num_pages: 224
description: In the 17th century, William Lilly enthralled a country. Lauded as England’s Merlin, both the king and Oliver Cromwell sought his stellar counsel. Lilly was famed in his day, the result of his forecasting correctly who would triumph in the English Civil War. Courtesy of this charismatic trailblazer, astrology is today an unstoppable mass phenomenon, and Lilly is becoming increasingly recognized as one of England’s true luminaries.Lilly wanted everyone to know astrology’s power, and to this end he wrote the first ever guide to astrology in English and formed the Society of Astrologers. But when Lilly’s visions of the future threatened public order, he had to fight to save his profession and his life, even using his astonishing gift for divination to help him. With a cast of stargazers, soldiers and scribers; politicians, priests and piss-prophets, The Man Who Saw the Future reveals for the first time the enormous extent to which an occult leader influenced the course of war, politics and freedom of speech in England.
language: English
title: The Man Who Saw the Future: A Biography of William Lilly
publisher: Watkins Publishing