CHAPTER XXVIII.

ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASE

PARENTS have an exceptional opportunity and
may lay up much treasure in heaven by judicious
care of growing children based upon knowledge of
tendencies to disease revealed by the horoscope. The
writers rely implicitly upon the horoscope 's testimony
and though in a few cases doubts have been expressed
as to the correctness of our diagnosis, because it var-
ied from that of practitioners in personal touch with
the patient, subsequent developments have invariably
vindicated our judgment and proved the far-reaching
penetration of Astrology which is as much in advance
of the X-Ray as that is superior to a candle, for even
though the X-Ray were capable of illuminating the
entire body to such an extent that we could see each
individual cell in activity, it could only show the
conditions of the body at a given moment. But the
horoscope shows incipient disease from the cradle to
the grave, thus it gives us ample time to apply the
ounce of prevention, and maybe escape an illness, or,
at least, ameliorate its severity when disease has over-
taken us. It indicates to the day when crises are due,
thus forewarned we may take extra precautionary
measures to tide over the critical point. It indicates
528

ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASE 529

when the inimical influences are waning and fortifies
us to bear present suffering with strength born of
the knowledge that recovery at a specific time is cer-
tain. Thus Astrology offers help and hope in a man-
ner obtainable by no other method ; for its scope is
wider than all other systems, and it penetrates to the
very soul of Being.

An Important Warning

If letters of fire that would burn themselves into
the consciousness of the reader were obtainable, we
would spare no effort to procure them for the pur-
pose of warning students on one particular point in
connection with the practice of medical Astrology;
it is this:

Never tell a patient a discouraging fact.
Never tell them when impending crises are due.
Never predict sickness at a certain time.
Never, never predict death.

It is a grave mistake, almost a crime, to tell sick
persons anything discouraging, for it robs them of
strength that should be husbanded with the utmost
care to facilitate recovery. It is also wrong to sug-
gest sickness to a well person, for it focuses the mind
on a specific disease at a certain time, and such a'
suggestion is liable to cause sickness. It is 'a welt
known fact that many students in medical colleges
feel the symptoms of every disease they study, and
suffer greatly in consequence of auto-suggestion, but

34

530 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

the idea of impending disease implanted by one in
whom the victim has f aitb is much more dangerous ;
therefore it behooves the medical astrologer to be
very cautious. If you cannot say anything encour-
aging, be silent.

This warning applies with particular force when
treating patients having Taurus or Virgo rising or
the Sun or Moon in those signs. These configurations
predispose the mind to center on disease, often in a
most unwarranted manner. The Taurean fears sick-
ness to an almost insane degree, and prediction of
disease is fatal to this nature. The Virgo courts dis-
ease, in order to gain sympathy, and though profes-
sing to long for recovery, they actually delight in
nursing disease. They beg to know their symptoms,
the crises, and delight in probing the matter to the
depths; they will plead ability to stand full knowl-
edge and profess that it will help them; but if the
practitioner allows himself to be enticed by their pro-
testations, and does tell them, they wilt like a flower.
They are the most difficult people to help in any case,
and extra care should be taken not to aggravate their
chances by admissions of the nature indicated.

Besides, though the writers ha^ve practiced medi-
cal Astrology for many years and with astonishing
success, and though Astrology, as a science, is abso-
lutely exact and infallible, it must not be forgotten
that there remains nevertheless the chance of mis-
taken judgment on the part of the practitioner and
the chance that the person whose horoscope he is

ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASE 53L

judging may assert his will to such an extent that it
overrules the indication in the horoscope. He may
change his mode of life without knowing what would
have happened if he had gone on as before, and thus
he may be in no danger at the time when the tendency
to sickness shown by the horoscope arrives ; it is cruel
to unsettle his mind in any case. Naturally, the
young student would be most liable to make a mis-
take in judgment, but no one is immune. We re-
member a case that came to our notice recently.
One of the most prominent European astrologers
predicted for a client in South Africa that on a cer-
tain date he would have a severe haemorrhage of the
lungs. The poor man wrote to us for help, but
though liability to colds in the lungs was shown, we
saw no serious trouble at the time predicted, nor has
haemorrhage been experienced in the year elapsed be-
tween that time and the present writing.

Some students have a morbid desire to know the
time of their own death, and probe into this matter
in a most unwarranted manner, for no matter how
they may seek to deceive themselves there are very
few who have the mental and moral stamina to live
life in the same manner, if they knew with absolute
certainty that on a certain date their earthly exist-
ence would be terminated. That is one of the points
most wisely hidden until we are to see on both sides
of the veil, and we do wrong, no matter what our
ground, to seek to wrest that knowledge from the
horoscope.

