BIOGRAPHY
My name is Robert Bailey. I was born in Canberra, Australia in 1981. I studied creative writing, literature studies and cultural studies at the University of Canberra from 2000 to 2003, in which year I attained my BA in Professional Writing. I have been studying the histories and traditions of Western astrology since the latter half of 2007.
In February 2009 I began offering free horary questions in my local newspaper, purely because I wanted to get some practice judging real questions. I was quite suprised at the volume of responses I got back, and as my clientele grew I became convinced that I needed to ditch the newspaper ads for something more tangible. On 1 March 2010 I launched the Archaic Astrology website.
I am entirely self-taught and work strictly as a student and amateur; I do not belong to any astrological organization. This is very much a one-man show.
At the time of writing this I am becoming increasingly confident in my skills as a horary and electional astrologer. My skills in traditional natal astrology are, shall we say, developing.
My other interests, which no doubt shine through in my writing, include ancient history, Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophy, Pythagorean numerology and arithmology, and the theology and mystic traditions of the Abrahamic faiths, namely Sufism, Christian mysticism and the Kabbalah.
I am a practicing Anglican, a bad but enthusiastic poet, and I also do a little modelling work. I still reside in Canberra, the city of my birth.
The system I use
All of the techniques I use are derived from astrology books which were actually written during the middle ages and the renaissance periods. For natal astrology, the system I use is pretty much the same as that found in Christian Astrology (written by 17th century English astrologer William Lilly) but I incorporate a lot of techniques from medieval sources, such as Italian astrologer Guido Bonatti's Book of Astronomy, as well as the works of the 9th century Judaeo-Persian astrologers Sahl and Masha'Allah. For electional astrology I use Bonatti, as well as Sahl's On Elections. I will occasionally make reference to other works - my library is always growing.
All the charts on this site were cast using the Placidus method of house division. However, I always keep in mind the "sign=house" system used in Jyotisha, which scholars suggest may be the most ancient method of dividing the heavens.
As for modern books about traditional astrology, the best available is John Frawley's The Real Astrology; everyone interested in astrology needs to read this brilliant book. I also have a lot of respect for Christopher Warnock, the founder of the Renaissance Astrology website and a publisher of rare astrology texts, but also a great author in his own right.
My Nativity
I include my nativity for the benefit of my fellow students of astrology to ponder over if they feel sufficiently curious. Note that it has been rectified - by the method of accidents found in Book 3 of Lilly's Christian Astrology, directing the Ascendant and Midheaven to match with key events in my life. Because it is rectified it is uncertain, but I am positive that I was born under Pisces given the timeframe supplied by my parents.
The few notes I can make about my own chart without engaging in self-indulgence are only that I am certainly a Jovial personality as my Pisces ascendant shows, and as my friends would readily attest to, being high-minded, religious (Jupiter on the 9th cusp), generally pleasant and happy, but with Jupiter quite weak I can be dissembling, hypocritical in my faith, verbose and proud, as well as being plagued by self-doubt, and possessing a tendency to "bow and scrape" (in Lilly's words) when there is no necessity.
But I am also clearly very Lunar; the Moon is so powerfully dignified in my chart that she is in fact the Lord of the Geniture, and certainly feel myself to be the "tender creature" described in Lilly's chapter on the Moon, "a Lover of all honest and ingenious Sciences, a Searcher of, and Delighter in Novelties...loving peace, and to live free from the Cares of this Life."
What Mars in Virgo in the 7th shows, I leave up to those students of this Art to discover...