People who question the basis of astrology—and there are plenty of them due to today’s sweeping misrepresentations of all things astrological—frequently raise the question of characteristics bestowed upon individuals at the time and place of birth. They wonder, for example, about two people born at the same time and same place. There are some anecdotal legends regarding the situation, but one of the most famous and well-documented examples I’ve run across is cited by historian Benson Bobrick in his 2005 book The Fated Sky: Astrology in History. And I quote:
One such famous case involved an English subject and his king. On June 4, 1738, in the parish of St. Martins-in-the-Fields, two boys were born less than a minute apart. One was William Frederick, later crowned George III, King of England; the other, James Hemmings, an ironmonger’s son. Widely separated by class, yet bound to a parallel fate, these two men, each in his own social sphere, lived out the edict of his stars. In October 1760, when George III succeeded his father on the throne, thereby fulfilling the purpose to which he was born, Hemmings took over his father’s business. Both men were married on September 8, 1761, fathered the same number of children (even, weirdly, the same number of boys and girls), suffered the same accidents, succumbed to the same diseases, and died within less than an hour of each other on Saturday, January 29, 1820.
2 comments:
Thanks for posting, Greg! This year I have become very interested in astrology and admit to being a full-fledged believer in birth charts! Given that we are birthed by the cosmos, how could that not hold influence over our lifetimes? In fact, I wonder if our spirits don't choose the cosmic setting they desire to be born under, predestined by what we need to learn in this lifetime.
Hey, Angela, great to see you here! Happy Holidays!
I would recommend reading Bobrick's "The Fated Sky," from which I lifted this quote. It's fairly dense at times, but is incredibly revealing, especially regarding the differences between "traditional" astrology (very accurate) and today's version, which is more of a psychological map and fraught with misinterpretations.
From my reading into the topic, I know there definitely is a school of thought supporting your theory on time of birth according to what needs to be accomplished. In a branch of astrology called Horary ~ geared to answer specific questions ~ the belief (since the 1600s if not earlier) is that people unconsciously await the appropriate time to even ask their question. Then the astrologer casts the chart based on the time of the question, sometimes with remarkably accurate results.
Stay warm up there in the arctic!
~G.
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