Bacon and Astrology

[Kate]

Some readers may immediately recoil at the positioning of the word Astrology in a section on science. As you can read from this fascinating paper on academia.edu by H. Darrel Rutkin, however, Francis Bacon did mention astrology and how it could be profitably applied (see 2nd image, first half of page) to certain subjects, but only within a certain degree of specificity. 

I’d be interested to see other papers or images added to this thread showing any mention of astrology by FB.

Just to be clear. Astronomy is the study of the heavens and its physical movements.

Astrology gives meaning, through the language of symbolism, correlation and correspondence to those movements. The microcosm is mirrored in the macrocosm and vice versa. This was a central tenet of the ancient wisdom teachings.

I’ll also add in here the cover page of Lilly’s Christian Astrology. Lilly and Ashmole were inextricably linked.

Kate

A bit later...

Edited May 15, 2022 by Kate
Typo 🙄

[Kate]

Rob (Light of Truth) asked me a question about astrology on the thread entitled ‘Another New Exciting Discovery’. I indicated that I’d answer here to keep all the astrology stuff in one place. Before I answer his question about what’s going on with the planets at this time, I just want to take the opportunity to expand on the subject a little more...

Astrology is often ridiculed as many people are ignorant (i.e., in the dark) about what it actually is.  So for anyone reading, very simplistically speaking; astrology and astronomy were once indivisible. The 12-fold division of the heavens following the path of the Sun (Tropical Zodiac) as viewed from Earth (Geocentric)was used as far back as the 4/5th Century BC. Looking at the heavens and finding meaning however, is as old as Mankind itself.

Later in time when Hipparchus formally demarcated the Vernal Equinox as the First Point of Aries around 130BC, the increasing movement of the equinoctial point away from the constellation of Aries (due to precession of the equinoxes it’s approx 1 degree backwards slippage every 72 years) meant that eventually the Vernal Equinox gradually began to appear in Pisces and not Aries. 

With the rise of organised religion the Catholic Church increasingly denounced any form of reading meaning from the heavens (they called it divination) as paganism. They wanted to control the narrative!  Consequently ...

“The Church Fathers were willing to impose strong sanctions against astrology to protect their flocks. In A.D. 120, the noted mathematician Aquila Ponticus was excommunicated from the Church at Rome for astrological heresies. Augustine records that such sanctions were still in force in his day, three centuries later, and could result in a person’s being excommunicated.” - Catholic.com

This continued throughout the centuries.

So, by the time of the spread of wider education for the common people, and the rise of “science” in the 17th C, the two systems started to become publicly divorced from each other, although privately many still used Astrology.

With the formalisation by the IAU of coordinate systems and the fixing of the location of the Prime Meridian to Greenwich in the 1800s, science and spirituality became further divided and modern astrology was born. 

Astronomers began to openly deride Astrology when Sun Sign horoscopes appeared in the Press in the 1930s and it became wrongly assumed to be synonymous with psychic ability and end-of-pier fortune telling. Any scientist who supported astrology would quickly be “cancelled”. A few tried - like Dr Percy Seymour - but at great cost to their career.

The distinction between astronomy and astrology nowadays is that Astronomers look up at the sky and constellations and they measure by Right Ascension and Declination around and from the Celestial Equator (The Equatorial System). They do not attribute meaning to the movements.
 

Meanwhile, Astrologers don’t look up at the sky anymore. They use books called Ephemerides (or nowadays computer software) and a system based on Celestial Longitude and Latitude measured around and from the Ecliptic (Ecliptic System). It utilises 12 divisions of 360° - although there are 13 constellations -  and these divisions are called signs and no longer align to the constellations of the same name.

Astrology is based on an amalgamation of symbolism, correspondence and correlation utilising the angular geometric relationship between points in the circle.  So to divide 360 by 4 is 90°= square. Divide by 3 is 120°= trine (triangle) Divide by 5 = 72° = Quintile etc., and just like musical notes in a score can be translated into music by the musician, these alignments can translate into meaning to the person who speaks the language of astrology. 

Human Consciousness seems somehow allied or synchronised to nature’s geometry and life seems to unfold in repeating cycles and spirals. No direct causation is attributed to the planets rather it’s all seen as part of an indivisible unity of ‘above and below’.  As the ancients knew, there’s an essential oneness to the universe.

