Thoughts on Alan Leo?

AppLeo

Well-known member
Have you read works by Alan Leo? Did you like what he said? What are his best works? I'm thinking about reading his work.
 

waybread

Well-known member
I'd recommend reading him, primarily because he really popularized astrology for the masses in the early 20th century. Although he had been part of the theosophical movement in astrology, his textbooks are practical and straightforward. He wrote in the idiom of his day, but then so do all of the authors. You might start with, How to Judge a Nativity.
 

waybread

Well-known member
I'd recommend reading him, primarily because he really popularized astrology for the masses in the early 20th century. Although he had been part of the theosophical movement in astrology, his textbooks are practical and straightforward. He wrote in the idiom of his day, but then so do all of the authors. You might start with, How to Judge a Nativity.

You might be interested in this thread on him:
https://forum.astro.com/cgi/forum.cgi?num=1536833238
 

dr. farr

Well-known member
Personally I never much cared for his works; in my early days I much preferred manly p. Hall and the British astrologers from the 30’s through 50’s (never cared much for sepharial either)…
 

dr. farr

Well-known member
However I do not want to minimize Leo’s massive contribution to the foundation of modernist astrology; his most elevated natal planets were Uranus and Pluto, which says a lot about his astrological/spiritual outlook; I did like his Dictionary of Astrology, co-authored by fixed-star expert V. Robson. I prefer Antic’s Metaphysics of Astrology to Leo’s Esoteric Astrology.
 
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dr. farr

Well-known member
It should be noted that an entirely different development of modernist astrology, free from theosophical influences, occurred in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century, especially in France, where neo-hermetic influences (rather than theosophical society influences) predominated; unfortunately very little of this approach to modernist astrology has been translated into English (one book partially examining this approach was published some years ago, entitled “Astrology of the Adepts”) but from some of the material I have examined the approach is quite interesting; a great deal of attention is given to temperament, the 4 humors and the elements in this approach and the emphasis seems to be upon dynamic interactions of astrological factors, rather than upon psychological analyses. Some traditionalist material is found, but also a great deal of innovation is encountered, much of this being based upon humoral/elemental reconsiderations of several earlier astrological concepts.
 
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