Esoteric Astrology- A Study in Human Nature

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

"Esoteric Astrology, A Study in Human Nature" by Alan Leo delves into the spiritual and psychological aspects of astrology, aiming to provide a deeper understanding of one's soul and life purpose. Published in the early 20th century, this pioneering work connects the movement of celestial bodies with the evolutionary journey of the human spirit. Alan Leo, a prominent figure in modern astrology, integrates Theosophical concepts to illustrate how astrology can be a tool for personal and spiritual development, rather than just predictive purposes. This book serves as a guide for readers to explore the esoteric meanings behind their astrological signs and planetary aspects, fostering a deeper self-awareness and insight into their karmic path.

Alan Leo, born William Frederick Allan (1860-1917), was a prominent British astrologer, often regarded as the father of modern astrology. His work at the turn of the 20th century helped to revitalize astrology by shifting its focus from prediction to character analysis and psychological insight. Leo founded the Astrological Lodge of the Theosophical Society in 1915, integrating spiritual concepts into astrology, which significantly influenced its modern practice. He authored numerous influential books, including "Astrology for All" and "The Art of Synthesis," which made the subject more accessible to the public. Leo's teachings and approach to horoscopic astrology laid the groundwork for the psychological astrology that would emerge later in the 20th century.

It was not until I had made a second visit to India that I was able to obtain the clue to the central idea that could unify all my numerous thoughts upon the subject of Esoteric Astrology. In one of the Holy Places, I met a sage whose mind and my own were in complete harmony. I had only to express a few ideas to this marvellous Pundit, and he would run through the whole sequence of my thought and in a few words link those ideas into a consecutive whole to achieve which I had laboured many years. At one of our meetings, he spoke but a few words, but with them he conveyed to my mind ideas which illuminated my thoughts to such an extent that I instantly saw light to which I had been formerly blind. On one occasion we rode many miles in an old gharry to visit an ancient Temple, and while he chanted his sacred hymns continuously, my mind was filled with beautiful thoughts suggesting the very questions a sage alone could answer.

In collecting the ideas that have filled my mind for many years, and even-so I have been given to understand for many lives, and in setting.

them forth in this volume, I am actuated by the primary motive of expressing what I believe to be the true Astrology for the new Era that is now dawning upon the world. I have no wish to force these ideas upon the exoteric school of astrologers, they may accept them or reject them as they wish; but I can at least point to a large body of students, and some sincere colleagues, who are attracted more by this than by any other form of Astrology.

To many, the ideas put forth in this book will come as a revelation concerning the laws which guide the evolution of the world; infallible laws which work incessantly for the ultimate good of humanity. The theories expressed are not imaginary, they are capable of demonstration to all who apply themselves thoughtfully to the methods required to obtain first-hand knowledge.

The experiences are unique that led up to my association with this subject, which I have studied continuously for a quarter of a century, and they have resulted in investigations made quite independently of the opinions or influence of others.

Born of Puritan parents, strict in moral and religious principles, and brought up to believe that if not chosen for eternal bliss the only alter-native was everlasting torment, it was natural that the problems of a life that seemed so complex to a youthful mind should engage my deep and earnest attention. Many years of anxious striving to understand why I had been born into this world without apparently having asked to come, and many visits to religious teachers of all types, brought the conviction that either the religious teachings regarding heaven and hell were false, or that the God I had heard about was unjust; and as I could not believe that which I did not understand or know to be true, I concluded that I must be one of the lost souls. My dear good mother, a devout Christian, converted at the age of 11, who had made it the habit of her life to pray for two hours each morning on waking, besought God that I might be saved; but her prayers did not succeed in commending to me her peculiar way of thinking and believing; and years afterwards, in the darkest hours of my life, the light of Wisdom came through Astrology.

To everything existing there are two sides, the spiritual and the material, the essential and the formal. We are living in a world of duality through which something subtle and undefinable is continually passing and flowing, as an essence or principle behind all things that have this dual manifestation.

This may be fittingly illustrated by the contrast of Day and Night, sub-divided again by Sunrise and Sunset, Noon and Midnight, when the conditions of the earth are completely changed and reversed. The only external factor here is the rotation of the earth upon her own axis before the face of the Sun. But what is it that causes the rotation, and the changing influence of Sunrise and Sunset?

Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, are four distinct seasons of one year, produced by the annual revolution of the earth round the Sun. Infancy, youth, maturity, and old age are correspondences resulting from birth, growth, decay and death. But why the Birth and the Death?

A million exoteric facts will not suffice to answer these questions, for they are concerned with our esoteric enquiry into that subtle, indefinable something which is the essence and cause of all manifestation. There is always a higher and a lower, a finer and coarser aspect of the same substance, an abstract and a concrete, a past cause and a future effect of everything in nature; and there are two corresponding points of view by which it may be studied and known.

With these ideas before us we may safely assume Astrology to have its dual expression, or what may be termed its esoteric and exoteric points of view.

Esoteric Astrology deals with the abstract cause, the philosophy and the inner or more subtle point of view; whilst Exoteric Astrology is content with the effect, the practice, and the concrete or outer expression, preferring the more tangible and evident to the speculative and theoretical.

To those who hold extreme views on this subject, the esoteric side on the one hand, or the exoteric on the other, is the only side worthy of attention; but to those who are broad-minded and free from bias, both sides are of equal value. It is merely a question of temperament as to which has the preference, and the wise know that one side of a story is always good until the other is told.

We may define Esoteric Astrology as that side of the subject which views all stellar phenomena from the standpoint of unity; whilst Exoteric Astrology begins its study from the side of diversity and separateness, The Esoteric Astrologer looks upon the whole expression of life as proceeding from one central and primal source, and therefore seeks to understand the subject from the point of view of the One flowing forth into the many. In the solar system the Sun is the centre of all and the starting point of his philosophy, for to him all things come forth from the Sun; and it is the solar life in which all things live and move and have their being. Coming forth from this centre are the life currents which pass through the material organisms of every living thing on earth. This life descends and ascends, through each of the seven planets, and is transformed in the process for the use of evolving entities, and adapted to the stage they have reached in the scale of evolution; the seven planets being either directly or indirectly connected with the seven principal substances in the human body.

Man, as we know him, is composed of the great elements Fire, Air, Water, Earth and Ether. At the head of each of these is a living conscious entity of which the vital force and consciousness flowing through the element is an emanation.