The third book in the Oxford Studies in Western Esotericism Book Series has been announced: Susan Somer’s “The Siblys of London: A Family on the Esoteric Fringes of Georgian England”. Due to be published on January 31, 2018. The publisher’s site lists these bullet points about this book:
- An engaging microhistory of Ebenezer Sibly, his brother Manoah, and the entire Sibly family
- Based on a wide range of primary sources such as personal letters, sermons, and horoscopes
- Explores Ebenezer Sibly’s practice as a Mason ritualist, astrologer, forger, and quack doctor
- Sheds new light on the esoteric byways of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in England
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-siblys-of-london-9780190687328?lang=en&cc=se#.
Back in the day, he was best known for casting a horoscope of the birth if the United States of America and for his engraving of Edward Kelley raising someone from the dead. He also dealt in the then fashionable theories of “race” stating that humanity arose in Europe, a thoroughly light skinned people, dark skin being a later development that arose when people began to populate Africa. This was an era before archaeology, anthropology and molecular genetics existed as scientific disciplines.
Here’s a bit from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Sibly.
and from Esotheric Arhives: http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/sibly4.htm.
L0013162 Ebenezer Sibly, the British astrologer.
Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images
images@wellcome.ac.uk
http://wellcomeimages.org
Ebenezer Sibly, the British astrologer.
Engraving
18th Century The medical mirror; or treatise on the impregnation of the human female. Shewing the origin of diseases, and the principles of life and death
Ebenezer Sibly
Published: 1794 (?)
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
