Recommended Books
on Astrology
New to the subject? Do not know where
to look for good books? Well, here is a list of high-quality books I have found
to be user-friendly and helpful in my understanding of astrology. Do bear in
mind, however, that this is a highly personal set of recommendations, so it is
possible that your particular areas of interests may diverge from mine.
Nevertheless, I hope you find this list interesting and helpful. I hope to keep
on updating this list as other books of interest emerge, in the wake of the
discovery of more planetary bodies and redefining of these.
Robert Hand - Horoscope Symbols.
An unassuming cover, but not to be underestimated in the scope of what it
has to offer, and the superbly balanced approach he has towards the ten planets
and Signs in particular. He also covers what is known on midpoints and
harmonics admirably. Robert Hand has written other tomes, one especially for
young people - 'Planets in Youth' and another extremely helpful set of readings
on transits, called ’Planets in transit.’
It has to be admired for its humanism, as here at least is one astrologer
who has no need of Grand Designs and Heirarchies. His
descriptions of the Sun and the Moon are among the best I have ever come
across, both treated evenly and fairly as equal partners within the inner being
of each individual.
Tracy Marks - The Astrology of Self-Discovery
Tracy Marks uses Psychosynthesis as her 'beacon' in life, and through
this, Assagioli's tendency to go on about 'lower' and 'higher' egos and selves
tedious, but that is by no means all she has to offer. Tracy Marks comes across
as someone who has truly had to face her own demons (or her planetary
subpersonalities) and work with and through them, so she is far from being an
unbalanced New Ager. I particularly liked her chapter on the Moon and how she
suggests using lunations in transitting work and there is also an interestng section on the Moon's Nodes with advice on how to find creative ways to resolve the challenges presented at both ends of the axis. Her essays on dealing creatively with
outer planet transits are excellent, and are a great antidote to all those
negative fears which can creep up when we know from our ephemerises that we've
got some difficult transits and progressions coming up! She does not spare you,
however, all Astrologers: trying answering honestly her questions about why you
are using Astrology, and whether or not your use of it truly is constructive,
either towards yourself or towards others. Astrology seems to prefer to
have things cast in stone, and quite possibly may appeal more to individuals
who like the reassurance, or the sense of power and control - to employ a
little of Tracy Marks's stringent introspection - a relatively 'fixed' method
of character delineation and divination can bring. This is 'magical thinking'
indeed, except of course, that the magic here is real. Unfortunately.
Liz Greene - Saturn, Relating, The Astrology of Fate
I first encountered her earliest books very early on and felt incredibly
inspired by them. She has such a sublimely poetic way of writing! It can
perhaps blind you to the fact although individuation can seem an incredibly
romantic adventure, in practise it can be painful - how does looking at Saturn
within you, dealing with its tougher transits 'really' make you feel? In her
debut on Saturn, her main achievement is arguably making us want to look at the
most unpleasant side of this planet in all its ramifications: at aspects of
ourselves we might normally perhaps not wish to have to examine too closely,
because it shows up those aspects of ourselves we like least, by making it seem
like a great adventure.
'Relating' is even better-written and avoids some of the vices of her
first book, where there is just a little too much of a whiff of esoteric
contempt for the merely ordinary and uninitiated soul. Here instead there is a
great deal of respect for the many differences between different psychological
types; here, she looks in depth at the contrasexual aspects of the psyche, and
how these are played out within the synastries of individuals over a life-time.
Once again, she makes the Jungian path towards self-discovery seem most
seductive, a romantic Quest, even though in real life, most people would
probably not want not be reminded of their shortcomings in dealing with other
people. As a qualified Jungian psychologist, her knowledge of mythology is
incredibly scholarly. As an agent for the individuation of her Clients, she is
ambitious, intensely Hermetic and comes across as confrontational in the quotes
taken from her ’live’ case studies. This is doubtless where her special
approach to Astrology would cease to be a romantic exercise at all for those on
the receiving end of it.
Although professing to be ’tolerant’ of all differences between people,
whatever their sexual orientation, however, she still comes across as being
somewhat reactionary –
I believe other astrologers have been critical of her essay on her homosexual
case in her book ’Relating’ Victor, for example. Whilst she was too much the
esotericist in Saturn, now she is a little bit too much the Jungian disciple.