To answer your question then Rob, Jupiter just changed signs on 11 May and there was also a Sun/Moon opposition (a Full Moon, eclipse) 5 days later and Mercury is in retrograde motion, so all these things correlate to shifts in the pace of life and focus. Jupiter in Aries is the start of a new 12-year cycle where Jupiter spends around a year in each of the 12 signs. The sign of Aries is seen to pick up the pace of events and can be impulsive, hot headed, fast, combative, competitive, warmongering and whips things up, but also it correlates to added impetus, new beginnings, new conditions that will mark out the next 12 years.  

It coincided with the crash of cryptocurrencies.

The Lunar Eclipse was in a particularly potent part of the 360 degrees related to finances and also all lunar eclipses tend to bring things to a head or a peak then draw things to a close and a new beginning. However a confluence of major cycles are active at this time and for the rest of this year, so for the collective, astrologers will say this is going to be a year full of big change and transformation.
 

That’s a bit vague for you I know Rob, but one has to look at each individual’s birthchart or at the chart of countries or businesses or even to the publication of books to determine what’s unfolding more precisely, so I’ll post about what I saw in the chart of the First Folio from 1623 later.

Kate

@_astro_kate on Twitter

[Kate]

There is a great site, packed full of old astrological texts, some of which predate Bacon, here http://www.skyscript.co.uk/books.html

There are a number of articles and papers about John Dee (Queen Elizabeth 1st's Astrologer) and two particularly good articles on the Monas Hieroglyphica by Dylan Warren Davies, who was another 'teacher' of mine, to whom I am eternally indebted, dating back 25 years. http://www.skyscript.co.uk/monas.html (2 links in there).

Please do not think of astrology as 'Oh, are you a Virgo, are we compatible' and all that. It is the most ancient of arts and I'd go as far as to say that without an understanding of ancient astrology one can't hope to really understand the 'as above, so below' Hermetic axiom.

Pluto moves into the tropical sign of Aquarius in March 2023 and permanently in Jan 2024 (it shifts out in 2023 due to retrograde motion, hence the two dates). Francis Bacon was an Aquarian. The 400th anniversary will see some sort of incredible transformation of attitude around Francis Bacon as author but by 2024/5 it'll be in full swing. You heard it here first!

By the way, if Sir Bacon is 25 years old this coincides with when we'd expect to see the 'enterprise' either restructure and go to a new level or to fold, as it will be its first 'Saturn Return'. One way or another then, the truth of who wrote Shakespeare will  likely surface in the next 2-5 years.

 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Kate

[Light-of-Truth]

Strange day today. Three website crises which is very unusual. One was a big popular website that the host shutdown claiming it was using too many resources, which it was not. At one point someone mentioned something with the poles was happening, then I remembered five planets were in conjunction peaking when I woke up this morning. I said, "There we go! We know what's happening now!" LOL

I'm sure that is totally off-base, but funny you bring up Astrology as I was thinking about you, Kate! 🙂

 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Light-of-Truth

[Light-of-Truth]

1 hour ago, Kate said:

By the way, if Sir Bacon is 25 years old this coincides with when we'd expect to see the 'enterprise' either restructure and go to a new level or to fold, as it will be its first 'Saturn Return'.

As long as either Lawrence or I am alive, SirBacon.org will survive. And we'll make certain it lives on after we are gone. So I don't see it "folding", unless the NSA takes it down for sharing too many secrets. 😉

 

[Kate]

Well I'm hoping that the restructuring is because the truth has come out and people flock to see what you and those involved have been saying for the past decades! x

[Kate]

Just been alerted to a 1929 book 

https://archive.org/details/cumberland-clark-shakespeare-science-9781906267391
 

which is all about the astrology and study of natural phenomena in the plays of Shakespeare. 

The author denounces the possibility that Bacon could be the author in the first few pages, but I’m posting as it’s a great book about Astrology in Elizabethan times and contains innumerable possibilities for those with the eyes to see, to observe parallels between Bacon’s words and Shakespeares.

[Allisnum2er]

Thank you Kate !🙏 

I would like to share with you a great synchronicity.

Yesterday evening, I wondered if I should share, or not, something that I discovered 5 years ago.

