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Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as the Hindus, Chinese, and the Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Islamic world, and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person's personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems.
William Lilly was a seventeenth century English astrologer. He is described as having been a genius at something "that modern mainstream opinion has since decided cannot be done at all" having developed his stature as the most important astrologer in England through his social and political connections as well as going on to have an indelible impact on the future course of Western astrological tradition.
Nicholas Culpeper was an English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer. His book The English Physitian is a source of pharmaceutical and herbal lore of the time, and Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick (1655) one of the most detailed works on medical astrology in Early Modern Europe. Culpeper catalogued hundreds of outdoor medicinal herbs. He scolded contemporaries for some of the methods they used in herbal medicine: "This not being pleasing, and less profitable to me, I consulted with my two brothers, Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience, and took a voyage to visit my mother Nature, by whose advice, together with the help of Dr. Diligence, I at last obtained my desire; and, being warned by Mr. Honesty, a stranger in our days, to publish it to the world, I have done it."
Astrological belief in correspondences between celestial observations and terrestrial events have influenced various aspects of human history, including world-views, language and many elements of social culture.
Astrology and astronomy were archaically treated together, but gradually distinguished through the Late Middle Ages into the Age of Reason. Developments in 17th century philosophy resulted in astrology and astronomy operating as independent pursuits by the 18th century.
Astrometeorology or meteorological astrology is a pseudoscience that attempts to forecast the weather using astrology. It is the belief that the position and motion of celestial objects can be used to predict both seasonal climate and weather. Throughout most of its history astrometeorology was considered a scholarly tradition and was common in academic circles, often in close relation with astronomy, alchemy, meteorology, medicine, and other types of astrology.
Emilia Lanier was the first woman in England to assert herself as a professional poet, through her volume Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. Attempts have been made to equate her with Shakespeare's "Dark Lady".
Simon Forman was an Elizabethan astrologer, occultist and herbalist active in London during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I of England. His reputation, however, was severely tarnished after his death when he was implicated in the plot to kill Sir Thomas Overbury. Astrologers continued to revere him, while writers from Ben Jonson to Nathaniel Hawthorne came to characterize him as either a fool or an evil magician in league with the Devil.
Richard Napier was a prominent English astrologer and medical practitioner.
Some medieval Muslims took a keen interest in the study of astrology, partly because they considered the celestial bodies to be essential, partly because the dwellers of desert-regions often travelled at night, and relied upon knowledge of the constellations for guidance in their journeys.
Astrology had support in early Christianity, but support declined during the Middle Ages. Support for it grew again in the West during the Renaissance.
Richard Forster (c.1546–1616) was an English physician.
The Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS), of the University of Cambridge is the largest department of history and philosophy of science in the United Kingdom. A majority of its submissions received maximum ratings of 4* and 3* in the 2014 REF. Located in the historic buildings of the Old Physical Chemistry Laboratories on Free School Lane, Cambridge, the department teaches undergraduate courses towards the Cambridge Tripos and graduate courses including a taught Masters and PhD supervision in the field of HPS. The department shares its premises with the Whipple Museum and Whipple Library which provide important resources for its teaching and research.
The Book of Plays is a section of a manuscript by the London astrologer Simon Forman that records his descriptions of four plays he attended in 1610-11 and the morals he drew from them. It is now in the Bodleian Library catalogued as MS Ashmole 208. The document is noteworthy for being the only preserved eyewitness accounts of Shakespeare’s plays on the professional stage during his lifetime: Macbeth at the Globe Theatre on 20 April 1610; The Winter's Tale at the Globe on 15 May 1611; and Cymbeline, date and theatre not specified.
George Turner was an English physician in London. He is known for his interest in alchemy and friendship with Simon Forman. His wife was the convicted murderer Anne Turner.
From 1592 to 1593, London experienced its last major plague outbreak of the 16th century. During this period, at least 15,000 people died of plague within the City of London and another 4,900 died of plague in the surrounding parishes.
Sir Richard Dyer of Staughton, was an English courtier, soldier, and landowner.
Astrologaster is a comedy narrative adventure video game developed and published by Nyamyam. It was released for iOS on 2 May 2019, for Microsoft Windows and macOS on 9 May 2019, and for Nintendo Switch on 18 February 2021. The game centres around the historical 16th-century physician and astrologer Simon Forman and the characters he encounters, who demand diagnoses, treatments, and sometimes to be read fortunes written in the stars.
Francis Coxe was an English astrologer and quack physician. He was tried for sorcery in 1561 and severely punished, and his Unfained Retractation was published in a contemporary broadside. He then published a pamphlet against necromancy, and, in 1575, A Treatise of the Making and Use of Diverse Oils, Unguents, Emplasters and Distilled Waters.
Rebecca Flemming is a Classicist. She holds the inaugural A.G. Leventis Chair as Professor of Ancient Greek Scientific and Technological Thought at the University of Exeter.
References
- ↑ "Kassell, Lauren, 1970-". Library of Congress Name Authority File. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
- ↑ "Profile Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge".
- ↑ Ellie Broughton. "What It Was Like to Go to the Doctor in 1610". Vice. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
- ↑ Sara Reardon. "Sex-Crazed Astrologer Was a Stellar Records Keeper". Science. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
- ↑ Alison Flood. "Purges, angels and 'pigeon slippers': methods of Elizabethan quacks finally deciphered". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
- ↑ Todd Martens. "What to play: 'Astrologaster' gets topical with Shakespearean-era alternative facts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
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