or the place of the Conjunction by an evil Aspect that is by Square or Opposition I do not say that all the places aforesaid shall be afflicted at one time neither that all the Calamities aforesaid shall happen to any one place it is enough nay and too much too if any one of them happen in any Country or City in Christendom Thus have I given an Astrological account of the effects of this Conjunction and I hope I have not varied from the Rules of Art and here I shall speak a little more of the effects of this Conjunction between the Turks and Christians in what may be the event of their present War In April 1684. Saturn will be again in Leo and in square to Mars in May following Saturn meets with a Square of the Sun Jupiter also meets with the Square of both the Sun and Mars intimating that about that time the Turks will be active against the Christians and then great preparation will be making on both sides but both Saturn and Jupiter are weak and therefore no great Actions will yet be performed but rather about August when the Sun comes to the place of the Conjunction or later in the year when Saturn and Jupiter meets with the body of both the Sun and Mars and then the Turks suppose to do great matters against the Christians but I find no reason in Art why he should have any more Victory in this year than he had in the last against the Christians neither do I suppose that their Differences will be reconciled until the year 1687. which if it be not then let the Turk look to be beaten to purpose for then Jupiter comes into Sagitary his own house and then when it is too late the Turk may repent of his Enterprises CHAP. VII Treating of Comets and their effects and particularly of the Comet that appeared in the year 1680. What a Comet is MOst Arologers of ancient times have told us that a Comet or Blazing-Star is a dry exhalation viscous and slimy drawn up into the upper Region of the Air by the Sun and there being set on fire by its Heat breaks forth into a Flame of which there be divers sorts as Pliny writeth in Lib. 2. Cap. 25. de Nat. some whereof move Direct some Retrograde and some not at all but are fixed as the other Stars But my Judgment of them is that they proceed not from natural Causes as before mentioned but from Divine Providence and sent by Almighty God as tokens of his wrath against mankind for their sins thereby threatning them with his Wrath and just Judgment thereby to try if their obstinate Hearts will relent and turn to the Lord that he might turn his Judgments away from them or else to be the forerunners of some more than ordinary Birth whom God is pleased to honour with a new Light from Heaven as he hath done not only at the Birth of Christ but also at the Birth of several Emperors Kings and Potentates Histories ancient Writers and common Experience in former Ages testifie to us that these signs in the Heavens or appearance of Comets are the assured forerunners of sterility of the Earth Famine Pestilence War Alteration of Empires Kingdoms Statutes Laws and Customs Winds Earth-quakes Inundations extream Heat and Drought with grievous Diseases and such like horrid evils also the Birth of some great Emperor King Governor or Learned Man That they are the cause of inordinate heat it appears by their burning in the Air as appears visible to the eye of the beholders Of Sterility by reason the fatness of the Earth is by them drawn out and the Earth left dry and lean and so the Moisture and convenient Humidity whereby it fructifieth all things growing thereon is extinguished whence there must needs follow Famine and Sterility in those Regions and Places from whence the Matter and Substance is drawn And of Pestilence and Diseases in that the Air is by them infected through hot cloudy Exhalations the which being drawn in at the Mouth of living Creatures infecteth and killeth them also by excessive Heat the radical Moisture of living Creatures whereby they subsist is dried up so they become no other than dead Carkasses Of War Alterations in Kingdoms States Laws and Customs in that when a Comet or Blazing-Star appears there are many Exhalations in the Air and those of nature hot and dry the which do so dry up the Humors in Men and move Choler that they are easily excited to Quarrels after which follows War and Bloodshed and so consequently alterations in Kingdoms States Governments Laws and Customs Also of Winds for that they are of the same matter supposed whereof Comets are and when any Comet or Blazing-Star appears many such Vapors are exhaled and when they vanish they become windly Vapors Of Earth-quakes for the same reason for they are occasioned of Winds and Winds are the occasion of Earth-quakes So of Inundations for the same reason also for the Comets cause wind and wind causes the Sea to roar and rage whence follows Inundations Authors give a description of several sorts of Comets both in name and form which I shall here omit and proceed to their Effects and particularly to the Effects