532 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

Moreover, it has been well said that "the doctor
who prescribes for himself has a fool for a patient,"
and this applies to diagnosis of one's own horoscope
with tenfold force, for there we are all biased; either
we make too light of conditions, or we take them too
seriously, particularly if we investigate the time and
mode of death. We remember a case where an intel-
lectual woman, principal of a private school in New
York, wrote asking for admission to our correspond-
ence class, "if we thought it worth while, as she
was going to die the first week in March. ' ' She gave
us all the aspects upon which she based her judgment,
and as one of the writers had just emerged hale and
hearty from similar configurations, she gave the lady
in question a good talking to that straightened her
out; she told the lady she (the writer) expected to
live to a ripe age. Now that lady is thinking of a
useful life, she has learned to forget death. Astrol-
ogy is too sacred to be thus misused. Let the student
forget about his own horoscope and devote his knowl-
edge to help others, then it will aid in accumulating
treasure in heaven as no other line of spiritual en-
deavor.

PLANETARY POLARITIES

When we study magnetism we are dealing with
an invisible force; and ordinarily we can at best
state the way it manifests in the physical world, as
is the case whenever we deal .with any force. The
physical world is the world of effects ; the causes are

PLANETARY POLARITIES 533

hidden from our sight, though they are nearer than
hands or feet. Force is all about us, invisible and
only seen by the effects it produces.

If we take a dish of water, for illustration, and
allow it to freeze, we shall see a myriad of ice crys-
tals, beautiful geometrical figures. These show the
lines along which the water congealed and these lines
are lines of force which were present before the water
congealed; but they were invisible until the proper
conditions wrere furnished them and they became
manifest.

In the same way there are lines of force going;
between the two poles of a magnet; they are neither
seen nor felt until we bring iron or iron filings into
the place where they are, when they will manifest
by arranging the filings in an orderly pattern. By
making the proper conditions we may cause any of
the nature forces to show its effects — moving our
street cars, carrying messages with lightning speed
over thousands of miles, etc., etc. ; but the force itself
is ever invisible. We know that magnetism travels
always at right angles to the electric current with,
which it manifests; we know the difference between,
the manifestations of the electric and the magnetic
current, so dependent upon one another, but we have
never seen either; though they are about the most
valuable servants we have today.

Magnetism may be divided into 'mineral' and
'animal' magnetism, though in reality they are one,
but the former has very little influence upon animal

534 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

tissue, while the latter is generally impotent in work-
ing with minerals.

The mineral magnetism is derived directly from
•* lodestones ' which are used to magnetise iron and this
process gives to the metal thus treated the property
of attracting iron. This kind of magnet is very little
used, however, as its magnetism becomes depleted,
is too weak in proportion to its bulk, and principally
because the magnetic force cannot be controlled in-
such a so-called 'permanent' magnet.

The ' electro '-magnet is also a 'mineral' magnet.
It is simply a piece of iron wound around with many
turns of electric wire; the strength of the magnet
varies as. the number of turns of wire, and the
strength of the electric current that is passed
through it.

Electricity is all about us in a diffused state, of
no use for industrial purposes until it is compressed
and forced through the electric wires by the powerful
•electro-magnets. We must have magnetism in the
first place before we can get any electricity. Before
a new electric generator is started the 'fields, ' which
are nothing but electro-magnets, must be magnetized.
If that is not done they may turn it till the crack of
doom, at any rate of speed they please, and it will
never light a single lamp or move a grain of weight ;
all depends upon the magnetism being there first.
After this magnetism is once started it will leave a
little behind when the generator is shut down, and
this so-called ' residual magnetism ' will be the nucleus

PLANETARY POLARITIES 535

of force to be built up each time the generator is
started afresh.

All bodies of plant, animal and man are but
transformed 'mineral.' They have all come from the
mineral kingdom in the first place, and chemical
analysis of the plant, animal and human bodies
brings out the fact beyond cavil. Moreover, we know
that the plants get their sustenance from the mineral
soil, and both animal and man are eating 'mineral'
when they consume the plants as food; even when
man eats the animals he is nevertheless eating min-
eral compounds, and therefore he gets with his food
both the mineral substances and the magnetic force
which they contain.

This j: orce we see manifesting as ' Haemoglobin, '
or the red coloring matter in the blood, which attracts
the life-giving oxygen when it comes into contact with
it in the millions of minute capillaries of the lungs,
parting with it as readily when it passes through the
capillaries which all over the body connect the ar-
teries with the veins. Why is this?

To understand this, we must acquaint ourselves
a little closer with the way magnetism manifests as
seen in industrial uses.

