Open Question: What Astrology Books Would You Recommend To Beginners?

15 Responses to “Open Question: What Astrology Books Would You Recommend To Beginners?”

1. kashmiri says on 1/15/08 at 8:11 pm:
   

   A friend lent me Jan Spiller’s ‘Spiritual Astrology’ and Tracy Marks ‘Secrets of the 12th House.’
   And I hope to god I’m remembering the titles right…the authors are, though!

   The first astrology books I ever read, and I feel that they are accessible, and simple, yet eloquent and beautifully written. I still remember my a-ha moments when I discovered I had a 1st House Capricorn Moon and 12th House Neptune.

   Little bits of knowledge like this changed my life and helped me stop feeling so powerless. Some of the older books are very good. I really like ‘The Horoscope, the Road and it’s Travellers’ by Alan Oken. Informative, even though I didn’t understand everything I can still refer back to it again and again.

2. shell says on 1/15/08 at 8:34 pm:
   

   “The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need” is one of the books where I read the Scorpio ASC/widow thing
   It made me scared of astrology for a whole minute. But it is a good basics book for sure.

3. max says on 1/15/08 at 8:50 pm:
   

   Debbie Kempton-Smith wrote a great book; I’m glad you recommend it.

   I can’t say I could recommend any astrology book as the only book you’ll ever need; read a bunch and use what works. Never be a slave to anyone else’s system. (Although I do like crabby old skool Llewellyn George as a good repository for the generic “everything”.)

   max
   [’Buying interesting-looking books at random works!’]

4. p&pp says on 1/15/08 at 8:53 pm:
   

   I bet Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs book is still a good stand by for beginning. Maybe it’s dated now. Maybe “Born on a Rotten Day” by Hazel Somebody. It’s funny.

   I’ve gone blank on the titles for the one’s for more complicated stuff beyond Sun Signs. They would be Derek & Julia Parker’s big book, Steven Forrest’s basic book and Donna Cunningham’s basic book (which would be my first recommendation). Sorry I don’t know the titles.

5. Charlotte says on 1/15/08 at 10:04 pm:
   

   I second Linda Goodman. My grandmother who was an astrologer way back in the 60s gave me Sun Signs when I was a wee thing and have gone through 5 copies since. You might as well know the sun signs in depth before jumping on to other things.

6. shell says on 1/15/08 at 10:32 pm:
   

   “Born on a Rotten Day” is hilarious, I loved that book. She also wrote “Love on A Rotten Day” too, which are both good for laughs.
   Hazel Dixon-Cooper is her name, I’m pretty sure. That reminds me, I’ve been bugging the hubby to get all of my books out of the attic for about a month now. I have a handful of astrology books that I could probably use for reference while I learn more stuff from this site.

7. Z says on 1/16/08 at 3:51 am:
   

   ‘The New Compleat Astrologer’ is that big book by the Parkers. My first big book was called ‘Astrology for Everyone’ by Roger Elliott which i thought was a good intro. For aspects you cant beat ‘Aspects in Astrology’ by Sue Tompkins or Robert Hands aspects book. And for houses it can only be ‘The Twelve Houses’ by Howard Sasportas. ‘Astrology for Lovers’ by Liz Greene is a good sun sign book, i prefer it to Goodmans but only cos i lent someone my copy many moons ago and forget its content. March & McEvers books are straight forwardly written and not too overwhelming for the beginner. There are loads of sites out there now too which are very informative, Cafeastrology.com is a good one imo and then of course theres this forum and others where you can learn alot from reading about others experiences.

8. Foxxy says on 1/16/08 at 7:28 am:
   

   Parker’s Astrology by Derek and Julia Parker is the book which set the hook for me, and it still proves useful. It gives a little information about everything, and includes some deeper stuff as well, overviews of transits an empheris ect.

   Typically now when something tweaks my interest I look it up in Parkers then run it by Sue Thompkins aspects in astrology and chase it around the internet.

   Website wise, I found widgets astrology world helpful as well. It goes a bit more indepth than astro.com when it generates a chart interpretation (Although it takes longer to o through as well).

9. Doreen Gordon says on 1/16/08 at 7:48 am:
   

   I recommend Steven Forrest’s The Inner Sky; Astrology for Yourself by Douglas Bloch & Demetra George–it’s workbook with which you can learn about astrology by working with your own chart; and then Philip Brown’s Cosmic Trends to get a sense of how the outer planets relate to trends in the collective consciousness. The latter is another to facilitate learning astrology by osmosis. And of course, accessing the astroblogosphere via Top Ten Sources.

10. saggal says on 1/16/08 at 10:12 am:
    

    I have gotten these two books on Elsa’s previous recommendation of them and I love ‘em. I also like anything by Robert Hand and Liz Greene.

11. Pat says on 1/16/08 at 10:37 am:
    

    Without a doubt, 1) Parker’s Astrology and 2) The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need. The latter is rather presumptuously titled, and professionals may find both books too basic, over-simplified, cookbook, etc. But the question was about books for beginners. Nothing has been published since that beats either of these primers. Parker’s also has beautiful illustrations. I found that I retained more as a result.

12. Lupa says on 1/16/08 at 1:16 pm:
    

    I started with The Only Astrology Book. I carried that book around and used the charts in the back to analyze everyone I knew. It was great fun. Then I discovered free charts via the internet and started reading everything online that I could find. Bob Marks (http://www.bobmarksastrologer.com/) has a lot of decent basic info available online I think.

    I’ve learned SO much from reading here over the years though. More than anywhere else.

13. nonhocapito says on 1/16/08 at 4:37 pm:
    

    Hey Elsa, and everyone else, I am very very grateful for these suggestions.
    more books for my wish list…
    Books are really my medium, it’s hard for me to approach new things without at least two or three of them.
    so thanks, ’cause I think this is the time to look into astrology with more courage. at least for me.

    p.s. Elsa, I don’t know if you ever read Milan Kundera (a huge Aries I think), anyway do you know that back when he lived in Prague in the 1970s, expelled from the university by the communists and all, he earned a living writing horoscopes for a newspaper?
    He writes about it I think in “the book of laughing and forgetting” (I should check).
    Anyway, I remember a beautiful page about the zodiac as a metaphor of life, it was great.
    When I first read it I was twenty years old, and I am pretty sure that that was the very first sparkle of curiosity and respect for astrology I felt in my life.

14. Elsa says on 1/16/08 at 5:21 pm:
    

    nonhocapito - I ordered that book, thanks.

15. kashmiri says on 1/16/08 at 6:45 pm:
    

    OH MY GOD I love Kundera more than any other author in the entire world. I read the Book of Laughter and Forgetting years before I started studying astrology and don’t remember that…

    Thank you nonhocapito, I’m pulling my old copy out and giving it a re-read!

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