William Lilly (9 June 1681) was a seventeenth century English astrologer. He is described as having been a genius at something "that modern mainstream opinion has since decided cannot be done at all" having developed his stature as the most important astrologer in England through his social and political connections as well as going on to have an indelible impact on the future course of Western astrological tradition. Born the son of a

yeoman Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...

farmer in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, Lilly travelled to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

as a youth to take up a servant's position. Seven years later he secured his fortune by marrying his former master's widow, allowing him the leisure to study

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

. In 1644, during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

, he published the first of many popular astrological texts, and in 1647 he published

Christian Astrology ''Christian Astrology'', written in 1647 by the English astrologer William Lilly, is considered to be one of the most important seminal works of Western astrology. William Lilly successively treats the rules of western astrology, horary astrology ...

, a huge compendium of astrological technique. This was the first of its kind to be printed in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

rather than

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, and is said to have tutored "a nation in crisis in the language of the stars". By 1659, Lilly's fame was widely acknowledged and his annual

almanac An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and othe ...

was achieving sales of around 30,000 copies a year. Lilly's autobiography, published towards the end of his life in 1681, at the request of his patron

Elias Ashmole Elias Ashmole (; 23 May 1617 – 18 May 1692) was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he ...

, gives candid accounts of the political events of his era, and biographical details of contemporaries that are unavailable elsewhere. It was described, in the late 18th century, as "one of the most entertaining narratives in our language", in particular for the historical portrayal it leaves of men like

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...

Simon Forman Simon Forman (31 December 1552 – 5 or 12 September 1611) was an Elizabethan astrologer, occultist and herbalist active in London during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I of England. His reputation, however, was severely tarnishe ...

, John Booker,

Edward Kelley Sir Edward Kelley or Kelly, also known as Edward Talbot (; 1 August 1555 – 1597/8), was an English Renaissance occultist and scryer. He is best known for working with John Dee in his magical investigations. Besides the professed ability to ...

, including a whimsical first meeting of

John Napier John Napier of Merchiston (; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. His Latinized name was Ioann ...

and

Henry Briggs Henry Briggs may refer to: *Henry Briggs (mathematician) (1561–1630), English mathematician *Henry Perronet Briggs (1793–1844), English painter *Henry George Briggs (1824–1872), English merchant, traveller, and orientalist *Henry Shaw Briggs ...

, respective co-inventors of the

logarithm In mathematics, the logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation. That means the logarithm of a number to the base is the exponent to which must be raised, to produce . For example, since , the ''logarithm base'' 10 o ...

and Briggsian logarithms, and for its curious tales about the effects of crystals and the appearance of

Queen Mab Queen Mab is a fairy referred to in William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', where "she is the fairies' midwife". Later, she appears in other poetry and literature, and in various guises in drama and cinema. In the play, her activity i ...

. In it, Lilly describes the friendly support of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

during a period in which he faced prosecution for issuing political astrological predictions. He also writes about the 1666

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

, and how he was brought before the committee investigating the cause of the fire, being suspected of involvement because of his publication of images, 15 years earlier, which depicted a city in flames surrounded by coffins. Lilly was a controversial character who was both aided and abetted by powerful friends and enemies. He attracted the attention of many members of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, through the support of Sir

Bulstrode Whitelocke Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke (6 August 1605 – 28 July 1675) was an English lawyer, writer, parliamentarian and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England. Early life He was the eldest son of Sir James Whitelocke and Elizabeth Bulstrode, and was ...

, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, (to whom he dedicated his ''Christian Astrology''), but also accused

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

of engineering charges against him in 1651. To his supporters he was an "English Merlin"; to his detractors he was a "juggling wizard and imposter".

Biography

Early life

Lilly was born on 1 May 1602 in the small village of

Diseworth Diseworth is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Long Whatton and Diseworth, in theNorth West Leicestershire district, in the English county of Leicestershire. It is south of East Midlands Airport and off Junction 23A of t ...

, Leicestershire; the thatched cottage his family lived in still stands near the village church. It was a substantial house for its time, although Lilly's father, (also called William), struggled with the cost of running his farm. By the time Lilly came to school age, his mother, Alice, complained about the family's back-slidings and decayed estate, yet she determined to give her son the best education the family could afford. Lilly was fortunate in receiving a

classical education Classical education may refer to: *''Modern'', educational practices and educational movements: **An education in the Classics, especially in Ancient Greek and Latin **Classical education movement, based on the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) an ...

at the

Grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch () and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire ...

