Evangeline Adams and Alice Bailey (Part I) (2/15/12)
By Mark Lerner
Forging Two Forms of Astrology in New York City (1914 to 1949)
In the last installment in this series, I discussed the unique connection between New York City residents Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Bach. The key to their unusual relationship revolved around the founding of Ms. Magazine (1972) and the publication of the Ephemerides of the Asteroids: Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta 1900 – 2000 (1972 – 1973). These two inspired women were pioneers in the fight for women’s rights throughout society (Steinem) and within the formerly male-dominated archetypal realm of astrology (Bach). In addition, it turned out that their births in 1922 (Bach) and 1934 (Steinem) were separated by a nearly exact Jupiter orbit of 12 years around the zodiac, plus their Jupiter placements in Libra (the key sign of seeking a fair balance in relationships) were very close to America’s Juno in Libra, based on our birth as a nation on July 4, 1776. Within the above context, we explored the potency of Pallas and Juno as they led the USA to give women the right to vote in 1920 and nearly led to the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972.
Before Bach and Steinem’s births, however, two other women – one born in New Jersey and the other in England – would be drawn to the Big Apple during the first half of the 20th century to represent the esoteric (Bailey) and exoteric (Adams) forms of astrology to a city with a unique role to play in the evolution of humanity. As you will see in this two-part feature, there is a reason why New York is the financial capital of the world, as well as the main headquarters for the United Nations and the primary focal point for the principle of Cosmic Mind, or Active Intelligence – particularly expressed through the publishing, journalism, and communications industries.
Evangeline Adams
As in the last article, this feature is not meant to give full biographical information on these two remarkable teachers and innovators. What is most relevant and intriguing for our purposes is that in a field of knowledge and wisdom previously dominated by men, Adams and Bailey made breakthroughs in the realm of higher consciousness with major impact down through the decades and into the 21st century – inspiring tens of thousands of professional astrologers around the world.
Early on in my astrological studies in New York City in the 1970s, I came across several books by Evangeline Adams and one of her concepts completely revolutionized my work with transits: something she called the “Accidental Ascendant.” What she was referring to was this: Many of her clients – in the early 1900s – had no idea of their birth times. In order to give them a clear consultation, she would have them provide their months-days-years of birth, and then calculate their Ascendants based on the time of their appointments with her, combining the moment of the session and the resulting 12 houses with the Sun, Moon, planets and nodal axis from their birth charts. Thus, she was linking the potentials inherent within the birth moment and the horary art of astrology associated with the idea of answering the question: Why is this individual coming to see me today and at this moment of time?
Adams had astounding results using this technique, and it also reveals her genius and trail-blazing skills as a Sun-sign Aquarian with a Venus-Chiron union exactly rising, plus six celestial bodies (and natal Ascendant) in the last two signs of the zodiac: Aquarius and Pisces. In my experience, her “Accidental Ascendant” technique also works to an extraordinary degree, and, I would go so far as to say, in a full-proof manner, even if the birth time for a client is known. In this case, you simply make note of the exact degree of the zodiac rising at the moment you start a consultation, go into the client’s chart and find what house that zodiacal degree is impacting, and you have one of the major reasons why the individual hired you for the reading in the first place (even though many times the client is unaware that the greater purpose of the session is to have that house’s meaning illuminated during the time spent with the astrologer). For example, if the “Accidental Ascendant” falls in the 6th house of your client’s birth chart, a big reason for the consultation concerns health and illness, diet and nutrition, organization and efficiency, job/work related experiences, and so on. Likewise, an “Accidental Ascendant” in the 10th house of your client’s birth chart points to a reading where career, profession, stature and making it in the greater community are crucial..
Evangeline Adams also helped to change a law in New York having to do with “fortune-telling.” She was charged with the crime of being a fortune-teller in 1914 and was able to “raise astrology to the dignity of an exact science” – according to the judge who, as a test of her integrity and skill, had given her the birth data of an individual unknown to her (who was, in fact, the judge’s son). Adams was able to demonstrate to the judge’s complete satisfaction that the personality and higher-destiny qualities of a human soul could, indeed, be deciphered by a careful examination of the celestial bodies in a person’s horoscope. Due to her dramatic success during this trial, she helped tens of thousands of future professional astrologers in New York as well as throughout the United States to develop their astrological practices without fear of prosecution from the law.
Alice Bailey
Alice Bailey came from a well-to-do family in Manchester, England, and eventually broke away from orthodox Christianity to establish the Arcane School, Lucis Publishing Company, and The Beacon journal in New York City in the 1920s. For 30 years (1919 to 1949), she was an astoundingly clear channel for the Ageless Wisdom teachings given out by the Tibetan Master D.K., and together they advanced the theosophical movement that had begun in the 1870s through over two dozen books on esoteric philosophy and metaphysics.
There is no way to do justice in these few paragraphs to the enormous body of knowledge contained within the books composed by Alice Bailey and the Tibetan Master D.K. Unlike Evangeline Adams, Bailey was not a practicing astrologer, however, one of her longest books is the astrological tome Esoteric Astrology. Although some have found it difficult to understand, its 700 pages open a door to the reality of, among other things: the 7 Rays; the celestial bodies that channel those Rays; and the five-fold “Star of the World,” made up of London, Geneva, Tokyo, Darjeeling and New York. (It is with regard to some of the practical and esoteric components of the 7 Rays, the celestial bodies connected to them, and this earthly Pentagram of the above 5 cities that Part II will focus its attention.)
