The Astrological Society of Kentucky  

An organization that promotes the study, research and dissemination of Astrological knowledge.

Presents

“True Confessions of An Astrological Antiquarian”

A Lecture by

Philip Graves

The Astrological Society of Kentucky is proud to present Philip Graves in his first lecture for our organization.  For those of you momentarily unable to interface with Google, an antiquarian* is a person who studies, collects, or deals in old and rare objects, such as manuscripts, books, or artifacts often focusing on the physical evidence of the past rather than just historical narratives. As an adjective it describes things related to these activities (e.g., antiquarian books).

Philip’s studies in astrology began in 1995 and he lost no time in amassing an arresting and definitive collection of rare and contemporary astrological books, papers, periodicals, media, and other celestially significant curiosities which eventually became the foundation of the Philip Graves Library -a wonderful brick and mortar destination for scholars and researchers alike.

The Philip Graves Library formerly situated in Sweden and now relocated to the UK recently merged with the British Astrological Association’s library to become the International Astrological Library. Here one may access, both in person and online, an incredible range of astrology (and astronomy) books in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Akkadian, Ancinet Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, and Armenian dating from the mid-16^th century to the present day. (Philip himself is a bit of a polyglot as he conversant in English, French, German and Swedish which helps when one is helming and archiving a truly international specialized library collection).

Since 2006, Philip has created and cropped high resolution color scans of over 300 out-of-copyright volumes on astrology, including an especially elegant edition of Lilly’s Christian Astrology (1647). Philip has delivered popular lectures on historical astrological topics at various international conferences since 2017, and authored numerous articles, some of which appeared in Infinity Astrological Journal, The Career Astrologer, Mountain Astrologer and the Astrological Journal.

Many of these articles can be found on his website https://astrolearn.com where one may also purchase scans of rare astrology tomes, or visit an online second hand bookshop, the proceeds from which help to the support his urgent mission as a leading archivist and scholar of our community to  honor, assimilate and preserve our shared but too seldom hallowed astrological  past. This mission has fortunately also become the focus of other research centers such as The Alexandria I-base Project and Jenn Zahrt’s Celestial Arts and Education Library.

Philip also has worked behind the scenes as a private research assistant for untold astrological authors and publishers during the last 20 years and recently published his first book, Technical and Planetary Developments in Astrology (Revelore Press, 2025), volume 1 out of 4 of Graves’s Studies in the History of Astrology. This book is a must have and must read for any thoughtful practitioner of astrology.  Seriously, go buy it.  Remember that old saw, those who fail to remember their past are often doomed to repeat it.  The future of astrology begins with reclaiming and safeguarding our past.

Here is link to an interview with Philip Graves for the indecisive few still sitting on the fence about attending – it’s an episode of Chris Brennan’s The Astrological Podcast that investigates our 3/13 speaker’s  work as An Astrological Librarian, with Philip Graves – The Astrology Podcast

 Contact us at astrologicalsocietyofkentucky@gmail.com ♈♉♊♋♌♍♎♏♐♑♒♓

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