irish astrology

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Irish
Astrological
Society

Irish
Astrological
Association
origins

Cyril Fagan

W.B.Yeats

John Whalley

Patrick Sinot

astrology in
Irish history


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Irish astrology and astrologers

This page is devoted to characters, institutions, facts and anecdotes of relevance to the story of astrology in Ireland. As time permits and as information becomes available, the range of material will expanded.

Quick guide

Cyril Fagan
This will eventually turn into quite a large set of pages. Cyril Fagan is the most important astrologer this country has produced and was one of the key players in 20th century astrology. I am collecting an archive of his work as none of it is publically available in Ireland. It should be in a library for posterity's sake, and for the benefit of future researchers and Irish cultural historians. Please be patient - I'll get stuff up as time allows.

The Irish Astrological Society
As far as I am aware this was the first society devoted to astrology in Ireland. It was set up by Cyril Fagan and others in 1922. Although Fagan refers to it several times in his writings and W.B.Yeats was the chairman, I have found it very difficult to glean any information about the society from anyone living here. I eventually found some material in the Yeats archive at SUNY (the University in Stonybrook, New York). It's described within.

The Irish Astrological Association - how it all began
The Irish Astrological Association was formed during the early 1970s but disbanded some time around 2003. In its day it was the main astrology teaching body in Ireland. It also held an annual conference which presented international as well as local speakers. The quarterly journal Réalta was began in 1994 which provided an outlet for articles penned by Irish astrologers and students while at the same time including material by astrologers from various parts of the world. This article was written by Sheila Lindsay, a founder member of the IAA, and it documents the story of how the Association came into being.

W.B.Yeats
Needs no introduction as a poet, but his astrological interests are less well known.

John Whalley
A strange character who lived in Dublin at the end of the 17th and into the 18th century. Astrologer, cobbler, 'Doctor of Physick' and almanack maker, he was fiercely anti-Irish and anti-Catholic. Made the first translation into English of Ptolemy's astrological texts, the Tetrabiblos. He also managed to inspire what has been described as one of the most bitter satires in the Irish language.

Patrick Sinot
An obscure and mysterious Irishman who was condemned for practicing astrology by the Inquisition while Professor of Grammar at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. He was the central character of a play written in Buenos Aires in 1959. Seems to have played a minor part in the run up to and aftermath of the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, which marked the end of the nine year Elizabethan Wars in Ireland.

Astrology in Irish history
As the name implies this will contain an assortment of articles concerning astrology in the context of Irish history. Currently I have an article about a zodiac scribbled by an Irish monk on the back of a page in a manuscript copy of Isidore of Seville's De Rerum Natura. It's from the 8th or 9th century. This article is referred to in Peter Berresford Ellis's very interesting and pioneering piece, Early Irish Astrology: an historical argument, which is also located in this section.

Copyright © 2003 Bill Sheeran. All Rights Reserved.