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The Conjuror’s Magazine

No 8 (March1792) p.342.

 The astrological comparison with Spring 1788 as a time of crisis, may have personal as well as political meaning. Gilbert describes in his footnote writing letters to the Prime Minister William Pitt in 1788, which was also the year of his confinement in Henderson's asylum. Writing letters to political leaders is just above writing to newspapers on the scale of rising mania.  Now he sees the same crisis point returning, only this time around it's much more severe.

SPRING QUARTER NOTIFICATIONS.

LAST, }	ARE THE MAGICAL NAMES OF THIS QUARTER. [E1]
IANTHE, }

.

THE Spring Ascendant of 1788, was Scorpio 13°, now it is Scorpio 8°  [E2]. Mercury, then, lord of the sign intercepted in the 10th, was retiring retrograde from nearly the square of Mars, and was combust: but let it be remembered, in sextile of Jupiter. Mercury is in both lord of the house of death, and Mars Lord of the ascendant and sixth, the house of sickness: Mercury is in the present lord of the 11th, viz. of friends, of the treasury, of fifth sisters or brothers, of hopes, of great men, &c. &c. His position at present is opposition to Mars mutually applying in combustion, on the cusp of the 5th [E3], in fall and detriment, no sextile of Jupiter nor of any one else. The cusp of 11th house at that new moon from whence I drew my notices in No. VII, now ascends: that house was afflicted then, as I fully expressed; it is reduplicatively and continuously afflicted now. I say neither blood nor treasure is spared, and there is pilfering as well as squandering in the public chest: the first six degrees of Scorpio have more ARBITRARY power than any part of the zodiac; they ascended on England’s treasure, and now they ascend on England’s people. The last conjunction of Jupiter and Moon was in them.: Saturn lord by exaltation of 12th and posited in the 6th, is lord of the hour of this ingress: Mercury is under the earth, Mars above the earth on the cusp of the 11th: Jupiter has just withdrawn his beams from the eastern horizon or ascendant, and is entering the house of labour and sorrow, but in trine Venus and Moon from 4th, and on the other hand, in little more than seven weeks sustains oppositions from Sun Mercury Saturn and Venus in cardinal and violent signs, and is retrograde to meet THEM ALL.

This return with decision (for the square Mercury and Mars was refrained from in 1788, and afterwards prevented by the sextile Jupiter, as was also the square of Sun and Mars) this return with decision I say, to the positions of 1788, naturally produces reflexion: Before I write MY reflexion, I shall premise, that the mischief is, by a small difference in the position of the signs, transferred from the king, whom in 1788 [1] it threatened, to the aristocracy [2] , while I see nothing to prevent the blow! Sun has given his opposition to Mars already and Mercury succeeds: Venus and Moon follow rapidly and take a quincunx, called a bad aspect by Kepler, in their way and an opposite zodiacal parallel, which Mercury has already touched.

Having premised all that is necessary to point the direction of events, my reflexion is, Luke xiii, 7,8,9. “These THREE years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about and dung it—and if it bear FRUIT well! And IF NOT—after that (the FOURTH year) THOU SHALT CUT IT DOWN!” B.

[1] And if Mr. PITT will refer to my letters in that year, he will find that Mercury did refrain from the last vehemence of attack on the King. W. G..

[2] By aristocracy, I mean, not only great men; for if I did, my view would either be limited indeed, or I should slide into a horrible catachresis; but I also mean those great principles, things, NOTHINGS, that enslave a people; whether personified, incorporated, or titled, or not.

N.B. The King of Prussia must now be reduced to great humiliation. He has proceeded too far for France not to chastise him soundly; Catherine the m…..r must be whipt too: The extinction of the house of Austria is at hand: In a word, all the opposers of France shall perish, and perish soon.[E4] I am explicit. With respect to individual fate, I have not the Nativity of any King out of England.

Editorial Notes

[E1] Unlike the planetary names and numbers listed by Gilbert on page 80, I can find no trace of these in Henry Cornelius Agrippa, nor Arbatel.

[E2] Although the data from astro.com matches Gilbert's 13° Scorpio ascendant for Spring 1788 (when Sun enters Aries 10:18 p.m. 19 Mar 1788), the chart for 9:32 p.m. Mon 19 March 1792 when Sun enters Aries, has ascendant 5° Scorpio where Gilbert writes 8°. Given that he goes on to say "the first six degrees of Scorpio have more ARBITRARY power than any part of the zodiac" it is possible that he meant to write 5.

[E3] The original has “cusp or the 5th.” As Mercury is on the cusp of the 5^th house, this seems a safe amendment.

[E4] See the note in his previous 'Astrological Notice'. War between France and her European neighbours  is becoming increasingly probable, and Gilbert has understood Friedrich Wilhelm II's 7 February pact with Emperor Leopold II as a decision to oppose the progress of the French Revolution. "Catherine the m.....r ": alluding to Catherine II of Russia's supposed murders of the child Tsar Ivan VI and her husband Peter III.