Theos-Talk Archives (May 2004 Message tt00241)

May 27 2004

Re: ASTROLOGY and ASTRONOMY 

STARS AND NUMBERS -- H P B



Dear Friends:

Perhaps the following written by H P B will be found interesting in
regard to the effect of astronomical events and their influence in and
around Earth.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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STARS AND NUMBERS

 
ANCIENT civilization saw nothing absurd in the claims of astrology, no
more than many an educated and thoroughly scientific man sees in it
today. Judicial astrology, by which the fate and acts of men and
nations might be foreknown, [hardly] appeared, nor does it even now
appear, any more unphilosophical or unscientific than does natural
astrology or astronomy-by which the events of so-called brute and
inanimate nature (changes of weather, &c.), might be predicted. For it
was not even prophetic insight that was claimed by the votaries of
that abstruse and really grand science, but simply a great proficiency
in that method of procedure which allows the astrologer to foresee
certain events in the life of a man by the position of the planets at
the time of his birth.

Once the probability, or even the simple possibility, of an occult
influence exercised by the stars upon the destiny of man admitted-and
why should the fact appear more improbable in the case of stars and
man than in that of the sun-spots and potatoes?-and astrology becomes
no less an exact science than astronomy. The earth, Prof. Balfour
Stewart, F.R.S., tells us-"is very seriously affected by what takes
place in the sun" . . . a connection "is strongly suspected between
epidemics and the appearance of the sun's surface."1

And if, as that man of science tells us, "a connection of some
mysterious kind between the sun and the earth is more than suspected"
. . . and the problem is a most important one "to solve," how much
more important the solution of that other mystery-the undoubted
affinity between man and the stars-an affinity believed in for
countless ages and by the most learned among men! Surely the destiny
of man deserves as much consideration as that of a turnip or a potatoe
. . . And if a disease of the latter may be scientifically foretold
whenever that vegetable crops out during a "sun-spot period," why
should not a life of disease, or health, of natural or violent death
be as scientifically prognosticated by the position and appearance of
the constellation with which man is as directly connected and which
bears the same relation to him as the sun bears to the earth?

In its days, astrology was greatly honoured, for when in able hands it
was often shown to be as precise and trustworthy in its predictions as
astronomical predictions are in our own age. Omens were studied by all
imperial Rome, as much, if not more than they are now in India.
Tiberius practised the science; and the Saracens in Spain held
star-divination in the greatest reverence, astrology passing into
Western Europe through these, our first civilizers. Alphonso, the wise
king of Castile and Leon, made himself famous in the thirteenth
century by his "Astrological Tables" (called Alphonsine); and his code
of the Siata Purtidas; and the great astronomer Kepler in the
seventeenth, the discoverer of the three great laws of planetary
motions (known as Kepler's laws) believed in and proclaimed astrology
a true science. Kepler, the Emperor Rudolph's mathematician, he to
whom Newton is indebted for all his subsequent discoveries, is the
author of the "Principles of Astrology" in which he proves the power
of certain harmonious configurations of suitable planets to control
human impulses. In his official capacity of Imperial astronomer, he is
historically known to have predicted to Wallenstein, from the position
of the stars, the issue of the war in which that unfortunate general
was then engaged. No less than himself, his friend, protector and
instructor, the great astronomer Tycho de Brahe, believed in, and
expanded, the astrological system. He was forced, moreover, to admit
the influence of the constellations on terrestrial life and actions
quite against his will or wish, and merely because of the constant
verification of facts.

Closely related to astrology is the Kabala and its system of numerals.
The secret wisdom of the ancient Chaldees left by them as an
inheritance to the Jews relates primarily to the mythological science
of the heavens and contains the doctrines of the hidden or occult
wisdom concerning the cycles of time. In the ancient philosophy, the
sacredness of numbers began with the great FIRST, the ONE, and ended
with the naught or Zero, the symbol of the infinite and boundless
circle, which represents the universe. All the intervening figures, in
whatever combination, or however multiplied, represent philosophical
ideas relating either to a moral or a physical fact in nature. 

