VIDWAN VE.LAKSHMANAN , ASTROLOGER ,LYRICS ,STORY,DIALOGUE,PRODUCER BIOGRAPHY

 

VIDWAN VE.LAKSHMANAN , ASTROLOGER ,LYRICS ,STORY,DIALOGUE,PRODUCER BIOGRAPHY

வித்வான் வெ.லட்சுமணன் [சோதிட வல்லுநர் | கவிஞர் | கதை, வசனகர்த்தா | தமிழ்ப் பண்டிதர் | பத்திரிகையாளர் | படத் தயாரிப்பாளர்]                                                                   வித்வான் வே.லட்சுமணன்..... இந்த பெயரைக் கேட்டவுடன் உங்களுக்கு சட்டென என்ன தோன்றும்? பிரபல ஜோதிடராயிற்றே என்று தானே? அப்படி இவரை அவ்வளவு எளிதாக சுருக்கி விட முடியுமா? முடியாது என்கிறேன் நான்.

மக்கள் திலகம் எம்ஜிஆருக்கு ஆஸ்தான ஜோதிடர் என்பதைத் தாண்டி வே.லட்சுமணனுக்கு பல முகங்கள் உண்டு. கதை வசனக்கர்த்தா, திரைக்கதை ஆசிரியர், தயாரிப்பாளர், பாடலாசிரியர் என அவர் பயணித்த பாதை மிகப்பெரியது.

எம்ஜிஆர் இயக்கத்தில் மகத்தான வெற்றி பெற்ற நாடோடி மன்னன் படத்தின் வெற்றிக்கு மிக முக்கிய காரணம் படத்தின் கதை, வசனம் தான். அப்படத்தின் கதை இலாகாவில் இருந்தது மூன்று பேர். ஆர்எம்.வீரப்பன், வே.லட்சுமணன், எஸ்.கே.டி.சாமி ஆகிய மூவர் தான் அவர்கள்.    1959-இல் வெளிவந்த “அவள் யார்” என்ற படத்தில் தான் முதன்முதலாக இவர் பாடல் எழுதினார். இந்தப் படத்திற்குத் கதை, வசனம் எழுதியது இவரே. இப்படத்தில் 3 பாடல்களை வித்வான் வே.லட்சுமணன் எழுதியுள்ளார். ரகுநாத் பாணிகிரஹி பாடிய நான் தேடும் போது நீ ஓடலாமோ, ஏ.எம்.ராஜா, ஜிக்கி பாடிய கண் காணும் மின்னல்தானோ, பட்டுப்பூச்சி போலும் ராணி என்ற இம்மூன்று பாடல்களே இவரது கற்பனையில் உருவான பாடல்கள். இம்மூன்று பாடல்களுமே திரையிசை ரசிகர்களைக் கொள்ளை கொண்ட பாடல்கள்.

இதே போல எம்ஜிஆர் இயக்கிய அடிமைப்பெண் படத்தின் கதை எழுதியதும் ஆர்எம்.வீரப்பன், வே.லட்சுமணன், எஸ்.கே.டி.சாமி ஆகியோர் தான். இப்படி மகத்தான பல வெற்றிப் படங்களில் எம்ஜிஆரின் பின்னணியில் இருந்த வே.லட்சுமணனை, பட அதிபராக்கியவர் எம்ஜிஆர் தான்.

எம்ஜிஆர் உருவாக்கிய உதயம் புரடொக்சன் கம்பெனியின் இரண்டு முதலாளிகள் பத்திரிகையாளர் மணியன், வே.லட்சுமணன் தான். இவர்களுக்காக இந்த பேனரில் எம்ஜிஆர் நடித்த படம் இதயவீணை. மிகப்பெரிய வெற்றிப்படம் இது. எம்ஜிஆர் இரட்டை வேடங்களில் நடித்த படம் சிரித்து வாழ வேண்டும். உதயம் புரொக்டசன் தயாரிப்பான இப்படத்தை ஆனந்த விகடன் ஆசிரியர் எஸ்.பாலசுப்பிரமணியம் இந்த படத்தை எஸ்எஸ்.பாலன் என்ற பெயரில் இயக்கினார். இந்த படமும் மகத்தான வெற்றி பெற்றது. உதயம் புரடக்சனின் அடுத்த தயாரிப்பும் மகத்தான வெற்றி படம் தான்.

சாந்தாராமின் தோ ஹாங்கி பாராத் என்ற இந்தி படத்தை பல்லாண்டு வாழ்க என்ற பெயரில் வெளியான இந்த படம் தயாரிப்பாளர்களுக்கு லெட்சுமி கடாச்சமாக்கியது.இந்தியில் இறுதியில் கதாநாயகன் இறந்து விடுவார். ஆனால், எம்ஜிஆருக்காக பல்லாண்டு வாழ்க படத்தின் கிளைமாக்ஸ் மாற்றப்பட்டது .

தன்னை நம்பி வந்தவர்களுக்கு உதவிடும் பண்பு எம்ஜிஆரிடம் இருந்தது என்பதற்கு அவர் துவக்கிய உதயம் புரடொக்சன் கம்பெனியே சான்று. 6 படங்களை இவர்கள் தயாரித்துள்ளனர்.

தமிழ் சினிமாவின் சூப்பர் ஸ்டார் தியாகராஜ பாகவதரின் படத்திலேயே வித்வான் வே.லட்சுமணன் தனது பாட்டுப் பயணத்தை துவக்கி விட்டார்.

1952ம் ஆண்டு சுராதா எழுதிய அமரகவி படத்தை எப்.நாகூர் இயக்கினார். இப்படத்திற்கு ஆர்.ராமநாதன், டிஏ.கல்யாணம் இணைந்து இசையமைத்தனர். இப்படத்தில், தியாகராஜ பாகவதர், டிஆர்.ராஜகுமாரி உள்பட பலர் நடித்திருந்தனர்.

முல்லைச் சிரிப்பிலே எல்லாம் என் கையிலே மூவுலகும் வசமாகாதோ வண்டாக நான் பறந்து ....

என்ற பாடலை இப்படத்திற்காக வித்வான் வே.லட்சுமணன் இயற்றினார். இப்பாடலை பி.லீலா, என்எல்.ஞானசரஸ்வதி இணைந்து பாடினர்.

1959ம் ஆண்டு சுதர்ஸன் பிக்சர்ஸ் தயாரித்த அவள் யார் என்ற படத்திற்கு கதை, வசனம் மட்டுமின்றி பாடல்களையும் எழுதினார் வே.லட்சுமணன்.

நான் தேடும் போது நீ ஓடலாமோ, கண் காணும் மின்னல் தானோ, பட்டுப்பூச்சி போலும் ராணி என்ற இப்படப்பாடல்கள் தமிழ் திரையுலகில் லட்சுமணனை பிரபல பாடலாசிரியராக்கியது.

வே.லட்சுமணனின் திறமைக்கு தீனி போட்டவர் என்றால் அது வீணை பாலச்சந்தர் தான். தமிழ் சினிமாவின் தனித்த அடையளமாக விளங்கியவர் வீணை பாலச்சந்தர். அவர் இயக்கிய படங்களில் வே.லட்சுமணன் பெரும் பங்கு வகித்துள்ளார்.

