Astrology and the Seventeenth Century Mind: William Lilly and the Language of the Stars

This text presents a picture of astrology in the early modern period. It sets out to describe the whole spectrum of the astrological tradition in England on the eve of its eclipse. The study focuses on the 17th century's premier practitioner, William Lilly. The author reveals him as an astrological leveller, the first to initiate readers into this ancient art. She traces through Lilly's work the major diagnostic categories of comets, eclipses, mock suns, and the historiography of conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn as well as multifaceted astrological enciphering, showing how Lilly exploited this knowledge to deploy astrology's entire arsenal in justifying the defeat and beheading of England's annointed sovereign, Charles I. In doing so the book attempts to show the innate function of astrology as a language and universal explanatory system, and to offer an explanation for the decline of astrology.