They are the key to the archean views on cosmogony, in its broad
sense, including man and beings, and relate to the human race and
individuals spiritually as well as physically. "The numerals of
Pythagoras," says Porphyry, "were hieroglyphical symbols, by means
whereof he explained all ideas concerning the nature of all things"
(De vitâ Pythag.). 

In the symbolical kabala-the most ancient system left to us by the
Chaldeans-the modes of examining letters, words and sentences for
hidden meaning were numerical. The gemantria (one of the three modes)
is purely arithmetical and mathematical, and consists in applying to
the letters of a word the sense they bear as numbers-letters being
used also for figures in the Hebrew as in Greek. Figurative Gemantria
deduces mysterious interpretations from the shapes of letters used in
occult manuscripts and the Bible.

Thus, as shown by Cornelius Agrippa, in Numbers (X. 35), the letter
Beth means the reversal of enemies. The sacred anagrams known as
Zeruph yield their mysterious sense by the second mode named Themura,
and consists in displacing the letters and substituting them one for
another and then arranging them in rows according to their numerical
value. If, of all operations in the occult sciences there is not one
that is not rooted in astrology, arithmetic and especially geometry
are a part of the first principles of magic. 

The most recondite mysteries and powers in nature are made to yield to
the power of numbers. And let this not be regarded as a fallacy. He
who knows the relative and respective numbers or the so-called
correspondence between causes and effects will alone be able to obtain
of a certainty the desired result. A small mistake, a trifling
difference in an astronomical calculation and-no correct prediction of
a heavenly phenomenon becomes possible. As Severinus Boethius puts it,
it is by the proportion of certain numbers that all things were
formed. "God geometrizes" saith Plato, meaning creative nature. If
there are so many occult virtues in natural things, "what marvel if in
numbers which are pure and commixed only with ideas, there should be
found virtues greater and more occult?" asks Agrippa. 

Even Time must contain the mystery number; so also does motion, or
action, and so, therefore, must all things that move, act, or are
subjected to time. But "the mystery is in the abstract power of
number, in its rational and formal state, not in the expression of it
by the voice, as among people who buy and sell." (De Occulta Phil.
cap. iii. p. cii.) The Pythagoreans claimed to discern many things in
the numbers of names. And if those who having understanding were
invited to "compute the number and name of the beast" by the author of
St. John's Revelation it is because that author was a Kabalist.

The wiseacres of our generations raise daily the cry that science and
metaphysics are irreconcilable; and facts prove as daily that it is
but one more fallacy among the many that are uttered. The reign of
exact science is proclaimed on every housetop, and Plato who is said
to have trusted to his imagination is sneered at, while Aristotle's
method built on pure reason is the one accepted by Science. Why?
Because "the philosophical method of Plato was the inverse of that of
Aristotle." Its starting-point was universals, the very existence of
which is, "a matter of faith" says Dr. Draper, and from these it
descended to particulars, or details. 

Aristotle, on the contrary, "rose from particulars to universals,
advancing to them by inductions" (Conflict between Religion and
Science). We humbly answer to this, that mathematics, the only exact
and infallible science in the world of sciences-proceeds from
UNIVERSALS.


VENUS

It is this year especially, the year 1881, which seems to defy and
challenge sober, matter-of-fact science, and by its extraordinary
events above, as below, in heaven as upon earth, to invite criticism
upon its strange "coincidences." Its freaks in the domains of
meteorology and geology were prognosticated by the astronomers, and
these every one is bound to respect. There is a certain triangle seen
this year on the horizon formed of the most brilliant stars which was
predicted by them, but none the less left unexplained. It is a simple
geometrical combination of heavenly bodies, they say. As to that
triangle, formed of the three large planets-VENUS, Jupiter and
Saturn-having aught to do with the destinies of either men or
nations-why that is pure superstition. "The mantle of the astrologers
is burnt and the predictions of some of them, whenever verified, must
be attributed to simple and blind chance."