1962ம் ஆண்டு வீணை பாலச்சந்தர் இயக்கிய அவனா இவன் திரைப்படத்தின் திரைக்கதை, வசனத்தை பாலச்சந்தருடன் இணைந்து எழுதியவர் வே.லட்சுமணன் தான். அத்துடன் வீணை பாலச்சந்தரின் அற்புதமான இசையில் எல்ஆர்.ஈஸ்வரி, ரேணுகா பாடிய, கல்யாண பொண்ணு கலங்காதே, பி.சுசீலா பாடிய கல்யாண திருநாள், எல்ஆர்.ஈஸ்வரி, கமலா பாடிய மனம் விட்டு, ராதா ஜெயலட்சுமி பாடிய வானம் ஆயிரம் சூழ, சதன் , சீதா பாடிய வள்... வள்.. வள்ளி.. வள்... வள்.. வள்ளி, ஐ லவ்யூ ட்ரூலி ப்ளீஸ் என்ற வித்தியாசமான பாடல்களையும் வே.லட்சுமணன் எழுதியுள்ளார்.

 டிஎம்.சௌந்தரராஜன் பாடிய மனம் ஒரு குரங்கு என்ற அற்புத பாடலை எழுதியவரும் வே.லட்சுமணன் தான்.

1964ம் ஆண்டு சார்லி - மணியம் இயக்கத்தில் வெளியான நல்வரவு படத்தில் டி.சலபதிராவ் இசையில் 6 பாடல்களை மட்டுமின்றி கதையையும் வித்வான் வே.லட்சுமணன் தான் எழுதினார். இதில் எல்ஆர்.ஈஸ்வரி பாடிய. ஆசையுடன் அவர் அணைத்தார் நாணாமலே பாடலை ரசிக்கலாம்.

கேஜே.யேசுதாஸ் முதல் பாடல்

1964ம் ஆண்டு வீணை எஸ்.பாலசந்தர் இயக்கத்தில் பொம்மை திரைப்படத்தின் கதை வே.லட்சுமணன் எழுதியது தான். அத்துடன் இப்படத்தில் 6 பாடல்களையும் அவர் எழுதியுள்ளார். கானகந்தர்வ குரலோன் கேஜே.யேசுதாஸ் தமிழில் இவர் எழுதிய பாடலை பாடி தான் அறிமுகமாகியுள்ளார். அந்த பாடல்,

நீயும் பொம்மை நானும் பொம்மை

நெனச்சு பாத்தா எல்லாம் பொம்மை...

பழுத்த ஆன்மிகவாதியான வே.லட்சுமணன் இந்த பாடலில் இப்படி எழுதினார்,

தாயின் மடியில் பிள்ளையும் பொம்மை

தலைவன் முன்னே தொண்டனும் பொம்மை

கோயிலில் வாழும் தெய்வமும் பொம்மை - அதை கும்பிடும் மனிதர் யாவரும் பொம்மை....

இப்படி யோசித்த லட்சுமணன், அற்புதமான நடனப்பாடலையும் இப்படத்திற்காக எழுதியுள்ளார். எல்.விஜயலட்சுமி நடனமாடும் இந்த பாடலை பி.சுசீலா பாடியுள்ளார்.

எங்கோ பிறந்தவராம் எங்கோ வளர்ந்தவராம்

எப்போடியோ என் மனதைக் கவர்ந்தவராம்...

இந்த விஜயலட்சுமி தான், குடியிருந்த கோயில் படத்தில் எம்ஜிஆருடன் ஆடலுடன் பாடலைக் கேட்டு பாடலுக்கு நடனமாடியவர். பிற்காலத்தில் மாடர்ன் தியேட்டர்ஸ் படங்களில் கதாநாயகியாக நடித்தவர்.

பொம்மைக்கு பாட்டு

கருப்பு, வெள்ளை காலப்படங்களில் குழந்தை கேரக்டர்களுக்கு பாடல் வழங்கப்படுவது வாடிக்கையாகவே இருந்துள்ளது. அப்படித்தான் பொம்மை படத்தில் ஒரு பாடல் உள்ளது. சிறுமிக்கு எல்ஆர்.ஈஸ்வரி குரல் கொடுத்திருப்பார். புகழ்பெற்ற இந்த பாடலை வே.லட்சுமணன் தான் எழுதியுள்ளார்.

தத்தித்தத்தி தத்தித்தத்தி நடந்து வரும்

தங்கப் பாப்பா நீ இத்தனை நாள்

எங்கிருந்தாய் சொல்லு பாப்பா...

இந்தப் பாடலுக்கு படத்தின் மெயின் கேரக்டரான பொம்மையும் நடித்துள்ளது. இப்படத்தில் பி.சுசீலா பாடிய நீதான் செல்வம் நீதான் அமுதம் நீதான் எந்தன் என்ற பாடலையும் வே.லட்சுமணன் எழுதியுள்ளார்.

நடுஇரவும், லட்சுமணனும்

இந்திய அளவில் எடுக்கப்பட்ட திகில் படங்களில் இன்றளவும் தமிழில் பெயர் சொல்லும் படமாக இருப்பது நடுஇரவில் திரைப்படம் தான். 1970ம் ஆண்டு வீணை பாலச்சந்தர் இயக்கிய படமிது. 24 கேரக்டர்களைக் கொண்டு உருவாக்கப்பட்ட இப்படம், அகதா கிறிஸ்டி எழுதிய And Then There Were None என்ற நாவலை அடிப்படையாக கொண்டு எடுக்கப்பட்டது. மேஜர் சுந்தர்ராஜன், பண்டரி பாய், சௌகார் ஜானகி, வீணை பாலச்சந்தர் உள்பட பலர் நடித்திருந்தனர். அடுத்தடுதது நடக்கும் கொலைகளை செய்தவர் யார் என்பதை யூகிக்க முடியாதபடி கதை சொல்லப்பட்ட படம்.

இந்த படத்தின் திரைக்கதை வே.லட்சுமணனும், வசனத்தை வீணை பாலச்சந்தரும் எழுதினர். இந்த படத்தின் இசையும் வீணை பாலச்சந்தர் தான். மௌனத்தை விட சிறந்த இசை இல்லையென்பதை இந்த படத்தைப் பார்க்கும் போது நீங்கள் உணரலாம். இந்த படத்தில் பி.சுசீலா பாடிய இந்த பாடல் வே.லட்சுமணன் எழுதிய சிறந்த பாடல் என்று கூறலாம்.

கண்காட்டும் ஜாடையிலே காவியம் கண்டேன் –அந்த காவியத்தில் சோகமெனும் ஓவியம் கண்டேன்

வாடிப்போன முகத்தினிலே வனப்பு மாறவில்லை

வளர்மதி உன் பொன்னொளியை இன்னும் மீறவில்லை...

சௌகார் ஜானகி பாடப்பாட, மேஜர் சுந்தரராஜன் பியோனா வாசிப்பது போன்று எடுக்கப்பட்ட இந்த பாடல், எத்தனை முறை வேண்டுமானாலும் கேட்டு ரசிக்கலாம்.

இந்த படத்தில் எல்ஆர்.ஈஸ்வரியின் அதிரடிப்பாடல் ஒன்றும் உள்ளது.

நாலு பக்கம் ஏரி ஏரியிலே தீவு தீவுக்கொரு ராணி ராணிக்கொரு ராஜா நாலு பக்கம் ஏரி ஏரியிலே தீவு தீவுக்கொரு ராணி ராணிக்கொரு

என வரிகளை மாற்றி மாற்றி பாடும் இந்த பாடலை வே.லட்சுமணன் தான் எழுதினார். எம்ஜிஆர் நடித்த பல படங்களுக்கு கதை எழுதிய வித்வான் வே.லட்சுமணன் ஒரே ஒரு பாடலை தான் எம்ஜிஆருக்கு எழுதினார் .

