RE: VMs: Horoscope Notes, Comments, and Replies

[Adam Sparshott <adam.sparshott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

In my limited experience, I also believe that this
is either a horoscope, or a "fake" horoscope.

Regards

Adam

>===== Original Message From "GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxx> =====
Larry Roux wrote:
> Perhaps a lot of this document is a horoscope for the
> lifetime of
> someone.  That would cover the date range (birth
> (December 1533???) and
> onwards) and thus would be more predictive than
> historical.  Astronomers
> at the time certainly could predict the positions of
> the moon and
> planets over a limited time frame and often produced
> horoscopes to make
> some money.  They were also often ashamed of having to
> do so.....but
> then, as now, there was little money to be made in
> Astronomy.  The real
> money was in Astrology.

The writing of horoscopes for future prediction was frowned on by
the church, and in many places outlawed.  On the other hand, just
about anyone of substance had a personal horoscope drawn up for
medical reasons.  The belief that the stars influenced plants,
animals, stones, and just about anything that was without
"consciousness" was a very inbred belief.  The stars also
influenced the lives of individuals to a lesser extent, although a
human had the ability to "choose", and therefore had some control
over exactly how the stars would play themselves out.

The very first duty of a physician was to draw up or consult the
patient's horoscope, even before an illness was diagnosed.  In
many cases where more than one illness would have similar
symptoms, this would allow for diagnosing the 'proper' illness and
defining a treatment for it.  Either the physician or the
apothecary would draw up this chart, most often the physician.
Any antidotaries, herbal mixtures and treatments, blood-letting,
etc., would be coordinated with the horoscope for maximum effect.
This was the state-of-the-art of medicine up to the beginning of
the 17th century, and the primary use of all astronomical
observations.

As to celestial events, there is some indication of minor
awareness that the zodiac moved in the heavens over a great period
of time, but little attention was paid to these conflicting
accounts.  The motions of the earth, the moon, the sun and the
planets were extremely well known however, and local celestial
events, such as lunar and solar eclipses or planetary alignments,
were predicted with great accuracy.  By the early 1500's many
almanacs were drawn up for specific latitudes and longitudes, with
celestial events predicted to within minutes of accuracy for these
coordinates.  The rotation of the earth had been calculated to
extreme accuracy as an off-shoot of the long debate over calendar
reform.  One side-effect was an increase in accuracy of prediction
of celestial events.

It's also interesting to note here that every almanac I have
viewed from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries was drawn up by a
physician.  These were the same people versed enough in the
mathematics of celestial movement to draw up horoscopes.  Even
Nostradamus was a physician. :-)

GC

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