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(X.) HISTORY - Towards the Dark

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Bianca
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« on: August 18, 2007, 07:17:04 am »








The almanacs sold like hot cakes at every social level. Though the nobility and gentry could well afford their own astrologers if they wished (and many of them did wish), they also bought the annuals, just as people today buy do-it-yourself health books to read in their doctors' waiting rooms.

There is an almanac of 1624 with the autograph of Charles I inside the cover; Lord Burghley, Elizabeth's Treasurer, had a series in his library, some annotated in his own hand; Essex, the Parliamentary general, the Earl of Clarendon, Bishop Wren of Norwich were other subscribers - the last two making careful notes in their almanacs while imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Many university dons 'took in' the almanacs, and seamen were devoted to them: Lieutenant John Weale, serving under Admiral Blake, took on his voyages 'a bottle of ink, a pocket almanac, and a sheet almanac'. As late as 1709 the Quakers of Derbyshire acquired (for a penny ha'penny) an almanac for their lending library.

Their popularity was enormous, partly because they were useful (as diaries, for instance), partly as popular entertainment. Some of them offered educational supplements on religion, medicine, magic, even sex: when the planets were in certain positions, love-making was positively dangerous - the 'dog days' of July and August were especially so.

One satirist suggested that this was a time of year when adultery was common, for most husbands obeyed the astrologers' injunction to refrain from sex, and their wives turned to other quarters for satisfaction, on the grounds that 'if husband won't another must'. But there was positive advice, too: Walter Gray, in his notes for May 1581, simply enjoined 'Let Venus be embraced', while a contemporary suggested that his readers should 'embrace Venus honestly' in May, and 'daintily' in November.

There is some evidence from population studies that people took this advice.
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Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
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