எம்ஜிஆருக்கு குரல் கொடுத்த எம்எஸ்வி

1966ம் ஆண்டு சாணக்யா இயக்கத்தில் எம்ஜிஆர், சரோஜாதேவி நடித்த படம் நான் ஆணையிட்டால். இந்த படத்தில் மெல்லிசை மன்னர் எம்எஸ்.விஸ்வநாதன் இசையில்,

கொடுக்கக் கொடுக்க

இன்பம் பிறக்குமே

என்னைத் தடுத்துத் தடுத்து

வெட்கம் மறைக்குமே

நினைத்து நினைத்து

நெஞ்சம் இனிக்குமே

உன்னை நிறுத்தி நிறுத்தி

பெண்மை சிரிக்குமே...

இந்த பாடலை பாடியது பி.சுசீலா. ஆனால், பாடல் முழுவதும் ஹம்மிங் கொடுப்பது மெல்லிசை மன்னர். எம்ஜிஆருக்கு அவர் பாடிய பாடல் இதுவாகத்தான் இருக்கும்.

1967ம் ஆண்டு சிஎன்.சண்முகம் இயக்கத்தில் வெளிவந்த படம் கற்பூரம்.டிபி. ராமச்சந்திரன் இசையில் மணிமாலா, ஸ்ரீகாந்த் பாடும் டூயட் பாடலை எழுதினார் வே.லட்சுமணன்.

நிலவே உனக்குக் குறையேது

நீ நினைத்ததும் கதிரவன் வரும் போது

அமுதே உனக்குத் தடை ஏது

அருகினில் பருகிட வரும் போது...

.

இந்த பாடலை பிபி.ஸ்ரீனிவாசுடன் இணைந்து பாடியது சூலமங்கலம் ராஜலட்சுமி. இப்படத்தில் எல்ஆர்.ஈஸ்வரி பாடிய , அம்மா வேணுமா இல்லை அப்பா வேணுமா என்ற பாடலையும் வே.லட்சுமணன் எழுதியுள்ளார். சூலமங்கலம் ராஜலட்சுமி மகிழம்பூ படத்தில் பாடிய வேண்டியதை வாரிக்கொள்ள வாருங்கள் என்ற பாடல் தான் வித்வான் வே.லட்சுமணன் எழுதிய கடைசி பாடல் என்று சொல்லப்படுகிறது.

சுமார் 11 படங்களுக்கு கதை, வசனம் எழுதிய வே.லட்சுமணன் குறைந்த அளவு தான் பாடல்களைத் தான் எழுதியுள்ளார் என்றாலும் அத்தனையும் அன்றைய கால கட்ட இசை ரசிகர்களை மகிழ்வித்தவை.

சென்னை, அண்ணாமலைப் பல்கலைக் கழகத்தில் வே.லட்சுமணன் வித்வான் பட்டம் பெற்றவர் . அதே பல்கலைக் கழகத்தில் தமிழாசிரியராகவும் பணியாற்றியவர் என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது. பல்வேறு ஜோதிட நூல்கள் மட்டுமின்றி கன்னிப்பாவை,நீலவேணி, பாவை மன்றம் போன்ற புதினங்களையும் எழுதியுள்ளார். இத்தனை பன்முகத்தன்மை கொண்ட மனிதனை ஜோசியத்துடன் மட்டும் முடிச்சிப் போட்டு பார்க்கக் கூடாது என்பதற்காகத் தான் இந்த பதிவே.

-  கட்டுரை தந்த ப.கவிதா குமார்  அவர்களுக்கு நன்றி .

JOHN DEE ,CELEBRATED ASTROLOGER BORN 1527,JULY 13

JOHN DEE ,CELEBRATED ASTROLOGER

BORN 1527,JULY 13- 1608

Born on July 13, 1527, in London, England, John Dee was an "English alchemist, astrologer, and mathematician who contributed greatly to the revival of interest in mathematics in England."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica

"Dee was an exceptional student who entered Cambridge University when he was fifteen...Dee excelled at Cambridge and was named Underreader (junior faculty member) before taking his degree. After graduating he traveled to the Continent to continue his studies, achieving overnight fame in Paris at the age of twenty-three, when he delivered a series of lectures on the recently exhumed works of the Greek mathematician Euclid."
- Visions and Prophesies

"After lecturing and studying on the European continent between 1547 and 1550, Dee returned to England in 1551 and was granted a pension by the government. Dee became astrologer to the queen, Mary Tudor, and shortly thereafter was imprisoned for being a magician but was released in 1555." 
- Encyclopaedia Britannica

"Dee met the future Queen Elizabeth while she was being held under house arrest by Queen Mary. The two developed a freindship that lasted for the rest of their lives. As queen, Elizabeth gave Dee money...More importantly, she protected him from those who accused him of withcraft."
- Visions and Prophesies

"Besides practicing astrology and horoscopy in the court of Elizabeth I, whose favour he enjoyed, he also gave instruction and advice to pilots and navigators who were exploring the New World. He was asked to name a propitious day for Elizabeth's coronation, and he gave her lessons in the mystical interpretation of his writings."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica

"Dee's house in Mortlake, near London, was for many years a major center of science in England. Dee salvaged many ancient scientific tomes that had been scattered when Roman Catholic churches and monasteries were ransacked during the Reformation, and his own library of more than 4,000 books may have been the largest of its kind in Europe at the time."
- Visions and Prophesies

"Before we raise our eyes to heaven, kabbalistically illuminated by the contemplation of these mysteries, we could perceive very exactly the constitution of our Monad as it is shown to us not only in the LIGHT but also in life and nature, for it discloses explicitly, by its inner movement, the most secret mysteries of this physical analysis."
John Dee, Theorem XVIII

"...In Dee's most Hermetic work, the Monas Hieroglyphica, (One Hieroglyph), published in Antwerp in 1564, Dee believed he had found a 'hieroglyph', a hitherto hidden 'symbol' which contained in its form the very unifying principle of reality. It is a kind of micro-chip which contains within it all the most elementary principles of the universe. It is to be contemplated upon and fixed in memory as an archetype applicable to all studies. But what is it? If one can imagine a great ocean of prima materia which we may call in this context 'spirit', a pure unformed, undirected, unmoving, unmoved homogenous world, then we see the beginning of the universe. If a hand were to, as it were, drop the Monas Hieroglyphica into that ocean of potentials, the materia prima would immediately start forming itself into the universe we imagine we know."
- Tobias Churton, The Gnostics

"In 1570 the first English translation of Euclid's work appeared, and, although it is credited to Sir Henry Billingsley, who became sheriff and later lord mayor of London, Dee probably wrote part or all of it. In addition, he wrote the preface, which encouraged the growing interest in the mathematical arts."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica

"...Dee stayed in his library, where, bent over his books, he explored the Talmudic mysteries, the Rosicrucian theories, and a host of other obscure and occult subjects."
- Daniel Cohen, Masters of the Occult

Dee died in 1608 was two years before the first Rosicrucian manifesto, the Fama Fraternitas, began to circulate in 1610.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Queen Elizabeth I’s court advisor was the foremost scientific genius of the 16th century, laying the foundation of modern science. Then teamed up with a disreputable, criminal psychic and things really got rolling.

Dr. John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I’s court astrologer, is a footnote in English history—remembered as a deluded man who believed in angels, an embarrassing relic of a pre-scientific time.

Thanks to an academic renaissance in Dee studies, however, a very different portrait has emerged of Elizabeth’s confidant. Underneath centuries of slander, initiated by the fundamentalists who took power after Elizabeth, may be one of the greatest geniuses in European intellectual history—a man responsible, it seems, for the modern world itself.

The Magus

John Dee was born in 1527, in Tower Ward, London. His father was a minor courtier who sent Dee to Cambridge at 15; there, he slept only four hours a night, spending the rest of his time studying everything—geography, astronomy, astrology, optics, navigation, nautical engineering, scripture, mathematics, law, medicine, cryptography.

