Urania's Children

1) "The first astrologer I met—later there were to be many others—was introduced to me early in 1943 by Sefton Delmer, who was by far the most imaginative and skilful exponent of 'black' psychological warfare techniques that I encountered during close on four years' employment at the Political Warfare Executive. There were two sides to the department's output: BBC broadcasts to Germany and enemy-occupied Europe, also leaflets bearing the imprint of H. M. Government and dropped by the Royal Air Force, were all 'white'. 'Black' operations, however, never indicated their British origin. Various 'black' broadcasting stations skilfully gave the impression that they were being operated inside Germany, and great pains were taken to ensure that 'black' printed matter looked as if it had actually been produced there. 'Black' material was not delivered to Germany in bulk by the RAF but was conveyed by underground channels, hence in relatively small quantities."

2) "[While] both astrology and those who practise it continue to puzzle me, I believe that the symbolism they use, but so rarely appear to understand, has a certain objective beauty, even logic. The possible meaning of the symbols, in their ever-varying combinations, can sometimes be sensed in the course of a subjective, incommunicable experience. The magic spell is broken the moment one tries to translate everything into ordinary, everyday words. Hence my theory that astrology would be fine without the astrologers."

3) "During the final decade of his long professional career Morrison-Zadkiel was little in the public eye. The 1862 almanac was the last in which Zadkiel advertised his willingness to accept professional work and Samuel Smith made his final appearance in 1863 when Zadkiel stated that 'all letters or applications on any subject whatever' were to be sent to his alter ego at Brompton post office. In the 1870 almanac, which was published in the autumn of 1869, he failed to predict the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, but announced the existence of The Most Ancient Order of the Suastika, or Brotherhood of the Mystic Cross. The subscription for an 'Apprentice Brother' was a modest 10s. 6d. Not to be outdone, Mr Sparkes, who edited the rival Raphael almanac, advertised The Society of the Most Ancient Magi, 'instituted for the especial purpose of advocating astrology in its purity, and for the spreading of Occult Knowledge'."

4) "A surprisingly large number of Germans, including many well-educated men and women, began to study astrology in the early 1920s. The reason for this sudden preoccupation with a hitherto unfashionable, even mildly disreputable area, is not difficult to discover. The aftermath of military defeat, with all its problems and uncertainties, including a runaway currency inflation which was only brought under control at the end of 1923, persuaded many to look to 'the stars' for information and portents of better times to come. Before 1914 the comparatively few German astrologers were mostly Theosophists or occultists or both. They regarded astrology as an essentially Hermetic science. However, a large proportion of the newcomers were interested in neither Theosophy, its offspring Anthroposophy, nor traditional occultism, and preferred to think of astrology as a science in its own right which, given time and the breakdown of traditional prejudices, would be widely accepted as such."

5) "While serving on the Russian front during the 1914-18 war Witte attempted to predict the times of Russian artillery barrages on the basis of a careful astrological record of previous ones. Given this or that combination of cosmic factors, then the Russian guns might be expected to open fire at a given moment. That, at least, was the theory. Witte, however, was puzzled by the fact that Russian shells frequently exploded in the Russian lines when, pace the stars, they should have remained silent. Intrigued by this illogical state of affairs, he sought for an answer. Eureka, it was found. These inexplicable manifestations could only be due to the influence of a planet or planets, as yet unidentified, beyond the orbit of Neptune. This deduction led to the 'discovery' of a hypothetical planet which was subsequently named Cupido. Later he and his friend Friedrich Sieggrün found seven more Transneptunian bodies which they called, in the order of their presumed distance from the Sun, Hades, Zeus, Kronos, Apollon, Admetos, Vulkanus and Poseidon. The next task was to calculate ephemerides so astrologers could incorporate these hypothetical planets in horoscopes. I have no idea how this was done."

6) "Others who met Krafft much later also recalled his gnomelike appearance. Countess Keyserling wrote in English: 'He was a queer little fellow, looked like a gnome; very pale and with burning black eyes; rather decadent like many Swiss people whose ancestors lived in a valley and inbred a lot... There was some flame burning in him, but a cold fire, like one of those dancing lights one reads about in books, which lead people astray in a swamp.'"

7) "Very little is known about the early stages of Krafft's ambitious plan, but its broad outlines can be deduced from his correspondence and publications. He sensibly decided to ignore the old astrological Tradition, with its mass of vague and often conflicting statements, and hoped to discover whether the objective statistical analysis of the factors in a large number of horoscopes would produce any data that was outside the law of mathematical probability. The presence of such data would not necessarily prove the validity of the Tradition but, he supposed, would at least indicate the existence of astral 'phenomena' as yet unknown to orthodox scientists. Hence it was not his purpose to establish, for example, that Moon in Libra in the sixth House means this or that but, rather, to identify unexpected angular frequencies or equally unexpected groupings of planets in any small sector of the 360° of the ecliptic between 0° Aries and 29° Pisces."

8) "Krafft claimed to have discovered correlations between cosmic cycles or periodicities, e.g. the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction (19.83 years), and economic fluctuations or crises. He had made a particular study of William Beveridge's 'Wheat Prices and Rain Fall in Western Europe' (in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society), and H. L. Moore's Generating Economic Cycles, New York, 1923. Both these researchers had identified economic cycles but had not associated them with cosmic phenomena. Krafft felt sure that the latter must be present and made two large-scale investigations covering German wheat prices, 1800-1930, and American railway share prices, 1831-1932. All manner of previously unsuspected related planetary periodicities and sub-periodicities were found. In fact, Krafft being the man he was, it would have been surprising if he had not discovered them."

9) [Questionnaire from the Reichssicherheitshauptamt] "11. Should members of different races (Aryans, Jews, Chinese and Negroes) — born at the same place under identical constellations expect the same astrological interpretations? If yes, then do you not admit the racial requirements of fate?"

10) "Copies of two papers alleged to have been written by Krafft at this time were in Herr Goerner's possession when I saw him. He told me that he had taken them with him when he was eventually released in April 1943. They are of interest for two reasons. Firstly, apart from a curious circumstance in connection with the horoscope of General Sir Claude Auchinleck, they represent such futile examples of short essays or background notes obviously written for psychological warfare purposes, that one can only wonder at the stupidity of the people who used Kraft's services for this purpose. Secondly, if Krafft was really responsible for these productions, he either had his tongue in his cheek or actually believed in his own nonsense."

11) "It was probably Krafft's realisation that his sole function was to provide astrological fodder for processing by hacks in the Propaganda Ministry that contributed as much as anything else to his subsequent nervous breakdown, for when he first arrived at the Muratti building he had supposed that he had something important to contribute to the German war effort. Symptoms of a kind familiar to psychiatrists now developed: he who had always been so tallkative and willing to communicate became increasingly withdrawn and silent."