Bailey, E. H. (1876-1959)

E. H. Bailey was a pioneer British astrologer first attracted to the practice after reading one of the popular astrological almanacs published by Zadkiel (pseudonym of Richard James Morrison ). He was born on November 29, 1876, and as a young man went to work with Alan Leo, who had opened the Astrology Publishing Company, the first successful modern business enterprise built around astrology. In 1904, Bailey started his own magazine, Destiny, but it was short-lived. He later became the editor of the British Journal of Astrology.

As his appreciation of astrology matured, Bailey became interested in the problem of what astrologers call the prenatal epoch, i.e., determining the time of an individual's conception. There were methods, some quite ancient, for determining the date of conception from the date of birth, and from those dates making an estimate of the time of birth if otherwise unknown. The time of birth is a necessary bit of information in constructing anything but the most superficial of birth charts and offering a detailed astrological reading.

Bailey collected a significant amount of data from public records and worked with several friendly obstetricians over a period of years to produce his most famous book, The Prenatal Epoch, in 1916. Astrologers paid attention to the topic during the era between the two World Wars, but during the postwar era have turned to other methods for rectifying charts in those minimal number of cases where birth records are nonexistent. Bailey was named a fellow of the Astrological Society of America. He died on June 4, 1959.

Sources:

Bailey, E. H. The Prenatal Epoch. N.p.: The Author, 1916.

Holden, James H., and Robert A. Hughes. Astrological Pioneers of America. Tempe, Ariz.: American Federation of Astrologers, 1988.