At the University of Louvain in the Netherlands, he also immersed himself in studying the occult—not uncommon for the era’s intelligentsia, for whom science and magic were different facets of the total quest to understand the mind of God. For the uneducated, mathematics were still considered as black of an art as spirit conjuring.

Dee did gain a reputation as a sorcerer, but it wasn’t for his occult studies — he was fond of animatronics, and a mechanical flying scarab he created for a stage production of Aristophanes’ Pax so terrified the audience that they assumed he consorted with Satan Himself. The charge stuck.

Despite this, Dee was soon considered one of the most learned men in Europe. At 24, he lectured on Euclid, packing halls and becoming the most successful lecturer on the Continent in years. (His introduction to the English translation of Euclid’s Elements introduced the public to the +, -, x and ÷ signs for the first time.) And when Elizabeth ascended to the throne, Dee went with her. He used his position as scientific and astrological advisor to accumulate the largest library in England—2,670 manuscripts, as opposed to Cambridge’s 451 and Oxford’s 379—and a network of scientists, intellectuals and courtiers throughout Europe, which he likely used for intelligence gathering (Dee, who was also instrumental in the creation of the British intelligence service, signed his letters to Elizabeth “007”).

Based on the Kindle e-book, The Angelic Reformation: John Dee, Enochian Magick and the Occult Roots of Empire, by Jason Louv. Available on Amazon
For the next twenty-five years, he would work as England’s foremost practical and theoretical scientist, advocating heliocentrism, lifting astronomy from obscurity, teaching mathematics and, crucially, developing systems of navigation and optics that would help establish England’s naval superiority. He also made startling scientific predictions—of the telescope, of the speed of light and fourth dimension, and of uses of optics for weapons and solar power that would not be tried until the 1960s.

The Star of Empire

In 1572, a new star appeared in the heavens, which remained visible night and day for 17 months (we now know that it was a Type Ia supernova, in the constellation Cassiopeia). For the public, it could only mean immanence of the Eschaton—the end of the world. For Dee, it signaled that a new world order was to come—an English Protestant Empire, instead of a Holy Roman one.

It is in this context that Dee proposed a “British Empire,” a phrase he coined—for Dee, this would be nothing less than a restoration of the reign of Arthur, as he believed that Arthur’s original colonies were, in fact, in the New World—even that America was Atlantis itself. Dee saw Elizabeth as the living Arthur; himself, Merlin. He formed a company to colonize, convert and exploit the Americas, even to open a northeast passage to Asia, with a mind to seeking the perceived source of all occult wisdom. There is strong evidence that Dee was the intellectual force behind Francis Drake’s 1577-1580 circumnavigation of the globe. Dee himself was awarded the rights to all newly discovered land north of the 50th Parallel, which would have given him Canada—had Drake gone any further north than Oregon.

So began the Empire on which the sun never sets, or at least didn’t until the end of the 20th century. What are we to make of the fact that one of history’s most successful (and brutal) empires, which held much of the globe in its control for four hundred years, and is responsible for the modern world, was masterminded by an alchemist who spoke to angels in a crystal ball?

The Angelic Reformation

Having set into place the technology and ideological framework necessary for British dominance of the globe, Dee turned his attention to conquering another world.

For years, Dee had attempted to apply his knowledge of optics to scrying, or conjuring spirits into a crystal, a common Elizabethan preoccupation. His experiments with various scryers (Dee himself could not see spirits, and instead relied on professional psychics) were unimpressive—in 1569, after supplicating the Archangel Michael to no response, Dee had contemplated suicide.

All that changed forever in 1581, when a singularly bizarre character arrived in Dee’s life: Edward Kelley, a 26-year-old, alcoholic, overweight “cunning man” and scryer with a reputation for sorcery. That his ears had been cropped from his head for counterfeiting coins could not have helped his image. Dee’s wife Jane loathed him. But Dee, believing Kelley had the knack, brought him on.

Over the next ten years, the pair delved headlong into contacting angels—and either Kelley ran a decade-long confidence game on Dee, or they indeed made contact with “something.” Either way, the spirit diaries that survive—dug up in a field ten years after Dee’s death—contain not only prose that rivals Shakespeare and Joyce, but a completely new language, with its own grammar and syntax.

Dee would perform ritual invocations of the angels, and Kelley would stare into a scrying mirror or crystal ball, wherein a series of angels appeared, transmitting prophecies, instructions and furious pronouncements on the spiritual nature of mankind. The angels were not charitable. Raging at the fallen state of humanity, who have only become progressively worse since being sent East of Eden, they consistently liken humans to “harlots”—not in the sexual sense, but in the sense that they weakly allow their attentions to be captivated by literally anything except God. Over years of Actions, the angels described the ordering of the cosmos; a series of instructions for ritual invocations; predictions of apocalypse and events to come in European politics; and, finally, the Angelic or “Enochian” language, which they explained was the ur-language of humanity, spoken before the Fall of Adam.

For Dee, this was not magic, but religion—he supplicated himself to the angels totally. Kelley, though, was terrified of the spirits, considering them demons and constantly begging Dee to cease the sessions. Dee insisted on pushing ahead, overworking Kelley to exhaustion and keeping him virtually prisoner at Mortlake. The angels, for their part, detested Kelley, clocking immediately that he had previously engaged in demonic grimoire magic, and quickly became exasperated with both Dee and Kelley. Though Dee may have been the smartest member of the species, he was still perceived as an inconsequential gnat by the angelic hyperintelligences—particularly when Dee and Kelley began begging them for money (Kelley even asked if the angels could loan him money!). But for all of Dee and Kelley’s embarrassing lack of evolution, they would have to do, because the angels had a plan, and Dee and Kelley were on the hook.

Put simply, the angels wanted nothing less than a New World Order, run by divine principles, and proposed what must be one of the most dangerous ideas in Western history: A world religion, based on love and unity—a supra-Christianity or Terminal Monotheism which would not only reunite Catholicism and Protestantism but even Judaism and Islam into a fused whole; all made possible, of course, by the technology the angels had provided for direct individual contact with the spiritual agents of God instead of relying on terrestrial authority or scripture. Combined with the foundation Dee had already laid for a temporal New World Order under Elizabeth, this new religion would unite the souls of the entire globe, fusing all humanity into one State, and one Church, all directed by the angels themselves—the New Jerusalem.

So fervent were the angels that they commanded Dee and Kelley to present themselves to the court of Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor, tell him he was possessed by demons, and command him to heed the angelic message. This was a death sentence—but Dee and Kelley, shockingly, made good on it. Rudolf ignored them, but the Papal nuncio did not, and plotted their destruction. The Church, it seems, took Dee and Kelley’s claims seriously—perhaps as a threat to their very existence. Humans talking to God without scriptural or institutional mediation was not on the menu.

The Daughter of Fortitude

Dee and Kelley’s failed efforts on the Continent were followed by a completely unprecedented new approach by the angels in working with the pair: A shocking eruption of eroticism.

While prior magicians had warned that no good spirits ever appeared female, the angels had assured Dee and Kelley that nothing could be more false; the angels often appeared female or androgynous. While consulting with the angel Madimi, who had previously shown herself as a playful and concisely informative young girl, Kelley saw a grown Madimi disrobe totally, before telling Kelley and Dee to “share all things in common.”

