This document contains the full text of The Solar Epoch by Sepharial, originally published in 1925. The book has been scanned and converted to plain text with OCR-software. This document has been given the same layout as the original book. It has been made sure the pagenumbering in the printed version did not change in any way.

THE following pages will be found to develop a scheme of thought that possibly may have been approached by other students of Astrology, but I believe that I may claim to have been the first to put the main idea into concrete form, which was done in a lecture delivered before the British Astrological Society in 1923. Students of my Manual of Astrology will be familiar with the idea of a possible interplay of the forces peculiar to the various planes or states of existence, and a study of what is known as the Prenatal Epoch will have prepared the way for the reception of this thesis of the Solar Epoch. For many years the idea has been simmering in my mind, and tending towards expression of a definite nature. The primary idea was that as Man is composed of a complex nature and is gifted with what may be called interior senses, capable of responding to some of the finer forces in the universe, so there must be a continuity of matter on the physical plane of existence which affords a medium for the ultimate reception of impressions received from these interior sources. In short, just as man may be said to consist of Spirit, Soul and Body, so in the physical world he is endowed with an organism capable of responding to impulses from the Solar, Lunar and Terrestrial planes of existence. Here is developed the ancient symbolism of the Circle, the Crescent and the Cross. The Circle stands as symbol for the Spirit or the Sun, which is the source of life, the ever-luminous and constant source of heat and light, which are the ultimate expressions on this plane of existence of Love and Wisdom, of Charity and Truth, of Affection and Knowledge, of Action and Speech. Hence there is a dependency from the Supreme Source of all things which finds ultimate expression in the life of mankind.

The Crescent stands for the symbol of the Soul of Man and of the Moon. Like the inferior luminary the Soul receives its light from a superior source, which is the Spiritual Sun. It goes through various phases and pursues an inconstant course, being held between the attractions of the Sun on the one side and of the Earth on the other. When the Earth interposes itself between the Moon and Sun there is an eclipse suffered. The light of the Sun is cut off from the Moon, the Soul of Man is temporarily in a state of darkness. The Moon has no light of its own, but what it receives from the Sun it reflects upon the Earth, which otherwise were entirely in darkness, in the nightime of life.

The Cross is the symbol of the Body of man and of the Earth from which that gross Body is derived. The Cross represents the segmentation of the cell from which man is born, the physical cross on which the Soul suffers in its uplifting, and the fourfold division of our physical functions: absorption, circulation, secretion and excretion and also the fourfold division of temporal seasons to which we are subjected: spring, summer, autumn and winter. The Cross defines the cardinal points by which we time our daily life, i.e. sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight and likewise our year circle from the equinoxes and solstices.

The demonstration of this principle of sidereal mediation has long been delayed by pressure of other work but I am at last able to place before students of Astrology the results of my investigations and to exhibit a thesis which for its mathematical integrity alone deserves at least the impartial examination which I trust it will receive. It has been truly said that, in a physical sense, "nothing is true which does not answer to a mathematical test." While conceding this criterion we must not lose sight of the fact that there are many true things which are not physical, and therefore which cannot be gauged by the application of mathematics. It seems not improbable that the present thesis may serve hereafter to a better understanding of the problem of sex-determination which is now so prominently before the public mind. Taken in connection with the Law of Alternation, which is demonstrated in the application of the Lunar Epoch, a thesis already well known to students, the scientific approach to this complex problem of human life may be greatly facilitated. To those who are unacquainted with the main facts pertaining to the Lunar Epoch and its connection with the recorded time of a birth, I would recommend a study of The Prenatal Epoch, by Mr. E. H. Bailey, in extension of the primary laws defined in The Manual of Astrology, Book III, under the title of "The Prenatal Epoch and the Law of Sex."

About Author:

Dr Walter Gorn Old (born 20 March 1864, at 2:06 a.m. LMT in Handsworth, England; died 23 December 1929 in Hove, England) was a notable 19th century mystic and astrologer, better known as Sepharial.

An eminent English Theosophist, Sepharial was a well-known and respected astrologer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and wrote numerous books, some of which (particularly those on numerology) are still highly regarded today. He was editor of "Old Moore's Almanac", which is still published in the 21st century.
Overview

As a young man Sepharial initially studied medicine and followed this up with studies in psychology, oriental languages, astrology and numerology. In 1886 he started to write an astrology problem page in the Society Times, where he answered the public's questions, and in 1887 at the age of just 23 was admitted to the "inner sanctum" of the Theosophical Society. He was in fact one of the founder members of the Theosophical movement in England. Madame Blavatsky (whom he lived with until her death) called him "The Astral Tramp" because of his nightly explorations into the astral plane (Ref: Kim Farnell's book).
Influential legacy

He became a very influential author in the fields of the occult, astrology and numerology, and his writings had a considerable impact on E. H. Bailey and Alan Leo, who he introduced to Theosophy. He can be credited as the first astrologer to use Earth's "dark moon" Lilith in his calculations. Genuinely erudite, Sepharial had for example a greater knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, and historical methodology than most of his astrological contemporaries and this showed in his writings. Sepharial's "Degrees of the Zodiac Symbolised" (co-written with Charubel) foreshadowed Marc Edmund Jones's subsequent (and nowadays better known) work on Sabian Symbols. However, many of his books and other works were put together in a rather slapdash way, which made his reputation less enduring than it might have been. A colourful character, Sepharial started a number of astrological magazines, all of which failed to establish themselves.
Books

Sepharial wrote many books, most of which are rare and out of print. Here are a few:

* Sepharial: "New Dictionary of Astrology", republished by Arco, New York in 1964.
* Sepharial: "The New Manual of Astrology" (in four books).
* Sepharial: "Astrology Explained".
* Sepharial: "The Book Of The Simple Way" Pub 1904. (Translation of Lao Tzu's Chinese classic, the "Tao Te Ching").
* Sepharial: "The Kabala of Numbers" Pub 1913. Modern edition: ISBN 1-59605-404-2. (on numerology).
* Sepharial: "The Silver Key".
* Sepharial: "Cosmic Symbolism".
* Sepharial: "Science of Foreknowledge".
* Sepharial and Charubel: "Degrees of the Zodiac Symbolised" (on astrology).
* Kim Farnell: "Astral Tramp". Ascella Publications, 1998, ISBN 1-898503-88-5. (biography of Sepharial).