On 5/16/2012 @ 10:20 PM, David Mattichak doth schreibble:
>
> As a Hermetic Magician I have had little use for astrology in actual
> practice except for using it to calculate the direction of a particular
> planet at a particular time for practical purposes. I have studied it as
> a method of divination but as it is less practical than Tarot I have
> never really seen the need to focus on it very much. The scant
> astrological instructions in the Golden Dawn is generally enough to get
> by and as the base of all of the symbolism is qaballistic even when I do
> make an astrological interpretation I relate the signs and the planets
> to their qaballistic correspondences.

Hi, David!


Yes, there is very little practical astrology to be found
in the Golden Dawn material, or in most contemporary
astrological texts for that matter.

Such has been the case, ever since the wily William F. Allan
(aka 'Alan Leo') executed his courtroom amputation of natal
astrology from the struggling-but-yet-whole body of astrology
entire:

' In the midst of his success, Leo was hauled into court in
May 1914 on the charge of "fortune-telling," but was acquitted
on a legal technicality. In July 1917 the law was after him again,
and this time he lost the case and was fined 25 pounds sterling
(about $2,500 in today's currency).

His lawyer advised him that the prediction of psychological
tendencies rather than specific events would not be considered
to be "fortune-telling."

This was perhaps the turning point in horoscope delineation.

Thereafter, what has more recently been called "event-oriented
astrology" gradually receded in favor of character analysis and
vague descriptions of possible areas of psychological harmony
or stress, sometimes degenerating into what has been termed
"psycho-babble." '

~ from:

*A History of Horoscopic Astrology*
by James H. Holden, page 207.
(Preview @GoogleBooks)
http://tinyurl.com/7rm3zbe

Horary, electional, architectural, medical, telesmatic, musical,
magical, alchemical, daemonic astrology - the 'bones and sinews'
- the eventual and operative as opposed to the purely psychological
and speculative side of astrology - all of astrology "from the
neck down" - was committed to its deathbed and walled off by legal
strictures.

And there it largely remains to this day, still throbbing away
insistently like Poe's telltale heart.

Those of you with an interest in reclaiming astrology will be
delighted to find an enormous body of original and authentic
work, freely available, on the SkyScript website:

*Study Library - Free Texts on the Web*
@SkyScript.co.uk
http://tinyurl.com/2g7k6p

For those of you interested in Electional Astrology, I particularly
recommend Coley's *Clavis Astrologiae Elimata: Key to the Whole Art
of Astrology* available as a .PDF by way of SkyScript and hosted at
Astrologia Medieval:

http://www.astrologiamedieval.com/

Ramesey's *Astrology Restored* is another excellent text that can
be downloaded by way of SkyScript and from Astrologia Medieval.

See also:

*Astrology: Between Religion and the Empirical*
by Dr. Gustav-Adolf Schoener
Translated by Shane Denson
@ Esoterica: Association for the Study of Esotericism
http://tinyurl.com/3wz5fu3

*The Astrology of Marsilio Ficino: Divination or Science?*
by Angela Voss
@Centre Universitaire de Recherche en Astrologie / CURA
http://tinyurl.com/acozb

In much the same way that Geomancy is based upon Astrology, so
too is the Tarot.

But there is /also/ the matter of the Tarot card images themselves,
which are a subset of the astrological images found in Agrippa and
Abano.

See:

*Agrippa's Decan Images and the Tarot*
http://tinyurl.com/5545w

' The Images of the Degrees from Johannes Engel's *Astrolabium Planum* '
http://tinyurl.com/clv453

There is a full colour edition of Johnny Angel's *Astrolabium Planum*
available in the *Heidelberger Schicksalsbuch* kept in Heidelberg
University library, in *Codex Palatinus Germanicus 832*.

Here is a link to the first page of the *Astrolabium* within that 
compilation:

*Codex Palatinus Germanicus 832:
Heidelberger Schicksalsbuch:
Astrolabium Planum*
Regensburg, 1491.
http://tinyurl.com/2epfduj

All of the images found in the older Tarot decks are drawn from these 
images.

See also:

*Hercules and the Iconography of the Visconti-Sforza Triumph of Force*
by Ross Caldwell
http://tinyurl.com/mxdg3

Cors in Manu Domine,


~ Khem Caigan
<[log in to unmask]>

"Heat and Moisture are Active to Generation;
Cold and Dryness are Passive, in and to each thing;
Fire and Air, Active by Elementation;
Water and Earth, Passive to Generation."

'Of the Division of Chaos'
-Dr. Simon Forman