Beginner Astrology Books and How to Read Them

Hello all,

Before I provide the list, I want to set the stage.  Astrology is a vast and deep field of study, which has, in the study of it, three very broad layers or gates.  The first layer is the data layer, the fundamental information needed to study the craft.  Even this layer has its pitfalls.  Just going in you can choose from Tropical Western Astrology (the most common in the US and Europe), Sidereal Western Astrology (based on astronomical precession of the stars over time - example: my Sun is Aries in Tropical Astrology and it is in Pisces in Sidereal), Vedic Astrology (Hindu/Indian), Cosmobiology (developed to eliminate the House systems from Tropical Astrology, which are numerous), and on and on. Every culture on the planet has some form of Astrological practice. The books I provide in the list below are for Tropical Western Astrology, the kind of Astrology I practice.  In this first layer, the student faces the daunting task of learning vast amounts of information that simply have to be memorized.  You have to have at the tip of your tongue the meanings of all the energy points, signs, and houses.  You have to memorize the meanings of the various aspects that connect energy points.  You simply have to know this information cold if you want to move beyond raw data into useful interpretation.

The second layer or gate is actually the most difficult to penetrate or pass through.  The second layer requires the conversion of the raw data into a meaningful interpretation.  You can look up and write down that a Sun in Aries is a pioneer or individualist and you can look up and write down that a Sun in the 6th House is a person in service to others.  But what do you say about a Sun in Aries in the 6th House ... this person is or should be independent in his or her service to others, meaning s/he should probably work alone and not as a part of team.  His Life Path will focus on work/health issues (6th) and s/he will have to be wary of burning out (the shadow side of Aries drive ... being overdriven).  At some point you have to ENRICH the raw data with meaning, and that skill is the MAGIC of Astrology.  I compare this step to learning a foreign language.  At first you are very conscious of interpretation and you mind goes through the process mechanically until you "smooth" out the back and forth to the point that you refine the translate/translate process until you can no longer "see" the process.  When I look at charts now, I don't see discrete pieces of information, I see the full interpretation.

The final layer/gate is what I like to think of as the "wonder layer;" the vast, beautiful sea of knowledge and wisdom, the quantum theory of the practice.  This layer is the esoteric layer, where the mystery resides, and unfolds, and becomes mystery again.  Some days I am just in awe.

The stage setting is almost complete.  As a former English professor, I have some very clear ideas about how to read books more or less successfully.  Having a reading strategy to approach the beginning books will make them more enjoyable and less daunting. Whichever book you buy, plan to have two items with you when you sit down to read: a copy of your birth chart and a pen (not a highlighter, but you can have one of those as well).  You can get a free copy of your chart at the outstanding website Astrodienst.  The print out will include a legend that tells you which sign each of your energy points are in and then you can see which house based on the numbers inside the pie pieces.  Once you have your chart in hand and you have read the introductory chapters of the book, get your pen out and approach the cookbook part of the book by looking up your chart information only.  Don't read Sun in Aries, then Sun in Taurus, and so on without any kind of personal reference.  Start with your Sun sign and read about it and write your name next to the description.  The move on to your Moon sign and so on through all the energy points.  Next, get a friend, family member, lover, or co-worker to give you their birth data and the repeat the process using their chart.  Do about 10 to 20 of these and you'll find you way through almost all of the data, but with intent (to figure out your friends, family, lovers, and co-workers).

Write everyone's name next to each energy point description.  You may be very surprised to find certain patterns and a lack of patterns.  When I did mine the first time (and have kept adding since) I found most of my friends were fire and air signs, and most of my lovers were Aquarius and Cancer (really, 3 of each, and none of certain other signs), and most of mentors were Sagittarians and Capricorns (not surprisingly).  By reading the book with chart in hand, you will not get drown in data that has no immediate connection in your life.  By noting all the data from the charts that IS MEANINGFUL in your life, you will more quickly absorb the facts and "save" them in your mind's hard drive.