Sometimes she also seems to want to 'push' the facts to make a point a
little too much. Her case study on autism, for example in The Astrology of Fate
draws some fairly dodgy conclusions - specialists on autism, for example, may
certainly object to her quoting Bettelheim on the subject, where the parent is
'blamed' for the child's condition. (Erin Sullivan also undertakes a case study
on autism in a family, and she appears to go a step further than Liz Greene in
understanding its ramifications, though the conclusions she makes seem rather
more ambiguous) Even more dodgy is the orb she allows for a Mercury-Saturn
square within the case study, but never mind - the books still makes some very
interesting points about fate and free will.
She has also collaborated with Howard Sasportas on other tomes, no doubt
likewise containing a wealth of insights to be amassed by the discerning
reader.
More recently, I have had occasion to read a book based on workshops she
held on Uranus – or, Prometheus. She is her usual lugubrious
self as far as looking at the ’darker’ side of the planet, for example, she
points out that Hitler, with Uranus so close to the Ascendant was, after all,
trying to usher in a Uranian Brave New World himself – which is why she
emphasises that – as a collective force, it does need to be well-integrated
within the psyche if it is not to work destructively.
She casts a rather more critical eye on Jung and his attitude to the
women in his life when looking at his chart. She also revisits the cycles of
Saturn, more or less to the grave – luckily, blending these with what
concurrent, and more liberating, Uranus transits can tell us within these
cycles of unfoldment.
The case studies were also interesting, studded with provocative insights
into the charts brought up for discussion, though at one point, the quibling
over orbs seemed to be getting unnecessarily psychoanalytical, when probably it
may wellhave truly been a technical point.
The Gods of Change - Howard Sasportas
Howard Sasportas also wrote a book about the Houses, which is a
much-neglected topic. In this book, he looks at Outer Planet transits,
including all those infamous mid-life ones, such as the Uranus half-return, the
Neptune-Neptune square and so on. He does, however, look at earlier cycles made
by these planets too – and of even later ones, at even later stages in life.
This book is probably most suitable then for those who are seeking to
make more sense of their lives within a larger – and, for that matter, a more
transpersonal – framework.
Being a lunar type in a solar world - Donna Cunningham
I only managed to pick up the first edition of this book and her main
focus is to look at ways to accommodate those 'normal' human needs for community and
emotional support shared by all human beings. As the book explores, easier said than done where, as Tracy Marks also remarks, we live in societies and infrastructures that appear to be markedly at odds with the lunar principle. Anyway, within this context she examines
the difficulties in getting these needs met within the larger context of
historical cycles and the (dysfunctional) horoscopes of nations – particularly
that of the States. This analysis of the bigger picture is possibly the one of the more interesting
contributions the book has to make – it has to be remembered that people do not
live their lives, disconnected from larger socio/economic, and astrological
forces! It is perhaps also a pity that the book did not also touch upon the possible relevance of Ceres, where examining more questions in relation to agricultural matters.
She looks at all the main problems traditional accociated with lunar
matters and possible ways to resolve them – problems to do with addictions,
weight problems, and the menstrual cycle of women, whilst not neglecting the
issues men may face in confronting their more vulnerable side, where society
expects them to be macho in the stereotypical Mars sense.
Her herbal recipes and recommendations may certainly appeal to the
more Pagan-orientated astrologers, though there are other Pagan writers such as Sally Morningstar and Teresa Moorey who have also managed to make a virtual Hufflepuff-style cliché of this kind of book, where I might have longed for some of the Gnostic insights of Peter Redgrove and Penelope Shuttle. It is a pity she had to rewrite the book and bring out another edition before making this one as inclusive as it could be – the first edition does not include these - something of a trap for the unwary. Donna Cunningham, however, also confesses to some unease in writing the book - there are not a great deal of books about 'our closest celestial neighbour' - even now, I see writers on Net forums discuss astrological Moon matters with a certain Victorian disapproving prurience that perhaps can be difficult to overcome. This book, therefore, is something of a pioneer in this direction, not being written by one of the card-carrying'Earth Mothers' so maligned, for example, by the likes of Dennis Elwell.
