astrology

astrology. The idea that the motion of the stars and the planets might affect human life dates from ancient times, although astrology as a rigorous, ‘scientific’ system originated with the Greek mathematician Ptolemy in the 2nd cent. ad. In the Middle Ages, astrology, by then rendered compatible with Christianity, was thought to fall into two broad subcategories: natural astrology, the everyday influence of the planets in normal activities, such as the practice of medicine; and judicial astrology, which aimed at predicting events and giving advice.

The influence of astrological thinking was considerable, and many educated Britons between the 15th and late 17th cents. accepted its principles. It was especially important in medicine, where the casting of a horoscope was thought an important aid in diagnosing disease and in prescribing remedies. It also had ramifications in physiology, botany, and metallurgy. More dangerously, astrology acquired political overtones, and more than one astrologer found himself in trouble for predicting the death of the monarch or other significant events.

The golden age of astrology in Britain was the 17th cent., with several astrologers gaining considerable reputation, status, and income. The two most important figures were William Lilly (1602–81) and John Gadbury (1627–1704). Lilly, who also operated as a medical practitioner and almanack writer, acquired a wide fame and a good income, some impression of the seriousness with which astrology was taken being conveyed by the fact that his predictive talents were enlisted by Parliament during the civil wars. Gadbury, conversely, rejected his early parliamentarian sympathies, became an ardent royalist, and flourished after the Restoration of 1660.

The early 18th cent., however, marked the point at which educated opinion, under the influence of new scientific thinking, was beginning to reject astrology. Yet it continued to enjoy a wide currency outside the educated élite, while even at that social level the issue was one of the recategorization of astrological terms rather than total rejection. More research is needed, but even preliminary investigations have uncovered groups of provincial astrologers who found a ready clientele among the middling sorts in their localities, and, as modern tabloid newspapers and women's magazines demonstrate, this ancient science, while having moved downmarket, is not entirely dead.

J. A. Sharpe