A gem online!

For all students of astrology, I have found a lovely gift for us: Deborah Houlding is making available online and free of charge an annotated Lilly, divided into a number of PDFs. Not all have been posted yet, it'll be worth going back for more.

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

Yes

Yes, this is a gift and I look forward to reading this material. DH does have a great site and forum for discussion as well. Thanks for calling our attention to this new resource. Dave

Why is it called 'christian' astrology?

Astrology in those times . . .

As I understand it, Astrology is a subject that has had its "ups and downs" at various periods in history and in some countries. At this very moment there is a bill before the Polish Parliament to make Astrology illegal to practice---and the major astrological organizations such as ISAR are mounting a public outcry campaign against that proposed legislation.

In Lilly's time there were a number of secret societies, perhaps influenced by earlier upheavals in England that switched official and outlawed religions and had a number of radical government programs from time to time. The churches were trying to maintain their power in the light of fast moving social change and witchcraft was not favored. In order to avoid difficulties and to differentiate themselves from charlatans, Christian Astrology became the theme to rally around. It might have been as much a "marketing" tool as a legal tool to dodge criticism. Others may be able to enlighten us much more on this. Dave

Absolutely, Dave. Lilly published his book during the English Civil War, and the party that was in the ascendant was the Puritans, led by Cromwell, and very anti-divination, as well as anti-all-good-things-in-life (they closed the theatres, the taverns, the music centres, abolished Christmas, etc.) - his title was a prudent nod in the direction of the new masters of England.

In fact, there is nothing Christian about it (or any other religion). It's pure astrology, and Lilly used the texts and methods of the Continental and Arabic astrologers as his teaching texts, but synthesised them in a very user-friendly way. He was a born teacher.

A great classic, and Deborah Houlding does a good job of introducing it to modern audiences.

Oops

I've been downloading this already and should have given the link so thank's Fudagazi for remedying my sin by omission.

It's called Christian Astrology because Lilly lived and worked in puritan England - Books I & II were published in 1647, towards the end of the Civil War - not being publicly 'Christian' might well have laid Lilly open to charges of witchcraft. Indeed having forecast the great fire of London in 1666 he was pulled up before a committee of the House of Commons who suspected that a) he was privy to starting it or, b) he may have practiced witchcraft - he got off but being an Astrologer in that period (and indeed in any period) carried real risks. Strangely using Astrology for medicine was OK but making predictions was open to real issues, as it seemed to suggest that God could be accurately predicted in His decisions and was therefore not the omnipotent being the church claimed he was, or it denied the free will God bestowed on man and thus was a heresy.

Lilly supported the Parilamentary side against the King, so he was on the right side for the times and he had prominent supporters, but Astrology still carried some risk and the title clearly put God in charge of Astrology.