Happy Birthday William Butler Yeats. I thought it might be an appropriate occasion to post a little bit about this previously unknown four page letter to a unnamed Soror in the Golden Dawn, obviously a person of some seniority. I think it might be Christina Stoddard, who took over the London temple of the Stella Matutina when the Felkins emigrated to New Zealand in 1912.
I've posted the first and last page here, there are two more, full of astrological symbols and analysis.
It's clear from the text that that Yeats was asked to cast a horoscope for someone who wished to join the Golden Dawn. But Yeats, going by the person's natal chart came to the opinion that"he is not a man to be admitted to the order", underlined for emphasis!
Yeats begins by saying that "The matter is too serious to judge without great expertise and I need the exact hour and min. Please say this to him and suggest Pearce.[1]
"He has a most excitable brain The cause, his illness came on, it seems last Feb. when moon was opposite Mars and it must last until moon is clear of mars which is six months hence. If there is no “primary" of an evil kind he may then get well, this attack means he will never be a really healthy man. A secondary [indecipherable] Mercury conjunct Venus has been and still is helpful, his mind keeps its balance but this is a passive influence...
Yeats goes on to describe the possible physical problems relating to various placements of the planets. The overall picture is not postive - "In any case his whole mind and nervous system is so easily thrown out by illness"
At the end Yeats implores his V. H. Soror
"Please do not tell people I am an astrologer, or I will never get any peace. In serious cases people should get some man like Pearce."
f[1] Yeats is referring to Alfred Pearce, a prominent astrologer, who wrote under the name "Zadkiel" https://www.streathamsociety.org.uk/blog/physician-and-astrologer-alfred-pearce