36 Horoscope Guide
Many of these involved catastrophic
events relating to weather and tectonic
shifts that would alter coastlines and land
masses throughout the world. Though
these visions are attention-getting, they
are neither as detailed nor as accurate as
some believe, and in fact make up a small
body of his work.
When Cayce died on January 3, 1945,
in Virginia Beach, Virginia, he had given
over 14,000 readings, some to famous
people like Thomas Edison and George
Gershwin, but most were done for the
ordinary people who sought his help from
all corners of the world. Edgar Cayce was
born on March 18, 1877, in Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, with a preponderance of plan-
ets in Pisces, the sign of intuition, includ-
ing his Sun, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and
North Node. We are using a birth time
rated “cautionary” on astrodatabank.com,
and you can see that site’s source notes
for further details. Aside from its connec-
tion with intuition, Pisces is the sign that
governs spirituality. Pisces people tend to
be extremely empathetic and very sympa-
thetic to others. Whatever else might be
said about Edgar Cayce, his life’s work
was just what he had told the winged lady
he hoped to be able to do: to help people.
For our last visionary, we come to
someone quite different from the others,
namely William Blake, the British poet and
illustrator, born on November 28, 1757, in
London, England. Unlike the others we
discussed, he was neither inspired to vic-
tory nor given to prophetic utterances, but
instead presented the world with striking
and memorable images through poetry and
painting. In his own time he was hardly
recognized, and he ended his life in what
was essentially a pauper’s grave, paid for
by his wife with borrowed money.Angels and Demons
William Blake’s poem “The Tyger,”
(his spelling) is often found in lists of
most memorable poems written in the
English language, thanks to its almost
terrifying and enigmatic images and pro-
found tone. Though the poem is well-
known, perhaps the final stanza is the
one most remembered and most quoted:
“Tyger Tyger burning bright, in the for-
ests of the night, what immortal hand or
eye, dare frame thy fearful symmetry.”
“The Tyger” comes from Blake’s
book Songs of Experience, which fol-
lowed his Songs of Innocence, both pub-
lished in 1789. He also published what he
called his prophetic books, based on his
visions and his philosophy of the world.
These writings are very hard to read, and
have caused some critics to conclude
that Blake was at least a little bit “mad.”
However, Blake’s wife Catherine would
have come to his defense against such
criticism, as she was devoted to her hus-
band and felt that he was a true prophetic
visionary and artist.
Blake had begun to draw as a young
child and was sent to art school to take
classes in sketching. He also began to
write poetry at an early age. When he was
14, he was apprenticed to a printer, who at
one point asked Blake to make sketches of
the interiors of various Gothic churches in
London. During his visits to Westminster
Abbey, Blake had religious visions. As
he listened to priests and monks chanting,
he visualized Christ with his Apostles.
As a young child, Blake had claimed to
see angels, and continued to see celestial
beings, both angels and demons, through-
out his life, and right up until his death on
August 12, 1827, when he said he saw the
gates of heaven.