There are always two fields or a multiple of
two fields in a generator or motor, every alternate
'field' or magnet being 'north-pole' and every other
alternate 'south-pole.' If we wish to run two or
more generators 'in multiple' and force electricity
into the same wire, the first requisite is that the mag-

536 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

netic current in the field-magnets should run in ilne
same direction.

If that were not the case, they would not run
together ;they would generate currents going in op-
posite directions, blowing their fuses. That would
be because the poles in one generator, which should
have attracted, repelled, and vice-versa. The remedy
is to change the ends of the wire which magnetises
the fields ; then the magnetic current in one generator
will become like the current of the other, and both
will run smoothly together.

Similar conditions prevail in magnetic healing;
a certain vibratory pitch and magnetic polarity was
infused into each of us when the stellar forces surged
through our bodies and gave us our planetary bap-
tism at the moment when we drew our first complete
breath. This is modified during our pilgrimage of
life, but in the main its initial impulse remains un-
disturbed and therefore the horoscope at birth retains
the most vital power in life to determine our sympa-
thies and antipathies as well as all other matters.
Nay more, its pronouncements are more reliable than
our conscious likes and dislikes.

Sometimes we may meet and learn to like a per-
son, although we have a feeling that he has an in-
imical influence on us for which we cannot account,
and therefore strive to put aside, but a comparison
of his horoscope with our own will reveal the reason
and if we are wise we heed its warning, or as surely
as the circling stars move in their orbits around the

PLANETARY POLARITIES 537

Sun we will live to regret our disregard of this hand-
writing on the wall.

But there are also many cases when we do not
sense the antipathy between ourselves and a certain
person, though the horoscope reveals it, and if we
see the signs when comparing the two horoscopes we
may feel inclined to trust our feelings rather than
the stellar script of the horoscopes. That also will
in time lead to trouble, for the planetary polarity is
certain to manifest in time unless both parties are
sufficiently evolved to rule their stars in a large meas-
ure. Such people are few and far between at our
present stage of evolution. Therefore we shall do
well if we use our knowledge of the stellar script to
compare our horoscopes with those at least who come
intimately into our lives. This may save both them
and us much misery and heartache. We would ad-
vise this course particularly with regard to a healer
and his patients, and with reference to a prospective
marriage partner.

When anyone is ill, resistance is at the lowest
ebb, and on that account he is then least able to with-
stand outside influences. So the vibrations of the
healer have practically unrestrained effect, and even
though he may be ensouled by the noblest of altru-
istic motives, desiring to pour out his very life for
the benefit of the patient, if their stars were adverse
at birth, his vibratory pitch and magnetism are bound
to have an inimical effect upon the patient. There-
fore it is of prime necessity that any healer should

538 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

have a knowledge of Astrology and the law of com-
patibility, whether he belongs to those who admit-
tedly heal by magnetism and the laying on of hands
or to the regular schools of physicians, for they also
infuse their vibrations into the patient's aura and
help or hinder according to the agreement of their
planetary polarity with that of the patient.

What has been said with regard to the healer
applies with tenfold force to the nurse, for he or
she is with the patient practically all the time and
their contact is so much more intimate.

For healer, nurse and patient, compatibility is
determined by the rising sign, Saturn, and the Sixth
House. If their rising signs agree in nature so that
all have fiery signs rising, or all have earthy, airy,
or watery signs rising, they are harmonious, but if
the patient has a watery sign rising, a nurse or a doc-
ter with fiery signs will have a very detrimental
effect.

It is also necessary to see that Saturn in the
horoscope of the nurse or healer is not placed in any
of the degrees of the zodiac within the patient's Sixth
House.

With respect to marriage the planetary polarity
is shown principally by a consideration of the fem-
inine Moon and Venus in a man's horoscope, for they
describe his attractions towards the opposite sex, and
in a woman's horoscope the masculine Sun and Mars
have a similar significance. If these planets are har-
moniously configurated and the signs on the cusps

PLANETARY POLARITIES 539

of the Seventh Houses of the prospective partners
agree, harmony will prevail, especially if the Sun,
Venus or Jupiter of one person is placed in the Sev-
enth House of the other. But if the planets men-
tioned afflict one another, or the Seventh Houses of
the parties are out of harmony, or if Saturn, Mars;
Uranus or Neptune of one is in a degree included in
the Seventh House of the other, it is the handwriting
on the wall which indicates that the planetary polar-
ity is inharmonious and that sorrow is in store for
them if they allow their evanescent emotions to draw
them together in a bond of unhappiness, for it is
easy to change the field wires on two electric gen-
erators so that their polarities will agree, but it is
extremely difficult to reverse the planetary polarity
of one person to make it agree with that received by
another at his planetary baptism.