It revolves around the constellations and I evidently thought of you, because your expertise would be welcome to expand this discovery.

And believe me or not, in the chain of the events that led me to this finding, I found a coin from the 18th century engraved for PRINCE WILLIAM, Duke of CUMBERLAND.

So, I had Prince William Cumberland in mind yesterday evening, and today you share a Book on Astrology written by ... CLARK CUMBERLAND !

I think that it is the sign that Time has come to share my discovery. 🙂 

  

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Allisnum2er

[Kate]

That is a synchronicity! Share away! I’m intrigued. You’ve shown up my ignorance here, I’ve never even heard of the Duke of Cumberland. Where did you find it? 

[Allisnum2er]

Hi Kate, I will share away, I promess ! I am working on it ! 😊 Please note that Prince William, Duke of Cumberland appeared, as I said , in a chain of events in the course of my research. He is not involved (as far as I know) in any astrologic work. I found the token  'by chance' on ebay thanks to its reverse. Then, I discovered its observe with the portrait of the Duke of Cumberland. 

"No Roses without Thorns"

(Except Rosa sine Spina 😉 )

 

[Light-of-Truth]

Hmmm, a worn "Rosa sine Spina" coin (1547 to 1603) sells reasonably when available. I'd love an old Elizabethan coin to hold onto when thinking of Bacon.

[Allisnum2er]

14 hours ago, Light-of-Truth said:

Hmmm, a worn "Rosa sine Spina" coin (1547 to 1603) sells reasonably when available. I'd love an old Elizabethan coin to hold onto when thinking of Bacon.

Indeed, two Three Farthings (1561) would be a good Remuneration 😉 

[Kate]

Hi. Welcome to B'hive! 

That's a very interesting post, thanks. It's certainly an interesting theory about the natal chart.  I need some time to consider it and wrap my head around it. The very first thing that comes to mind though is that they didn't tend to use circular charts in that period. Here's Lilly's attached.  Of course there are many circular depictions of the heavens dating right back in time and through many cultures, but I need to ask around about whether we'd see a circular birthchart in the late 1500s, early 1600s. 

Also have you (anyone) checked to see how it works with the other imprint of the Sonnets cover, done on the same day? 

Sorry to sound like a rain cloud on what you are presenting. It certainly passes the eyeball test as you say and thanks for introducing it.

Edited January 8 by Kate

[A Phoenix]

Hi Kate,

Welcome back, we have missed you.

[Light-of-Truth]

How exciting! 🙂

 

[Allisnum2er]

Hi Kate,

It's great to have you back ! And I second A Phoenix, we have missed you.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the discoverie relating to the Constellations hidden in the First Folio I spoke to you about last October.

https://sirbacon.org/bacon-forum/index.php?/topic/304-number-161-the-compass-of-the-wise/#comment-3910

I think that more constellations are concealed, and if you are interested in the subject, your expertise and help are welcome ! 😊

 

[Kate]

Thanks Yann, 

I find your discoveries fascinating, if not mind-blowing - I can really appreciate what you have found in the FF but I’ll be frank, I’m not sure if this (constellation shapes hidden in the actual text -or indeed the Sonnets cover) is something that sparks me/fires me up. As synchronicity would have it though, I was just looking up a quote on the website ConstellationofWords.com. Do you know this site? (It’s better on mobile than PC) it may be if use to you. Also apps like StarWalk2 (there’s a free version) allow you to see the changing shapes of constellations and asterisms back in time. 400 years is nothing in the history of the heavens and so the main constellations will hardly have changed at all, but precession AND proper motion does change some star positions, so it’s always best to check with an app that takes this into consideration so we know we are looking at exactly what they would have been seeing in the late 1500s and early 1600s compared to us now. You probably know all this but thought I’d mention it just in case.

It won’t affect this discussion as we are, as I say only looking back 400 years, but for general interest the Southern cross, Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper, Orion and others change significantly over vast, vast periods of time. See that here https://www.wired.com/2015/03/gifs-show-constellations-transforming-150000-years/

[Allisnum2er]

5 hours ago, Kate said:

As synchronicity would have it though, I was just looking up a quote on the website ConstellationofWords.com. Do you know this site?