By fate and destiny far more than coincidence, I happened to begin my astrological studies in New York City and one of the first books I purchased was The Astrology of Personality by Dane Rudhyar – a renaissance man who became my main mentor. Originally, this book was published by Lucis Publishing Company in 1936, giving Rudhyar his start as an author of books that expressed his unique and rare genius: a blend of Jungian psychology, astrology and philosophy all rolled into one revelatory system. In the Doubleday Paperback edition (1970) of this particular book, Rudhyar penned his dedication as follows: “To ALICE A. BAILEY in warm appreciation of our enduring friendship I dedicate this book which her interest in my work called forth.”
Dane Rudhyar’s The Lunation Cycle (Providing the Higher Destiny Patterns at work Guiding the Lives of Alice Bailey and Evangeline Adams)
Several years after Rudhyar wrote The Astrology of Personality, he authored The Pulse of Life (1942) – about the seasons of the year, the waxing and waning of the Day-Force and Night-Force, as they weave through the twelve signs of the zodiac. It is a poetical masterpiece. A few years later, he created The Lunation Birthday (1944-1945), but the book was published with a slightly different title and then withdrawn from the public as the publisher ceased to publish books on astrology. Eventually, in 1971, Shambhala published the more elaborate The Lunation Cycle.
Toward the end of this volume, Rudhyar writes about the importance of working with the Secondary Progressed New and Full Moons in every person’s life. These occur every 14+ years, revealing enlightening milestones on the emotional, psychological and spiritual progress of every human soul. By way of example, he describes what happened in the life of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in this section of the book, but then goes on to discuss something I have always found even more provocative: the New Moon before Birth Chart.
Each one of us – unless we were born exactly during the time of a New Moon – comes into this incarnation with a Sun-Moon Phase of a specific number of degrees waxing or waning. Yet before we ever took a breath, there had been a New Moon prior to our life outside the womb, and that New Moon horoscope has much to say about our ancestral roots, our karma, and spiritual background as a soul-infused personality.
The reason I bring this to your attention now is that in The Lunation Cycle, Rudhyar explored another intriguing idea: that if the New Moon before birth was conjunct any of your natal celestial bodies, then that celestial body was your “Channel of Destiny.” He used, as an example, the birth of Alice Bailey on June 16, 1880 – wherein her natal Sun is at 26 degrees of Gemini and her natal Venus is at 18 degrees of Gemini. However, the New Moon before her birth (on June 7, 1880) was almost precisely, to the minute of arc, on her natal Venus. And this led Rudhyar to write the following: “...thus…karmic soul-forces were focused in Alice Bailey’s life largely through Venus which enabled her to stress successfully group values and to hold together for many years a quite large group of seekers stressing an intellectual formulation of universal ideas.”
The Full Moon before Birth is a New Technique for Exploration
What Rudhyar never realized – because the astrological technique of midpoint analysis (wherein one calculates the middle point in the zodiac between pairs of celestial bodies or a celestial body and an angle in the horoscope) was only in its infancy when he was writing – was that not only was the New Moon before Alice Bailey’s birth right on her Venus, but that her Venus was also in the precise location of her Mars/Saturn midpoint. This will be illuminated in Part II as Mars (connected to Christianity and Bailey’s rising planet at birth) and Saturn (one of five outer planets overhead at her birth) help to spell out her greater role as a wisdom teacher for Planet Earth.
Rudhyar also never discussed what I am about to articulate here – that it might be meaningful to look at the Full Moon before birth, as well. Evangeline Adams was born just 4 hours after a Full Moon. Thus, every Full Moon – by transit and progression for the rest of her life – would be a return of the Solar-Lunar Phase relationship that she was born under. Just as many professional astrologers work with a client’s Solar Return and with a client’s 13 Lunar Returns in the course of each calendar year, one can map the Solar-Lunar Phase relationship – repeating itself every 29.5 days.
When I looked at the New Moon before Adam’s birth, I saw that it was located in early Aquarius, but not united with any natal celestial body. My curiosity pushed me to look another 14 days earlier to find her Full Moon before birth – which turns out to be right on her natal Pallas at 19+ degrees of Capricorn, and within one-quarter of a degree of exactitude.
Of course, in the previous AstroBiography, I described Pallas as associated with problem-solving, strategy sessions, mental brilliance, genius and the ability to see patterns (as in the case of chess masters, engineers, city planners, computer programmers and video game designers) that most people cannot see, measure or understand. Not only was the Full Moon before Evangeline Adams’ birth directly on her Pallas, but Alice Bailey has Pallas rising at 22 degrees of Leo, Evangeline Adams has her natal Full Moon at 22 degrees of Leo, and New York State entered the Union on July 26, 1788, with Venus retrograde at 22+ degrees of Leo. There is no way this can be mere coincidence, but must instead fall into the category of what we now call synchronicity.
As we will realize in Part II, Venus as the Channel of Destiny for Alice Bailey, Venus exactly rising in the birth chart of Evangeline Adams, and Venus in the chart for the State of New York, are all cosmic signposts regarding the significance of this area of America as a region of feminine power that is only now – in the 21st century – reaching its true and higher trajectory.
NOTE: Click on the weblinks below to see color charts for Evangeline Adams and Alice Bailey.
http://www.marklernerastrology.com/shop/images/AdamsEvangelineWRKBF1.GIF
http://www.marklernerastrology.com/shop/images/BaileyAliceWRKCI2.GIF
(© 2012 by Mark Lerner and Great Bear Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved.)