We are not so sure of that; and, if permitted, will further on tell
why-meanwhile, we must remind the reader of the fact that VENUS, the
most intensely brilliant of the three above-named planets, as was
remarked in Europe and for all we know in India also-suddenly parted
company with its two companions and slowly moving onward, stopped
above them, whence it goes on dazzling the inhabitants of the earth
with an almost preternatural brilliancy.

The conjunction of two planets happens but rarely; that of three is
still more rare; while the conjunction of four and five planets
becomes an event. The latter phenomenon took place in historical times
but once, 2449 years B. C., when it was observed by the Chinese
astronomers and has not recurred since then. 

That extraordinary meeting of five large planets forebode all kinds of
evils to the Celestial Empire and its peoples, and the panic then
created by the predictions of the Chinese astrologers was not in vain.
During the following 500 years, a series of internal broils,
revolutions, wars, and changes of dynasty marked the end of the golden
age of national felicity in the Empire founded by the great Fu-hi.

Another conjunction is known to have happened just before the
beginning of the Christian era. In that year, three large planets had
approached so closely together as to be mistaken by many for one
single star of an immense size. Biblical scholars were more than once
inclined to identify these "three in one" with the Trinity, and at the
same [time] with the "star of the wise men of the East." But they saw
themselves thwarted in such pious desires by their hereditary
enemies-the irreverent men of science, who proved that the
astronomical conjunction took place a year before the period claimed
for the alleged birth of Jesus. 

Whether the phenomenon forbode good or evil is best answered by the
subsequent history and development of Christianity, than which, no
other religion cost so many human victims, shed such torrents of
blood, nor brought the greater portion of humanity to suffer from what
is now termed the "blessings of Christianity and civilization."

A third conjunction took place in 1563 A. D. It appeared near the
great nebula in the constellation of Cancer. There were three great
planets and according to the astronomers of those days-the most
nefarious: Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The constellation of Cancer has
always had a bad reputation; that year the mere fact of its having in
its neighborhood a triune conjunction of evil stars, caused the
astrologers to predict great and speedy disasters. These did come to
pass. A terrible plague broke out and raged in all Europe, carrying
off thousands upon thousands of victims.

And now, in 1881, we have again a visit of three other "Wanderers."
What do they forebode? Nothing good; and it would seem, as if of the
great evils they are likely to pour on the devoted heads of hapless
humanity, the fatal prelude is already being played. Let us enumerate
and see how far we are from the truth. The nearly simultaneous and
certainly in some cases unexpected deaths of great and the most
remarkable men of our age. In the region of politics, we find the
Emperor of Russia, Lord Beaconsfield, and Aga Khan; in that of
literature, Carlyle and George Eliot; in the world of art, Rubinstein,
the greatest musical genius. In the domain of geology-earthquakes
which have already destroyed the town of Casamiceiola on the Island of
Ischia, a village in California and the Island of Chio which was laid
entirely waste by the terrible catastrophe-one, moreover, predicted
for that very day by the astrologer Raphael. In the domain of wars,
the hitherto invincible Great Britain was worsted at the Cape by a
handful of Boers; Ireland is convulsed and threatens; a plague now
rages in Mesopotamia; another war is preparing between Turkey and
Greece; armies of Socialists and red-handed Nihilists obscure the sun
of the political horizon in Europe; and the latter thrown into a
violent perturbation is breathlessly awaiting the most unexpected
events [in the] future-defying the perspicacity of the most acute of
her political men. In the religious spheres the heavenly triangle
pointed its double horn at the monastic congregations and-a general
exodus of monks and nuns-headed by the children of Loyola, followed in
France. There is a revival of infidelity and mental rebellion, and
with it a proportionate increase of missionary labourers (not labour),
who like the hordes of Attila destroy much and build but little. Shall
we add to the list of signs of these nefasti dies, the birth of the
New Dispensation at Calcutta? The latter though having but a small and
quite a local importance, shows yet a direct bearing upon our subject,
i.e., the astrological meaning of the planetary conjunction. Like
Christianity with Jesus and his Apostles the New Dispensation can
henceforth boast of having had a forerunner in starry heaven-the
present triune conjunction of planets. It proves, moreover, our
kabalistic theory of periodical cyclic recurrences of events. As the
Roman sceptical world of 1881 years ago, we are startled by a fresh
revival of mendicant Ebionites, fasting Essenes and Apostles upon whom
descend "cloven tongues like as of fire," and of whom we cannot even
say as of the Jerusalem twelve, "that these men are full of new wine,"
since their inspiration is entirely due to water, we are told.