of that most amazing Comet or Blazing-star which appeared not only to us but to almost the whole World in 1680. and it is credibly reported that this Comet was seen in Jamaica about the 12 th of November in five degrees of Libra to rise in the East in the Morning and moved direct as the Planets do and so ran through Libra Scorpio and Sagitary very swiftly it ran five or six degrees in one day but I am not certain whether it were seen in England until the eleventh of December and then my self saw the stream of it in the West of at least 40 degrees in length but the Star I could not see it being under the Earth but on the sixteenth day of the same month I beheld it about the middle of Capricorn and from thence I had the sight of it every night when the Element was clear until the 27 th of January following it was then in twelve degrees of Taurus and by observation I sometimes found the stream of it full sixty degrees and upward which is 3600 miles so that after it appeared to us in the Evening it ran through half Capricorn all Aquarius Pisces Aries and half Taurus so that accounting from the first appearing to its disappearing it did run through two Thirds of the Zodiac so that almost two Thirds of the World will be partakers of its Effects When it appeared first in the Morning it was said to appear very red therefore supposed to be of the nature of Mars but when it appeared to us in the Evening it was of a pale colour like unto the Planet Saturn and therefore of his nature and as it was a Saturnine Comet we must expect Saturnine Effects and to discover what a Saturnine
passeth through one years effects which I suppose we justly may we shall not have much less than eight years expired before its effects be fully over and I think this will prove the exactest measure of time in the effects of this Comet and thus much of Comets in general and of the Comet in 1680. in particular with their significations But what Mr. Holwel hath written of Comets is nonsensical and the most part of it much varying from the Rules of Astrology especially what he mentioneth of this Comet in his Judgment of the year 1683 which was one great cause of my writing to shew the World the true signification of Comets according to what Authors more experienced than Mr. Holwel and daily experience have shewed CHAP. VIII Treating of and Confuting most of Mr. Holwels Judgments on the State of the years from 1683. unto the year 1700. mentioned in his Catastrophe Mundi MR. Holwel in his Catastrophe Mundi speaking of the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter saith according to natural causes Persons signified by the Sun should be afflicted in Person with Horror and Amazement and shall be in danger of their Lives Honour and Estate and be forced to fly for Safeguard for by bad advice they shall attempt to do that which they shall never attain to by which means they shall bring themselves and Fame to destruction for ever and therefore he adviseth Persons to beware that have ten or eleven Degrees of Leo ascending And in his judgment of the year 1683. he saith that a very great Person of Europe that hath Leo ascending will be afflicted and flung into a great many Troubles with the death of some of his Children Loss of Honour and esteem in the World Sure Mr. Holwel hath forgotten that he himself hath Leo ascending that he judgeth so hard of persons born under it but I could wish that he had named what great Persons of Europe he meaneth that we might have observed the Event but I shall here as I have already shew them that great Persons born under Leo shall not by the effect of this Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Leo receive Detriment or Loss either of Honour or Estate but on the contrary they shall gain both Riches and Honour by the effects of this Conjunction though Mr. Holwel gained the displeasure of the Honourable E. A. Esquire to whom he confidently dedicated his Book although he never knew him which nonsensical Stuff be disliking made the Epistle Dedicatory to be taken out again this was done when Saturn transited Leo Mr. Holwels Ascendant as also Saturn did when the said Book was written Neither do I judge of the death of any Prince in Europe that hath about thirteen degrees of Virgo ascending though it be said in Catastrophe Mundi if there be a Prince in Europe that hath about thirteen degrees of Virgo ascending he should in the year 1684. return to the ground from whence he was taken for I find no such matter by the Rules of Astrology as may signifie the death of any such Prince but I pray for all Christian Princes and particularly for such as have Virgo or Leo ascending on their Horoscope And whereas Mr. Holwel saith in his judgment of the year 1698. that Saturn in opposition to the place of the Conjunction 1682. and Jupiter in square thereto threatens Italy with no less than Confusion and utter Subversion of the triple Crown and although it may not be fully compleated in this year yet saith he