The Starry Rubric: Seventeenth-Century English Astrology and Magic

by Alexander Cummins

Seventeenth-century England was a turbulent place to live. It was a century of civil wars, regicide, food riots and plague - a time of millenarian prophets and threatening witches, of radical sects and experiments in Commonwealth. It was also a revolutionary period. The lifting of printing press censorships created a veritable explosion of printed from popular almanacs and calendars to handbooks of do-it yourself medicine, from vulgate Bibles to tomes of new, investigative natural philosophy and grimoires of occult science and ritual magic.
In the midst of all this, the astrologer-magicians of seventeenth-century England drew their charts of the heavens, divining answers and prescribing magical medicines.
In The Starry Rubric , Alexander Cummins shows how astrology and magic offered analysis, interpretation, and solutions - locating humanity in a shifting web of interrelation with the stars and, indeed, the cosmos as a whole. Through analysis and example, Cummins demonstrates the ways in which astrology and magic were crucial to early modern perspectives on human life, time, and meaning.

Genres: Astrology, History

166 pages, Hardcover

First published November 29, 2012

About the author

Dr Alexander Cummins, Ph.D. (History, University of Bristol; M.A., History, University of Leeds), is a consultant, poet, diviner and historian. He approaches ritual, divination, and sorcery both as a long-term practitioner and a historian of early modern magic. Dr Cummins has worked as a professional diviner for over a decade: in cafés and bars, at gatherings and festivals, and of course on the internet. He also provides training, workshops, and coaching in many aspects of magical theory and practice. Originally from the Midlands in the UK, Al now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their vast expanse of cat.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

reviewed here: http://enfolding.org/group-book-revie...