The year 1881, then, of which we have lived but one-third, promises,
as predicted by astrologers and astronomers, a long and gloomy list of
disasters on land, as on the seas. We have shown elsewhere (Bombay
Gazette, March 30, 1881) how strange in every respect was the grouping
of the figures of our present year, adding that another such
combination will not happen in the Christian chronology before the
year 11811, just 9,930 years hence, when-there will be no more a
"Christian" chronology we are afraid, but something else. 

We said: "Our year 1881, offers that strange fact, that from whichever
of four sides you look at its figures-from right or left, from top or
bottom, from the back, by holding the paper up to the light-or even
upside down, you will always have before you the same mysterious and
kabalistic numbers of 1881. it is the correct number of the three
figures which have most perplexed mystics for over eighteen centuries.



6 6 6


The year 1881, in short, is the number of the great Beast of the
Revelation, the number 666 of St. John's Apocalypsis-that Kabalistic
Book par excellence. See for yourselves: 1+8+8 +1 make eighteen;
eighteen divided thrice gives three times six, or placed in a row,
666, "the number of man."

This number has been for centuries the puzzle of Christendom and was
interpreted in a thousand different ways. Newton himself worked for
years over the problem, but, ignorant of the secret Kabala, failed.
Before the Reformation it was generally supposed in the Church to have
reference to the coming Antichrist. Since then the Protestants began
to apply it in that spirit of Christian charity which so characterizes
Calvinism to the Latin Popish Church, which they call the "Harlot,"
the "great Beast" and the "scarlet woman," and forthwith the latter
returned the compliment in the same brotherly and friendly spirit. The
supposition that it refers to the Roman nation-the Greek letters of
the word Latinus as numerals, amounting to exactly 666-is absurd.
There are beliefs and traditions among the people which spring no one
knows from whence and pass from one generation to the other, as an
oral prophecy, and an unavoidable fact to come. 

One of such traditions, a correspondent of the Moscow Gazette happened
to hear in 1874 from the mountaineers of the Tyrolian Alps, and
subsequently from old people in Bohemia. "From the first day of 1876,"
says that tradition, "a sad, heavy period will begin for the whole
world and will last for seven consecutive years. The most unfortunate
and fatal year for all will be 1881. He who will survive it, has an
iron head." 

An interesting new combination, meanwhile, of the year 1881, in
reference to the life of the murdered Czar, may be found in the
following dates, every one of which marks a more or less important
period in his life. It proves at all events what important . and
mysterious a part, the figures 1 and 8 played in his life. 1 and 8
make 18; and the Emperor was born April 17 (1+7=8) in 1818. He died in
1881-the figures of the year of his birth and death being identical,
and coinciding, moreover, with the date of his birth 17=1+7=8. The
figures of the years of the birth and death being thus the same, as
four times 18 can be formed out of them, and the sum-total of each
year's numerals is 18. The arrival at Petersburg of the late
Empress-the Czar's bride-took place on September 8; their marriage
April 16-(8+8=16); their eldest daughter, the Grand Duchess Alexandra,
was born August 18; the late Czarevitch Nicolas Alexandrovitch, on
September the 8, 1843; (1+8+4+3=16, i.e., twice 8). The present Czar,
Alexander III, was born February 26, (2+6=8); the proclamation of the
ascension to the throne of the late Emperor was signed February 18;
the public proclamation about the Coronation day took place April 17
(l+7=8). His entrance into Moscow for the coronation was on August 17
(1+7=8); the Coronation itself being performed August 26 (2+6=8); the
year of the liberation of the Serfs, 1861, whose numerals sum up
16-i.e., twice 8!

