French and other Matters

G’s final CM article provides a wealth of biographical information and sees him back to his full powers.

The Conjuror’s Magazine, 2: 24 (July 1793) pp.516-18.

FRENCH AFFAIRS

A FRENCH emigrant, at the time noted in the annexed figure, ¹ came into a company where I was, and asserted, that the news of the rebels being beaten from Nantz, as received from Paris was false; and had the impudence to propagate, that they had taken peaceable possession of that town, without a man lost on either side—he spoke in his own language, wherein I am not skilled. A lady asked me if I believed that the rebels had been driven from Nantz with the slaughter reported? I answered, ‘ Yes.’ ² ‘This man says the contrary,’ and repeated his story. ‘It is a lie; I never heard one of the reports of the Emigrants, though there is a fresh one whenever I come to your house, true.’ I then erected this figure; Mercury in partile, square Saturn is enough, and as Saturn is lord of the ascendant, I believe that, the person who uttered the lie, made it.

But, exclusive of the figure, he, unfortunately for him, found me on ground where I knew every inch, for the lady whom he visited I had been the instrument of fixing in that house, and she was from Nantz—and I well knew that the murderous power of her nominal friends (for she is a worthy woman herself) had been taken away at the period mentioned, and transferred, to those whom they had oppressed.

I also observed to the lady of the house, who understands astrology, that Sun very lately separated from trine Jupiter, he getting direct, and Moon from trine Venus and sextile Mercury rendering their beneficent light in a sign where they both had dignities to the new planet, ³ were incontrovertible and decisive signs that the patriots and saints had triumphed, and would triumph. The Moon just removing from, but yet on, the cusp of the 8th, shewed that the persons signified by the ascendant had been slaughtered, and would continue to be slaughtered. And the ascendant was not only the general significator of him who announced the business in question, but it was my own seventh, and open enemies; ⁴ for, with W. E.’s permission, I will just state a factor two: I was going to him one day, very deeply impressed indeed, with intent to ask a question of the 7th house. His own ascendant is Aquarius 15 deg. He met me full butt opposite the clock of the Horse Guards, spoke first, and Aquarius 17 deg. ascended.⁵ Now, whether Leo 19 deg, and some minutes, be my ascendant or not; if I have met with one question of enemies on marriage, where Aquarius 19 deg. either ascended or had Mars or some distinguished planet on it, I aver, that I have met with fifty. Mine is the only birth where my father has put minutes down; he was curious in keeping time, for, exclusive of a stone dial affixed to the house, he kept a ring dial, whereby he often regulated; all my relations have given me the time rather earlier than later.⁶ The image ascending with the 20th of Leo is a messenger, and I am the common messenger of all my friends, and, during less than three years that I served in the navy, which I entered in February 1779, it was my lot to come home twice from America in a vessel with dispatches, once with the capture of Charlestown, and again with the news of Prince William’s arrival: who, with 18 deg. Leo ascending has followed me every where—into the navy, to New York, on board the Warwick, to Antigua, the place of my birth, ⁷ to England again, and now to friendship with France. Besides this, he was always a favourite with me.

What W. E. said, had, however, great weight with me, because my person certainly met the description of Mars in Virgo and Mercury in Scorpio. I wished to myself to see some person unequivocally under Leo, and with nearly the same configuration. The next time that I called on W. E. he told me incidentally that a man had been with him nearly like me, who fancied he was born under Leo as well as I, but that he was palpably Virgo. I made no objection, as I saw it was a tender point; but it was very apropos to my wish, and to clear my scruple.

Lastly, how came W.E. to be my open enemy in this Magazine, both personally and as to France? ⁸ Let him know and remember however, that he had Saturn lord of his ascendant in Cancer, without reception in the 8th, and Mars in Libra; Jupiter also was peregrine.

I.C.S. wishes to be informed by astrologers, why a planet is strong in cazimi, and weak in combustion? I will give him the reason; and, first, a universal canon in similar doubts, which is, compare things invisible, astral, or intellectual, with their known correspondents on earth, and the accidents and reasons of the one will be the accidents and reasons of the other. This applies in the present case thus: Sun is a monarch; and persons in the purlieus of a court, such as guards, &c. are in constant awe of majesty, are under vigilant discipline, and, if they can call their life and property their own, cannot call a moment of their time, nor, consequently, their own services their own. But he who is in the bosom of his Sovereign is ‘wonderous strong,’ and tinctures his government.⁹

The allies will not continue to triumph till September; their neck is broken already. Revelations the 11th limits their prevalency against the French (whose late monarch was the head that had a wound by a sword, and did live, i.e. in his image a regent, and in the hearts of all anti-christ) to forty-two months. These I commence on January 14th, three years last January, and end them yesterday, being July 14.

