Page:William Blake (Symons).djvu/362

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[Blake's horoscope was cast during his lifetime in Urania, or, the Astrologer's Chronicle, and Mystical Magazine; edited by Merlinus Anglicanus, jun., the Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century, assisted by the Metropolitan Society of Occult Philosophers (No. 1, London, 1825), the first and only number of an astrological magazine, published under the pseudonym of Merlinus Anglicanus by R. C. Smith, an astrologer of the period, and it is highly probable, as Dr. Garnett suggests, that the date (confirmed by the birth register at St. James's, Westminster) was derived from Varley, who would have had it from Blake himself. I give the map, not as it is printed in the book, but in the clearer and simpler form in which it was copied and given to me by Dr. Garnett. I am told that the most striking thing in the map, from an astrological point of view, is the position and aspect of Uranus, the occult planet, which indicate in the highest degree 'an inborn and supreme instinct for things occult,' without showing the least tendency towards madness. The 'Nativity of Mr. Blake' is the last entry, p. 70.]

alt text=A circular design with twelve numbered segments and astrological symbols. At the center is the subject and his birth date, "William Blake Nov. 28. 1757. 7.45 P.M."
alt text=A circular design with twelve numbered segments and astrological symbols. At the center is the subject and his birth date, "William Blake Nov. 28. 1757. 7.45 P.M."