The command was clear: Dee and Kelley were to swap wives. Scholars have taken this as clear evidence that Kelley, who hated his own wife, was manipulating Dee. Jane Dee, who couldn’t stand Kelley, cried and wept uncontrollably when told of the plan, which Dee found revolting but apparently saw as a true command—so disturbed were Dee and, apparently, Kelley, that they summoned Uriel in protest; Uriel confirmed the command was valid. Dee was then sixty years old; after much worry, he turned to the Augustinian doctrine of “Love, and do what thou wilt” to assure himself his soul was not damned—St. Augustine’s phrase, of course, would be echoed four centuries later as Aleister Crowley’s “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”

The wife-swapping, it seems, was carried out after the four parties drew up a contract. “Behold,” the angels told them after it was done, “you are free.”

Two days later, a new presence appeared—the Scarlet Woman, called BABALON in Enochian, and the Whore of Babylon in Revelations. Dee and Kelley were terrified—the pair parted ways and the sessions ceased. 1588 dawned, and the apocalypse the angels promised failed to manifest. Kelley wandered Bohemia, gaining significant wealth and social standing in Rudolf’s court by convincing the emperor he could make gold—before Rudolf had him locked up for failing to produce. He died of injuries sustained trying to escape out of a window.

Mortlake had been ransacked while Dee sojourned on the Continent; shortly after he returned, plague swept London, for which he was blamed. The plague also took Jane Dee and five of Dee’s eight children, leaving him a broken man. When Elizabeth also died, Dee lost his patronage, as well as his ability to defend himself from his many political and religious enemies. James I, her successor, was a fundamentalist maniac, personally overseeing the torture of women accused of witchcraft. The Christian extremist counter-attack James waged against Elizabeth’s age of High Culture and High Magick succeeded in burying Dee, and Hermeticism itself, to our present day.

Once considered the most learned man in the world, Dee now spent his days selling his books, casting charts and writing public apologies. He was a man out of time, without patrons, without a family, without Elizabeth, without even Kelley—and still adhering to post-Reformation eschatologies that were long past their sell-by date. He consulted with the angels for comfort; they told him his name and memory would be preserved for the ages. They were correct.

The Archangel Raphael told Dee of a coming “long journey to friends beyond the sea.” Some time around March 1609, Dee took that journey.

The Rosicrucian Underground

While scholars would systematically soil Dee’s memory over the coming centuries, he became an underground legend—the archetypal cartoon image we inherit of the “wizard,” wearing a pointy hat and robe and wielding a crystal ball, is a survival of folk images of Dee. The eminent historian Francis Yates suggests that Dee’s actions on the Continent and writings are responsible for the Rosicrucian occult revolution in Europe that formed the cradle of the Enlightenment and modern science—and that, in a sense, Dee tricked Europe into having a scientific revolution. The Enochian scholar Stephen Skinner suggests a secret tradition in British high society kept the angelic magic alive—and Dee’s papers in the British Library are well documented as the catalyzing information behind the 19th and 20th century occult revival.

When this guiding influence on the birth of a worldwide underground “occulture” is combined with Dee’s efforts in initiating the Age of Reason and the Age of Imperialism, Dee looks less like an outsider and more like a primary architect of our present reality. Since the 1980s, academia has worked hard at resurrecting Dee studies as a bustling field—long overdue—and reincorporating Dee’s magical pursuits into the study of his overall intellectual project. I suspect that in the process we may not only regain one of European history’s greatest intellects—but a new understanding of history and, perhaps, our very place in the universe.

ALAN LEO , THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL BRITISH ASTROLOGER OF SUN SIGNS

ALAN LEO , THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL 
BRITISH ASTROLOGER  OF SUN SIGNS

Alan Leo, born William Frederick Allan, (Westminster, 7 August 1860 – Bude, 30 August 1917), was a prominent British astrologer, author, publisher, astrological data collector[1] and theosophist. He is often referred to as "the father of modern astrology".[2]

His work stimulated a revival of astrology in the Western world after its decline at the end of the 17th century. Leo was a devout theosophist and he worked many of its religious concepts such as karma and reincarnation into his astrology. He used the Theosophical Society's vast international connections to publish, translate and disseminate his work across Europe and America.

Astrological technique and influence[edit]

Alan Leo's natal chart

Leo, who took the name of his sun-sign as a pseudonym, is credited with starting the movement towards a more psychologically-oriented horoscope analysis in astrology, being the first astrologer to argue for a loose interpretation of possible trends of experience rather than the specific prediction of events.[3] His influence has been described as marking a 'turning point' in horoscope delineation, because, as astrological historian James Holden explains:

Thereafter, what has been more recently called "event-oriented" astrology gradually receded in favor of character analysis and vague descriptions of possible areas of psychological harmony or stress.[4]

In 1890, Leo, invited George R.S. Mead to found an occult lodge in Brixton, South London. Towards the end of his life, in 1909, and again in 1911, Leo travelled with his wife to India where he studied Indian astrology.[5]:114 As a result of his studies in India, he later attempted to incorporate portions of Indian astrology into the western astrological model.

Leo's book The Art of Synthesis (1912) was a probable influence on Gustav Holst's work The Planets. In this book, Leo gave the planets descriptions such as "Mars the Energiser".[6]

In 1915 Leo founded the Astrological Lodge of London.[7]

Legal controversies and death[edit]

In 1914, aged 54, Leo faced prosecution against the charge that he "did unlawfully pretend to tell fortunes" through astrology. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence, but it led to Leo's belief that astrology needed to be revised to be legitimised.[8] His advice to fellow astrologers was:

Let us part company with the fatalistic astrologer who prides himself on his predictions and who is ever seeking to convince the world that in the predictive side of Astrology alone shall we find its value. We need not argue the point as to its reality, but instead make a much-needed change in the word and call Astrology the science of tendencies.[9]

In 1917 Leo stood trial again on a similar charge. Despite his insistence that he told only "tendencies" and not "fortunes", he lost his case and was fined £5 plus costs.[8] Leo was convicted of fortune-telling on 16 July 1917.[5]:105 He died a few weeks later from an apoplexy (cerebral haemorrhage), at 10:00 am on 30 August 1917, whilst on a holiday at Bude in Cornwall, which was intended to restore his health after the ordeals of the trial.[5]:74 He had used the 'holiday' as a period in which he rewrote hundreds of pages of astrological text to "recast the whole system and make it run more along the lines of character reading and less as the assertion of an inevitable destiny", despite being warned by his wife that "he needed rest badly after the worry and anxiety of the law case", and was overworking himself and heading for a breakdown. After his sudden death the rewriting of his work was completed by his friend and colleague H.S. Greene.[5]:106 Greene also remarked on how the 1917 prosecution had caused worry for Leo during the process of the trial.[5]:113

Works[edit]
Practical Astrology. Philadelphia: David McCay, not dated.
The Astrologer's Magazine, edited by Alan Leo, Vol. IV (1894) Vol. V series 1895–.
What is the Horoscope and How is it Cast. N.p., 1902.
How to Judge a Nativity. 2 vols. 1904. Reprint, London: Modern Astrology Office, 1928.
Astrology for All series 1903–.
The Progressed Horoscope. London: Fowler 1906.
Horary Astrology. London: Modern Astrology Office, 1909.
The Key to your own Nativity. London: Modern Astrology Office, 1910.
The Art of Synthesis. Originally published 1912 as "How to Judge a Nativity" in the Astrology for All series. London: Fowler 1968.
Casting the Horoscope. London: Modern Astrology Office, 1912.
Esoteric Astrology, first published 1913. Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, 1989. ISBN 0-89281-181-1
Alan Leo's Dictionary of Astrology, edited and completed by Vivian E. Robson. London 1929.

ALAN LEO THE FATHER OF MODERN ASTROLOGY BORN 1860 AUGUST 7

ALAN LEO THE FATHER OF MODERN ASTROLOGY

BORN 1860 AUGUST 7

Alan Leo is commonly thought of as being the first modern astrologer and is revered the world over amongst astrologers. Born William Frederick Allan in Westminster in 1860, Leo was cared for by his mother, a member of the Plymouth Brethren after his father, a Scottish ex-soldier, left when Leo was nine. 