To conclude, we may mention here a far more curious discovery made in
relation, and as a supplement, to the above calculation, by a Jewish
Rabbi in Russia-a Kabalist, evidently, from the use he makes of the
Gemantria reckoning. It was just published in a St. Petersburg paper.
The Hebrew letters as stated have all their numerical value or
correspondence in arithmetical figures. The number 18 in the Hebrew
Alphabet is represented by the letters-"HETH" = 8, and "JOD" = 10,
i.e., 18. United together Heth and Jod form the word "khaï," or "Hai,"
which literally translated means the imperative-live and alive. Every
orthodox Jew during his fast and holy days is bound to donate for some
pious purpose a sum of money consisting of, and containing the number
18 in it. So, for instance, he will give 18 copecks, or 18 ten copeck
bits, 18 rubles or 18 times 18 copecks or rubles-according to his
means and degree of religious fervour. Hence, the year 1818-that of
the Emperor's birth-meant, if read in Hebrew-"khaï, khaï"-or live,
live-pronounced emphatically twice; while the year 1881-that of his
death read in the same way, yields the fatal words "Khaï-tze" rendered
in English, "thou living one depart"; or in other words, "life is
ended."

Of course, those sceptically inclined will remark that it is all due
to blind chance and "coincidence." Nor would we much insist upon the
contrary, were such an observation to proceed but from uncompromising
atheists, and materialists, who, denying the above, remain only
logical in their disbelief, and have as much right to their opinion as
we have to our own. But we cannot promise the same degree of
indulgence whenever attacked by orthodox religionists. For, that class
of persons while pooh-poohing speculative metaphysics, and even
astrology-- a system based upon strictly mathematical calculations,
pertaining as much to exact science as biology or physiology, and open
to experiment and verification-will, at the same time, firmly believe
that potatoe disease, cholera, railway accidents, earthquakes and the
like are all of Divine origin and, proceeding directly of God, have a
meaning and a bearing on human life in its highest aspects. It is to
the latter class of theists that we say: prove to us the existence of
a personal God either outside or inside physical nature, demonstrate
him to us as the external agent, the Ruler of the Universe; show him
concerned in human affairs and destiny and exercising on them an
influence, at least, as great and reasonably probable as that
exercised by the sun-spots upon the destiny of vegetables and
then-laugh at us. Until then, and so long as no one is prepared with
such a proof and solution, in the words of Tyndall-"Let us lower our
heads, and acknowledge our ignorance, priest and philosopher, one and
all."
H P B

Theosophist, June, 1881

---------------------Footnotes----------------
 
1 One of the best known vegetable epidemics is that of the potatoe
disease. The years 1846. 1860, and 1872 were bad years for the potatoe
disease. and those years are not very far from the years of maximum
sun-spots . . . there is a curious connection between these diseases
affecting plants and the state of the sun. . . . A disease that took
place about three centuries since, of a periodical and very violent
character, called the "sweating sickness" . . . took place about the
end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century . . .
and this is exactly the sun-spot period. . . . (The Sun and the Earth,
Lecture by Prof. Balfour Stewart)

2 H. H. Aga Khan was one of the most remarkable men of the century. Of
all the Mussulmen, Shiahs or Soonis, who rejoice in the green turban,
the Aga's claims to a direct descent from Mahomet through Ali rested
on undeniable proofs. He again represented the historical "Assassins"
of the Old Man of the Mountain. He had married a daughter of the late
Shah of Persia; but political broils forced him to leave his native
land and seek refuge with the British Government in India. In Bombay
he had a numerous religious following. He was a high-spirited,
generous man and a hero. The most noticeable feature of his life was
that he was born in 1800-and died in 1881, at the age of 81. In his
case too the occult influence of the year 1881 has asserted itself. 


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