Bailey, E. H.
Bailey, E. H.
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)E. H. Bailey, born November 29, 1876, in Kent, England, was an astrologer and an author. It is said he became interested in astrology as a boy after reading Zadkiel’s almanac, a popular astrology almanac of the time. About 1900, he worked briefly for the well-known astrologer Alan Leo. Bailey initiated the astrological periodical Destiny in 1904, but it was unsuccessful. He later took a job editing The British Journal of Astrology and became a fellow of the Astrological Society of America.
Bailey is best remembered for his work on the “prenatal epoch” (determining an individual’s time of conception), a topic he became interested in after reading some pieces by W. Gorn Old (Sepharial) in Astrologer’s Magazine. Bailey communicated with Sepharial as he developed his own theory. The basic technique for determining the conception date from the birth date goes back to antiquity and can also be utilized to rectify a birth time. Bailey and Sepharial developed the method further, but their work evoked strong opposition from certain other astrologers. Bailey studied the prenatal epoch in hundreds of cases, many of them collected from public records and others obtained with the help of obstetricians. Considering the period in which it was written, The Prenatal Epoch was a well-researched and well-developed book. However, astrological interest in this topic has waned considerably since Bailey’s time. He died on June 4, 1959.