The Brethren was one of many strict Christian sects that had sprung up in the early years of the nineteenth century. There was no paid ministry and the words of the Bible were taken literally. Brethren rules were, and are, extremely strict. The man of the family rules the home and women must be submissive. 

Contact with non-Brethren members is discouraged and the group practised exclusion, cutting off those who refused to adhere to their rules. Calling each other sister and brother, the Brethren were constantly alert to the Second Coming. So much so that it was forbidden to make any long-term plans, such as signing a lease, in case that be viewed as a lack of confidence in Christ's imminent arrival. 

The occultist Aleister Crowley's family were Brethren as was that of Sir Robert Anderson the Scotland Yard detective, known for his involvement in the Jack the Ripper case. 

Leo's father had been unable to cope with the lifestyle his wife wanted, and Leo himself left home as soon as was practical. His strict upbringing him made him an eager and willing participant in the newly emerging occult world of the late nineteenth century. 

Leo's working life began when he was sixteen. He had a variety of jobs working as a draper, chemist's assistant, grocer, sewing machine salesman and shop manager. His many jobs alternated with periods of unemployment. 

By the time he became involved in astrology in 1885, Leo had already tried and failed at a number of professions. He was managing a grocer's shop in Manchester when he met a Dr Richardson who taught him astrology. Noting that any astrologer who was worthwhile adopted a nom de plume, he decided to call himself "Alan Leo" and later changed his name by deed poll. 

Leo was already at this time a member of an occult society, The Celestial Brotherhood, run by the Welsh seer and mystic John Thomas (Charubel). Thomas had originally trained as a Methodist preacher, but by his early twenties had become a curative mesmerist, later progressing through herbalism, astrology, mediumship, and occultism.

 He was renowned for his healing skills, and often relied on precipitated letters from the spirit world for his methods of treatment. Thomas prepared hundreds of horoscopes in his time, taking the trouble to draw them in parchment. He also did a roaring trade in talismans. 

Each member of the Brotherhood adopted a mystical name derived from astrological significators, numerology, and geometry. Alan Leo became known as Agorel. Although the society was never the success that Thomas had hoped, it had members all over the world and for much of his life he kept up lengthy and frequent correspondence with its members.

 Leo was a regular writer for the Brotherhood's magazine, The Occultist, which appears to have had a connection to the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. In the mid 1880s, Leo spent much of his time travelling in the north and west of England, and took the opportunity to spend time with Thomas when he could. 

In 1888, Leo was living in Peckham, London as a salesman for a confectionary firm when he met the astrologer Frederick Lacey (Aphorel), also a member of Thomas' Brotherhood. Leo made contact with Lacey after seeing his letter in Astrologer magazine, which asked for astrologers to contact him so that they might meet. Leo, JC Green, C Baddley, Mr Smarry and a man whose name later escaped Lacey's memory began meeting at Lacey's home in Brixton every Friday evening. Before long, Leo, Green and Lacey also began to meet for lunch every Wednesday. 

Lacey led a busy life. He was a freemason, a songwriter, and played the organ on Sunday afternoons. Considering that he also led a double life, having two wives and two sets of children, it's hard to see when he had time to fit astrology into his schedule. However, he did, and was responsible for introducing Leo to the astrologer Walter Old (Sepharial, and later Walter Gornold). 

Old was already a theosophist at this time, and a member of Blavatsky's inner circle. He introduced Leo to theosophy in the summer of 1889 by taking him along to one of the many gatherings held at the Society's headquarters in Lansdowne Road. Leo took to theosophy like a duck to water, as it was only a short step away from the studies he had already undertaken with Thomas. Leo finally joined the Theosophical Society in May 1890. 

The magazine that had led to Leo and Lacey meeting, The Astrologer, had begun to flounder. Sales had dropped and its editor, P Powley, began to include material on horse racing and betting systems to try and attract more readers. Unfortunately, this did the opposite. Lacey came up with the idea of producing a new astrology magazine with no horse racing. Everyone was enthused until Lacey began to talk money. Lacey and Leo agreed to split the costs between them and review the situation in a year's time. 

The Astrologer's Magazine (renamed Modern Astrology in 1895) was launched on 21 November 1889. Leo mentioned their plan to Old who wasted no time in producing a rival magazine Fate and Fortune in June 1890, one month before the first issue of The Astrologer's Magazine. 

Fate and Fortune went the same way as many of Old's projects, disappearing after only four issues. Old simply became a contributor to AM, which was successful enough to break even by June 1891. The success of AM was helped along by the attacks made on it by AJ Pearce (Zadkiel) and in The Daily News. However, the most attractive feature of the magazine for most readers was the offer of a free horoscope for new subscribers. In the first year alone, Leo and Lacey worked flat out to produce the 1,500 horoscopes ordered. 

Although Leo and Lacey had no experience in publishing magazines, they did have experience in what astrologers wanted to read. Leo was ill-educated in comparison to his colleagues, and claimed not to have read many astrological texts. Lacey admitted that Leo - 

…was always desirous of writing books; he rarely read much, but was a deep thinker. (Leo, Bessie, 43.)


- and pointed out that the only books Leo read when getting into astrology were Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine, and Raphael's Guides. It was a free horoscope that led to Leo's marriage. One of Leo's astrological and theosophical colleagues, HS Green, had persuaded a friend in the Bournemouth Theosophical Lodge to subscribe to AM. In turn, this friend of Green's convinced a fellow member of his lodge - Ada Elizabeth Murray Phillips - to subscribe. Later to be known as Bessie Leo, Phillips was a palmist and phrenologist who lived in Southampton. Bessie's father had separated from her Christian mother when Bessie was sixteen. She lived with her father and after her mother's death when Bessie was twenty, she converted to Judaism and began to practice phrenology and palmistry professionally. 

Bessie sent off for her horoscope in 1892 and was so impressed with the results that she arranged to meet Leo. In February 1893, Leo called on Bessie and they immediately hit it off. 

Unfortunately, Bessie was already engaged to be married to a fellow phrenologist. In May she and her husband moved to Bournemouth though she continued to correspond with and meet Leo. Bessie's husband became frustrated with their agreement to a platonic relationship, and she was concerned that he had married her for her inheritance so the marriage was annulled in 1895. Bessie soon discussed marrying Leo but as a Jew was worried about her father's reaction. The other problem was Bessie's avowed celibacy. Leo had no problem with this and the couple married 23 September 1895. Although celibacy was often recommended among theosophists, it would be an understatement to say that it was rarely practiced. However, Leo embraced the concept as eagerly as he did vegetarianism, teetotalism and non-smoking. 

Lacey's other commitments led him to resign from AM in 1894. Leo continued the magazine while combining his day job as a commercial salesman with giving lectures in astrology and theosophy, and rented an office off Fleet Street to run the magazine. 

The year 1895 was a difficult one for AM. Over 4,000 free horoscopes had been sent out, many resulting in requests for more detailed work. Although a horoscope service wasn't originally intended, it became almost unavoidable. 

From 1893, Leo charged for more than the most basic delineation. This was to become extremely profitable. Leo still sought to convert astrologers to his idea of astrology as a spiritual science and AM became Modern Astrology, and a theosophically oriented publication in July 1895. 

With the success of his horoscopes and publications, Leo was able to found the Astrological Society, which opened on 14 January 1896 in London. Robert T Cross (Raphael) agreed to become its vice-president and HS Green its treasurer. Meetings took place on the first Friday of every month and the Society had one hundred members by the end of the year. 

