In 1665 plague hit London. Hard. In 1666 fire destroyed much of it. Did the gods conspire to lay the city and its people in ruins?
No. The two incidents were unhappy juxtaposed circumstances, but you can imagine the discussions among the largely uneducated people of the time. Imagination fed by the happenstance of some passing comets and the conjunction of some planets produced the usual wild speculations about causes. In his account of the plague, Dr. Nathan Hodges addressed the notion many Londoners of the time held about causes:
"BUT as soon as it was rumoured amongst the common People, who are always enough astonished at any Thing new, that the Plague was in the City… for it was a received Notion amongst the common People, that the Plague visited England once in Twenty Years; as if after a certain Interval, by some inevitable Necessity, it must return again. But although this Conceit, how well soever justify’d by past Experiences, did not so much obtain with Persons of more Judgment [italics mine], yet this may be affirmed, that it greatly contributed, amongst the Populace, both to propagate and inflame the Contagion, by the strong Impressions it made upon their Minds.
"AND these frightful Apprehensions were not a little increased by the Predictions of Astrologers, from the Conjunctions of Stars, and the Appearances of Comets; for although but little Regard was given to such Things by Persons of Thought, yet Experience daily shewed, what Influence they had with the meaner Sort, whose Spirits being manifestly sunk by such Fears, rendered their Constitutions less able to resist the Contagion. Whosoever duly considers it, can never imagine that this Pestilence had its Origin from any Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, in Sagitarius on the Tenth of October, or from a Conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the same Sign on the Twelfth of November, which was the common Opinion; for all the Good that happens during the like Conjunctions is assignable to the same Causes.
"THE like Judgment is to be made of Comets, how terrible soever they may be in their Aspects, and whether they are produced in the higher Regions from a Conglomeration of many Stars, and returning at certain Periods; or whether they are lower, and the Production of sulphureous Exhalations, kindled in our own Atmosphere; For there is nothing strange in the Accension of heterogeneous Particles into a Flame, upon their rapid Occursions and Collisions against each other, howsoever5 terrible the Tracks of such Light may be circumstanced. The People therefore were frightned without Reason at such Things, and the Mischief was much more in the Predictions of the Star-Gazers, than in the Stars themselves: Nothing could however conquer these sad Impressions, so powerful were they amongst the Populace, who anticipated their unhappy Fate with their Fears, and precipitated their own Destruction" (p. 4).*
Let me guess. You’re thinking one of two things: “Well, they were uneducated, especially with regard to planets, comets, and the microscopic sources of disease” or “Sounds just like the masses today, scapegoating whatever or whomever they deem guilty.” You could, of course, hold both thoughts simultaneously. After all, there are still astrologers among us, and the general population, regardless of attempts of science teachers everywhere, still shows signs of seventeenth-century ignorance. Plus, scapegoating is the first refuge of a frightened mind.
Want an example? CNN anchor Deb Feyerick asked Bill Nye whether a passing asteroid was caused by global warming. Look through Twitter, and you’ll see tweets connecting global warming to earthquakes (posted on Moonbattery at http://moonbattery.com/?p=88041 ), such as “…..so can we agree #globalwarming is real now…hurricane after hurricane.. earth quake after quake.”
Look around. Find those—to use the words of Dr. Hodges—with whom ready scapegoating doesn’t “obtain.” Find persons of “more Judgment.”
Don’t you find it interesting that after Newton, Einstein, and van Leeuwenhoek so many of us live in ignorance about the physical nature of our world?
Maybe not; maybe you think panic and scapegoating are normal. After all, not only do we seem to have missed all those science lessons in school, but we also have national TV announcers and people on Twitter imposing their ignorance on a 24/7 cycle. Every time some planetary conjunction occurs, especially during a syzygy, fright and scapegoating run rampant, and astrologers probably have as strong a following today as they did centuries ago.
Tired of all the scapegoating? You’ll never stop it among “the common People,” but you can be person of “more Judgment” if you want to eliminate scapegoating in your own life.