, under John Brinsley, one of the finest teachers of his time. Brinsley was strict in discipline but advocated encouragement and praise, and by the time Lilly left the school in 1619, he was excellently educated and excelled at Latin. This was to serve him well in his later astrological studies, since almost all astrological textbooks were written in Latin at that time. Lilly's hopes of attending

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

were dashed by his father's increasing poverty. His biography records his disappointment at being denied the opportunity that all of his fellow students enjoyed, even though he describes the knowledge of most of them as "defective": A lesser opportunity came through his father's attorney, who recognised Lilly's level of education and recommended him to Gilbert Wright, Master of the

Salters' Company The Worshipful Company of Salters is one of the Livery Company, Livery Companies of the City of London, 9th in order of precedence. The Company originated as the Guild of Corpus Christi, which was granted a Royal Charter of incorporation in 139 ...

and resident of the Strand in London (but formerly of

Market Bosworth Market Bosworth is a market town and civil parish in western Leicestershire, England. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 1,906, increasing to 2,097 at the 2011 census. It is most famously near to the site of the decisive final battle of ...

, Leicestershire). Wright was looking for a literate youth to act as his secretary and general servant, and at that time Lilly's father (then in prison for debt) was very happy to be rid of him, considering that since his son was no good around the farm, he was "good for nothing". With his letter of recommendation and just a few shillings, eighteen-year-old Lilly walked to London alongside a carrier's cart, later recounting "it was a very stormy week, cold and uncomfortable: I footed it all along". Lilly received a warm welcome from Gilbert Wright, and worked as his servant until Wright's death in 1627. His biography recounts how, during these seven years, he was happy to perform all manner of menial tasks for his master; how he nursed Gilbert's wife through breast-cancer, until she died of the illness in 1624; how he survived the

Great Plague of London The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that origi ...

in 1625; how his master married again in 1626 (a widow named Ellen Whitehaire), and then settled upon Lilly an annuity of £20 a year, before his death in May 1627. Within months of Wright's death, the newly widowed Ellen made it clear that, having married twice for money, she was now looking to marry someone who would be loving and look after her, regardless of her suitor's status. Lilly took the "audacious" step of proposing himself, and despite her initial protestations that at 25 years of age Lilly was too young, they married in September of that year, keeping their marriage secret from her friends and family for two years. Lilly describes a contented marriage with Ellen, which continued for six years. Upon her death she left everything to Lilly, of which he reports "it was considerable, very near to the value of one thousand pounds".

Astrological career

The comfortable lifestyle and fortune that Lilly inherited from Ellen, gave him leisure time to frequent sermons and lectures in London society. In 1632, shortly before Ellen's death, he began to study astrology, reading all the books on the subject he could fall in with, and occasionally trying his hand at unravelling mysteries by means of his art. The years 1642 and 1643 were devoted to a careful revision of all his previous reading, and in particular, having lighted on Valentine Naibod's ''Commentary'' on

Alcabitius Abu al-Saqr Abd al-Aziz ibn Uthman ibn Ali al-Qabisi, generally known as Al-Qabisi, (Latinised as Alchabitius or Alcabitius), and sometimes known as ''Alchabiz'', ''Abdelazys'', ''Abdilaziz'' (Arabic:'' 'Abd al-Azîz'', عبدالعزيز ال ...

, he "seriously studied him and found him to be the profoundest author he ever met with." About the same time he tells us that he "did carefully take notice of every grandaction betwixt king and parliament, and did first then incline to believe that as all sublunary affairs depend on superior causes, so there, was: a possibility of discovering them by the configurations of the superior bodies." And, having thereupon "made some essays," he "found encouragement to proceed further, and ultimately framed to himself that method which he ever afterwards followed." Lilly's most comprehensive book was published in 1647 and was entitled

. It is so large that it came in three separate volumes in modern times, and it remains popular even today and has never gone totally out-of-print. It is considered one of the classic texts for the study of traditional astrology from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, in particular

horary astrology Horary astrology is an ancient branch of horoscopic astrology in which an astrologer attempts to answer a question by constructing a horoscope for the exact time at which the question was received and understood by the astrologer. The answer t ...

, which is mainly concerned with predicting future events or investigating unknown elements of current affairs, based on an astrological chart cast for the time a particular question is asked of the astrologer. Worked examples of horary charts are found in Volume 2 of ''Christian Astrology''. He then began to issue his prophetical

s and other works, which met with serious attention from some of the most prominent members of the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

. Lilly was on intimate terms with

William Lenthall William Lenthall (1591–1662) was an English politician of the English Civil War, Civil War period. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Speaker of the House of Commons for a period of almost twenty years, both before ...

the speaker, Sir

Philip Stapleton Sir Philip Stapleton of Wighill and of Warter-on-the-Wolds, Yorkshire (1603 – 18 August 1647) was an English Member of Parliament, a supporter of the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War. His surname is also sometimes spelt Stapylto ...

and others. Even

John Selden John Selden (16 December 1584 – 30 November 1654) was an English jurist, a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned ...

seems to have acknowledged him, and probably the chief difference between him and the mass of the community at the time was that, while others believed in the general truth of astrology, he ventured to specify the future events to which he referred. In 1650, Lilly wrote a preface to Sir Christopher Heydon's ''An Astrological Discourse with Mathematical Demonstrations'', a defence of astrology written about 1608 which was first published posthumously, largely at the expense of

Retirement and death

After the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

he very quickly fell into disrepute. His sympathy with the parliament, which his predictions had generally shown, was not calculated to bring him into royal favour. He came under the lash of Samuel Butler, who, making allowance for some satiric exaggeration, has given in the character of ''

Hudibras ''Hudibras'' is a vigorous satirical poem, written in a mock-heroic style by Samuel Butler (1613–1680), and published in three parts in 1663, 1664 and 1678. The action is set in the last years of the Interregnum, around 1658–60, immediately ...

