British astrological historian presently based in Sweden. Graves is a B. A. (Hons.) graduate in French (University of Hull, 1997), who has also studied Swedish to an advanced level, and basic German, Spanish and Latin. He is a CELTA-qualified teacher of English as a Foreign Language to Adults (ITTC, Bournemouth, 2003).
A great-nephew of the poet and author Robert Graves, and son of the biographer Richard Perceval Graves, Philip has always been strongly interested in literature, and has written stories, books and songs since an early age.
As a teenager, Graves developed a strong interest in philosophy.
In the summer of 1995 Graves began his serious study of astrology.
Starting in the summer of 2001, Graves became involved in the online astrological community, engaging enthusiastically in real-time astrological discussions and debates in Internet fora, with astrologers of all levels of proficiency from novice students to professionals, and with sceptics. That December, he was offered, and accepted, the voluntary post of assistant manager in a new astrological web-group in the MSN Communities network that had been set up by an older astrological chat friend from Los Angeles. In the summer of 2002, the founding manager of the group promoted Graves to joint managerial status to further encourage his efforts. Together, from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and despite never having met in person, the two of them developed one of the three largest astrological groups in the network over the following years, bringing it cumulatively beyond 6,000 registered memberships, assisted by an active body of subsequently recruited assistant managers, with whom votes on all important decisions affecting the community were shared on an equal basis. It was a collective, co-operative volunteer effort in the best tradition.
Graves has assisted several prominent astrologers with their research during the past ten years, starting with his late friend Maurice McCann, and has been credited for his help in the acknowledgements of at least seven books, as well as writing the foreword to one of those seven, namely Wade Caves’ annotated new edition of William Lilly’s autobiography as published by Rubedo Press in 2015. He is a friend of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, and a vocal supporter of the study of astrology and its history in academia, and of statistical research into astrology.
In December 2014 he launched Astrolearn, an astrological learning and reference resource. The resource is centered around a real physical archive of astrological literature.