HOROSCOPES
W. John Murray
The Astor
Lectures
Divine Science Publishing Assoc.
New York, 1917, 8th ed.
“Let now the astrologers, the
stargazers, the monthly
prognosticators,
stand up, and save thee from these things
that shall come upon thee.” --
Isaiah 47:13.
[223] The
subject of astrology, while it is
tremendously fascinating, is one that
must be approached with some degree of
timidity by the ordinary mind. As far
back as we can trace the history of the
workings of the human mind we find the
subject of astrology occupying thought.
The remotest Egyptian, Hindu and Chinese
history records the fact that astrology
was the predominating science of those
days and of those peoples. It is perhaps
the most ancient of all sciences. There
was a time when it seemed to dominate
human thought to such an extent that
nothing was done at all without
consulting the stars. All prophecies were
made upon the assumption that certain
planets governed human life, individually
and nationally. And this study of
astrology went on with varying degrees of
intensity on the one hand, and
indifference on the other; some
accounting for the great rise and fall of
the different empires as a result of
planetary [224] influence upon those
empires, or, in other cases, the result
of the belief in planetary influences
upon the minds of the people of those
days.
When the
Israelites went into captivity they knew
little if anything about astrology. It
was in Egypt that the children of Israel
learned the science and art of the
ancient Egyptians. And it was with this
advent of their captivity that there
entered into the Hebrew mind a
superstition which had never before been
there. They now began to feel that they
were the victims of certain planetary
influences over which they had no
personal or national control. If the
planets said certain things concerning
their welfare or destruction, it would be
so, regardless of anything they might do
individually. This went on for centuries.
Occasionally a prophet like Daniel arose
in the midst of the people and showed
them that prophecy and promise all belong
to and proceed from God--independent of
planetary conditions; independent of the
influence of stars upon human life.
But it was
like the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. Whenever a Daniel arose, he
arose in opposition to all the popular
beliefs of the day. The astrologers had
the chief seats at the tables of the
kings, and not until the astrologers and
wizards and necromancers exhausted all
their skill and ingenuity and were
utterly incapable of interpreting, was
the prophet of God called in. It seems
ever thus that we reserve the best for
the last, howbeit, we do it somewhat
[225] unconsciously; and so we are not
surprised at the necromancers and
astrologers of the court of Belshazzar
having exhausted their ingenuity, and
Daniel being brought in some mysterious
way into the court of Belshazzar to
interpret the handwriting for the King.
But, I say again, it is only occasionally
that we turn to a Daniel; we seem to be
so easily inclined to the other methods
and modes of interpretation, especially
of the future. What a strange and
unaccountable peradventure, beyond doubt,
what is going to take place in our lives
ten years or one hundred years hence!
For
centuries people have been feeling a
desire, a most intense desire at times,
to know something of what is going to
transpire next year, five years or fifty
years hence. Because astrology in that
day of superstition grew to be the most
infallible guide for individuals and
nations, it existed throughout all
centuries until it invaded Rome itself.
It was now accepted by the Court and now
rejected by the Court; it was now
accepted by the Senate and now rejected
by the Senate. So it is not surprising
that eventually astrology arrived
simultaneously with the dawn of the
Christian era. In fact, we would be very
shallow, indeed, if we did not see the
very close connection between astrology
and primitive Christianity.
Was it not
the Chaldeans, or the star-gazers of the
Orient, who saw the star of Bethlehem and
[226] knew what it portended? There was
no collusion among these Wise Men of the
East; they did not start from the same
place or by common consent. Tradition
tells us that they came from three very
distant and remote points of the compass,
each having seen the star in his own
respective home, and that they followed
it until they converged at a point just
outside the Holy Land and then journeyed
together into Palestine and thence to
Jerusalem. This is very interesting,
because it argues for the validity and
genuineness of the science of astrology
as it was understood by the eminent minds
of that day.
