The Disturbing True Origin of Humpty Dumpty

The Disturbing True Origin of Humpty Dumpty 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bILkWb-F4BE

 

The video, titled "The Disturbing True Origin of Humpty Dumpty" explores the dark, lesser-known history behind the famous nursery rhyme. It argues that "Humpty Dumpty" originated not as a story about a fragile egg or a fallen king, but as a potent alcoholic drink served in the taverns of Restoration London during the late 1600s. This "Humpty Dumpty" cocktail—boiled ale mixed with brandy and other spirits—earned its name from the hunched-over ("humpty") posture it induced in drinkers, followed by sudden collapse ("dumpty," slang for being dumped on the floor). The rhyme's structure mimics the drink's effects: a slow buildup to an irreversible fall.By the 1780s, the term had evolved into slang for short, squat, clumsy alcoholics, symbolizing the physical and social ruin caused by excessive drinking. The earliest printed version appeared in 1797 as a riddle in A Collection of Songs for the Table, referencing 160 people unable to "put Humpty together again," likely alluding to failed attempts to revive the intoxicated. Around 1810–1813, it transformed into a children's riddle, with the line "all the king's horses and all the king's men" added as a satirical critique of British colonial failures in India, drawing from 1813 parliamentary debates on the East India Company's inability to "restore" order after defeats. 

Philosophically, the rhyme underscores human fragility and the horror of irreversible destruction—once something shatters, no amount of effort can truly mend it. The tone is eerie and narrative-driven, blending history, etymology, and existential dread to reframe a childhood staple as a cautionary tale of ruin. 

Origin of the RhymePlace: London, England (specifically, the taverns of Restoration-era London). Date: Late 1600s (approximately 1660–1700) for the drink that inspired the phrase; the rhyme's earliest documented form as a riddle dates to 1797 in print.

 

Presented here is the chart for the solar eclipse of 24 June 1797 (cast for London, the exact place and year the “Humpty Dumpty” riddle first appeared in print). We will see below that it reads like an almost theatrical astrological signature for the core themes we extracted from the historical research: a potent alcoholic drink that causes people to fall, irreversible collapse, poisoning, and drunken ruin. 

The solar eclipse [3cn29] is conjunct Tejat Posterior [2cn27] - the traditional name for the star μ Geminorum. This star has been linked to “accidents, especially head injuries, fevers, poisoning”

A New Moon (solar eclipse) conjunct a star that literally means “the back foot” (the part that slips out from under you) perfectly mirrors “sat on a wall → had a great fall.” 

The Ascendant [19sc08] is conjunct Unukalhai (α Serpentis) [19sc13] - one of the fixed stars that astrologers have consistently linked to poisons, venom, toxic substances, and by extension alcoholism and drug addiction. 

Rising on the Ascendant is the TNP Hades [22sc22; decl:17S23] in parallel with the star Alkes [decl: [17S17] often regarded as the cup of Bacchus. In addition the asteroid Bacchus [17sc38] is conjunct the Ascendant and TNP Hades. 

Hades + Bacchus + Alkes all in tight parallel of declination and longitude on the Ascendant Alkes = the Cup of Bacchus itself (the star actually in the base of Crater, the wine-cup constellation). Asteroid Bacchus at 17° Scorpio conjunct Hades at 22° Scorpio. This is an extraordinarily literal “cup of wine that leads to disgust, decay, and downfall” signature sitting on the horizon of London at the exact moment the rhyme is first published. 

The overall tone : Eclipse in Cancer (nurture, childhood, motherhood) → a nursery rhyme for children. But the Cancer eclipse is tainted by Tejat Posterior (violent fall, poisoning), and the Scorpio rising is loaded with Hades–Bacchus–Alkes (the poisoned chalice). You end up with something that starts as a children’s rhyme but carries an unmistakable adult undercurrent of alcoholic collapse and irreversible damage, exactly what the historical evidence now shows the original 1660s–1790s “Humpty Dumpty” actually was. 

For the 1810–1813 period when the “king’s horses and king’s men / couldn’t put Humpty together again” line was added — and when the phrase became openly political/satirical,

Transit Saturn at ≈3° Capricorn (1812–early 1813) was opposite the eclipse [3cn29] and conjunct Facies ((M22 in Sagittarius) - the classic star of “ruthless warfare, blindness through ambition, inability to restore what has been broken, victims of war who cannot be put back together”. Robson: “It gives cruelty, brutality, and the inability to restore order after violence.” And the star Dabih (β Capricorni) “Mass suffering, victims of the state, famine, refugees, goats starved on barren land.” 

 Transit Saturn in 1812 was conjunct or within 1–2° of Facies, the single most notorious fixed star for “irreparable damage done by war” and “no one can put the victim back together again” — exactly the metaphor that was grafted onto Humpty Dumpty in 1810–1813. At the same time, Saturn was exactly opposite the 1797 eclipse point (3° Cancer) and its conjunction with Tejat Posterior, so the 1797 “drunken fall + poisoning” eclipse was being triggered by the star that means “the broken thing that cannot be reassembled after violence.” 

The Indian-colonial context 1810–1813 British military disasters and famines in India were front-page news in London exactly then:1812–1813: catastrophic famine in western India (Gujarat, Rajputana, etc.) East India Company armies repeatedly routed in the Third Anglo-Maratha War campaigns (1812–1818). 

Facies is quite literally the star that astrologers for centuries have called “the unhealable wound” and “the thing that is shattered beyond repair.” When the British press and satirists in 1810–1813 started saying the East India Company couldn’t put India (or its starving, defeated populations) back together again, they were — whether they knew it or not — channeling the purest Facies symbolism while Saturn activated the original 1797 eclipse. 

In short: this eclipse chart is almost too perfect. It is hard to imagine a more precise celestial caption for (a) “a boozy drink that makes short, clumsy people fall down and never get up again, memorialised in a children’s riddle in 1797 London.” (b) the inability to “restore order after defeats” and (c) famines and mass suffering that cannot be reversed.Whether one believes eclipses “cause” phenomena or simply mirror them with uncanny accuracy, this one should serve as a textbook example of the latter. The astrology lines up so cleanly with the newly uncovered history that it feels like the sky itself was winking at the researchers!