Awhile back I put up a blog asking everyone to recommend astrology books for beginners and came across this one, Breakthrough Astrology: Transform Yourself And Your World by Joyce Levine that belongs on the list.

If you are studying, this is a top notch “cookbook” on the aspects and planets in the houses and signs. The writing is flawless. It is modern but not campy and the interpretation excellent all the way around. Most importantly the material while advanced is accessible to the beginner.

I don’t know Joyce but you can meet here here: Joyce Levine. You can also watch her here: Boston.com and witness her manner. This is someone you can learn astrology from for sure. Enjoy!

Venus is in Pisces today, the sign of it’s exaltation and I thinking on my cross trainer this morning how few people really know how to give a gift. For example any gift with a string attached is not a gift but something grotesque in my mind. It is far worse than giving nothing so I wanted to state this… my opinion and also update what happened with the 2 books I mentioned on the video, Venus, Neptune, Giving, Leonard Cohen and Stephen Arroyo

I wound up getting the the Stephen Arroyo book from regular reader here, mega Libran, Becca. Becca is a librarian and somehow this enhanced this for me. Something about getting a book bought for you by a librarian who generally loans books, don’t they? Want a book? Go to the library, damn it! But she made sure I got that book which I enjoyed very much and I intend to write about it first chance I get.

Now the the Leonard Cohen book, I no longer have. I thought I would have it forever as much as it meant to me but in fact I gave it away some months ago.

What happened was the soldier’s son sent an email from Iraq. He was asking for certain things. Things like mouthwash and dental floss and books of course. And being on the road the soldier could not do much to get something together so he asked me to do it for him and I did.

I was stressed and out of time and money at the time so I put together some of everything he asked for, surprised I had everything on the list already onhand in some form.

I then looked around for some books and decided to send him the Energy Of Slaves when I realized it was the best thing I had. So what else would I give him, hmm? I sent that thing and I don’t miss it at all.

Do you know how to give a gift?

Please excuse the tears in this. I left them in because they are Venus / Neptune of course. Stephen Arroyo’s book is linked below. So is Leonard Cohen’s Energy of Slaves. I think my 8th house is also vividly displayed here. I get pregnant… easy.

Person-To-Person Astrology: Energy Factors in Love, Sex and Compatibility by Stephen Arroyo

The Energy Of Slaves by Leonard Cohen

Blogs inspired by the person who gifted me “The Energy Of Slaves”

A list of astrology book recommendations for beginners is here. But what about great astrology books that for some reason, you never see mentioned?

My pick is Key Words for Astrology by Hajo Banzhaf and Anna Haebler

An anonymous reviewer on Amazon writes:

“This little book cuts to the astrological chase in a concise, clear, exciting style. Banzhaf is a German-language writer (in translation here) whose clipped-to-the-point descriptions of all the basic astrological positions and combinations are steeped in a deep knowledge not only of the subject at hand, but of Jungian psychology, classical mythology, numerology, and Tarot. While many authors who have written valuable books on chart analysis carry on at great lengths to discuss each element of the horoscope, Banzhaf is in every case clear, concise, illuminating, and almost best of all, he supplies us with brief, pithy, mythology or psychology-derived titles for nearly every combination here–titles such as Moon in Aries–the Amazon.”

I agree completely. I found this book 30 years into my study of astrology and still learned something new on every page. I think it is a masterwork. I was floored over the depth of what these authors could convey in just a few words and embarrassed by how little I knew, or had missed about this aspect or that.

This book belongs in every astrological library. I don’t know why no one has never heard of it or why at the moment you can but it for $1.29 but if you are studying astrology and working on the aspects, I would say check this reference first and then go read everyone else’s blah blah. Because there is not a word wasted here and there is nothing like having the answer in hand before you even look into the thing.

List other obscure undiscovered gems here…. thanks!

nonhocapito asks:

“I was wondering if you could suggest to someone that is willing to learn more about astrology one or two fundamental books one should not do without- to start off with the right foot. Old books hard to find it’s okay, I enjoy seeking out old stuff.”

If you know absolutely nothing about astrology and think you might like to learn the first thing to do is find out if you mean it. I always recommend these two books:
Continue reading Open Question: What Astrology Books Would You Recommend To Beginners?

Do you admit to being an astrologer or to having an interest in astrology? If so, how do people react and how do you react to their reaction?

I am challenged only very rarely and I don’t react at all. In fact, the last time I was challenged was in 2000. I remember this because it started me writing! I posted a link to an article on a study by British Telephone that found people did talk more when the Moon was full and a science-minded guy (codasaurus) came on the board to flame me.