Although theosophical astrology claimed many adherents amongst middle class readers, especially women, other astrologers became more hostile as the Leos approach to astrology became more occult and popular. For example, Pearce continued to fight for a scientific astrology and Cross resigned from the Astrological Society. 

Not that this would stop the Leos. In 1898 they bought a house in Hampstead, London and by the end of the year, Alan had wound up his commercial interests and become a full time astrologer. This was risky as MA was only just beginning to attract enough subscribers to cover its expenses. The solution came from Harold Scrutton, Leo's clerk. He had noticed that the same text was often used for horoscopes and suggested simply reproducing the relevant sheets and clipping them together. Leo filled his study with lockers containing the delineation sheets and began his horoscope production line. The "test horoscopes" were widely advertised and not only brought in more subscriptions for MA, but also orders for detailed horoscopes which could cost as much as twenty-five pounds. 

Much of the text used for the test horoscopes was plagiarised from elsewhere. 

The whole of the mimeographed sheets comprising his test horoscopes were copied, in many cases verbatim, from Sepharial's Prognostications from the Rising Sign and HS Green's Planets in Signs and Houses, while the greater part of the other sheets of his system were copied and paraphrased from Butler's Solar Biology. (Bailey, Destiny, 20.)

Almost all of the profits from the test horoscopes were ploughed into publishing books, including the cheap manuals in the Astrology for All series, which began to appear in 1901. The next year, Leo resigned his presidency of the Astrological Society. Shortly afterwards, he established the Society for Astrological Research, which was run by the Leos, HS Green, Old and Bailey. Pearce refused his invitation. That society was also short lived. 

By 1903, Leo employed nine members of staff at the Modern Astrology offices, including the astrologer Edward H Bailey, who was later to become the editor of Modern Astrology's archrival The British Journal of Astrology. Leo's employees had become restless about their workload and the increasing commercialism of their work and Bailey led a walk out - the only known astrologers strike. The next year, Bailey issued his own astrological magazine Destiny, in which he wrote a fictional account of his relationship with Leo. Bailey continued to rail against Leo for the rest of his life, most notable in The British Journal of Astrology, which he edited. Unfortunately for Bailey, his proposed college of astrology came to nothing. 

Other assistants soon came forward to replace those who had followed Bailey's lead. By 1909, Leo had established the Astrological Society, which soon gained two hundred members. However, the Leos attention was directed elsewhere that year, when they found themselves in court as Bessie's right to the £80,000 she had inherited from her father was challenged on the basis that the Leos had unduly influenced Bessie's father. In the end, the Leos won the case. 

The court case may have been instrumental in prompting the Leo's trip to India later that year. As all good theosophists would, they joined the then president of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant, at the Society's headquarters in Adyar, Madras. 

By now, the concept of duplicated horoscopes had taken off in a big way. When Leo returned to London, he was shown a copy of an article that had appeared in the journal Truth, reporting on the popularity of the horoscopes and suggesting that the law should be involved. In the next issue of MA, Leo announced the end of the shilling horoscopes. 

The Leos returned to India in 1911, returning on 5 May with Annie Besant and Krishnamurti. They were the first to join the new theosophical organisation that revolved around Krishnamurti, The Order of the Star in the East. 

The astrological work continued and Leo's next project was the founding of the Astrological Institute in 1912. Unfortunately, things started to go a little downhill from then. 

In 1913, Leo's Esoteric Astrology appeared, described by Charles Carter, whose view appeared to be representative of many astrologers, as "…a big volume containing virtually nothing worth reading." 

There had always been a problem relating to the legality of practicing astrology, which astrologers were well aware of. Horary astrology was a particularly risky venture as its practice could also be included under the Witchcraft Act, no doubt one of the reasons why Leo was so ambivalent about its practice. 

By 1912, the number of fortune tellers in London had risen rapidly and it was estimated that between six and seven hundred were operating at that time. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner issued an order that fortune tellers of all types within his jurisdiction must remove all words such as "palmist", "clairvoyant" and "astrologer" from their doorplates, window signs and other public advertisements, and public concern was heightened enough for questions to be asked in the House of Commons in 1911 and 1912. 

The last major case against an astrologer under the Act was that against Alan Leo in April 1914. Leo pleaded not guilty and gained the support of numerous of his peers. The case attracted enough public interest for the press to attend. 

Leo was charged with fortune telling and received a summons to attend the Magistrates court at Mansion House, London. Leo had been completing his jury service when he received the summons and had assumed that the visit on 29 April from two "gentlemen" who had called "from the Jury" was related in some way. Although Leo didn’t consider himself to be in any particular danger, he decided to consult his solicitor. On 6 May, he turned up at Mansion House ready to fight the charges. Journalists and a large crowd of character witnesses, including Annie Besant and AJP Sinnett, were in attendance. 

Leo was charged with having told fortunes on both 27 February and 8 April 1914. He pleaded not guilty. In February 1914, Hugh MacLean of the City of London Police had written to Leo under the name of William Hammond asking for a list of charges for horoscopes. He received in response a letter and a booklet entitled The Stars and How to Read Them. McLean then sent off for a ten shilling horoscope. For his money McLean received a Delineation of Nativity, and the advice that he could either purchase a more detailed judgment or add to it himself by studying Leo's books The Key to Your Own Nativity or The Progressed Horoscope. 

The section of the report entitled Future Prospects was read out in court. It was shown that when the letter was sent, Leo was abroad and couldn't have written it. The case was dismissed, but costs were refused. 

By 1915, Leo had authored or helped produce about thirty astrological books. During that year he set up the Astrological Lodge of the Theosophical Society, which despite having gone through many incarnations and changes, as well as separating from the Theosophical Society, still meets today. According to Charles Carter, Leo founded the Lodge to give Bessie something to do. 

Eventually the fuss revolving around the court case died down and it seemed that everyone could simply get on with the business of supplying horoscopes - except that in 1917 Leo was again summonsed to appear at Mansion House and again pleaded not guilty to the charge of fortune telling. 

The case was broadly similar to the one brought in 1914 but this time the case against Leo was treated more seriously. Despite the efforts of Leo's defence, the magistrate refused to allow discussions as to the validity of astrology. Leo's defence was that his report showed only tendencies and shouldn't be defined as fortune telling as that involved making a specific statement about the future. This approach may have succeeded if it weren't for one sentence: 

At this time a death in your family circle is likely to cause you sorrow. (Times, 7 May 1917.)

Was the death a tendency, or was there a tendency towards death? The prosecution wasted no time in asking this question. Although the remainder of the hundred-page report adhered to the tenet that the stars inclined rather than compelled, this sentence lost the case for Leo. The hearing, which was adjourned for a week, ended in a nominal fine of £5 and £25 costs, over £1000 in today's terms. At that time, the maximum sentence possible was three month's imprisonment - including hard labor, so Leo got off a lot more lightly than he might have done. Leo originally planned to appeal against the decision, but decided against it as his chances of success were low. Instead, Leo travelled with his wife Bessie to Bude in Cornwall for their annual holiday. While there, he was taken ill and died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 30 August 1917. Lacey read of Leo's death in his newspaper. Many of Leo's supporters blamed the case for his death and viewed the authorities as murderers. Bessie lived until 1931 and continued to publish MA with the help of astrologers such as Vivian Robson. 



Leo's Legacy 

Alan Leo's intention, as outlined in the first issue of Modern Astrology, was to establish a more spiritual and psychological form of astrology, concentrating on the delineation of character rather than prediction. It is this approach that has led to him being called the father of modern astrology. 

His life work was to cleanse the Augean stables of astrology, and only those who worked in close touch with him know what an accumulation of filth there was in those stables, and what slime he waded through… (Annie L Barley, in Bessie's biography.) 

