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Eclipses: Astronomically and Astrologically Considered and Explained (1915) [1] is an astrological text by famous English astrologer Walter Gorn Old, otherwise known as Sepharial. The book claims to teach the readers how to predict world events with solar and lunar eclipses.
There are two core ideas provided in this book:
Here are two example from the book. The first one is the Balkan War started in 1912, which was just three years before the book was published. Sepharial thought that it was related to a solar eclipse in 1912. (Key: SE = solar eclipse, LE = lunar eclipse)
| Date | Eclipse | Transit | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Apr 1912 | Annular SE in 27° Aries. | --- | The eclipse path was across Europe, meaning that it was visible on the Balkan Peninsula. |
| 14 Oct 1912 | --- | Mars at 27° Libra (opposition) | It was the outbreak of the Balkan War. |
| Jun 1913 | --- | Mars at 27° Aries | The war broke out again. |
The second example is the First World War, just one year before the book was published. Sepharial thought that it was related to a lunar eclipse a few months before the war.
| Date | Eclipse | Transit | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Mar 1914 | Partial LE at 21° Virgo. | -- | This eclipse was visible in Europe and America. |
| 29 Jul 1914 | --- | Mars at 21° Virgo | Germany, Russia and France plunged into war. Great Britain joined later. |
| 21 Mar 1918 | --- | Mars at 21° Virgo again | Germany launched its last great offensive. (Mentioned later work The Arcana: Or Stock and Market Key. [2] ) |
Sepharial used the example of German Kaiser Wilhelm II to show how eclipses could bring bad luck to a person by bad transits.
| Date | Phenomenon | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Jan 1859 | Kaiser Wilhelm II was born with MC at Pisces 21 and Asc at 17 Cancer. | --- |
| 12 Mar 1914 | Partial LE at 21° Virgo, opposited the Kaiser's MC. | It signifies the Kaiser's downfall in the Great War to come. |
| 29 Jul 1914 | Mars transited 21° Virgo, opposited the Kaiser's MC. | |
| 7 Jan 1917 | Total LE at 17° Cancer, loosely conjoined the Kaiser's Asc. | It signals that the end of the war was close. |
| 22 Aug 1917 | Mars transited 17° Cancer, loosely conjoined the Kaiser's Asc. |
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![Lunar node {{delete|[moon orbits the earth from West to East.the trajectory of moon that has been mentioned here is absolutely wrong.]}}point in space where the moon moves into the northern/southern ecliptic hemisphere](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Lunar_eclipse_diagram-en.svg/320px-Lunar_eclipse_diagram-en.svg.png)
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Rāhu (
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