Thank you Kate, I did not know this site !

Sadly, it seems that the Quest of the Constellations hidden in the FF is a Quest that I have to lead alone ! 😢 

Just one question ...

https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/book/SLNSW_F1/689/index.html%3Fzoom=1275.html

Are you sure that you are not interested in knowing what is really hidden behind all these "O" ?😁

 

 

[Kate]

Well, that’s certainly piquing my interest, Yann!  Yes.

The way my mind works though is that my first thought would be to count the lines and where the O’s appear, then turn it in to a (possible) code in that way.  I.e 10th line, 1st letter =10 + 1

13th line , 1st and 4th letter, 13 + 1 +4 etc (or some variation on that).

Definitely an oddity there. One that seems to be screaming out to be interpreted by those with the eyes to see.

[Kate]

I may have posted this before,  but this is about Bacon and his views on astrology and astrological reform. It’s a great read in its entirety 

 

 

Hopefully this link works for all and not just me. Scroll right down to see the full paper https://www.academia.edu/6814583/Astrology_Cambridge_History_of_Science_

Also found this 

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/zgvs7b2r/items?canvas=9

CC BY-NC 4.0

Even if you haven’t got time to read yet another tome, it’s worth flicking through to see the images. Lots of things on Magick and Astrologie.

It’s a translation of a much earlier book by Agrippa and mentions Bacon.

 

[Kate]

Synchronicities coming in thick and fast now. Just clicked on a feed I subscribe to, scrolled down and there was the chart of the 1572 Nova in Cassiopeia, and mention that it was unusual, in that it was round. 

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/brahe.html

 

Here’s a close up version

In the full article there is mention of Blaeu’s  Atlas and this image of Uraniborg from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraniborg

 

This quadrature which marks the 4 cardinal points is seen everywhere. What immediately springs to mind is the floor of Westminster Abbey by the Altar called the Cosmati Pavement, which we’ve spoken about before. I’m going off at a tangent by including this though, but it’s 😍 beautiful.

 

I wonder if there’s anything to be explored about the original base of the pyramids being built in a square, rather than a circle, or in nothing at all.

 

It’s a bit of a leap but the floor dates back to the 1200s I believe. Just thinking out loud. This should really be in the geometry section. Can one copy sections of posts over, while keeping them in the original thread too? 

[Eric Roberts]

11 hours ago, Kate said:

Synchronicities coming in thick and fast now. Just clicked on a feed I subscribe to, scrolled down and there was the chart of the 1572 Nova in Cassiopeia, and mention that it was unusual, in that it was round. 

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/brahe.html

 

Here’s a close up version

In the full article there is mention of Blaeu’s  Atlas and this image of Uraniborg from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraniborg

 

This quadrature which marks the 4 cardinal points is seen everywhere. What immediately springs to mind is the floor of Westminster Abbey by the Altar called the Cosmati Pavement, which we’ve spoken about before. I’m going off at a tangent by including this though, but it’s 😍 beautiful.

 

I wonder if there’s anything to be explored about the original base of the pyramids being built in a square, rather than a circle, or in nothing at all.

 

It’s a bit of a leap but the floor dates back to the 1200s I believe. Just thinking out loud. This should really be in the geometry section. Can one copy sections of posts over, while keeping them in the original thread too? 

 

Hi Kate

You wrote: "What immediately springs to mind is the floor of Westminster Abbey by the Altar called the Cosmati Pavement, which we’ve spoken about before."  I searched the Forums and the main SirBacon site looking for anything on the cosmatesque pavement in Westminster Abbey without success. I hope no one minds if I post some more details on this fascinating subject. There is a tenuous link between Sir Francis Bacon and the Westminster pavement, which he would surely have been familiar with. When James I was crowned in the exact centre of the mosaic (see video) the pavement was over 300 years old. Then there is this line from The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Sc. 1, which (just maybe) was inspired by the "finest example of a Cosmati floor in Northern Europe".

"Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold. There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings..."

 

                   

 

Edited January 17 by Eric Roberts

[Rob at 007]

19 hours ago, Kate said:

This should really be in the geometry section. Can one copy sections of posts over, while keeping them in the original thread too? 

