42 Various Apocalyptic Scenes from Raphael’s Prophetic Messenger of Astrology (1827–61)

 

The future is portrayed as dramatic, dangerous and dynamic in these visions published in the astrological magazine The Prophetic Messenger (1827 to 1861). More commonly known as Raphael’s Almanac in a nod to the Jewish archangel Raphael, the name was used a nom de plume by a number of British astrologers in the first half of the nineteenth century.

It’s also a reference to Raphael’s Ephemeris, a set of tables used in astrology to determine the position of the sun, moon and planets. As with Raphael’s Almanac, this use of Raphael was a pseudonym used by the original author of the ephemeris, Robert Cross Smith (1795-1832). Cross, who edited the The Prophetic Messenger from 1827 until his death in 1832, published many of his tables in The Art of Secret Astrology containing the Horary Reigns of the Celestial Intelligences, Elections of Fortunate and Unfortunate Times, which can be read in full at theWellcome institute.

What these lithographs mean is not immediately clear. The image above features various apocalyptic scenes, including war and shipwreck, alchemical symbols, thunderbolts and lightning.