Donna Cunningham's other books and manuals are also very user-friendly and accassible.
Working with Astrology - Michael Harding and Charles Harvey
This book makes midpoints and harmonics just so much more accessible! The
charts it draws on makes its arguments powerful, and convincing: the case study
on the phenomenon of Janis Joplin, whose chart is otherwise a total enigma without
the wealth of insights that a knowledge of insights can bring, therefore being very much a case in
point. Herein too, is one other very basic lesson: the
importance of one midpoint in particular, the Sun/Moon midpoint, which, the
book assures us, 'is as important as any major planet.' There are books that
pay lip service to the idea that these two ideas in the chart are meant to be
equals, as a dyadic pair where the one cannot be considered without the other,
but in practice, it is not really the case. But if you are looking
within yourself for the fusion of body and soul, spirit and mind, your own
capacity for the mysterium conjunctionis, albeit on a rather less mystical
dimension than Jung might have intended in his magnum opus: well, welcome to the science
of midpoints and smell the evidence, as presented in this book.
The chapters on harmonics are also most interesting, though occasionally
these are a little less convincing - perhaps because it is still relatively
'new' to Westerners and its practitioners are still feeling their way with it.
Mike Harding wrote an interesting book called 'Hymn to the Ancient Gods'
a few years, now out of print, which is something of an attack on certain
perspectives - especially Jungian and New Age Ideas (e.g.
if you get cancer, then you must have wanted it), which he suggests have been
followed too blindly by most astrologers. Mike Harding so often brings a new
and often totally unexpected perspective to both mundane and natal astrology,
it is good to have 'dissidents' - he is the only Astrologer I know of to
declare himself to be a Marxist and an Existentialist. Astrologers all loudly
proclaim to be Uranians, but I suspect sometimes that they do no not know what
the word means, as most of them seem to be so conservative, with both a large
and a small 'c.'
On a more 'beginner' note, Charles Harvey co-wrote an excellent book on
the Sun-Moon blend, with some excellent case studies.
Reinhold Ebertin - Applied CosmoBiology
Ebertin wished to distance himself from astrologers - an understandable
enough sentiment in many ways - but the professional integrity of the man
really shines through. He presents many case studies of how use of midpoints
alone can be applied not just in making predictions, but in helping young
people cope with school, choose a career, choosing the right time in business
to launch a new product.
He does not seem to have much of a
bedside manner though! - what he has to say about aspiring artists is bald
enough, if he judges that your midpoint trees to show
no evidence of possible fame or success. What he has to say about the 'timing
of surgical operations and choosing a career are also, surely critical when
using Astrology in it more predictive mode.
Michel Gauquelin - The Planets and Human Behaviour
What a strange man this was! - a man who did not believe in Astrology,
yet compelled by an inner sense of integrity to be absolutely sure that
it could be totally discounted - and then finding out that it couldn't be.
He concentrates on the four planets whose influence on human behaviour is
truly measurable: on Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon. Lots of tireless,
exhaustive research on Martian athletes, Jupiterian actors, Lunar writers,
Martian athletes, and so on, and all with that superbly refreshing lack of
received wisdom: his perspective on Jupiter is especially salutary. He also
includes case studies on the Nazis, with the disturbing correlation between
these and angular Moons and Jupiters, but still warns in applying what he calls
'planetary racism' to these findings. (Harvey and Harding have a great deal
more insights to offer in their book, however, on what made Hitler what he was,
according to his harmonic/midpoint structures.)
Altogether, more entertaining than Geoffrey Dean, as Gauquelin truly is
'l'astrologue malgre lui.'
The Case for Astrology - John Anthony West
Getting tired of having to explain that it isn't all hogwash, and you are
not a con artist whenever it gets to asking for the old palm crossed with
silver? Had your astrology course invalidated at the local tech because it's
Astrology?
