100 Years: The Life and Work of Serafin Lanot (Part 2)

By Ime Morales

Read Part 1

Overhauling the Zodiac

As the best known astrologer in the country at the time, mainly because of his book Astrology Through Filipino Eyes, which was read not only in America but also across Europe, Serafin Lanot was the only Filipino who got invited to attend the international conference of the American Federation of Astrologers or the AFA. In fact, he was made a member of the AFA convention faculty.

During the conference, he presented his paper titled, One World, One Astrology. He wrote in that paper: "Now is the time for astrologers to assume the leadership in this fight for change, no longer as mere consultants and counselors to money changers and reactionary leaders, but as leaders themselves during this Age of Aquarius, assuming the mantle of seer and sage that both history and legend have thrust upon us."

He went on to propose a "one world, one astrology" based on "reason, intuition and inspiration, to harmonize the opposing astrologist views held by East and West. East and West are merely dimensions of a circle, astrology must not forget that they constitute the whole sphere. They motivate each other and their values must be considered as complementary, not as oppositions. My view is that moon and sun should be given the same importance together and that interpretations of the horoscope should be holistic."

Artist Danny Dalena. His painting was
used for the cover of Lanot's
"Astrology Through Filipino Eyes."

Lanot also proposed to overhaul the zodiac itself, to make it conform to modern astronomy, as well as to cleanse it of all traces of male chauvinism and to make it manifest a more logical position on moon and sun, which should occupy together the center of the zodiac. He also said that enough heavenly bodies have been discovered to make possible a zodiac where each house or sign is ruled by an exclusive planet of its own. As it is now, a planet that rules two houses is said to be good in one house and bad in the other. Lanot proposed to bring into the zodiac the four major asteroids (Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta) so that there will be no planetary duplication in the houses of the zodiac.

These changes will serve to dilute the currently excessive male composition of the zodiac, by bringing in not only more planets to represent the female principle but also two planets to represent the third sex. Astrology will then discard all sexual chauvinism.

The Rulers of Lanot's Proposed Zodiac
Aries - Mars
Taurus - Ceres instead of Venus
Gemini - Mercury
Cancer - Juno
Leo - Jupiter
Virgo - Vesta
Libra - Venus
Scorpio - Pluto
Sagittarius - Pallas
Capricorn - Saturn
Aquarius - Uranus
Pisces - Neptune

Lanot said that Jupiter in Sagittarius is anomalous because the traditional Jupiterian keywords are antithetical to the constellation Sagittarius. Jupiter has little in common with the Centaur, whereas, the Father of the Gods rhymes in character with the King of the Jungle.

He said that when the zodiac was first devised, there were not enough known planets to fill all 12 houses, which is why Venus and Mercury had to be given two houses each. With the discovery of the four major asteroids there are now enough planets for the 12 divisions of the zodiac. There is sexual balance in this reformed zodiac, an equal number of masculine and feminine planets. Mercury and Uranus, being hermaphroditic, give due recognition to the homos in our midst.

From Chicago, Lanot came back home with a personal resolution. He decided to start giving free astrological counseling. That was his commitment to the AFA, which enjoined all members to promote astrology.

Sometime after Chicago, Lanot also petitioned the local embassies of Asian nations to help him establish an ASEAN Astrological Society, or ASEAN ASTROS, whose objectives would be the promotion of peace and goodwill and international friendship through a better understanding of the nature of man as embodied in astrology, and the integration into one community of the diverse astrological groups in Asia. This is yet to be realized.

In Chicago, he startled an international astrology conference by proposing to overhaul the zodiac.

He established Philippine Astrological Studies, Inc. (PASI)

Lanot's awards and certificates of recognition,
on displayed at Lopez Museum
during Poetry of Stars Exhibit.

Lanot immersed himself in astrology in 1978, after suffering from a cerebral stroke. His clientele was made up of prominent individuals including writers, like Nick Joaquin, generals, celebrities, artists, and even the former President Ferdinand Marcos. One of his predictions was the win of Bill Clinton in the US presidential elections. But perhaps some of his most important outputs were the guides and series of warnings that he wrote from 1985 to early 1986 for Cory Aquino during the country's transition from dictatorship to democracy. These warnings and analyses were published in Manila Bulletin's Panorama Sunday Magazine.

