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Bill Darlison

Bill Darlison (born 10 June 1945) is a British Unitarian minister, astrologer and book author. His 2007 book The Gospel and the Zodiac: The Secret Truth about Jesus popularised the astrological structure in the Gospel of Mark.

Biography

He was brought up on a council estate in Pontefract, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, as the youngest of three children (brother Barry, eleven years older, and sister, Eileen, five years older). His father, Bill Darlison, was a miner – he worked fifty years in the local pits. His mother, Ellen Darlison, worked in a liquorice factory. His mother was a Catholic and his my father had no religion: ‘My religion is going down the pit for you,’ he is remembered telling the young child.

Bill Darlison was precociously religious and served as an altar boy for years. He was educated at St. Joseph’s Infant and Primary School until 1958 when he attended the King’s School, Pontefract, the local Grammar School, where he studied English, History and French at ‘A’ Level.

Between 1963 and 1966 he attended teacher training at St. John’s College, York, where he studied English Literature.

From 1966 to 1971 he taught at St. Joseph’s Primary School (2 years), and at St. Wilfrid’s Comprehensive School in Featherstone (3 years). He studied astrology with the Faculty of Astrological Studies. Winner of the Faculty’s Astrological Medal in 1968.

From 1971 to 1974 he prepared for Catholic priesthood in Rome at the Pontifical Beda College where he studied scripture, philosophy, theology, liturgy, and also learnt Italian.

In 1974 he returned to teaching English and Religious Studies in St. Wilfrid’s school, where he continued until 1989.

Between 1976 and1980 he was a student with the Open University, where he graduated with a First in Humanities and learned New Testament Greek.

In 1986 he seconded to study for an M.A. in Religious Studies at Hull University.

He started to attend Unitarian churches in 1988.

From 1990 to 1992 he lived in the USA (San Francisco, New Orleans, and San Antonio), supporting his wife Morag who was working as a nurse. There he became acquainted with Unitarian Universalism and began a serious study of biblical Hebrew.

Between 1992 and 1994 he attended training at Unitarian College in Manchester for Unitarian Ministry, becoming a minister in 1994. He worked as part-time minister with the Wakefield Unitarian congregation and became head of religious studies (part time) at Wakefield Independent School.

From 1996 to 2010 he was Unitarian minister in Dublin, retiring thereafter.

In 2011 he worked for four months (September – December) in New Zealand as interim Minister to Auckland Unitarians.

In 2012-2013 he held the position of Vice-President of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches and in 2013-2014 President of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

Personal life

He met his future wife Morag at a night school in 1974 where he was teaching astrology. They married in 1975. His wife shares his birth date (10 June 1951) as well as his mother's (10 June 1910).

Books

• The Shortest Distance (2006)
• The Gospel and the Zodiac: The Secret Truth about Jesus (2007)
• The Celestial Journey of the Soul (2017)
• Struggling with God (2018)
• Moses the Matador (2019)
• Concentration and Compassion (2022)