In order to
expose the fallacies of a system it is
not necessary to uproot its fundamental
principles; in order to show how little
there is in some aspects of astrology it
is not necessary that we enter into a
detailed declamation against it. There is
a great deal in astrology, it is
true, especially when it bears relation
to fundamental facts, to scientific
discoveries; especially when it indicates
certain well-defined normal conditions.
Astrology, in a sense, is purely
scientific, but the point to make clear
is the point that astrology, as formerly
studied and applied, has come into great
disuse--or may I say, without fear of
giving offense, misuse.
Scientific
astrology flourished during the first
three or four centuries of the Christian
era, with the most eminent minds of the
early Christian [227] Church differing in
their opinions concerning it; some
declaring that astrology was an exact
science; others declaring that it was
leading the people wrongly and disturbing
the ignorant, causing people to interpret
all their experiences as something that
would disclose a future happiness
distinct and separate from a present
misery. When this did not come to pass,
when the prophecies were not fulfilled,
then there came a greater unhappiness and
a tendency toward suicide. And so, I say,
the church differed with regard to
astrology just as the eminent laymen
differed. The church finally decided to
reject it, that is, to have its study and
practice discontinued so far as the
common people were concerned. This was
done in something like the eleventh or
twelfth century.
In the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the
study of astrology was again taken up by
the priests so vigorously and
energetically that two of the oldest
universities of Europe instituted chairs
for the scientific investigation and
demonstration of astrology. For nearly a
century it flourished without any real
condemnation on the part of the
church--it was tolerated, permitted.
There was not a princely house in Europe
that did not have its paid astrologer;
there was not a community that did not
have one or more persons who could
foretell future events by their
astrological science.
Savonarola
and others of the school who felt that
they saw the pernicious effect of a too
generous [228] discussion of science on
this age, and who felt it was having no
small effect upon the prolongation of
human misery, arrayed themselves against
it. For a time the subject subsided, only
to come into vogue again among the
thoughtful, so that we find later a
Kepler, a Wallenstein and a Napoleon
Bonaparte strong in their advocacy of the
effect of the planets upon the human
system, upon human affairs, both
individually and collectively. When
Napoleon referred to his lucky star it
was not done for mere effect, but because
he actually believed in it, as so many
others did.
Then there
came the Copernican era, a revival of
that science of astrology which has to a
very large extent superseded astrology in
scientific mentality, and with it came
the upsetting of many of the theories of
the ancient astrologers. The revelations
due to astrology then brought about a
declaration of the fact that the
astrological discoveries were based on
false premises, the premises being that
the earth was a disk, an immovable orb,
and that the celestial bodies were
constantly in motion. This upset the
whole fabrication and resulted in a
certain amount of enlightenment.
Nevertheless, astrology still existed,
because, I say again, astrology is a
science, and when it is not barbarously
treated or used for ignoble purposes it
may be studied with a great interest--at
least a great intellectual interest.
The most
profound astrologers tell us that
astrology [229] is not an infallible
guide; that many of its prognostications
are based upon assumptions: one of the
most sane and sensible assumptions being
that if an individual has a tendency to
go in a certain direction, and is not
checking himself, he is quite apt to
follow that direction to his own
destruction. Therefore, the
prognostication of that man’s
individual destruction or individual
future calamities may be safely indulged
in by reason of his past performance.
This does
not altogether mean that the astrologer
does not feel that there is some
influence of the planets upon human life
and conduct; but the profound astrologers
declare that there is, in addition to
this influence of the stars upon the
individual soul, a something within the
soul, which is capable of resisting this
influence; rising above its destructive
effects, and developing character under
pressure. This, I may add, was only an
idea that came from Germany early in the
nineteenth century: up to that time it
was not so regarded. Up to a little over
a hundred years ago it was thought by
astrologers that no matter how
strenuously the individual worked, he
could not escape the consequences of
having been born under an unfavorable
star. So it remained for Bernard to
discover in the mental domain what
Copernicus had discovered in the physical
domain, namely, a new order of things, a
new power of the soul, which had been
quite overlooked.
