Astrology and Initiation: The door unlocked?

With natal Neptune in the 12th – very closely quintile my radix Mercury – religion, initiations and other such mystical happenings have long been a source of interest to me. It is therefore not surprising that the book: The Door Unlocked, An Astrological Insight Into Intiation drew my attention. Having many moons ago read “The ritual magic workbook..” by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki her participation in this recently published work, which looks at initiation from an astrological perspective, looked very promising. However it is the astrologer Stephanie V. Norris who took the incentive to write the book.

The Door Unlocked, An Astrological Insight into Initiation, sheds a light on the inner workings of a magical society, in this particular instance, SOL or The Servants of the Light, the main focus of the book is on the experiences of a select group of light workers as they enter into the various stages of initiation. While we can read about the ritual for the first two degrees, there is more mystery surrounding the third. We are not told exactly what happen here, but we do get to know that the experience itself  lasts 12 hours. Judging by the testimonies of the people followed in the book, the end result was pretty profound.

It seems to me that this book is primarily of interest to astrologers who are particularly interested in religous experiences, inner journeys and the soul life. Having said that, it could also be attractive to researchers, who are studying astrology from a psychological perspective. The fact that so few people/horoscopes are being studied, the birth charts and then the birth charts as part of a bi-wheel with the different initiation charts, does produce some remarkable links – which to a practising astrologer are not totally unexpected. Now… I don’t want to give too much away here, because as always the proof of the pudding is in the eating.. but some transits do stand out, and the desire on the part of the people followed for some sort of direct religious experience, is also clearly visible in their radix horoscopes. So, does this book unlock the door? Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that. What the astrologer Stephanie V. Norris has done though, is made a good attempt to explore a theme, which to my knowledge has not been delved into before.

The book: The Door Unlocked, An Astrological Insight Into Initiation, is available via Wessex Books it is very reasonably priced at 11.00 pounds. It was published in 2009 by the Wessex Astrologer Ltd.