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Thousands of years ago, people first observed a correlation between the heavenly bodies and events on Earth. Out of these early observations and subsequent refinements came what today is known as astrology. For most of these millennia, astrologers used only the seven visible planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. It is out of this tradition that Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro have written this extensive book on astrology. The rules and principles here presented apply to all branches of astrologyA natal, mundane, horary and elective. Their method is the traditional and time-honored one, and includes, among others, chapters on: The Planets The Zodiac and the Signs The Essential Dignities The Houses The Aspects Chart Dynamics The Condition of the Planets The Fixed Stars The Parts The Power of the Planets Using this traditional method, it is possible not only to thoroughly and completely read the natal chart but to do so with a breadth and depth of meaning not found in the modern methods of astrological interpretation. It avoids cookbook-type methods and centers on the practical understanding of the astrological concepts, presenting the Tradition in present-day language. In addition, more than two hundred fifty illustrations make the traditional principles easy to understand and use in chart interpretation. This practical how-to book is one of a kind, and the one that will teach you the traditional methods and you reach into the past to benefit from the knowledge of the authors and astrologers from ancient Babylonia through the medieval period. It is suitable for both beginners and advanced students, as it provides the indispensable core of astrological knowledge, at the same time allowing more experienced students to organize their knowledge into a coherent system.… (more)
User reviews
Regrettably, there are also some jarring flaws. For one thing, there's no index. The table of contents is detailed and it's followed by an excellent list of the illustrations, diagrams, and tables. These help, but they're just not the same as an index. If you want to quickly look up at what point "under the beams" turns into "combust," good luck. The book also needed another round with a proofreader. While most books have the odd typo here and there, some of this book's typos were in an important table or changed the meaning of sentences. Plus, there was the occasional just-plain-wrong statement. (Uranus can too be seen with the naked eye. I'm sorry if that messes up the rationale behind the perfect symmetry of the traditional system, but making factually incorrect statements about matters of science isn't going to help astrology's credibility.) I found the general tone of traditional = good; modern = bad irritating, as I have with other works. I understand the authors needed to clearly make the distinction between traditional and modern astrology, but sniping at modern practice seemed unnecessary.
But despite these criticisms, I really did enjoy this book. I got a lot out of their discussions of the primary qualities and the Parts, including information I haven't found in other texts. And it's hard to overstate the effect of reading about a difficult topic in modern English: I could devote all of my energies to understanding the astrology instead of also having to work my way through arcane sentence structures. It was a disappointment to come to the end of the book and find that the authors only gave a taste of what delineating a chart would be like in the traditional manner, but they hint that that will be the focus of a future book. Studying everything in this book may hold me until then.