SEPHARIAL (1864-1929) was born Walter Richard Old in Birmingham, England. At the age of 22 he had a mystical experience and spent the rest of his life seeking his true self and trying to unravel the future through astrology and other methods. After a scrape with Blavatsky's Theosophical society he changed his name to Walter Gornold, though by the end of the 19th century he was better known as Sepharial. He produced six children and authored nearly 60 books. Sepharial was the first president of the British Astrological Society, and counted among his friends such people asH.P. Blavatsky, Alan Leo, and Charles Carter, who believed that Sepharial was more than a mere astrologer and brilliant at almost everything he touched.