International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals

   

Periodical: The Astrologers' Magazine [Williams]

Summary:  Astrologers' Magazine and Philosophical Miscellany, The.
Being an Advocate for Pure Astrology.
1857–1858 Monthly
London, England. Language: English.
Publisher: J. Allen. Succeeded by: Mercurius's Predicting Almanac (1876-1880)

1/1, September 1857. 32 pp., 6d. an issue. Edward Vaughn Williams (1817-before 1880), who described himself as Professor of Astral Prophecy and Professor of the Sidereal Art, was a practicing astrologer in London. He proclaimed himself to be "Successor to T[homas]. Thomas Oxley, Esq." The journal was almost exclusively devoted to astrology but contained occasional articles or letters on the "Botanical Practice of Physics" and "astro-phrenology." Its real purpose seems to have been as an advertisement for Vaughan's New Calculating Instrument or Belt Planisphere (with explanatory key) to calculate nativities (priced £2 10s to £5) and for his services as an astrologer (one-year horoscope for £1 1s 6d., life horoscope for £5). The journal seems to have struggled from the beginning and Vaughan was compelled to offer his services half off in exchange for a new paid subscription. Williams figured as complaining witness in a criminal assault trial reported in the Birmingham Journal for January 26, 1850, when a relative of a man whose suicide Williams had predicted in his almanack the year before horsewhipped him. At the trial Williams identified himself as the "founder and President of the true Astral Prophetic Society, or School of Prophets of England," and bragged of the wonderful effects of his "astro-medical botany" which could "relieve or completely cure any one suffering from any disease, no matter what doctors may have given them up." He acknowledged on the witness stand that he had not foreseen the horsewhipping.

Other Sources:
Issues:Astrologers Magazine V1 N1 1857 Sep
Astrologers Magazine V1 N2 1857 Oct
Astrologers Magazine V1 N4 1858 Jan
Astrologers Magazine V1 N6 1858 Mar
Astrologers Magazine V1 N7 1858 Apr
Astrologers Magazine V1 N8 1858 May
Claude-Generated Themes:   The Astrologer's Magazine was a nineteenth-century English astrological journal and a technically demanding one, addressed to readers expected to own an ephemeris and to calculate for themselves. Its pages run on the working astrologer's material — nativities, ascendants, the zodiac and its aspects — across both branches of the art, the natal casework and the mundane prediction that read planetary configurations for the fate of nations. Two other concerns run through it. The first is apologetic: an article distinguishes the revealed or spiritual prophecy given for the benefit of the church from the natural prophecy the astrologer claims, and notes drily that those most insistent on the lawfulness of the first regard any attempt at the second with an extremely jealous eye. Another states the old objection squarely — if the natural influences touch all things as far as day and night extend, man must come under them too, and yet what authority can the stars pretend over him, since they cannot speak to him and ought not to command him. The second concern is teaching: the editor invites capable students to work the problems out in full, by whatever system they favour, and promises to print the best of what they send. A small sideline of magic and alchemy sits at the edges, but the magazine is astrology from front to back.

Generated by Claude from the periodical's digitized text; a thematic reading, not a bibliographic description.
Topics:Astrology | Phrenology and Physiognomy