If we regard the life of Alan Leo we shall admit that he was of that noble race. To set out to purify Astrology from dross and superstition, to rescue maiden Urania from the dragon as it were, was an heroic enterprise for one who had neither money, backing nor education. Like many Leos, he had a saving common sense and a sense of the practicable. He was an idealist, but no dreamer. (Carter.)

Carter's comment reflects the legend of Leo more accurately than the reality as we are aware that although Leo may not have had the formal education of other astrologers, he was widely read and with Bessie's legacy and an army of loyal supporters, it was hardly true to say he had no money or backing. 

Many of the changes Leo advocated were derived from elsewhere, for example his discussion of aspects in the Astrologers Magazine advocates using aspect, and not planetary, driven orbs.

Another vexed question is the planetary orbs, some say that it is absurd to give 17° as the orb of the Sun, 12° the Moon's orb and so on. We hope in our next issue to take this "orb question" in hand and thoroughly thrash it out and say what we find about it, and as we before remarked, we shall be glad to hear what our fellow students have found out to the number of degres [sic] to which their power is limited. (AM Vol 1 No 2 Sept 1890.)

It was indeed thrashed out, and the recommended five degree orb for major aspects continues to be used widely, at least the use of moieties as was the established way of dealing with aspects in Leo's day, has only relatively recently been resurrected. However, Leo's lack of originality is as clear here as elsewhere in his work. The original concept can be traced back to William Chaney's work, which Leo was undoubtedly familiar with. 

Another change promoted by Leo was to make the Sun more central to astrological character analysis. This was born out of the cosmology of the theosophists, which gave the Sun a prominent role. Blavatsky was profoundly influenced by the Hermetic heliocentric cosmology of the first and second-centuries BCE, the structure of three heavens, and the centrality of the Sun. She was equally aware of, and influenced by, the works of writers such as Max Müller who argued a solar basis for all religions. In referring to the "central Spiritual Sun," she echoed Hermetic teachings. 

(our) spirits…incorruptible and eternal, both emanate from the eternal central sun and will be reabsorbed by it at the end of time…" (Blavatsky, Isis, 502.)

In fact, Leo wrote a Sun sign book in 1909. The first edition of Everybody's Astrology, Volume 1 of Leo's Astrological Manuals, comprised chapters on the Sun in each of the twelve zodiac signs with no discussion of other astrological factors. In the second - and subsequent - editions, material was added to include Sun sign combined with Moon signs as well as short chapters on the other planets. 

Leo argued that as life giver, the Sun is the single most important factor in the zodiac and therefore the birth chart. He gradually discarded almost the entire list of zodiacal attributes, which had accumulated from the first to seventeenth centuries. He ignored physical characteristics to focus on inner character. His descriptions of the signs set the tone for future Sun sign descriptions - or arguably, Butler's descriptions repeated through Leo's work did so. For example, he wrote that Aries: 

Represents undifferentiated consciousness. It is a chaotic and unorganised sign, in which impulse, spontaneity, and instinctiveness are marked features. Its vibrations are the keenest and most rapid, but without what may be called definite purpose, except towards impulsiveness and disruption. It signifies explosiveness, extravagance and all kinds of excess. Its influence is more directly connected with the animal kingdom, in which life is full and without the directive power of fully awakened self-consciousness. (Leo, Nativity, 17.)

By far the most major influence of Leo's was to make astrology accessible to the masses. The most popular basic guides when Leo began his astrological life were those of Raphael, substantially cheaper and easier to follow than many texts available at that time. Leo took this idea forward and published a set of cheap pocket manuals pitched at a very basic level. 

Whether or not it was an achievement to invent esoteric astrology is open to debate. However in 1913 Leo published Esoteric Astrology, described by Charles Carter as "a big volume containing virtually nothing worth reading." This was theosophical astrology taken to its logical extreme, and provided the baton that would be later picked up by Alice Bailey. 

We shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that Leo's approach to astrology was universally accepted in his lifetime. Sepharial gradually divorced himself from all things theosophical after his split with the Theosophical Society, and that included Leo's brand of astrology. Raphael was never a theosophist and was frustrated by the high level of theosophical content creeping into astrology, EH Bailey had what amounted to a mission to discredit theosophical astrology, but his extreme right wing political views lost him some of the support he may otherwise have had. Leo's most vocal opponent was AJ Pearce. Many of his criticisms of Leo and his ilk would seem to include almost all modern astrologers today:

The leader writer appears to have judged of the merits of the science by the "Modern Astrology" put forth by a certain astrological society, the President of which is so imperfectly versed in the art that he could not compute the primary directions on the Placidean system! (Starlore.)



Coda 

The final words here are given to Charles Carter, who succeeded Leo as president of the Astrological Lodge. 

Once upon a time, long long ago when I was a young astrologer, it seems as if we used to make fun of Leos rather a lot. I wonder what the reason was! Perhaps it was because Alan Leo did in those days so overshadow all the other astrologers and thus became sort of Headmaster Image and we, like naughty schoolboys, enjoyed making oblique passes at him. (The Classical Astrology Series.)
Legal controversies and death[edit]
In 1914, aged 54, Leo faced prosecution against the charge that he "did unlawfully pretend to tell fortunes" through astrology. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence, but it led to Leo's belief that astrology needed to be revised to be legitimised.[8] His advice to fellow astrologers was:

Let us part company with the fatalistic astrologer who prides himself on his predictions and who is ever seeking to convince the world that in the predictive side of Astrology alone shall we find its value. We need not argue the point as to its reality, but instead make a much-needed change in the word and call Astrology the science of tendencies.[9]


In 1917 Leo stood trial again on a similar charge. Despite his insistence that he told only "tendencies" and not "fortunes", he lost his case and was fined £5 plus costs.[8] Leo was convicted of fortune-telling on 16 July 1917.[5]:105 He died a few weeks later from an apoplexy (cerebral haemorrhage), at 10:00 am on 30 August 1917, whilst on a holiday at Bude in Cornwall, which was intended to restore his health after the ordeals of the trial.[5]:74 He had used the 'holiday' as a period in which he rewrote hundreds of pages of astrological text to "recast the whole system and make it run more along the lines of character reading and less as the assertion of an inevitable destiny", despite being warned by his wife that "he needed rest badly after the worry and anxiety of the law case", and was overworking himself and heading for a breakdown. After his sudden death the rewriting of his work was completed by his friend and colleague H.S. Greene.[5]:106 Greene also remarked on how the 1917 prosecution had caused worry for Leo during the process of the trial.[5]:113 2

Works[edit]
Practical Astrology. Philadelphia: David McCay, not dated.
The Astrologer's Magazine, edited by Alan Leo, Vol. IV (1894) Vol. V series 1895–.
What is the Horoscope and How is it Cast. N.p., 1902.
How to Judge a Nativity. 2 vols. 1904. Reprint, London: Modern Astrology Office, 1928.
Astrology for All series 1903–.
The Progressed Horoscope. London: Fowler 1906.
Horary Astrology. London: Modern Astrology Office, 1909.
The Key to your own Nativity. London: Modern Astrology Office, 1910.
The Art of Synthesis. Originally published 1912 as "How to Judge a Nativity" in the Astrology for All series. London: Fowler 1968.
Casting the Horoscope. London: Modern Astrology Office, 1912.
Esoteric Astrology, first published 1913. Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, 1989. ISBN 0-89281-181-1
Alan Leo's Dictionary of Astrology, edited and completed by Vivian E. Robson. London 1929.

[1]Publisher: L.N. Fowler & Co; 2nd edition (1917),ISBN-13: 978-0553234145