention must have become obvious to even the most naive of astromancers.
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Children bom in the same hour and in the same locality very soon develop distinct characteristics and begin to live quite different lives, and even twins who, astrologically speaking, are born simultaneously, rarely follow identical paths.
Nevertheless, astrologers are absolutely opposed to obstetric interventions, which, they claim, may affect the child's entire future life by delaying or precipitating the "natural" hour of its birth, thus causing it to be bom under a wrong star. These dangers were stressed by the master-astrologer Ptolemy in the Third Book of his Tetrahiblos, where we can read that: "when the fruit is fully matured, nature begins to move it, and in such a way that the child is born under the heavenly sign which corresponds with the first constellation at the time of conception".
Actually, modern astrologers ignore the time of conception altogether, though one would have thought that the stars would determine an individual's future at that moment rather than at birth. Biologists will tell you that, maternal accidents apart, little can change in an embryo's potentialities after conception. Even such factors as intra-uterine infections and maternal tuberculosis are today considered to be smaller than they were previously thought to be. In any case, biologically speaking, there can be no doubt that life begins with conception and not with birth. It would therefore be more logical to cast all horo- scopes accordingly.
At this point, however, astrological science breaks down, and for the simple reason that the hour of conception cannot be accurately determined except in such rare events as rape or isolated acts of copulation. Neither by chemical investigations nor from the appearance and weight of a baby can the date of conception be deduced with certainty, and slight errors might, of course, make a great difference to the stars. Thus a child might mistakenly be said to have been conceived under jovial Jupiter instead of saturnine Saturn. While some astrologers have acknowledged the existence of this problem, when they explain away false predictions with the glib excuse that the birth horoscope was vitiated by the unfavourable hour of conception, most experts prefer to keep silent on this equivocal subject, or to deny its relevance, altogether. Needless to say, this viewpoint greatly simplifies their prophetic practice.
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