Here is a list of the best beginner books:

• Alan Leo's Astrology for All by Alan Leo (Hardcover - May 23, 2010) (an older book republished, but full of great information)
• Horoscope Symbols by Robert Hand (Paperback - Mar 1981) (good book for the person wanting to become a professional astrologer)
• Take Control with Astrology: A Teach Yourself Guide (Teach Yourself: Health & New Age) by Lisa Tenzin-Dolma (Paperback - Jan 19, 2010)  (a very good new book, I found a couple of months ago)
• Alan Oken's Complete Astrology: The Classic Guide to Modern Astrology by Alan Oken (Paperback - Oct 1, 2006)
• Complete Horoscope Interpretation; Putting together Your Planetary Profile by Maritha Pottenger (Paperback - 1995)
• The Inner Sky: How to Make Wiser Choices for a More Fulfilling Life by Steven Forrest (Paperback - Nov 1, 2007)
   
  Alan Leo's Astrology for All by Alan Leo (Hardcover - May 23, 2010) (an older book republished, but full of great information)

  THE PRINCIPLES OF ASTROLOGY by C.E.O. Carter (Hardcover - Jan 1, 1939) (still a great beginning book)

  How to Read Your Astrological Chart: Aspects of the Cosmic Puzzle by Donna Cunningham (Paperback - Jan 1, 2008) (not a cookbook, but a good companion to a cookbook)

  Intuitive Astrology: Follow Your Best Instincts to Become Who You Always Intended to Be by Elizabeth Rose Campbell (Paperback - Jun 3, 2003) (not a cookbook, but a good companion to a cookbook)

If you cannot a good price for some of these books on Amazon, then let me suggest Alibris Books online; they have a great selection of used dealers and you can often find copies at very low prices.  

A Very Rich Astrology Reading Experience

Astrology and Tarot are interesting practices, not only in and of themselves, but because of the way they are perceived and used in the world.  There is a constant round of narratives attempting to prove and disprove the validity or truth or science or effectiveness or accuracy (pick any word that equates to "its real") of these two and many other esoteric fields.  Some pieces of the narrative that are on the side of Astrology cause more trouble than help (daily Horoscope, Sun Sign only Astrology) and some skeptics prove invaluable to sharpening the thinking of the brightest Astrologers.  Ultimately, I believe and experience Astrology as a personal journey that enriches my life and, apparently, the life of my clients, who are very impressed with the usefulness and accuracy of their astrological readings.  Other narratives abound within the conglomeration of professional astrologers; namely, how each of us comes to accept and wear the mantle of "Professional Astrologer."  A very common and compelling narrative is the skeptic turned astrologer.  I am a mild version of that narrative.  The hard version is the person who set out to disprove Astrology, actively and aggressively "going after" Astrology with the starting hypothesis that "Astrology is bullsh*t."  I never had that as goal or my inroad to Astrology.  I approached it more from the view that I would like to see if Astrology could prove itself.  And, for me it has, many times over.  And yesterday was a shining example that I want to share with everyone.

Let me first provide a little more of a setting by way of the skeptics.  I have tried to track down the study I read in graduate school (way back in the early 1990's) that debunked astrology by giving a study group the same chart and interpreting the chart as the study member's chart.  In the study they were able to get all participants to believe the chart being "read" and interpreted for them was their own chart.  They did not change the interpretation of the chart, so each individual was essentially told the same thing about the chart and they all "believed" the chart to be "accurate."  The final coup-de-grace of the study came when the writers announced that they had used Adolph Hitler's chart for all the participants.  I have done my best to track down this essay, which I believe was published in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences.  As an former academic, I generally don't like to make references I cannot track down, but I think the spirit of the essay is pretty clear. I also think the conclusion is off; the study did prove something, but not about astrology.  It clearly proved that people can be deceived when they are kept ignorant.

For those of us who work with Astrology and clients regularly, we know immediately that the entire study group would need to be born under the sign of Taurus to even get this deception to fly at the rudimentary level of sun signs since Hitler's sun sign is Taurus.  You could have mixed signs among the group and press forward so long as your interpretation didn't begin with, "Ok, with your Sun in Taurus, your Life Path is guided by the energy of fixed earth ..."  The first non-Taurus participant would go, "Now wait a minute, my sun sign is Aquarius," even if you hand them a chart with their correct birth information and the incorrect output.  The interpretation instead began with, "You like to ..."  It's easy to debunk bad Astrological practice; there's plenty of it out there.  And its not much of a "win" for the skeptics when the research is so poorly designed.  Too much of the skeptical narrative goes after "low hanging fruit" or what I used to teach in my critical thinking classes as "the weak form of the argument."  Arguments and ideas have weak and strong forms, going after the weak forms is like plain old bullying, which is why debunking the daily horoscope is not really much of a challenge to the Astrological work of Robert Powell, Dane Rhudyar, Robert Hand, Demetra George, Richard Tarnas, Robert Blaschke, Jeff Green, Steven Forrest, and on and on.  When you have informed participants and Astrologers who are willing to give clients a solid foundation in the basics of the Astrological reading, the Hitler study does not even happen.

