Learning Astrology 03 - Book Recommendations - Essentials of Your Astrology Library

If you want to study and practice Astrology then you must love to read and problem solve.  No one book is adequate and many will scratch the surface in a way that is more misleading than helpful (as is the case with most Sun Sign books).  Keeping in mind my first post, almost all books you buy that are current will use the Placidus system as the default.  If that's the case, then why not simply write from that perspective?  Well, I've found the Whole Sign system not only makes a certain kind of sense, but is easier to learn and teach because the Signs and Houses align perfectly (30 degrees for each and contained within each 30 degrees).  With the Placidus and other House Systems, you end up with irregular House widths, some spanning more than 30 degrees and other less.  In beginning studies this design creates a fairly significant hurdle to learning, as you have to come to understand concepts like interception and deal with bizarre chart configurations if a person is born near either of the poles.  House Systems are hotly debated topics and can really cause your head to pop off, so to simplify for the purposes of learning for the first time, I'm going to use the Whole Sign system, which means the first book you will need to buy is Demetra George's Astrology and the Authentic Self.

As you will see from your Astrology chart (printed from Astrodienst), we will be working with many additional Energy Points, including the 4 Asteroid Goddesses (Pallas Athena, Juno, Ceres, and Vesta), which means you will need to purchase another of Demetra George's works, Asteroid Goddesses.  I have brought in and use these Energy Points to balance out the chart so that there are an equal number of masculine and feminine energies.  But before you start reading this book, you will need to get a good "Cookbook", a text that gives you the basic explanations of Energy Points, Signs, Houses, and Aspects.  Believe it or not I recently came across a good new book by Lisa Tenzin-Dolma, Take Control with Astrology, which nicely fits the bill.  Another good nuts and bolts book is Joann Hampar's Astrology for Beginners.  But if you want to take the training wheels off right from the start, then the book to get is Robert Hand's Horoscope Symbols.

The final set of books to buy focus on the Moon and the Nodes of the Moon, which emphasize our deep personal selves and our destinies in this and past lifetimes.  You will need to purchase Amy Herring's Astrology of the Moon and Jan Spiller/Karen McCoy's Spiritual Astrology.  And lastly you need to buy Marc Edmund Jones book The Sabian Symbols, which will give you a simple inroad to imaginative language about your chart based on specific degrees of the Zodiac.  So for each Energy Point in your chart you can read a Sabian Symbol about its degree placement.

Recap

Here are the books to buy and have handy for your study of Astrology and your Astrology Chart:

• Astrology and the Authentic Self by Demetra George
• Asteroid Goddesses by Demetra George
• Take Charge with Astrology by Lisa Tenzin-Dolma
• Astrology for Beginners by Joann Hampar
• Horoscope Symbols by Robert Hand (if you want to do charts for others as well as look at your own)
• Astrology of the Moon by Amy Herring
• Spiritual Astrology by Jan Spiller and Karen McCoy
• The Sabian Symbols by Marc Edmund Jones

And here's the place to buy them: Alibris Books

In the next blog post, I will talk about how to read and use these books with your Astrology Chart to create your Astrology Profile.