Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States was, in addition to being a scientific inventor and avid writer also a Master Astrologer.
Very few indeed are aware that it was Dr. Benjamin Franklin who arranged for the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776 in order that the signing took place during a very powerful astrological alignment of Jupiter, the Sun, Venus and Mars.
Franklin created the most popular periodical of his day called The Poor Richard's Almanac which not only gave accurate weather predictions and astrologically optimal times to plant crops, but also contained an Ephemeris of the Sun, Moon & Planets. . . .
In the book, 'Franklin, The Apostle of Modern Times', Bernard Fay stated: "Astrology was very much in vogue...It occupied an important place in business, agriculture and private life.
Astrology was employed in determining the future of newly born children. The date to choose for a hunt, the propitious period for sowing seed and gathering grapes, the opportune moment for the departure of boats...
Wise, serious, and pious people also believed in astrology, for as late as 1728 candidates for Harvard discussed such topics as these: "Do medical herbs operate by planetary power?" or "That the heavenly bodies produce changes in the bodies of animals." And, on the eve of the Revolution in 1717, the faculty proposed such subjects as these: "Is a comet which only appears after many years a foreshadowing of divine wrath rather than a planet that appears daily?"
Everybody turned to the astrologers, and the publishers of almanacs had an immense public. These little books were the faithful mirrors of the preoccupations of the times."
