In
this regard, the astrologer and theosophist Walter Gorn Old (who used to write
under the pseudonym Sepharial) pointed out the following:
It is curiously interesting to notice what logically impossible
conclusions may be arrived at by one who has just sufficient natural impulse
towards occultism to produce in him an overpowering desire for “something novel,”
without the necessary mental and intuitive qualifications for investigation.
“Over the pond” this craving for “novelties” is rather strong, perhaps more so
there than in any other part of the globe; and the effects of this tendency are
far too frequently of the nature above indicated.
The mental atmosphere of the West is at the present day filled with
these “inflated bladders,” which require but the application of a pin’s point
—rather more penetrating than over-powering— to destroy their commercial
buoyancy. Scientific children are fond of them as toys, but if one more
enquiring than the rest should seek to know why they are so floaty and the
rest, the result of his enquiry is usually so much wind; and it may be, a
little colouring matter inside, serves to give the whole thing an attractive
appearance.
A copy of The Esoteric, a
monthly periodical “of advanced and esoteric thought,” comes to hand, and from
a careful perusal of its subject matter, I am inclined to think that it stands
first class in colour and size among the many of its kind which I have referred
to as “inflated bladders.”
One would easily be led to suppose, upon first sight of this publication,
from the fair sprinkling of Sanskrit names and references to Oriental
literature, that it was the organ of some learned Hindu Samaj. Not at all! It
is that of a certain American “Secret Science Association.” Its initial subject
is “Solar Biology,” to which frequent references are made, and from which
extracts appear month by month. From an
advertisement which fills one page of The Esoteric, it appears that 20 lessons
can be had in Solar Biology, “ with written copy,” for 50 dollars!
A sample of this new-fangled “science” is contained in the copy of the magazine
for November, 1888, the only one from which I am able at present to quote:
“Twelve Manner of Genii” is the title of this extract.
“The genius of Scorpio— which applies to all persons born between
October 23rd and November 22nd.” The theory advanced on this subject is that of
every person manifesting certain mental, psychic, and physical peculiarities
agreeable to the nature of the Zodiacal sign the sun happens to be in, by geocentric
longitude, at birth. An examination of this theory may not prove uninteresting
to the readers of Lucifer magazine.
The sun is, without doubt, the source of all natural life in its own
system, and it is in the modification of this one natural life-principle that
characteristics are produced in the forms of life which manifest them. But no
allowance is made either for the latitude or longitude of birth in this theory
of Solar Biology, and therefore it is to be inferred that, because the
geocentric longitude of the Sun is, between the above dates, in the sign
Scorpio, all persons born under any conditions and in any clime during that
period, will manifest similar tendencies in mind, soul and body. This is rather
wide reasoning; for it is a well-known fact that the angular distance which any
celestial body may form in relation to a certain place on the earth’s surface,
will determine the degree and quality of that body’s influence on persons
happening to be born at the time in that place.
In this respect the planets, as moderators of the solar rays, will
determine the characteristics of the native, according to their relative
angular distances in the Zodiac, and their several positions in respect to the
place of birth. But “Hiram Butler” thinks differently, and refers all the
electric and magnetic effects of the earth and sun (the cosmical father and
mother) and all those of the planets in the solar system to the stars which
fall within the limits of certain 30 degrees of the Earth’s Zodiac!
For if the Sun, by its apparent motion through the Zodiac, alters its
nature 12 times in the course of a year, and if its relative angular distance
from the place of birth stands for nothing, we must necessarily infer that
those changes of the solar action are due to the nature of the constellations
with which it is in conjunction “Hiram Butler” evidently has not given
sufficient attention to the relationship existing between the fixed or
Intellectual Zodiac and the moveable or Natural Zodiac.
The stars or constellations which now occupy the sign Scorpio will in
2,160 years have passed into the sign Libra and the stars of our present sign
Sagittarius will then be in Scorpio.
Will “Hiram Butler” reappear in those days to revise his Solar Biology,
I wonder? Or will it perish with him?
Speaking of the descent of the elemental thought-forms from the solar
aether towards incarnation in the human form, the author says:
“All in their degree relate themselves to the elements, first, o f the air,
then of fire”! But if it’s all the same to him, suppose we say, “first, to
fire, and next to the air,” which happens to be the order of natural descent?
Further on our author tells us:
“When the sons of Jacob went down into Egypt, Joseph took Simeon
(Scorpio), and bound him before their eyes, and sent them back after the
youngest son, Benjamin (Virgo), and Simeon remained there until Virgo was
brought. Here was mystically symbolized that the sex function must be bound
until the intuitional function (Virgo) is brought into the state of scientific
knowledge; also the tenacity of the Virgo nature to adhere to the traditions of
the fathers.
Also:
“See Genesis xiv, wherein is expressed a wonderful prophecy couched in the
most mystic symbology, only discoverable by a knowledge of Solar Biology.”
This sounds very well indeed, but if we consult one or two of our
Oriental scholars we shall find that this interpretation is rather strangled
and arbitrary. Drummond tells us (vide OEdipus Iudaicus) that the eighth sign
of the Fixed Zodiac (Scorpio) is referred to Dan, “the serpent in the path”:
and that Virgo the “Isis” of the ancient Hindu Zodiac, representing the
procreative faculty, denotes Naphtali, “the spreading oak yielding goodly
branches.” (See Genesis, xlix).
Altogether I am not much struck with either the method of Hiram Butlei’s
reasoning, nor the fanciful conclusions he arrives at.
Sepharial.
(Lucifer, February
1889, p.517-9)
OBSERVATION
Unfortunately many individuals took up the erroneous
simplifications that Hiram Butler invented, and these have been incorporated
into modern astrology, making its interpretations incorrect.
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