If we
believe in astrology as it was taught
anciently, [230] then, you see, there is
very little credit due to the individual.
He is little more or less than an
automaton. If Judas was born under an
unlucky star, communicating to him as a
child a destructive, injurious and
deceitful tendency, then we should not
blame Judas. If Jesus, on the other hand,
was born under a goodly star, a star
which communicates to the child who is
born under its influence nothing but the
highest and the best and the sweetest and
the noblest, I see no very good reason
why we should ascribe any particular
credit to the Master or why we should
condemn Judas. If a man merely does what
he is impelled to do by planetary
conditions, if he merely follows out the
line of least resistance, due to the fact
that he was born under a certain star,
then, whether he be a Judas or a Jesus,
there is no condemnation for the one or
praise for the other; they are merely
following out the line of their
respective destinies; they are merely
following the pursuit laid out for them
by the particular planet under which they
were born.
I selected
the subject of horoscopes because of a
letter which came to me from one of the
most brilliant men we have, a man who
consulted an astrologer some time ago and
was told that he was born under an
unlucky star and that everything he
touched would crumble to dust. He said:
“At the time it impressed me very
little, but lately since things have been
going so very [231] badly I have gone
over the period of my unusually active
life, and I find the prognostications are
not only true of things as they have
subsequently happened since my interview,
but I find that they are equally correct
regarding affairs which had previously
transpired. I find my whole life has been
colored by the fact that I was born under
Jupiter. Everything I have touched, which
gave promise in the beginning, has
disappeared even money which I, out of
the goodness of my heart, have lent to
friends without security; until I now
find myself on the very threshold of a
‘panicky’ future.”
How do you
account for it? Is it possible that
planetary conditions are of such a
character that lives are made or marred
by them whether we will or no? Can you
shed any light upon the perplexing
situation of this man, which you know is
not at all exaggerated? It is surely a
well-defined one because it comes from a
cultured mind, and it is an interesting
one because it comes from a man of
intense thought. It is merely one of
hundreds of thousands of similar cases in
which persons are laboring under the
belief that they are the victims of
certain planetary conditions over which
they have no control. And this is
pitiable. It is painfully pathetic,
because so long as a man carries about
with him the dread of his horoscope, so
long as a man’s horoscope is
disastrous and suggestive of impending
evil, the man cannot be successful to the
highest degree. It is painful, indeed,
[232] to find a man of otherwise big
heart constantly carrying about with him
his horoscope like a disease. Do what he
will, he says he cannot escape it. Is it
not deplorable to think of a cultured man
stumbling over his horoscope, unable to
walk erect mentally or physically or
financially, because of the terrible
sense that he was born under Jupiter, and
cannot be successful, believing he cannot
break the claims and escape the results
of that planetary influence? This, I say,
is tragic. If a horoscope has such
tremendous power, then most of us are
miserable, because most of us have
wretched horoscopes.
The
prognosticator of evil may be sincere,
and the stars may portend that evil
conditions are about to ensue, but if the
other side of the picture be not conveyed
to the individual, the astrologer were
sowing seeds of misery and death. If he
does not reveal to the person who comes
to him, that, despite planetary
influences and despite heredity and
despite environment, there is that
something in the individual
bigger than the stars, then he
were an injury to the community. And so
it was that these smatterers in
astrology, these persons who profited by
a little knowledge of a great and
wonderful and dignified science became
obnoxious to the early Church,
destructive to the people of the middle
centuries and injurious in our own
time.
Think what
you will of your horoscope, but always
know that you are bigger than it!
Always [233] realize that a live man is
bigger than a dead one, and that a
living, vitalizing principle is bigger
than an ordinary planet; bigger, I say,
morally; bigger, I say, mentally; bigger,
I say spiritually; so big in fact that,
when he understands the dominion which
was given to him by God Almighty over the
birds of the fields, and the fishes of
the seas and the very stars that shine,
he can have power over all
conditions.
Next: Predestination
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The Astor Lectures
Table of
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