Well, here are the arguments for and against. The first edition of the
book – which is still in my bookcase – includes the name of Jan Van Toonder of
a co-author. He must have died since the updated version was published –
unforutnately, I do not know how updated it is. In the first edition, the
research of Gauquelin, along with that of Jonas, for example, was presented as
being incontrovertible evidence that there is something to astrology, although it seems that this has been
challenged more recently by the likes of Geoffrey Dean and Rudolf Smit –
perhaps discussed still futher in Garry Philipson’s book Astrology in the Year Zero. The book is almost fanatical in
condemning the shrillest voices against astrology, as well as being something
of a gloom-and-doom prophet into the bargain. However, it does make the point
that just as we cannot tell the level of awareness at which any native is
operating, so Astrology does have its 'levels' - and some of them on a foolish
enough level to explain why many of the major religions come out as
anti-astrology. Many clients, the authors rather cynically remind us, are not
really that interested in personal evolution or growth. They want to know when
their lives will improve for the better, In practice, this may mean wanting to
know when they will win the lottery, when their spouse/aged parent is going to
die, if their operation will be a success, and so on.
Their case studies on time twins are really very interesting.
Astrology, karma and transformation - Stephen Arroyo
I am not really that interested in seeing everything in view of karma and
take an agnostic position on the subject of reincarnation, so this book is a
little off-putting for me in places. Stephen Arroyo, however, is a very fluent
and entertaining writer, and the way he treats transits and progressions here
is superbly presented and readable. If you do like to operate as an astrologer
from a more spiritual perspective, you could do worse than check out his books
- he is reasonably balanced.
Astrology: Evolution and Evolution, Alan Oken
Part of a trilogy. I do not really care for the kind of esotericism Alan
Oken promotes, yet in this book, an exposure to Vedic Astrology perhaps made
him more open-minded than he might otherwise have been. It is, however, a good
introduction to the influences of fixed stars and to vedic astrology along with
the lunar asterisms.
There was something very fresh,
youthful and engaging about his style, and his comments on the outer planets
and how these shaped the more way-out generations of the late 20th Century were
fun to read (he didn't get as far as punk, goth or techno, these being a little
ahead of his time at the time of writing), as were his ideas offered on the
astrological 'ages.')
There is something rather prudishly voyeuristic about his tour through
what he calls 'sexual variations' as seen through various charts, but his
synastries are interesting studies. Sade rears his head, as does the chart of a
transexual, Bonnie and Clyde and John and Yoko Ono. Unfortunately, he often has
to resort to noon charts. It is worth bearing in mind that there are many
astrologers who believes that it is not possible to 'blindly' guess the
sexuality of an individual through birth data alone.
Synastry – Penny Thornton
This book tends to over-emphasise a little the marriage between Charles
and Diana, though the book was, after all, published soon after the event, but
it did foresee the infamous divorce some years later. As a whole the book is
written in a sparkling, accessible style, giving several other interesting case
studies.
It also looks takes a good look at how to set up a composite chart and
how to read it, using still more real-life case studies.
Chiron and the Healing Journey – Melanie Reinhart
It is still difficult to know for sure how important Chiron will be seen
to be in a few years from now, especially in the view of the discovery of still
more planetoids, comets and so forth. Pluto, however, may lose its status as
full planet within the astronomical community, whilst it would be unthinkable
now for that to happen within the world of astrology, despite its small size and distance.
This book looks at every combination of Chiron signs and aspects in
considerable depth, though it is sometime difficult to know how much is being
’read’ into each of these ramifications, and how much from a genuine sense of
the unique signature of the planet. Whatever the case, it is all thoroughly and
densely Jungian but whenever waded through, there may be some new insight to be
gleaned, and it is a pioneering book of new research.
Asteroid Goddesses – Demetra George
The criticisms of above could well be applied to this one – it is easy to
be confused within a thoroughly Virgoan welter of detail as refined as the tiny
asteroids themselves. Ceres, as in Chiron of the book touched upon immediately
before this one, could easily have its symbolism confused with that of lunar
symbolism – an issue which George, to her credit, actually confronts. She
reminds us that the asteroids all ’emerge from the silvery ground of the Moon,’
but that they – or at least the main ones, which are all ’feminine’ goddesses,
still have a unique signature of their own and as
such, can provide new information on the chart that cannot be gleaned from the
Moon alone - nor for that matter, from any of the other major players in the natal chart. (This is a point that Robert Hand also makes.)
Obviously then, the task is to get a feel for them, if they really do add
additional information that the rest of the chart does not supply in their
absence.
