Planets and People.
Wisdom of the Mystic Path Revealed / Devoted to the Science of Occult Forces--Astronomy--Vibration--Magnetism--life. The Mystery of the Worlds, Suns and System / Ormsby's Annual Prognostigator and Year Book of the Heavens. Forecast of the Future. Business, health, marriage, births, social, political, religious, and scientific questions for . . . Mysteries of Our Solar System.
Other titles: Planets and People's Monthly
1895--1929 Monthly, then quarterly, then annual
Chicago, IL. Publisher: Ormsby & Sprague. Editor: Frank Earl Ormsby, editor and proprietor, E. Sprague, manager; then Ormsby alone.
Succeeds: American Journal of Palmistry (merged into Planets and People, May 1898)
1/1, January 1895-1929. 36-160 pp., 6 x 9, $2.00-$2.50, then $1.00 a year. Illustrated and containing (heliocentric) astrological charts.

In May 1898 the American Journal of Palmistry, founded and edited by Comte C. de Saint-Germain, was merged into the journal and continued as a "special illustrated department" under Saint-Germain's direction. Advertised in Religio-Philosophical Journal 35/1 (July 7, 1898): 8: "It deals with Wonderful Mysteries from the Sun--the Lost Knowledge of the Ancients, and the Living Wonders of the present time. Astronomy, Astrology, Palmistry, Phrenology, Theosophy, Mystery, Magic, Symbolism." Also advertised in The Progressive Thinker, March 16, 1895, and in Intelligence, November 1897. The publisher also put out an annual under the same name: Planets and People: Ormsby's Annual Prognosticator and Year-Book of the Heavens (Chicago: F.E. Ormsby, 1895). This was published at least until 1906, when it is listed in The Annual American Catalogue. The journal is listed in Notes and Queries, January 1900, which says that the "predicting journal will be published in one complete volume for 1900." Rowell's American Newspaper Directory for 1900 says the journal had a circulation of less than 1,000. The journal carried an "Advance Weekly Star Report and Prognostication for the Future" to guide readers in their daily life, and regularly had sections on palmistry, phrenology, cartomancy, psychometry, physical fitness, breathing, etc., and frequent references to Olney H. Richmond and his Order of the Magi in Chicago. Ormsby was called "a pupil of Richmond's" by Richmond's biographer, and later called himself "A Magian Mystic." He was also associated with other of the contemporary Chicago mages, including Uriel Buchanan, Prof. L.H. Anderson, and others. He was also secretary of Cora L.V. Richmond's First Society of Spiritualists. Ormsby was an astrologer and a business man and used the journal to advertise his own books and his patented horoscope forms, chart of astrological/zodiacal palmistry, and reformed calendar (13 months) as well as his services in calculating "Personal Certificates of the Magnetic Forces or Law of Being" ($10.00). He also sold occult paraphernalia (like his line of magic mirrors in plush-lined cases--$15-25), and in the late 1890s began the Pyramid and Cube University, whose Basic Principles were "Astronomical, Universal and Eternal,[having] within its scope the study of all phenomena of whatsoever name or kind, and the various branches, graded to suit the development of individuals from mere babes of four years to gray haired adults of eighty, means an undertaking worthy the attention of every progressive mind." His original business partner, Sprague, used the journal to tout his own line of "Health Producers" (bath and tooth brushes, etc.). University of Massachusetts; McGill University; University of North Carolina; Center for Research Libraries.

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