And so, here's my very rich experience with Astrology from yesterday.  Two of my regular clients (I see them yearly when they come into town to visit each other) came to see me for my Hot Spots Astrological reading.  Both of them are nearing their 2nd Saturn return and are past their Chiron return (so they are between 50 and 60).  They are highly intelligent, professional women.  Not easily deceived and not going into a reading doe eyed.  These are the clients you want because they can see through BS, so you'd better not be slinging any.  We started bright and early at 9AM and were cruising through the reading for about 20 minutes when we discovered that I had cast the chart wrong.  Instead of putting in her birth year as 1953, I had entered it as 1963.  What make the mistake embarrassing immediately was the fact that I had used the hardcopy of the chart I cast for her 2 years ago to get her birth information to reenter the data into Astrodienst, a great free online service.  I never even looked at the two charts side by side, which would have alerted me to the error before the reading began.  And, I skipped a step in my reading that I never skip with new clients, I didn't read the chart information at the very start of the reading (these are the kinds of errors that happen when you have an Aries Sun conjunct Saturn and a North Node ... I'm trying to learn how to be more precise in this life time; it does not come naturally for me, so its easy to have a slip from time to time).

So, how did we get so far into the reading before the error was discovered and how was it discovered since everything I had said up to the point of discovery was "dead on accurate."  Well, the only thing wrong was the birth year.  I had the date and time correct, which meant that the house placements and the Sun sign would be and were the same sign and house in the 1953 and 1963 charts.  And the first part of the reading dealt with the Ingress of all the outer planets we are experiencing right now, which meant I was talking about their movement along the line between the houses and signs (using the whole sign system, which I do, means they are the same line).  Once we moved away from the Ingress discussion the reading started to "fail."  When my client finally asked about relationships and children, the chart in front of us did not bear any resemblance to the chart used 2 years ago and then we started to struggle.  In part the struggle occurred because I kept reading what was in front of me and the chart in front of me had no energy points in the 5th and 7th houses (children and partnerships).  My client was doing her best to make sense of her previous experience and the current one and that's when she spotted the error on the chart (I always present my client with a copy of the chart and take them around it).

Two important factors helped us ferret out the error.  She asked about information that was dominant from her previous reading, which at that time we did verify all her information before we began.  And I did not try to read something into the chart in front of me about relationships that was not there.  If I didn't trust the chart and I wanted to "keep my client on the hook" I would have done some fancy mind work to make the chart work on the relationship issues.  That didn't happen.  Like a pilot who has to trust the instruments more than his "feelings," because certain kinds of spiral dives will not feel like the plane is out of control, I have to trust the tool.  In doing so, the reading created the situation where the error became obvious.  This experience was ... profound.  Fortunately, my clients were able to return later in the day after I recast the chart and redid the prep work.  We did the other client's reading before they left and when they came back we read the corrected chart, which now had Jupiter in the 5th house, and 8 energy points in the 7th and 8th houses.  Now were were on track.

I wanted to share this "mistake" with you because it shows the "strong form of the argument" of Astrology.  The best Astrology will have involved clients who are self-aware and the tool has to be trusted.  You have to read what is there.  If the 7th House is empty, then partnerships are not emphasized in this lifetime.  I give all my clients their chart, walk them through my process, and give them a couple of excellent beginning books as references in case they want to follow up behind me on their own or spend more time studying some part of the chart that I talked about (or did not talk about).  Most are happy to leave all the work up to me, but I want them to know that I'm using data they can verify on their own and not just riffing my way through a made up story.  An Astrology reading is a narrative journey, your narrative journey.  Its all about you.  And if you trust yourself and know yourself, you can even figure out when the Astrology is wrong.  Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Below are the two charts (without the name of the individual).  The first chart is the INCORRECT chart and the second cart is the CORRECT chart.