Sidrophel a probably not very incorrect picture of the man; and, having by this time amassed a tolerable fortune, he bought a small estate at

Hersham Hersham is a village in Surrey, within the M25. Its housing is relatively low-rise and diverse and it has four technology/trading estates. The only contiguous settlement is Walton-on-Thames, its post town. Hersham is served by Hersham and Wal ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, to which he retired, and where he diverted the exercise of his peculiar talents to the practice of

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

. He died in 1681. In 2003 a commemorative plaque was placed next to the disused

Aldwych tube station Aldwych is a List of former and unopened London Underground stations, closed station on the London Underground, located in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, after Strand, London, the street on ...

on the Strand. Lilly lived in a house on the site from 1627 to 1665.

Influence and works

The publication of a facsimile of the original 1647 edition of Lilly's

in 1985 by Regulus Publishing Company Ltd., in the UK, brought about a renaissance in

astrological Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...

scholarship in North America and Europe, and also a transformation of the techniques of modern astrology.

Olivia Barclay Olivia Barclay (12 December 1919 – 1 April 2001) was a British astrologer who played an important role in the revival of traditional forms of astrology in the late 20th century. Much of her focus in the latter part of her life was on the wo ...

and other British astrologers began to unearth Lilly's astrological work, and were influential in the eventual re-publication of ''Christian Astrology''. Besides his 36 annual almanacs published between 1647–82, Lilly's published works also include: * ''Merlinus Anglicus Junior'', 1644. * ''Supernatural Sights and Apparitions seen in London, June 20th 1644'', 1644. * ''The Prophecy of the White King'', 1644. * ''England's Prophetical Merlin'', 1644. * ''Collections of Prophecies'', 1646. *

, 1647. * ''The World's Catastrophe, or Europe's many mutations 1666'', 1647; which includes 'A Whip for Wharton'; some copies also include Elias Ashmole's translations of ''The Prophecies of Ambrose Merlin, with a Key'', and ''Trithemius, or the Government of the World by presiding Angels''. * ''An Astrologicall Prediction of the Occurrences in England for the years 1648, 1649, 1650'', London, 1648, with 'Hamilton's nativity', and a dedication addressed to the House of Commons. * ''Monarchy or No Monarchy'', 1651. * ''Mr. Lillyes Prognostications of 1667, predicting the Prosperity … of the English and their glorious Victories … by Land and Sea'', 1667. * ''The dangerous Condition of the United Provinces prognosticated'', 1672. * ''Mr. Lillies late Prophecy come to pass concerning the present War and the late unseasonableness of the Weather'', 1673. * ''Mr. Lillies Prophesie of a General Peace'', 1674. * ''Mr. Lillies Prophecy, or a sober Prediction of a Peace between the French and the Dutch and their Allies'', 1675. * ''Anima Astrologiae, or a Guide for Astrologers, being translated from Guido Bonatus, and Cardan's seaven Segments, with a new Table of the Fixed Stars, rectified for several years to come'', 1676. * ''Mr Lillies Astrological Predictions for 1677, proving the happy Condition of this our Nation for the Year ensuing'', 1676. * ''Mr. Lillies Prediction concerning the many lamentable Fires which have lately happened, with a full Account of Fires at Home and Abroad'', 1676. * ''Strange News from the East, or a sober Account of the Comet or blazing Star that has been seen several Mornings of late'', 1677. * ''Lillies New Prophecy relating to the Year'', 1678. * ''William Lilly's History of His Life and Times by William Lilly'', 1681. * ''Fore-Warn'd, Fore-Arm'd, or England's Timely Warning in general, and London's in particular'', 1682. * ''Catastrophe Mundi, Mr. Lilly's Hieroglyphicks exactly cut'', 1683, a reissue of the appendix to ''Monarchy or No Monarchy'', 1651.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * Patrick Curry, ''Prophecy and Power: Astrology in Early Modern England'', Princeton University Press, 1989. * * * * * * Lilly, William (1647). ''Christian Astrology'', London, John Partridge. * * *

External links

* Lilly's entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 33; from Wikisource. * *
Lilly's account of his life and the story of Christian Astrology
— PDF download of Lilly's introduction to his work, with annotations by Deborah Houlding {{DEFAULTSORT:Lilly, William 1602 births 1681 deaths Christian astrologers English astrologers English astrological writers English occultists People from North West Leicestershire District People from Hersham