Rodney Collin

British pro astrologer, occultist and author. A follower of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, he wrote the "Theory of Celestial Influence" and the "Theory of Eternal Life." After a bookish childhood, he spent the rest of his life as a natural scholar, self-taught in an eclectic manner. In 1934 he married Janet, a wealthy woman eight years older than himself. An idealist, he was dedicated to pacifist principles, and in 1936 he enthusiastically gave his attention to the "Work." Living in London, he and Janet became active members of Ouspensky's group. He became virtually Ouspensky's adopted son and thought of himself as the spiritual heir apparent. A charming man, he made friends easily, but Collin appeared passive and easily influenced. When Ouspensky berated him, once even slapping his face, Collin accepted this as a sort of Zen lesson. When Ouspensky died on 10/02/1947, Collin locked himself in his teacher's now empty bedroom for six days (allegedly without food or drink), finally emerging with his own sense of the miraculous. Leaving England, he and Janet moved to a hacienda on the outskirts of Mexico City where he set to work on his Planetarium of Tetecala (stone house of God). He also founded a publishing house and bookstore in Mexico City, an esoteric center known throughout South America. In 1954, Collin dissolved the community at Tetecala and published his major work, "The Theory of Celestial Influence," a complicated astrological treatise dealing with planetary cycles. Traveling with his own Mexican spirit medium, he moved gradually more into spiritualism and esoteric Catholicism. Though he was in poor health, in May 1956, Collin traveled to Lima to visit a metaphysical group. In Lima, he came across a crippled beggar boy. He offered to wash and dress the boy, and then, to give his life in exchange for the boy's healing. He climbed the bell tower of the Cuzco Cathedral where the homeless boy was living and while there, he either had vertigo or a vision and he lunged from the parapet, 5/03/1956, 3:15 PM. Falling to the ground, Collin landed with his arms outstretched like Christ on the cross with a smile on his face. He was buried in Cuzco. Link to Wikipedia biography