3-057-454 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Title page of "The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century...", 1825. ..."Or the Master Key of Futurity being a Complete System of Astrology, Geomancy & Occult Science". A key rests on a pillar on top of a book titled "Holy Writ". Behind are signs of the zodiac, and a sun and moon. "I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers, the Moon and the Stars, which thou hast ordained". Psal. VIII. 3. "They fought from heaven, the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera". Judges V.20. Sidus adsit amicum [Let my propitious star be present]. Cicero'. The name Raphael refers to an astrological journalist named Robert Cross, who edited the annual "The Prophetic Messenger". Many astrologers used pseudonyms in order to avoid the law. In 1824 an Act of Parliament against disorderly persons also included in its scope astrologers. This work, published anonymous in 1825, deals very much with the occult aspects of astrology, especially the conjuring of spirits. This undercurrent of occultism was to grow much stronger in the nineteenth-century.