Shakespeare

Patricia Lantz has published a nice assortment of quotes attributed to well-known people on the subject of astrology. The quotes can be found in an interesting article on the use of astrology by a variety of presidents in the past.  (You can read my article on Ronald Reagan’s use of astrology here.)

What some wise men, seers and other well known names have said about astrology

It was in Poor Richard’s Almanac that Ben Franklin wrote about astrology, saying: “Oh the wonderful knowledge to be found in the stars. Even the smallest things are written there…if you had but skill to read.”

President Theodore Roosevelt kept his horoscope mounted on a chess board in the oval office. When asked about it he would reply, “I always keep my weather eye on the opposition of my seventh house Moon to my first house Mars.”

JP Morgan, America’s first billionaire, said : “Millionaires don’t use astrology, billionaires do.”

Donald Reagan, formerly Ronald Reagan’s Chief of Staff said: “It’s common knowledge that a large percentage of Wall Street brokers use astrology.”

The Philosopher Plato said : “Perhaps there is a pattern set up in the heavens for one who desires to see it, and having seen it, to find one in himself.”

Physicist Albert Einstein said : “Astrology is a science in itself and contains an illuminating body of knowledge. It taught me many things and I am greatly indebted to it.”

Physicist Sir Isaac Newton said in defence of astrology, to sceptic Edmund Halley:
“I have studied the matter. You sir, have not”.

The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said : “Astrology is astronomy brought down to earth and applied toward the affairs of man.”

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine said : “A physician without the knowledge of astrology has no right to call […]

Phil Brown went to see Hamlet last week and offers up an astrological review. This is a very interesting take on the subject so take a look. Phil writes on a phenomena called the “Grand Mutation”:

Shakespeare wrote Hamlet under the cosmic influence of a Grand Mutation (also known as a Mutation Conjunction). A Grand Mutation occurs when the 20-year Jupiter-Saturn conjunction changes elements (roughly every 200 years), signifying great changes in society, culture, and government.

We are currently experiencing just such a Grand Mutation, as the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction moves from 200 years of being in earth signs to the next two centuries of air signs. In 1980, the conjunction was in Libra, its first elemental change since the beginning of the 19th Century; then in 2000, it moved back into an earth sign, Taurus. In 2020, the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction will be in Aquarius and will remain in air signs for the next 200 years.

In about 1600, the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction moved from the water element to the fire element, believed to be its most powerful elemental change. Hamlet was written in about 1601. The world around Shakespeare was being transformed, and he captured this sense of a world disordered in his four great tragedies, but most especially in Hamlet. In this play, the royal lineage of Denmark has been sundered by the murder of Hamlet’s father, the king, and the usurpation of his throne by Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius. The old order is fractured—“time is out of joint”—and Hamlet is tasked with putting it right.

It’s interesting that this mutation into air occurs at the transition point to the Age of Aquarius. Meanwhile, I thought it might be a good time to repost one of my early articles on astrology in the works […]