Fascinating interview. Thanks for the link.

I posted this elsewhere yesterday:


I finished the book last night. It?s only about 200 pages and I say ?about? because I read an electronic version, so I?m not sure how many print pages there are. It is a short book. Catherine Blackledge is promoting the idea that William Lilly and astrology, played a prominent part in the English Civil War and that story deserves to be known. In the past John recommended the book ?The World Turned Upside Down; Radical Ideas during the English Revolution? by Christopher Hill, to get a good grasp on the period. Hill gives Lilly a couple of lines. Blackledge fills out the story.

She used Lilly?s autobiography, his other papers, Ashmole?s papers and whatever else she could find to put together an account of Lilly?s life during this period and up until his death at age 79. She gives us a glimpse into his professional practice, and his personal life, but mostly she is concerned with his almanacs and the political pressures he and others lived with in an era of censorship. Lilly was arrested 9 times for his writings, and conviction on any of these charges had serious consequences up to and including the death penalty. Public attacks by rivals, such as George Wharton and John Gadbury could result in arrest, if their side was in power. Toward the end, ol? Bill really softened up his political statements and predictions, and with good reason. Wharton and Gadbury, too, would find themselves on the wrong side of the power struggle and look at the possibility of ending their lives at the end of a rope, but mercifully, neither did.

Of course this explains some of Lilly?s more cryptic predictions. Predicting the death of a sovereign, for example, was illegal as was publishing his birth chart. Lilly didn?t publish Charles I chart, but did reference his ASC and that was almost enough to put him in jail for a long time. He frequently needed, and was given, political help from his friends to avoid imprisonment, and he would return the favors.

There are some silly astrological mistakes in the book that an editor with a good astrology background would have caught. Capricorn is not a fixed sign. A platic aspect is not a perfect aspect. There is nothing I found that would change context.

There is a debate on a Facebook page over whether or not Blackledge used the correct birth chart for Lilly. The two in question have close angles, but one has a Capricorn Moon the other a Pisces Moon on the ASC. Of course that is a significant difference, but the book is not a delineation of Lilly?s chart and this discussion, although appropriate, has no bearing on the thesis of the book.

Overall this is a highly readable account of a complicated affair that had lasting effects on Western Civilization, and one of our own played an important role. Well worth the time and money.

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Saw-Futur ... the+future

Thanks for the interesting review Tom.

Of course this explains some of Lilly?s more cryptic predictions. Predicting the death of a sovereign, for example, was illegal as was publishing his birth chart. Lilly didn?t publish Charles I chart, but did reference his ASC and that was almost enough to put him in jail for a long time.

Coincidentally, I was reminded yesterday of a really good article John Dawson published in the AA journal in 2007. It was called "A Time to Die: William Lilly and the Execution of Charles I".

Dawson gives a good argument that Lilly was consulted in the election of the date of Charles' execution (30 Jan 1649), although Lilly protests that he was not fully aware of what the election was for. The article also references a horary Lilly judged "If King Charles should be beheaded?" (cast 19th Jan - published in Anglicus, An Ephemeris for 1646 to 1650). The judgement begins by saying

There was never in this kingdom, perhaps in the world, the like astrological question propounded and answered ...

...because this situation has the king's subjects sitting as judges over him.

The significations of death are clearly reported and then Lilly says

Considering all these woeful aspects, I certainly concluded he would die and be put to death. But being demanded if there were no hope for his life [the question was asked by a royalist]; I better viewed the figure, and finding Jupiter in platick trine to the Sun and Saturn, and that Mercury did hasten unto his trine; I said there would be much intercession for sparing his life, and that if he survived the last of January, it was possible he might live a little longer... But God determined his life to end the thirtieth of January. The party who inquired of me, gave it out, how I said, that if his Majesty escaped the 31 of January, there was hopes of his life, which begot that infamous scandal cast upon me, viz, that I should advise the council of war to put him to death the 30th of January, or else they should never have the power to do it.

So Lilly did predict the death and appears to have been somehow involved in the choice of date for it. John points out how Lilly's biography details a meeting with two leading members of Parliament, just after Christmas, where he was requested to bring along his almancs.

'If we are not fools and knaves,' saith he, 'we shall do justice' then they whispered. I understood not their meaning till his Majesty was beheaded. They applied what I wrote of justice, to be understood of his Majesty, which was contrary to my intention; for Jupiter, the first day of January, became direct; and Libra is a sign signifying Justice; I implored for justice generally upon such as had cheated in their places, being treasurers, and such like officers. I had not then heard the least intimation of bringing the King unto trial

Really good piece of research by John Dawson. The concern over these actions came much later of course, when the Stuarts were restored, and anyone involved in the King's death faced execution for treason. Lilly was very fortunate to escape considering that he appears to have (unwittingly according to him) elected the date, and his judgement of the horary, at the very least, cast infamous scandal on him, with suggestions that he urged the execution to take place before the month was ended.