I cannot claim to have made the asteroids my life study, but there are
ephemerides supplied here for many more than just the Big Four. This book is
therefore at least entertaining, if not for speculating what it can mean to
have Psyche and Eros both on my Asc/MC midpoint.
Mythic Astrology – Internalising the Planetary Powers – Ariel
Gutman and Kenneth Johnson
There seems to be a much more recent sequel to this book, but this has proved
to be an interesting source book on myths, planets and the Gnostic quest to
work with and through the archetypes the planets represent. It is lavishly
illustrated and includes chapters on all the major asteroids – alsas, however,
writtn too long ago now to include anything on any of the Centaurs other than
Chiron, or on Eris or any other the other Kuiper belt ojects besides Pluto.
The comments the book has to make on
the Lunar Nodes and the natal Moon did harmonise with ideas I have set out in
other articles I have written here on the subject, though possibly the writers,
whilst touching on this, could perhaps have made more of the point of the
alchemists, that the Pholisopher’s Stone comes out of union of both Sun and
Moon rather than Sun alone, along with the known importance of the Sun/Moon
midpoint.
A source book well worth dipping into whenever needed.
The Node Book – Kevin Burk
I managed to get a look at this book on the Lunar Nodes whilst on holiday
in the UK recently. Unlike others, it also included delineations not just for
the Sign, but also the House positions of the Nodes with the combinations,
although there did not seem to be anything on synastry combinations.
It set out, as the original article did, to take a ’fresh look’ at the
nodes and why they behave the way they do – starting with exactly what they are
as mathematical points in the sky and their connection with either lunar or
solar eclipses.
The stance of the book is firmly humanistic – what Burk calls
’supportive’, meaning that it tries to get beyond any polarised thinking of
either nodal point as being all ’good’ or the other all ’bad.’
In practise, it perhaps does not give as much material that is as truly
perceptive as other writers on the subject, but this does also mean that there
is nothing that could be experienced as being destructive or damaging either to
anyone reading it either – which to me, is always the danger that can emerge
where any one planetary factor gets labelled as being definitely ’bad.’
For those who feel that there is no merit in
reading anything that does not put the boot in somewhere – and perhaps, lazy,
cruel, selfish people that we can all be sometimes – the boot is most certainly
deserved sometimes, then I could still recommend Maria Elise Crummere books on
the 12 sun signs. This one is truly perceptive, truly accurate, though with
none of the saving humour of ’How to spot a ’B”+!%d’ for example. The lady who
wrote this did not come across as a particularly happy bunny. Perhaps this is
why it did not stay in print long, rather than the fact that she does not spare
anyone’s finer feelings.
Sex Signs - Judith Bennett
Sex Signs is a book for beginners, really, as it takes an in-depth look
at each of the 12 'signs.' They are intended as blended portraits in which the
subject could have either the sun/moon/ascendant within, or simply be going
through a transit or progression-type phase, and therefore be more typical of
this 'new' sign than of any other. In this way, she has succeeded in producing
a good introductory book suitable for beginners on the subject that describes
the 12 signs - or rather archetypes as I have heard them called more recently -
without lapsing into over-zealous sun-sign steroptyping. You do not need to
know any more than your sun-sign, however, in order to benefit from the book,
the check-list of Sign characteristics gives you the opportunity to 'feel' your
way into each Sign, in order to choose which one seems to ’fit’ you most at the
time of consulting it. Judith Bennett then describes a 13th type - the cosmic
woman - someone who, no doubt, has managed to transcend the natal chart as a
whole.
The Compleat Astrologer - Derek and Julia Parker
Once again, I cut my teeth on this lavish, coffee-table book, and it is
even more lavish than when I first got my own copy, to include midpoints and
harmonics now, and lots more case histories.
It is superb on Aspects and chart patterns - splays, buckets and so on.
My main objection to the book is in the fact that appeals to laziness,
because of the simplified ephemerides - but then, when I first got the book,
there was not much in the way of computer software, that is infinitely more
accurate, and still saves you from doing much in the way of mathematical
calculations.
It is still a lovely, user-friendly introduction to the whole subject of
Astrology. The information on corresponding herbs and precious stones to each
Sign is also a pleasant touch.