I agree with Swedenborg’s canon for the Apocalypse, that it treats not of the history of the world since Christ, but of the consummation of the New and Eternal. He also observes, that though it be spiritual, those who choose to understand it naturally, may—I do choose to understand it in the sense of the letter, and, accordingly, in this instance, I take the usual calendar months of Europe.¹⁰

P. S. I gave the Editor my paper, stating July 14th as the period when the victories and troubles of the allies were to cease, on the 15th instant. Accounts are now arrived of Marat’s having been on that day murdered. His death bears thus: the French have lost their Archangel but not their God—consequently, there is now no medium between them and their God, and they cease to be vincible. Marat was their chief; he was so steady, so fierce, and so enlightened a Republican, that if they had acted contrary to him, their revolution must have been subverted, and by acting subordinately to him, they would have made him King. It was then a proud and auspicious day for the Republic when he fell—for now, no individual among them, but yet the aggregate, possesses his zeal. The fire now has the benefit of diffusion without dissipation, and while it has lost locality retains its heat, and is, to its extremes, a furnace.

The allies are going to desperate war against each other—Austria against England.

Notes

[EDITOR: The time must be 9:05 p.m. for Aquarius to be in the ascendant on the given day. ‘3 hours Mercury’ would refer to the planetary hour, but Mercury’s hour is the second hour after sunset.] ↩︎
[EDITOR: Nantz – Nantes, which was under siege by the Vendée rebels. The city did not fall to the rebels, and the rebellion was eventually crushed.] ↩︎
[EDITOR: Uranus see note CM 6, Jan 1792, p.173]. ↩︎
[EDITOR: G has Leo 19° as his ascendant which sign and degree is directly opposite Aquarius 19°. He goes on to explain how this sign is associated with his enemies]. ↩︎
[EDITOR: Full butt – head on. For G this correspondence with the opposition between their ascendants, is added evidence that Leo 19° is his own ascendant]. ↩︎
[EDITOR: G is referring back to an earlier argument with W. E. over his correct rising sign. This is the argument over the natal figure of person 2 published (under pseudonym ‘Omega’) by G in CM 4, Nov 1791. For the identification of person 2 with G himself see William Gilbert’s Date of Birth.] ↩︎
[EDITOR: G joined the Perseus in English Harbour, Antigua on 1 February 1779, as Captain Elphinstone’s servant – the usual entry position for a young gentleman embarking on a naval career. He was discharged on 31 March 1780 at Charleston and his subsequent service has not yet been traced. Prince William Henry (b. 21 Aug 1765) joined the Navy on 15 June 1779; he did sail to Antigua, and to New York. I don’t think G is claiming to have a friendship with the Prince (pace Schuchard): he is pointing out these correspondences as further proof that his own rising sign must be Leo 19°.] ↩︎
[EDITOR: This is an astrological point – a further proof of their opposed ascendants, G places W. E.’s ascendant in G’s 7th house of ‘open enemies’]. ↩︎
[EDITOR: I.C.S.’s query in CM II, 23, Jun 1793, p.418 explains the terms:
‘All the authors I have read, ancient and modern, tell me that when a planet is not above 8 degrees 30 min. distant from the Sun, either before, or after him, he is said to be in combustion, which they all suppose a great debility, &c. A planet is said to be in cazimi, when it is not above 17 min. distant from the centre of the Sun, and is reckoned by them a great fortitude to any planet; but how [should it] be so, when combustion is so grand a debility[?]’] ↩︎
[EDITOR: The canon is used to convert prophetic time into longer periods. See G’s To the Rev. Beere. Here G is opting for a literal interpretation of Rev. 11:2’s ‘forty and two months’, in the sense of current calendar months. He doesn’t mention that the next verse 11:3 gives this period as 1260 days (i.e. 42 X 30-day months)]. ↩︎