Sepharial ‘The Birthday Book of Destiny. – Compiled from Ancient Hermetic and Rosicrucian Sources, Arranged and Interpreted’ Nichols & Co., 34 Hart Street, W.C., London, undated[1]. This copy bearing the ownership signature of Constance Mosley[2] to ffep, dated January 1st, 1907; and filled in with several of the Mosley family’s birthdays. A small monochrome photograph of the young Constance Mosley has been tipped in above the page bearing her birthday and signature.
Original gilt-stamped textured cloth. (Names inked in beneath birthdays in the space provided by former owner to pp. 41; 55; 65; 81; 217; 219; 229; 237; 243 and 251.) [1 leaf] + [2] + [1 leaf] + [pp. vii-ix] + [pp. xi-xvi of tables] + [1] + [pp. 2-253] + [bound-in errata slip]
[1] Library records show 1904
[2] Born 25 April 1881. Daughter of Sir Oswald Mosley, 4th Baronet, of Ancoats, born 25th September 1848; sister of Sir Oswald Mosley, 5th Baronet, of Ancoats, 29 December 1873, whose name is also inked in to this copy; aunt of Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, born 16 November 1895, eventual founder of the British Union of Fascists in 1932, whose name is absent from this copy. (It is perhaps relevant that he was just eleven years old at the time when it was signed by his aunt). Other Mosley family birthdays included in this copy of the book are Violet Mosley (Constance’s sister, November 27); Geraldine Ellison (née Mosley, Constance’s other sister, March 18) and an E. C. Mosley (possibly Constance’s mother, February 25). Further, Constance’s fiancée, Charlie Mc. Neill, is entered on December 9 (he was born 1866). They would be married on March 11, 1907 according to online genealogy records.
About this Book Scan
Walter Gorn Old, a.k.a. Sepharial, was one of the most prolific astrological writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Birthday Book of Destiny (1904) was published by Nichols the year after it took over the publication of his main astrological work The New Manual of Astrology, which was first published by George Redway in 1898.
It is a curious work, giving character readings for each day of the year that are ostensibly derived by its author from the meanings of the nearest fixed stars.
Sepharial’s relationship with Nichols did not extend beyond the 1900s, and this book was never reprinted, making it one of his scarcest works.
Our source copy is of particular if somewhat unfortunate historical interest on account of it having belonged to Constance Mosley, an aunt of the infamous Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the far-right political party the British Union of Fascists, who himself was only eight years old when this book was published. The birthdays of several of her family are noted in her hand in the pages of the book, but that of the notorious Sir Oswald himself is conspicuous by its absence.