Occultcomes from a root word meaning “hidden,” and it was originally inter-
preted as denoting a body of esoteric beliefs and practices that were in some sense “hid-
den” from the average person (e.g., practices and knowledge that remain inaccessible
until after an initiation). Alternately, it was sometimes said that practices were occult if
they dealt with forces that operated by means that were hidden from ordinary percep-
tion (e.g., magic, tarot cards, and astrology). Modern astrology is not occult in the
sense of secret initiations, but it is occult in the sense that it deals with “hidden” forces.
In earlier times, when there was a widespread knowledge of the science of the
stars beyond sun signs, astrology was a universal symbolic code that contained widely
recognized archetypes of general principles, types of humanity, and aspects of the per-
sonality. Given the completeness of this code, it was natural that astrological language
and symbols would be adopted by the other occult sciences, such as tarot and palm-
istry. In palmistry, for example, the fingers were named after the planets—Mercury
finger, Saturn finger, Jupiter finger, etc.Sources:
Cavendish, Richard. The Black Arts.New York: Capricorn Books, 1967.
Lewis, James R., and J. Gordon Melton. “The New Age.” Syzygy: Journal of Alternative Religion
and Culture.Vol. 1, no. 3 (1992): 247–58.OCCURSIONS
Celestial events, from conjunctions to ingresses, are referred to as occursions.ODYSSEUS
Odysseus, asteroid 1,143 (the 1,143d asteroid to be discovered, on January 28, 1930),
is approximately 174 kilometers in diameter and has an orbital period of 12 years.
Odysseus was named after the hero of Homer’s Odyssey.J. Lee Lehman associates this
asteroid with the ability to view a situation from a fresh perspective, without project-
ing past experiences onto each new moment. Jacob Schwartz gives Odysseus’s astro-
logical significance as “cleverness in solving problems.”Sources:
Kowal, Charles T. Asteroids: Their Nature and Utilization.Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Ellis
Horwood Limited, 1988.
Lehman, J. Lee. The Ultimate Asteroid Book.West Chester, PA: Whitford Press, 1988.
Schwartz, Jacob. Asteroid Name Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.OLD, WALTERGORN(SEPHARIAL)
Walter Gorn Old, a well-known astrologer under his pseudonym Sepharial, was born
March 20, 1864, in Handsworth, Warwick, England. He attended King Edward’s
School at Birmingham. He studied astrology and the Kabbalah (which contains
ancient esoteric Jewish teachings) from an early age, and for some years studied medi-Occursions
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