this year sets a great say to it and in the following year its full destruction And that then the power of France shall be brought low and many thousands of his Subjects destroyed through the pride of an insulting King and envy of the Roman Clergy But if this Opposition and Square be the cause of all this why had not Rome been destroyed in the year 1639. when Saturn was in opposition to the place of the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Leo which was in the year 1623. I have searched into History and found that there was War at that time between the Swedes and the Germans and between the French and the Italians but not any thing to the Destruction of any Nation or People yet many eminent Persons died about that time some in War and some in Peace and many strange Accidents hapned and I suppose near the like may happen now but little or nothing of what Mr. Holwel writes in all his judgment on his several years will prove true there being no grounds in Astrology for them but what his own fantastical Pate hath imagined to raise himself a Fame in the World by predicting Lyes and to deceive the World by Delusions for I will appeal to all Artists what Rules there are in Astrology whereby to predict as Mr Holwel hath that in the Eastern part of the World a whole Army should be destroyed with fire from Heaven with their Wealth and Treasure or that there should be War and Plagues over the face of the whole Earth and that there should be so many men destroyed that there should not be men enough left to get in Harvest as he predicteth in his judgment of the year 1699. therefore I aver all that he speaks of that year and the next to be absolutely false nonsensical and erroneous in the next year with which he concludeth his Book he saith that Rome is now destroyed and Peters Seat thrown down and the Conversion of the Turks and Jews soon follows and Religion but what Religion he knows not truly preached universally over all the World sure this must not be Astrology but Prophecy and if Prophecy then Mahometal and if Mahometal then lying like Baal's Prophets and so deserving the reward that they received from Elijah ADVERTISEMENT THe Author hereof calculateth Nativities exactly by knowing the Hour of any ones Birth shewing thereby the general Fate of the Native and the greatest Accidents that will happen to any one through the whole course of his Life and the time when they will happen whereby one may withstand much evil and augment the good He also teacheth the whole Art of Astrology and by Astrology resolveth all Lawful Questions This for Mr. John Gadbury at his House in Brick-Court in Westminster SIR HAve you seen Saunder's Apollo Anglicanus for the year 1683 Written as I suppose by Mr. Henry Coley which if you have I question not but that you have seen therein how he unworthily derides both you and me about your Calculation of your ten and twenty-years Ephemerides which I dare presume himself is no way able to compose the like or any that shall have so much truth in it as those have as for the Ephemerides of ten years which you calculated your self he saith it was handsomly Transcribed from Hecker which that I suppose to be a very great Mistake in Mr. Coley and therefore unworthily taxed by him in an Almanack for I have heard you say when you
of a great many men took it from the Persians on promise of quarter but contrary to his promise he caused all Men Women and Children to be barbarously massacred and by this you may see the faith of a Turk And thus much of the signification of this Conjunction and of what is past I proceed now to what is yet to come I come now to speak of the Triple Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Leo in the year of our Lord 1682. And it is a Maxim according to that of Cardan Segm. 5. Aphor. 63. Operationes Planetarum nunquam cessant donec contraria à Planeta vel Stella fixa aut signi parte contrariae qualitatis impedimentur vel in Solis radios incidant The operation of the Planets never cease until they are impedited by a contrary Planet or fixed Star or from part of the Sign of contrary quality or when they fall into combustion viz. into the rayes of the Sun In this Conjunction those Planets are not in evil aspects of either the Sun or Mars therefore no great matter of their effects could operate at the time of this Conjunction but about the beginning of November 1682. the Sun came to the Square of both Saturn and Jupiter and also of the place of the Conjunction at which time the effects began to operate though but slowly but about the latter end of January following the Sun came to the Opposition of both Saturn and Jupiter and the place of the Conjunction this insinuated mischief into the heart of the Turks to proclaim open War against Germany and in the latter end of August and beginning of September when Mars came to the Square of Saturn and the place of the Conjunction the effects began to operate to purpose as we know about Vienna and had not Jupiter