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Vol.. 7 no 2, Autumn/Winter 2003Astrological
physiognomy from Ptolemy to the present day Bernard
Eccles Abstract.
Physiognomy, the art of judging character or destiny through physical
appearance, has had a long and varied history. Although not strictly
astrological in all its forms, it is usually found combined with astrology,
numerology, palmistry and other popular forms of fortune-telling; and, like all
of these, it is unlikely to become extinct despite being ridiculed by modern
science. Equally, attempts to legitimise and modernise it in recent times,
usually for the purposes of identifying criminals or other social undesirables,
are unlikely to render it wholly respectable either. For
the greater part of its history, between the classical era and the eighteenth
century, physiognomy was seen as an integral part of astrology: physical
evidence and vindication of the theory of planetary influences. The
aim of this paper is to trace the principal lines of transmission for the lore
of planetary physiognomy within the Western astrological tradition, with
particular emphasis on the descriptions given for Mars and Saturn. Astrological
tradition is highly conservative, with data passed down through centuries of use
almost unaltered; but in some cases, as will be shown, the material seems to
have been modified and added to in significant ways at certain stages in its
history, and to have been influenced or perhaps deliberately rewritten to
reflect the prevailing religious or political views of the time. |