A Moderator or Admin can move threads into other topics, but individual posts or selections of posts can't be moved that way. A member may copy and paste their content and post in more than one place if necessary. That could get confusing for those who follow threads, but it is possible a post might be quite appropriate in two or more locations. 

 

[Kate]

9 hours ago, Eric Roberts said:

 

I hope no one minds if I post some more details on this fascinating subject. There is a tenuous link between Sir Francis Bacon and the Westminster pavement, which he would surely have been familiar with. When James I was crowned in the exact centre of the mosaic (see video) the pavement was over 300 years old. Then there is this line from The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Sc. 1, which (just maybe) was inspired by the "finest example of a Cosmati floor in Northern Europe".

"Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patens of bright gold. There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings..."

 

                   

 

No one minds at all! This is great info. It’s funny because when I was writing that post I distinctly recall that I wanted to use the word beautiful (as opposed to magnificent etc) and now you say Cosmati means beautiful! So I ended it ( before adding a bit more) with “but it’s 😍 beautiful.”
 

What I like about group discussions and forums (although this is the only one I’ve been a member of for years) is that you can share something, and that causes someone else to research it and find something else and then you can go off on tangents (like suddenly thinking of the pyramids). It’s like we are all neurons and the synapses are firing between us all, leading to new pathways and discoveries. 

[RoyalCraftiness]

On 1/16/2023 at 11:16 AM, Kate said:

Synchronicities coming in thick and fast now. Just clicked on a feed I subscribe to, scrolled down and there was the chart of the 1572 Nova in Cassiopeia, and mention that it was unusual, in that it was round. 

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/brahe.html

 

Here’s a close up version

In the full article there is mention of Blaeu’s  Atlas and this image of Uraniborg from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraniborg

 

This quadrature which marks the 4 cardinal points is seen everywhere. What immediately springs to mind is the floor of Westminster Abbey by the Altar called the Cosmati Pavement, which we’ve spoken about before. I’m going off at a tangent by including this though, but it’s 😍 beautiful.

 

I wonder if there’s anything to be explored about the original base of the pyramids being built in a square, rather than a circle, or in nothing at all.

 

It’s a bit of a leap but the floor dates back to the 1200s I believe. Just thinking out loud. This should really be in the geometry section. Can one copy sections of posts over, while keeping them in the original thread too? 

There's a complex at Saqqara that is built with a perimeter that has features which represent astronomical observations. It's rectangular to represent the Northern hemisphere.

The pyramid was built to represent the top half of an octahedron. The cross section of the octahedron is a square. The 2-D square is being projected into a 3-D shape which captures the idea of a world above and the world below. The four are generally representing the four cardinal points. The square is being projected to a point whose apex symbolized the view of the Gods. In spiritual terms the pyramid was a machine to perform alchemical projection (to send your soul into the stars). In projection you went from the lower realm to the higher one.  The immutable North star at the time of the construction of the pyramid was Thuben. It is one of 5 such well defined North pole stars which come out of the precession cycle. The 5 and the 8 are geometrical linked by the fact the pentagon corners project to the octagon's corners. 5 and 8 are also consecutive Fibonacci number. That means their ratio approximates Phi. 40 was a known eclipse cycle in eclipse months, and the human gestation period was 40 weeks. The relations are emphasized by celestial cycles involving 5x8.

In the case of the Great pyramid the pyramid may be a special kind where there's an equivalent mathematical exercise in "squaring the triangle", that is to say producing a triangular face which will be of the same area as the square of side equal to the pyramid height. If the half-side of the square is one unit in length the pyramid height will be the square root of Phi. The triangular side face will be Phi in height.

You'll encounter many very deceptive presentations which claim that the Egyptians carefully encoded mathematical constants in many measures of the Great pyramid, like Phi and pi. These are there because of the properties of pyramids which square the triangle (or come very close to doing so). Squaring a circle is impossible but it was a pursuit of later alchemists. The impossibility of it became the symbol of the Philosopher's stone, and that also encompasses the idea of an impenetrable secret enclosed deep in a vault.

A great deal of argument has occurred over the years about the actual base angle of the pyramid side. If it is 51.82 degrees then the pyramid was ideal. Some claim it is, some claim it isn't (51.625 degrees).

 

 

 

Edited January 22 by RoyalCraftiness