Chapter I. First Steps. — Astronomy

Before entering upon a study of Astrology it is advisable to have some clear ideas concerning the Solar System, and these may be obtained without going into all the elaborate details connected with Astronomy. A general understanding of its broad outlines is therefore all that is necessary, and without becoming proficient in mathematics anyone of ordinary education may follow quite easily all we shall have to say upon the subject.

Astronomy gives a knowledge of the celestial bodies, their magnitudes, motions, distances, periods, eclipses, size, weight, order, etc., and generally takes us beyond the solar system far away in space, amid the fixed stars, which are now, by nearly all astronomers, believed to be central suns of other solar systems.

The Universe contains an infinite number of these solar systems, each more or less great than our own. When we realise this the vision niust widen, our minds expand, and our hearts become filled with wonder and reverence for that Great Supreme and unknowable Power, that is the primary cause of all the glory that fills space, and supports the grand whole. But no amount of speculation concerning other solar systems can reveal the true state of things in the broad expanse of the heavens. It, therefore, becomes more profitable to us, at our present stage, to confine our attention to the solar system of which we form a part, leaving the fixed stars, with their immense distances and magnitude, out of our consideration.

If we draw a circle and consider it the boundary of all the space within, and place in the centre a single dot, we shall have focussed our attention upon a miniature copy of ourselves in space. If we could now expand our imagination and think of our Sun as being in the centre of an enormous ring, the boundary circle extending millions of miles into space, embracing the whole solar system, we might begin to realise what the circumference of a solar system means. It will be well to ponder over this wonderful system. In the days of Chaldea

the Sun was recognised as the home and source of the primal energy, from which came all life and light, being the prime moving spirit, in fact the centre, or as we would term it for practical purposes," the body of the Logos of the solar system. From this glorious body radiates the light which illuminates the whole system, and there can be no grander conception of God than this idea of the Logos who sustains the whole of His universe through His manifestation. ** In Him we live, and move, and have our being," truly.

All narrow and bigoted conceptions of religion must fade into insignificance when we realise that the Sun is the light, and the life, of the whole system.

Can we wonder at the Chaldeans' worship of the Sun when they knew that the Father pours forth His spirit over the whole world ; they worshipped that Spirit, seeking to become filled with it by such love and devotion as we now seem to be incapable of; their civilisation was at its height thousands of years ago, for time is past our reckoning when dealing with the stars and evolution.

It is now astronomically accepted that the whole solar system was a vast heated nebulous mass which, cooling down, threw off huge portions, finally becoming planets or worlds, forming a complete system of worlds revolving round the Sun.

We cannot fully estimate what we owe to Pythagoras, who upheld the belief that the Sun was at rest at the centre of the universe, and that the heavenly bodies all moved round that centre. This knowledge he had gained from the Chaldeans, but it was not generally accepted, and that which is known as the Ptolemaic system later on became firmly established, and so strong a hold had this idea upon the people about the year 1500, that it was first folly, then madness, and finally impious heresy, to assert that the earth was not stationary.

About the year 1507 Copernicus began to restore the Pythagorean system, completing his work about thirty years later. But Europe was now under the bondage of prejudice and ignorance, and the same fate awaited this genius as that aflforded to other great philosophers, and the revived system met with nothing but opposition, and later, Galileo, the champion of the Copernican doctrine, through religious bigotry, was made to renounce his belief before the Inquisition. Yet Galileo persevered and wrote his celebrated Dialogtus, which had their

after effect, but at the time, reawakened the anger of the Inquisitors, and . at seventy years of age Galileo was brought before that dread tribunal and escaped the fatal penalty only to be imprisoned in one of their loathsome dungeons, where, to save his life, at Rome in the Convent of Minerva, on June 22nd, 1633, he signed a document, in which he professes ** with sincere heart and faith unfeigned to abjure, execrate and detest the error and heresy of believing and teaching that the Sun is the centre of the world and immovable, and that the earth is not the centre, and moves, a doctrine repugnant to Holy Scripture."

But the good work had begun, and the reformation finished it, and in our time we are returning to the truths taught thousands of years ago. Astrology has always been based upon the fact that the- Sun is the centre of the solar system. It could not be a solar system otherwise. Revolving round the Sun, then, we have several planets. The first is yet to be discovered by astronomers, called Vulcan. Then Mercury, who performs a revolution round the Sun in 88 days, 23J hours, which makes the length of his year. The distance of this planet from the Sun is about thirty-six million miles; he is a small planet shining with a pale bluish light, but he is never more than about 30 degrees from the Sun, and is, therefore, rarely visible to the naked eye. This planet was typically known as Hermes, also as the winged Messenger of the Gods, by the mythologists. The Chaldeans called him Nebo, and he has always been the planet of warning. It is interesting to note that this planet is destined to become the future physical home for the majority of our humanity, and he belongs to our chain of worlds. His symbol is made'thus ;

Venus, next in order from the Sun, is nearly sixty-seven million miles distant from the centre, and makes one annual revolution in 224 days, 17 hours; the length of this planet's day is almost similar to our own. She is the bright evening star, often seen about sunset, and when she rises before the Sun she .is the morning star. We learn from those more advanced that she is inhabited, and her humanity has advanced to a very high stage toward perfection : for each planet is a physical world for the purpose of evolution, as we shall learn later.

Venus was known as Aphrodite — when the morning star as Lucifer, and at r~^ evening Vesper. Her symbol is a circle surmounting the cross, -f-

The Earth is the next in order of the planets and our distance is

about ninety-two million miles from the Sun. The earth moves once round the Sun in what we know in time as one year, and also rotates upon hei own axis once in 24 hours ; this is important to remember.

There is also another motion which arises from the precession of the equinoxes, which is equal to about 50 seconds in a year. There is also the decrease in the obliquity of the ecliptic of about 52 seconds in a century.

The earth is surrounded by a substance of mixed gases called the atmosphere, by which ligbt is reflected and dispersed. This atmosphere, from being dense at the surface, becomes more rarefied as distance increases. In this atmosphere, or air, we breathe, and in it arise the phenomena of lightning, thunder, wind and rain. The clouds are the vapours which rise from the earth and these condense, to fall in showers, as their specific gravity is then greater than that of the atmosphere. The earth was known as Rhea, and the symbol is a cross within a circle ®. The Moon is a satellite of the earth, making a revolution around us in an elliptical orbit in 29^ days, she also appears to revolve from one point in the heavens to the same point again in 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes ; she is 240,000 miles from the earth. The Moon is an important body in Astrology, and should be very carefully studied astronomically.