On astrology and the procession of the equinox

Being alive to unseen patterns and mechanics of the cosmos, this subject has a minor interest to me but it's not something I've looked at seriously. I've had people read my chart and start right off: "You're a writer." I am in sympathy with the view that it's an insult to God, showing a lack of faith and gratitude, and I think it's something - forgive me - it's something women might take up. That is, not worth serious study, but if you're not that serious of a person, why not. I read my horoscope probably one day in three, at times less, at times more.

But this thing with the procession of the equinox is interesting. For the Piscean Age, you had the story of Jesus, symbolized with a fish, and now for the Aquarian Age you have Francis Bacon, who was an Aquarius. My essay on Bacon and the Monomyth covers this, I'll copy below what I wrote.


The Story of the Learned Pig (1786), a pamphlet printed under the pseudonym “Transmigratus,” contains a subtle allusion to Bacon’s royal descent, plainly stating he was behind the Shakespeare works:

​My parents, indeed, were of low extraction; my mother sold fish about the streets of this metropolis, and my father was a water-carrier celebrated by Ben Jonson in his comedy of Every Man in his Humour . . . I soon after contracted a friendship with that great man and first of geniuses, the ‘Immortal Shakespeare,’ and am happy in now having it in my power to refuse the prevailing opinion of his having run his country for deer-stealing, which is as false as it is disgracing. The fact is, Sir, that he had contracted an intimacy with the wife of a country Justice near Stratford, from his having extolled her beauty in a common ballad; and was unfortunately, by his worship himself, detected in a very awkward situation with her. Shakespeare, to avoid the consequences of this discovery, thought it most prudent to decamp. This I had from his own mouth. With equal falsehood has he been father’d with many spurious dramatic pieces. Hamlet, Othello, As You Like It, the Tempest, and Midsummer’s Night Dream, for five; of all which I confess myself to be the author.

While the Learned Pig does not specifically mention Bacon by name, the “water-carrier celebrated by Ben Jonson” is a character named Cob; when he appears onstage the following exchange takes place (emphasis added): ​

​Cob. I sir, I and my linage ha’ kept a poor house, here, in our days.
Mat. Thy linage, Monsieur Cob, what linage, what linage?
Cob. Why Sir, an ancient linage, and a princely. Mine ance’try came from a King’s belly, no worse Man
. . .
Cob. I Sir, with favour of your Worship’s nose, Mr. Matthew, why not the ghost of a herring Cob, as well as the ghost of rasher-bacon?
Mat. Roger Bacon, thou wouldst say?
Cob. I say Rasher-Bacon. They were both broil’d o’ the coals; and a man may smell broil’d meat, I hope? you are a scholar, upsolve me that, now…
. . .
Mat. Lie in a water-bearer’s House! A Gentleman of his havings! Well, I’ll
tell him my mind.

Bacon was born in the sign of Aquarius, or the house of the water bearer; here it might be relevant to cite the oldest representative of the heroic archetype, Sargon of Akkad, founder of Babylon:

​Sargon, the mighty king, King of Agade, am I. My mother was a vestal, my father I knew not, while my father’s brother dwelt in the mountains. In my city Azuripani, which is situated on the bank of the Euphrates, my mother, the vestal, bore me. In a hidden place she brought me forth. She laid me in a vessel made of reeds, closed my door with pitch, and dropped me down into the river, which did not drown me. The river carried me to Akki, the water carrier. Akki the water carrier lifted me up in the kindness of his heart, Akki the water carrier raised me as his own son, Akki the water carrier raised me as his own son, Akki the water carrier made of me his gardener. In my work as a gardener I was beloved by Ishtar, I became the king, and for forty-five years I held kingly sway.