He finished Metaphysics at the Metropolitan Collegiate Institute in London, England. He also received an Astrology Now Award for Advanced Skills, and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Divinity in July 1980 from California's Aquarian Church of the Brothers and Sisters of Jesus Christ.

Astro Friend Irene Chia holding a
reproduction of PASI's foundation chart.
Photo by Resti Santiago

On March 28, 1979, he founded the Philippine Astrological Studies, Inc. to conduct free lessons on astrology. He screened applicants carefully: They needed to be really serious and intelligent. He started with a class of 32 individuals, all of them professionals. After 3 months, only 14 had survived. One of Lanot's students was a scientist, Dr. Florencio Isagani S. Medina III who worked for the Philippine Atomic Commission in the 80s. He was also head of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute.

The organization became one of the most influential groups of astrologers in the country. Among its members were Dr. Leon O. Ty, a leading newspaperman and civic leader, and Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., a highly spiritual individual and one of the moving forces behind the Theosophical Society of the Philippines. Many of its founding members were writers, journalists and poets, including Alfred Yuson, Sylvia Mayuga, Elena Beatriz Romualdez, Marra Lacaba, and many others.

The Through all of Lanot's efforts in teaching astrology, he was working on the following goals, which he wrote on May 25, 1979:

1. To convince or persuade colleges and universities to include the study of astrology in their respective curricula at their own expense, especially as a requirement in psychology, psychiatry, medicine, among others.

2. To campaign for membership among students and professionals, preferably successful intellectuals only, since the study of astrology requires intelligence and intuition for understanding and appreciation.

3. To have graded membership and nationwide chapters to fulfill its avowed aim.

Lanot also designed a Horoscope Calculation Sheet on which all the necessary data were arranged with the precision of a multiplication table. But this was not easy to read. It often took him weeks to read one horoscope. According to Lanot, you need rational intelligence to interpret horoscopes.

From one of his trips abroad, Serafin Lanot brought home a relic: a 40-column printer from DIGICOMP Research Corporation. With this machine, it takes only 15 minutes to calculate an astrological chart. Normally, it would take weeks. The interpretation, however, is another story because it used to take Lanot 2 hours to interpret a chart.

Mysterious philosophy: The Philippine Model

The author holding a diagram of
Lanot's the "Filipino Model."
Photo by Resti Santiago

He created The Philippine Model and presented his paper on it before the 30th anniversary convention of the American Federation of Astrologers in Nevada. That paper was published as a chapter in a book featuring internationally known astrologers from the US, Germany, France, England, India and the Philippines.

It is a philosophy in which the complex is made simple in astrological interpretation. It proposes a certain kind of simplicity, including the simplicity of creation of the cosmos and earthly life through the three simple steps of genetic heredity. It is a simplified visualization of the hemispheric areas which are traditionally considered the most significant parts of the horoscope and the biosphere. It also emphasizes a growing in and out through alternative options, with the center (Reality) as the point of reconciliation and/or polarization between the four opposite points of the horoscope.

In his paper, he said that "The tendency of the convoluted brain is to complicate the simple. It is this natural logic of simplicity that is absent in examining simple but profound astrological problems. The Filipino must adopt the virtue of simplicity if he is to survive being caught in the midstream of the East and the West, even in the practice and appreciation of astrology."

To live is a series of dying
To die is to live again
Like the phases of the moon
Verily, nothing is new under the sun
Only the expression and/or mode of communication changes
And may be called original

Serafin Lanot died on September 22, 1993. He was definitely one of the leading figures in the development of astrology in the Philippines, and a beloved teacher to many astrology enthusiasts.

(The author would like to thank Marra Lanot, Kris Lacaba, Resti Santiago, Kat Palasi, Irene Chia and Ofel Santos for helping gather information on the life of Serafin Lanot.)