been stronger than Saturn Christendom might have had too great a cause to have remembred it for Mars is an Enemy to both Saturn and Jupiter but a little after Jupiter met with the Conjunction of Venus governess of Libra and thereby raised the Siege being the Sign under which Vienna lieth And whereas this Conjunction hapned in Leo we may consider by what hath been already said that Christendom never suffered much under such Conjunctions but hath come off either with honour or victory although they have had many Troubles and Afflictions for under such Conjunctions they have beaten the Turks and almost all that have opposed them Now if I should be asked the reason why the Christians have been so fortunate under the Conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter in Leo Consider that Jupiter in Leo is stronger than Saturn there and disposeth of Saturn in his own Triplicity for Saturn being Perigrine and in his Detriment he is as a man in custody of his Enemy forsaken of his Friend and not able to work the evil effects he might do if he were strong either in his own House or Exaltation for what hurt can an envious man do when he is bound in Prison and forsaken of his Friends Saturn can do no more in this Conjunction neither can Kingdoms nor People under Saturn but envy the happiness of Religions Countreys and Persons under Leo and not under Leo only but those that be under any Sign that is in Sextile or Trine to Leo which are Libra Sagitary Aries and Gemini But here peradventure I may be asked the Question why Vienna in Austria being under Libra sped so ill To that I answer Had it not been for this Conjunction it might have sped worse for the Besieging of Vienna was not wholly occasioned by the Conjunction but rather by the last Comet that appeared in 1682 and passed through Libra and the Conjunction may well be reputed the Raising of the Siege at Vienna or if any one will have it to proceed from the Conjunction only it matters not for it is no more than I told you before that Saturn or the Turks by him represented would shew their Envy to Religion Countries Cities and Persons under Leo and under Signs in Sextile or Trine to Leo but would want strength and power to destroy them for if we compute the Loss that the Turks have sustained by that Siege both in Substance and People and compare it with the Loss of the Christians we may say that the Conjunction was not prejudicial but rather beneficial to Christendom and prejudicial to the Turks Yet I do not say but these Places under Leo and in Sextile and Trine to it may have Troubles but their Enemies shall not have power to prevail against them to overcome them for though Saturn be the most superior yet being out of all his essential Dignities he shall be forced to seek to and comply with the Sun and Jupiter and that upon their terms and not upon his own But these Regions Countries and Cities under Aquarius being in opposition to Leo and those in square which are Taurus and Scorpio will be like to be most sufferers under this Conjunction by one means or other either by War Famine Sickness or Inundations of Waters c. for certainly if those under the Sextiles and Trines partake of Evil much more those under the Squares and Oppositions will be Sufferers by their effects as may be seen by this following example being yet in the memory of many thousands now living in England In the year 1663. there was a Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Sagitary and Gemini is the opposite Sign London being under it what sad fates did London undergo soon after for in the year 1665 there was a lamentable Plague and in 1666. the City almost consumed with Fire many more sad Accidents I could instance but let this suffice at this time And because that every one that may happen to read this Book may not be an Artist good enough to know what places are under the Signs before mentioned I will here insert the Names of some Countries and Cities under Leo and under the Signs in Opposition and Square to it which are as followeth Under Leo are Italy Sicily Bohemia the Alps Gallia Togata Apuleia Phoenicia and part of Turky Cities Damascus Syracuse Rome Ravinna Cremona Ulms Prague Lints Confluentia Bristol c. Under Aquarius are Samaria Amazonia Tartaria Muscovia Westphalia Mosel Aethiopia Media Arabia the desart Cities Hamborough Breme Montserat Pisarum Ingoldstad and Trent c. Under Taurus are Russia Polonia major Lorrain Campagnia Helvetia Switzerland Persia Cyprus Parthia Ireland Cities Parma Nants Bononia Sena Mantua Sicila Tigur Tarentum Lucern Lipsic c. Under Scorpio are Norway the Higher Bavaria Campagena Cappadocia Idumea Catalonia Barbary Fez Cities Gaunt Algera Messina in Italy Frankfort upon Odar Valentia and Catalonia in Spain Thus I have shewed some of the Places under the Signs in which the effects of this Conjunction is like to be most powerful and for the time of the future effects it is most like to be when the Sun or Mars shall behold Saturn Jupiter