Urania's Children: The Strange World of the Astrologists Ellie Howe
(William Kimber 55s)
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PETER VANSITTART
Astrology claims rational premises and, indeed, serious work is being attempted on the effects of cosmic movements on human blood and water. Newspaper astro-prophecy is rubbish: one recalls the Daily Express celestial expert predicting a Bank Holiday as especially propitious for Stock Exchange speculations. Yet disconcertingly telling character analysis has been extracted -from individual horoscopes. Jung, not unexpectedly, studied his patients' natal charts. Psychic computering. For the majority, however, astrology is a magical short- cut, Will I inherit money?,' When will my wife die?,' at best with reasonable conclusions based on unstable hypotheses, like the child at Wellington's funeral seeing the Duke's boots dangling from his riderless horse and asking whether all dead people get turned into boots. But even the vulgarly sensational aspect some- times achieves a break-through: D'Ailly (1414) foretold a French revolution for 1789.
Mr Howe is rather scrappy on earlier astro- logical history outside England, but, without rivalling James Layer's engrossing biography, does pinpoint Nostradamus (1503-66), whose History of the Future, despite much obscurity or nonsense, seems to foretell major events in French history, the English and French Revo- lutions (he mentions 'Noll' and `Varennes'), a major European war involving `Hister.' He has plenty to say of an Emperor 'born near Italy who will cost the empire dear. When his friends are identified he will be seen more a butcher than a prince.. Of a mane no French king had before him, never was a thunder- bolt so fearful.' And of 'the Nephew of the Blood.'
Not all this is catalogued here, but Howe shows Goebbels using Nostradamus in psycho- logical warfare and the British countering with faked Nostradamus quatrains. While publicly hostile to astrology, Nazism was itself in part an irrational counter-attack and here Howe is very interesting. Many Nazi leaders, particu- larly Himmler, were superstitious, and Hess's flight was officially blamed on astrologers. Occult aid failed to trace allied shipping but did help find the captured Mussolini. Rommel and Montgomery shared almost identical natal times, Monty's chart the more favourable!
Mr Howe finds considerable entertain- ment in t eosophists, diagnosers from finger-nails. Herr Vollratb wearing a fez to control his aura. Splendid jargon is quoted. `The etheric double, the Auric Egg, the dense physical.' Brazil is used by Virgo. America has always been subject to grave events when Uranus transmits Gemini.' The planet Pluto, discovered 1930, was hailed as the cosmic aspect originating the Third Reich. The 'Ham- burg School' postulates the existence of eight planets not yet discovered. Fakes abound. 'The Mazdaznan movement was founded c. 1900 by Otoman Zar-Adusht who claimed to have been born in Teheran in 1844. The master's real name was Otto Hanisch and he was born in Posen in 1854.' Mr Howe cannot, though, find the whole thing totally misguided or fraudulent.
His painstaking, rather laborious book may tease some intelligent sceptics and interest plain men who enjoy good stories with a hint of something more. Some tantalising asides, such as the horoscope readings of the unknown Hitler, 1923, are inadequately followed up. Amongst all classes astrological beliefs are perhaps increasing.
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