Jean-Baptiste Morin’s

 

Astrologia Gallica

Astrologia Gallica or " French Astrology" is Jean-Baptiste Morin's masterpiece. Composed over a thirty year period, this massive work written in Latin is a folio volume of xxxvi + 784 pages, with 39 tables and 80 example horoscopes. It was written as a defense of Astrology at a time during the early to mid-seventeenth century when modern science was separating itself from the ideas and values of antiquity and the middle ages, when modern science was actively divorcing itself from philosophy. Morin's goal was very ambitious; his intent was to present Astrology as a practical discipline based on a solid classical philosophical foundation.

Morin feet were firmly planted in the past and as a consequence his whole world view came into direct and continual conflict with many of the great luminaries of early modern science such as Descartes, Gassendi, and Kepler (although Kepler himself was a practicing astrologer).

Of the folio volume's 26 books, nine of the ten books available in English have been masterfully translated into the English language by James H. Holden,  Research Director for the American Federation of Astrology. This is indeed a most fortuitous situation as one of the most meaningful approaches to this perennial tradition has been made available by a reformer that for the most part remains unknown to almost everyone who has a serious interest in the topic.

To quote Holden, "Many reasons can be cited. First, few people today speak Latin and the material that is available in English is not easy to obtain." Furthermore, his methods also require an open mind on the inquirer's part. To be faithful to the spirit of scientific inquiry, preconceptions must be set aside and the inquirer's mind must draw its own conclusions based on the evidence. As the poet William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649) said, "He who will not reason, is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave". We must think for ourselves.... Morin's approach is not a "coffee-table book" approach to Astrology. Its study necessitates an unbiased and disciplined frame of mind.

Titles available in English

The book that has the greatest immediate value for the practitioner in Astrology is the twenty-first book published under the title, The Morinus System of Horoscope Interpretation, which deals with horoscope synthesis. In addition, of especial interest for the advanced practitioner is the twenty-second, twenty-third, and twenty-fourth books, the latter three dealing respectively with the subject of forecasting, that is Primary Directions, Solar and Lunar Returns, and Transits.

The table of contents and the preface of  Books 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, and 19 are also available for review.

All the titles cited are currently available in English from the American Federation of Astrologers  or AstroAmerica

Click A History of Magic and Experimental Science to read a book by book synopsis of Astrologia Gallica. It is our hope that with the dedicated efforts of a few researchers, the balance of the folio's 26 books will become available in the near future.

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