James Burgess on Sufi Cosmology, Sabian Symbols & the Outer Planets

Summary

Astrologer and Sufi teacher James Burgess explains the Sabian symbols, a set of 360 degree-by-degree astrological images channeled by psychic Elsie Wheeler in 1925, and shares how his decades-long quest led him to secret Sufi orders in 1980s Turkey. He introduces his new book on the outer planets, proposing that Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto form a trinity of freedom, creativity, and evolution whose midpoint, the 'Trinity Point', reveals a person's spiritual path. Along the way he speculates that the Sabians descended from Atlantean survivors who settled near Harran and helped build Gobekli Tepe.

Key takeaways

• 1Elsie Wheeler, an arthritic psychic in 1925 California, reportedly channeled all 360 Sabian symbols in a single day, organized by astrologer Marc Edmund Jones and later interpreted by Dane Rudhyar.
• 2Burgess's book 'Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto: The Impact of the Astrological Outer Planets', co-written with Julia Sophia, proposes the 'Trinity Point', the midpoint of the three outer planets read through Sabian symbols.
• 3Burgess assigns Uranus to freedom, Neptune to creativity, and Pluto to evolution, and links Neptune's discovery to the era of Franz Mesmer and anesthetics.
• 4Burgess describes a Sufi teacher who seemed to vanish from sight while silently reciting an 'invisibility' wazifa, and says an Istanbul Sufi order kept meeting under a 'folk club' sign after Atatürk banned Sufism.
• 5Burgess speculates that Sabians were Atlantean survivors who settled near Harran in Mesopotamia and built Gobekli Tepe about 12,000 years ago.
• 6Host Miguel Conner claims David Bowie would only grant interviews if a journalist's astrological chart was favorable, and mentions books framing Elvis and Bowie as 'space age shamans'.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

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Excerpt from Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio, Sep 17, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.