Mail Order Meanderings on Monday

I shop via the internet a lot: e-bay, shoes, clothes, and general items just not available in our neck of the woods - well, not without a lengthy car journey, and much time and effort spent finding whatever. Online shopping is really just an extension, or evolution, of Ye Olde Mail Order.

Mail order catalogues proper have been mostly elbowed out in the 21st century by a blossoming internet offering shopping online. In their heyday, though those hefty mail order catalogues were big business, and a boon to anyone living far from urban stores, or with limited time to go shopping. Nowadays there are still mini-catalogues issued by individual retailers, sent often as junk mail once a prospective customer's mailing address is discovered. These catalogues are different from the old style ones, where it was possible to buy items of clothing, household linens and appliances, or toys, and spread the cost over several weeks.

While Americans assume Aaron Montgomery Ward to have been the original pioneer of mail order, in the late 19th/early 20th century, people in Britain consider their Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones thought of it first. Actually, neither was first. A book publisher in Venice beat them to it by around three centuries, and an English gardener, selling seeds, by two centuries. Pryce-Jones began his business in 1861, and Montgomery Ward in 1872, on their respective continents. They were, indeed though, the first to make a thriving industry of mail order.

I grew up with easy access to an old style mail order catalogue. My maternal grandmother ran what she called a "club" in her tiny village. She took orders from a mail order catalogue; anyone in the village who needed "stuff" borrowed the catalogue for a few hours then let Grandma know what they wished to order. She sent a combined order to the company, by mail, once a week, and the following week she would receive a huge brown paper parcel containing the ordered goods. Villagers would then call to collect their goods, and make their weekly payments. Payments were recorded on cards held by the buyers, and in a ledger held by grandma. She continued this popular service for many decades, through my mother's young days and into my own adult-hood. It used to be fun for me, as a child, to watch the opening of the huge parcel. The catalogues themselves were a never ending source of interest and fun to me; those from previous years served as sources for cut-out fashion illustrations for scrap books. In later life I was seldom without my own, personal, copy of some firm's mail order catalogue.

I wonder if the two pioneers, Montgomery Ward and Pryce-Jones will bear any resemblance to one another astrologically? First glance, just at the chart shapes, says not likely. Both charts are set for noon, times of birth are unknown. Exact Moon degree, and ascending sign/degrees not as shown, though Moon would likely have been in the sign as shown in each case.

Pryce Pryce-Jones was born in Llanllwchaiarn, just outside Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales on 16 October 1834.

Aaron Montgomery Ward was born on February 17,1844, in Chatham, New Jersey, USA.

In Pryce-Jones' case the indication he'd gravitate towards innovation is reflected by his Libra Sun in close harmonious trine to Uranus (invention, innovation) in its own sign, Aquarius. There's a Yod (Finger of Fate) linking Pluto (and possibly Moon) to Jupiter by sextile and linking both to Mercury by quincunx - at the business end - the apex. It might be a stretch, but Mercury could be seen as representing the mail, also I think Mercury represents trade; Jupiter represents expansion.


Montgomery Ward's very tightly bundled chart tells of a much more single-minded, single focused character. This man was always going to pioneer something! A veritable surfeit of Aquarius and Aries, the innovator and the pioneer!