*Hodges, Nath., M.D., Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665. Printed for E. Bell, at the Cross Keys and Bible in Cornhill; and J. Osborn, at the Oxford-Arms in Lombard-street, 1720, a translation of the original version in Latin and published in the seventeenth century, available online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40106/40106-h/40106-h.htm
No. The two incidents were unhappy juxtaposed circumstances, but you can imagine the discussions among the largely uneducated people of the time. Imagination fed by the happenstance of some passing comets and the conjunction of some planets produced the usual wild speculations about causes. In his account of the plague, Dr. Nathan Hodges addressed the notion many Londoners of the time held about causes:
"BUT as soon as it was rumoured amongst the common People, who are always enough astonished at any Thing new, that the Plague was in the City… for it was a received Notion amongst the common People, that the Plague visited England once in Twenty Years; as if after a certain Interval, by some inevitable Necessity, it must return again. But although this Conceit, how well soever justify’d by past Experiences, did not so much obtain with Persons of more Judgment [italics mine], yet this may be affirmed, that it greatly contributed, amongst the Populace, both to propagate and inflame the Contagion, by the strong Impressions it made upon their Minds.
"AND these frightful Apprehensions were not a little increased by the Predictions of Astrologers, from the Conjunctions of Stars, and the Appearances of Comets; for although but little Regard was given to such Things by Persons of Thought, yet Experience daily shewed, what Influence they had with the meaner Sort, whose Spirits being manifestly sunk by such Fears, rendered their Constitutions less able to resist the Contagion. Whosoever duly considers it, can never imagine that this Pestilence had its Origin from any Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, in Sagitarius on the Tenth of October, or from a Conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the same Sign on the Twelfth of November, which was the common Opinion; for all the Good that happens during the like Conjunctions is assignable to the same Causes.
"THE like Judgment is to be made of Comets, how terrible soever they may be in their Aspects, and whether they are produced in the higher Regions from a Conglomeration of many Stars, and returning at certain Periods; or whether they are lower, and the Production of sulphureous Exhalations, kindled in our own Atmosphere; For there is nothing strange in the Accension of heterogeneous Particles into a Flame, upon their rapid Occursions and Collisions against each other, howsoever5 terrible the Tracks of such Light may be circumstanced. The People therefore were frightned without Reason at such Things, and the Mischief was much more in the Predictions of the Star-Gazers, than in the Stars themselves: Nothing could however conquer these sad Impressions, so powerful were they amongst the Populace, who anticipated their unhappy Fate with their Fears, and precipitated their own Destruction" (p. 4).*
Let me guess. You’re thinking one of two things: “Well, they were uneducated, especially with regard to planets, comets, and the microscopic sources of disease” or “Sounds just like the masses today, scapegoating whatever or whomever they deem guilty.” You could, of course, hold both thoughts simultaneously. After all, there are still astrologers among us, and the general population, regardless of attempts of science teachers everywhere, still shows signs of seventeenth-century ignorance. Plus, scapegoating is the first refuge of a frightened mind.
Want an example? CNN anchor Deb Feyerick asked Bill Nye whether a passing asteroid was caused by global warming. Look through Twitter, and you’ll see tweets connecting global warming to earthquakes (posted on Moonbattery at http://moonbattery.com/?p=88041 ), such as “…..so can we agree #globalwarming is real now…hurricane after hurricane.. earth quake after quake.”
Look around. Find those—to use the words of Dr. Hodges—with whom ready scapegoating doesn’t “obtain.” Find persons of “more Judgment.”
Don’t you find it interesting that after Newton, Einstein, and van Leeuwenhoek so many of us live in ignorance about the physical nature of our world?
Maybe not; maybe you think panic and scapegoating are normal. After all, not only do we seem to have missed all those science lessons in school, but we also have national TV announcers and people on Twitter imposing their ignorance on a 24/7 cycle. Every time some planetary conjunction occurs, especially during a syzygy, fright and scapegoating run rampant, and astrologers probably have as strong a following today as they did centuries ago.
Tired of all the scapegoating? You’ll never stop it among “the common People,” but you can be person of “more Judgment” if you want to eliminate scapegoating in your own life.
*Hodges, Nath., M.D., Loimologia: Or, an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665. Printed for E. Bell, at the Cross Keys and Bible in Cornhill; and J. Osborn, at the Oxford-Arms in Lombard-street, 1720, a translation of the original version in Latin and published in the seventeenth century, available online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40106/40106-h/40106-h.htm
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