ABSTRACT

Astrology well into the seventeenth century remained an integral part of an astronomer's concerns. Indeed, the entire complex of astronomical and astrological techniques has been dubbed for this period the science of the stars, so as to emphasize the organic integration of what later became quite separate endeavours. The technical content of astrology depended on many of the same skills as were used in astronomy, and it is historically unremarkable, as a consequence, that famous astronomers such as Kepler and Tycho themselves took astrological prognostication very seriously. In this chapter, a mid-seventeenth century English astrologer discusses some of his adventures in the period of the English Civil War, and shows the extent to which an astrologer could make a career for himself even at the centre of the Scientific Revolution. He thanks the almighty God. The Citizens of London make small reckoning of Astrology.