Walter H. Sampson and the AFA booklet on TRANSITS

This is a follow-up to my previous post, Did Marie Juliette Pontin write Dr. Smith’s Book on Transits?

The booklet on Transits was published by the American Federation of Astrolgers many decades ago. It is advertised on amazon.com with the blurb:

“This book represents the work of Heber J. Smith, a homeopathic physician in Boston who was born in 1842. He was a professor of materia medica at Boston University and a practicing astrologer who was a teacher of Evangeline Adams. Legend says that Julie Pontin, a rival of Evangeline, paid Heber $150 for a typewritten copy of this material-a large sum in the early 20th century. In addition to the value of the astrological experience and knowledge presented in this book, it is also representative of the thinking of the astrologers of the time, which was decidedly deterministic. Some of the words and phrases are quaintly archaic when viewed from the 21st century, and the writing style is also representative of an earlier time. Nevertheless, much astrology can be learned from the author’s insights into the transiting planets. He also includes examples from his own life regarding the effects of transits and directions. Included are chapters on the transits of Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in both favorable and unfavorable aspect to other planets.”

The authorship of this book has long been in doubt because many of the case examples took place in the period prior to WWI (1914 – 1918), and Dr. J. Heber Smith died in 1898. For instance,there is a discussion of the assassination attempt on President Teddy Roosevelt, which occurred on October 14, 1912. There is also a prediction about what will happen when Uranus transits to the span of 10 to 15 of Aquarius during the 1914 – 1916 period. These facts suggest that the bulk of the text was written in 1913.

Sydney Omarr got a copy of the Transits text and permission from the AFA to publish it as an appendix to his 1965 book My World of Astrology. Omarr states that the Transits book is the work of Dr. Heber Smith of Boston, the mentor of Evangeline Adams. He also reports a rumor that Marie Juliette Pontin purchased a typewritten copy of the material for $150 (a large sum in the early 1900s).

Recently, Philip Graves posted an article about his own research into the origins of the Transits text. He came across a rare book by Marie Pontin (born in NYC on July 1, 1973) entitled A Manual of Astrology: Planetary Aspects and Transit Effects, which she appears to have self-published in 1924. This book consists of two parts, the first of which is about natal astrology, and the second of which is essentially the verbatim text of the AFA booklet on Transits, which was erroneously attributed to Dr. J. Heber Smith (1842 – 1898). Graves points out that James Holden of the AFA had raised doubts about Dr. Smith’s authorship as far back as 1988.

Who, then, did write the text on Transits? In her 1924 book Marie Juliette Pontin of New York City states in her foreword that her book is compiled from notes written by several noted astrologers of the period:

“These notes have been compiled from notes of Dr. Heber Smith, of Evangeline Adams, of Alan Leo, of Walter Gorn Old, of Walter Sampson, and from personal experience; and are designed to amplify and to express in more modern terms and phraseology the ideas obtained from ptolemy, Placidus de Titus, and Lilly, Sibly, Gadbury, and the earlier writers on Astrology.”

This topic has interested me for several years, and I have attempted to deduce the birth data of the original author of Transits by studying its case examples. My discussions with Karen Christino about Evangeline Adams, Dr. Smitth, and the Transits booklet were quite helpful as I researched this matter.

Using the electional search function of Solar Fire software, and geocentric charts cast in the tropical zodiac, I found three potential candidates for the author:

Feb 11 – 13, 1872 (Moon in Aries, Mercury in early Aquarius)Jan 31 – Feb 2, 1874.  (The date Feb 1, 1874 has Moon 12 Leo and Mercury 11 Aquarius)Jan 11 – 13, 1876. (Moon in Leo, Mercury in early Aquarius)

After reading Pontin’s 1924 book and re-examining the case examples in the second part of the book on transits, I concluded that the best fit was the chart of someone born on January 13, 1876 in England. The text uses many idioms that were popular in England in the early 1900s, and the Moon’s position in the UK worked better than the Moon’s position for a chart of the same date and same Ascendant, born in New York City. From Pontin’s list of astrologers in her Foreword, the most likely candidate was Walter Harold Sampson who wrote The Zodiac: A Life Epitome, published by Blackfriar Press, London, in 1928.

Philip Graves suggested that I contact Kim Farnell regarding the birthdate of Walter Sampson. Kim responded quickly with the comment that Walter H. Sampson “appears on a family tree in Ancestry. Born 5 January 1876, Marylebone, London, died in the third quarter of 1961 (July to Sept).”

Walter H. Sampson was born on January 5, 1876, in London. My research had led to the most likely birthdate being January 13, 1876 in the UK with about 4 Sagittarius rising. Initially, I was puzzled by the difference in dates, January 5th versus January 13th of the same year (1876). Then, it occurred to me that the principal author of Transits (part two of Pontin’s 1924 book) always used both the geocentric and heliocentric positions of natal planets to judge the transits. Using, the heliocentric positions of Walter Sampson’s 5 Jan 1876 birthchart, everything fell into place. The examples throughout the text all “worked” when both geo and helio positions were taken into account. In addition, references to Pontin’s natal chart also fit when both her geo and helio positions were utilized.

It now appears clear that Marie Pontin compiled the material in her 1924 text from other astrologers, adding some of her own comments along the way, but that the bulk of part two on transits comes from the work of W.H. Sampson of England who often refers to Pontin’s birth chart and makes predictions for her during the period after 1913, when I believe most of the original Transits text was written.

W.H. Sampson’s birth chart deduced from examples in the AFA booklet Transits, which was taken from the second part of Marie Juliette Pontin’s 1924 text, A Manual of Astrology: Planetary Aspects and Transit Effects.

Here is one of tthe examples, taken from the text verbatim:
“I was robbed under the following configuration.
Jupiter entering, Scorpio, opp. Neptune and Mars radical, and square Mer. helio, with Saturn entering Taurus in opposition.”
The punctuation makes this sentence confusing and may be due to typos on Pontin’s part. The sentence can be more clearly written as, [transiting] Jupiter entering Scorpio opp. [natal] Neptune; and Mars radical and square [natal] Mer., helio [in the heliocentric chart]; with [transiting] Saturn entering Taurus in opposition [to transiting Jupiter].”

Looking in the ephemeris for this period, I found the Jupiter was entering Scorpio while Saturn was entering Taurus in the months of November and December of 1910. The author of this example states that transiting Jupiter was opposite natal Neptune in early Taurus (true of Sampson’s chart), and natal Mars was square Mercury in the helio chart (true of Sampson’s chart) , Saturn was entering Taurus opposite transiting Jupiter.