Alan Leo
Alan Leo ( pseudonym, actually William Frederick Allan, born August 7, 1860 in Westminster ( now a suburb of London), England; † August 30, 1917 in Bude, Cornwall, England) was an English author, theosophist and astrologer. He is regarded as the "father of modern astrology ."
Life and work
Childhood, Jobs and Marriage
Alan Leo was born on 7 August 1860 in Westminster in central London in impoverished circumstances. After attending primary school, he worked from 1876 with little success as a textile dealer, in a drugstore, at a grocer and the seller to sewing machines and candy. In addition to other, usually just as unsuccessful odd jobs he was often unemployed.
On September 23, 1895, he married Ada Elizabeth Murray Phillips, later as Bessie Leo ( 1858-1931 ) is known. They met had, as Bessie at Leo ordered a horoscope and it was so excited that she then personal contact with him was looking for. Whether they had children, is unclear.
The Astrologer
In 1885 he learned astrology know, later he changed his name according to the Zodiac sign Leo on Alan Leo. Shortly thereafter, he joined the company, The Celestial Brotherhood at ( The heavenly brotherhood ), came here in deeper contact with astrology but also occultism, mediumship, numerology and geometry. Along with Frederick Lacey, he founded on 21 November 1889, the magazine Astrologer 's Magazine. It was a tempting offer: For a subscription to the sheet you got a free horoscope for their comments. Within a year he was able to sell as 1500 subscriptions, for that time a huge success, in 1895 there were already 4000.
From 1893 he offered in addition to the standard free horoscope fee a richer and more detailed calculation on, it became a bestseller. The Journal Astrologer 's Magazine, he led from 1894 alone and changed its name in July 1895 Modern Astrology where he is now more oriented to the content of theosophical ideas. Strengthened by its economic success, he founded on January 14, 1896 in London, the Astrological Society in 1898 and gave his already little successful work as a salesman on to devote himself entirely to the commercial Horoscope sale.
He now called a " Horoscope company " to life, while his secretary Harold Scrutton had a far-reaching idea. Scrutton noticed that the interpretations often largely contained the same text and it would facilitate the work if a standard text could be used for a specific constellation. Thus, the hitherto always required time-consuming reformulation of the interpretations would be redundant. Leo immediately took Scruttons proposal and drew a veritable " horoscope production " on. For each aspect, he designed a normalized text on a separate page and pinned these loose sheets according to the respective horoscope simply connected. He can be seen as precursors of today's computer horoscopes, which operate on the same system. In 1903 he was employing nine employees.
At that time, astrology was still sometimes equated with witchcraft and considered to correspond suspicious. 1917 there was a trial of Leo. The accusation against him was to have described in his horoscopes not only trends, but set up a claim. After much back and forth, he was convicted and sentenced to a fine. Shortly after the end of the process he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Many followers of Leo later made the unpopular court decision for his premature death at the age of 57 responsible.
Its wide effective popularization of astrology contributed significantly to their revival in the UK at. He wrote more than 30 books on astrology, which are partly still considered standard works of this subject.
The Theosophist
About the acquaintance with Sepharial he had come into contact with Theosophy and joined the Theosophical Society in 1890 (TG ) at. After cleavage of the TG 1895 he followed the Adyar direction and was a member of the Theosophical Society Adyar ( Adyar -TG). The influence of theosophy was to be felt in his astrological works and gave them a spiritual touch.
Together with his wife Bessie in 1909, he traveled to India to the Jyotisha - teaching ( Indian astrology ) to explore. Here they met the then President of the Adyar -TG with Annie Besant. In another trip in 1911 they entered India in one of the first to the newly founded Order of the Star in the East. The journey back to England, they completed together with Besant and Jiddu Krishnamurti.
1915 Leo founded within the Adyar - TG is the Astrological Lodge of the Theosophical Society ( Astrological Lodge of the Theosophical Society ) with his wife Bessie as President. This still exists today under the name Astrological Lodge of London, however, regardless of the Adyar -TG.
Works (selection)
- Alan Leo's Astrological textbooks, 5 volumes. Rohm, Bietigheim 1971-1976.
- Esoteric Astrology, the nature of man. Ullsteinhaus, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-548-35752-0.
- Symbolism and Astrology. Kessinger, Whitefish 2005, ISBN 0-7661-4292-2.
- The complete dictionary of astrology. Destiny Books, Rochester, 1989 ISBN 0-89281-182- X.
- The key to your own nativity. Destiny Books, Rochester, 1989, ISBN 0-89281-179- X.