I told him I could care less what he thought of astrology but added that astrologer, Dennis Elwell cared very deeply what people like him thought and perhaps he should read his book, Cosmic Loom: The New Science of Astrology.

“It is written for people like you,” I said. “He is addressing the scientific community, he likes to do this but I do not. What do you think? You think just because you see a passing-by astrologer, they are going to want to stop and argue with you? You’re out of your mind…”

But unable to comprehend the fact you cannot make someone be interested in something (arguing with skeptics) they find boring, codasaurus kept coming. And he came back and back and back until he launched my writing and the rest is history. I have been writing daily for nearly 8 years now.

If you cop to an interest in astrology, what are your experiences with skeptics?

The Letters Of Ted Hughes

Midori Snyder writes for The Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts”

“Here’s a new title due out early November that has made my “must have” list: the Letters of Ted Hughes, edited by Christopher Reid. You can read a fabulous review by John Carey in the Sunday Timesonline here. The letters reveal much about his personal, almost religious relationship to poetry — believing in an active link between poetry and the body. Poetry, Hughes felt, had the capacity to heal the body, while prose destroyed it…..”

And here’s the money quote:

“He spent “thousands of hours” studying astrology and requested Faber to publish his books only on days when “the special conditions of the earth’s electrical field” were propitious.”

Read the rest…

A reader asks:

“In the midst of it all, how relevant is our sun sign anyways?”

I know it is fashionable to do away with this or that… the basics of astrology, but I think the Sun sign is enormously important, provided you want to shine, create and be vitally alive, that is. But don’t take my word for it. Read Liz Greene’s freakishly good book, Apollo’s Chariot: The Meaning Of The Astrological Sun and you will never ask yourself this question again. I couldn’t believe this book.

It’s a total inspiration for artists or anyone who does creative work of any kind which by all rights should be each of us. It is so good and so potent I wondered throughout if an artistic person who knew no astrology at all might be able to access it and I think this is the case. It’s sort of like the “truth”. Everyone can recognize the truth because it resonates and this book has that quality.

And I never write in books or highlight them. Being a lifelong heavy user of the public library, I think this is sacrilegious. But I do bookmark bits I want to go back and read again and it did not take me long to notice I was bookmarking every page of this book. ::smirks:: Jeez, Elsa. Guess you’re going to read this one twice.

Bottom line, the Sun is your creative self. I can’t imagine discounting this. It seems more sensible to know everything you can about the Sun in your chart.

Anyone else?

Submit a question to “Ask the collective”

After all these years, when Stephen Arroyo writes a book, it’s an event. He has got to be on of the most knowledgeable and graceful astrologers we’ve got and if you don’t know of him, well I envy you because you’ve just stumbled onto one of the very best astrology writers around.

Have you got your copy? I’ve got mine, courtesy long time reader, Libra and librarian, Becca. ::smiles::

I get an extra kick out of the librarian part. Thank you, Becca. I’ll try to get a review up here but already know you can’t go wrong.

When I cracked open “Tracking The Soul With An Astrology Of Consciousness” I knew I had someone’s baby in my hands and I knew I was going to learn something new. Joe Landwehr marries astrology which I know a lot about with the Chakra system which I know little about and I was eager to be exposed his world. I thought the book would challenge me and it did.

The challenge came not because the material was inaccessible due some writing flaw but because of Joe Landwehr himself who is present on every page. And the man transmits. His ability to communicate is so extraordinary it took me several chapters to comprehend the scope of his scope and relax into reading his work. It’s the difference between listening to a guy plucking on his guitar in the corner of a coffee shop and being in the room with a full blown symphony orchestra, you have to adjust.

But as I grew used to being stimulated on multiple levels simultaneously I became more and more appreciative of the author who manages to teach while being both spiritual and sober. He is also high-minded and deep. He is humble and confident and I was thrilled when midway through this ride (half-way through the book) he included his own chart like some kind of present that explained it all and I had to laugh. Thanks, Joe!

Thanks for the superior super-varied cross-section of people whose charts you selected to analyze. Thanks for sharing your intimate experience. Thanks for being willing to reveal your fears and insecurities and let the reader see you human. Thanks for the potent bits your book is chock full of. Thanks for crediting others and most of all, thanks for the innovation to this subject I love so much…astrology.

“Tracking The Soul” is volume one in “The Astropoetic Series”, Joe Landwehr’s lifework. You can get your copy direct from him at Ancient Tower Press and if you do you are bound to be enriched in the same way a trip to the symphony feeds the soul.

Landwehr also offers a mobile workshop based on his book. If you’ve got six people interested in an intense 5-day study, he’ll come to you. For more information, email: THE MOBILE WORKSHOP