Comment on ‘The Astrologers’ Book Lists Part I’
(The Astrological Journal, Sept / Oct 2010)
– Written by Philip Graves, 11th October, 2010
The latest issue of the Astrological Association of Great Britain’s long-running bimonthly publication ‘The Astrological Journal’ lists the favourite astrology books of a variety of astrologers. I thought it might be interesting to perform a little collective analysis, which can then be updated when the projected Parts II-V are issued.
Essentially these seems to have been a more far-reaching and thoroughly presented enquiry than the one presented in the pages of the A. A. Journal around 1996-7 (exact issue would need to be checked, but I remember it well from my first fleeting encounter with A.A. membership at that time), and already some of the same books that emerged as front-runners there are gathering early steam here.
So far we have the following nominations with the total number of votes cast for each. I had to disqualify votes for ‘Anything by’ particular authors since the result would be an indeterminately thin spreading of votes among several different books.
Addey, John ‘Astrology Reborn’ 1
Addey, John ‘Harmonic Anthology’ 1
Addey, John ‘Harmonics in Astrology’ 2
Appleby, Derek ‘Horary Astrology’ 1
Arroyo, Stephen ‘Astrology, Karma and Transformation’ 6
Arroyo, Stephen ‘Astrology, Psychology and the Four Elements’ 3
Arroyo, Stephen ‘Chart Interpretation Handbook’ 1
Arroyo, Stephen ‘Relationships and Life Cycles’ 1
Bach, Eleanor ‘A Graphic Ephemeris of Sensitive Degrees, Planet Stations and Eclipses from 1900 to 2000’
Baigent, Michael, Campion, Nicholas and Harvey, Charles ‘Mundane Astrology’ 3
Bailey, Alice A. ‘Esoteric Astrology’ 4
Barbault, André ‘Les Astres et l’Histoire’ 0.5
Barbault, André ‘Astrologie Mondiale’ 0.5
Barton, Tamsyn ‘Ancient Astrology’ 1
Bills, Rex ‘The Rulership Book’ 2
Bovee, Blain ‘The Sabian Symbols: an Astrological Analysis’ 1
Brady, Bernadette ‘Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars’ 1
Brady, Bernadette ‘Predictive Astrology: the Eagle and the Lark’ 2
Brau, Jean Louis; Weaver, Helen and Edmands, Allan ‘The Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology’ 1
Brauen, Martin ‘The Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism’ 1
Campion, Nicholas ‘The Book of World Horoscopes’ 3
Carey, George Washington and Perry, Inez Eudora ‘The Zodiac and the Salts of Salvation’ 1
Carter, Charles ‘The Astrological Aspects’ 1
Carter, Charles ‘Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology’ 1
Carter, Charles ‘Essays on the Foundations of Astrology’ 1
Carter, Charles ‘The Principles of Astrology’ 1
Collin, Rodney ‘The Theory of Celestial Influence’ 3
Cornelius, Geoffrey ‘The Moment of Astrology’ 2
Cornu, Philip ‘Tibetan Astrology’ 1
Crane, Pamela ‘The Draconic Chart’ 1
Darlison, Bill ‘The Gospel and the Zodiac’ 1
Davis, Martin ‘Astrolocality Astrology’ 1
Davison, Ron ‘Astrology’ 1
Davison, Ron ‘The Technique of Prediction’ 1
Dobyns, Zipporah ‘Evolution through the Zodiac’ 1
Ebertin, Reinhold ‘The Combination of Stellar Influences’ 5
Elwell, Dennis ‘Cosmic Loom: the New Science of Astrology’ 2
Fernandez, Maurice ‘Neptune, the 12th House and Pisces’ 1
Filbey, John and Filbey, Peter ‘Astronomy for Astrologers’ 1
Forrest, Jodie ‘The Ascendant’ 1
Gammon, Margaret ‘Esoteric Astrology’ 1
George, Demetra ‘Asteroid Goddesses’ 3
Gillett, Roy ‘Astrology and Compassion: the Convenient Truth’ 1
Goldsmith, Martin ‘Moon Phases’
Goldstein-Jacbson, Ivy ‘Simplified Horary Astrology’ 1
Goodman, Linda ‘Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs’ 2
Green, Jeff ‘Pluto, Volume 1: the Evolutionary Journey of the Soul’ 3
Green, Jeff ‘Pluto, Volume II: the Soul’s Evolution through Relationships’ 1
Greene, Liz ‘The Astrology of Fate’ 8
Grenne, Liz ‘Relating: an Astrological Guide to Living with Others’ 2
Greene, Liz ‘Saturn: a New Look at an Old Devil’ 6
Greene, Liz and Sasportas, Howard ‘Dynamics of the Unconscious’ 1
Greene, Liz and Sasportas, Howard ‘The Inner Planets’ 1
Greene, Liz and Sasportas, Howard ‘The Luminaries’ 1
Gunzberg, Darrelyn ‘Life After Grief: an Astrological Guide to Dealing with Loss’ 1
Hall, Judy ‘Patterns of the Past’ 1
Hamaker-Zondag, Karen ‘Astro-Psychology’ 1
Hamblin, David ‘Harmonic Charts’ 1
Hand, Robert ‘Horoscope Symbols’ 1
Hand, Robert ‘Planets in Transit’ 6.5
Hickey, Isabel ‘Astrology, a Cosmic Science’ 1
Hillman, James ‘Re-Visioning Psychology’ 1
Holden, James ‘A History of Horoscopic Astrology’ 1
Hopewell, Joyce and Llewellyn, Richard ‘The Cosmic Egg Timer’ 1
Houlding, Deborah ‘The Houses: Temples of the Sky’ 1
Huber, Bruno ‘Man and His World’ / (retitled) ‘The Astrological Houses’ 1
Huber, Bruno and Louise ‘Aspect Pattern Astrology’ 1
Huber, Bruno and Louise ‘Astrology and the Spiritual Path’ 1
Huber, Bruno and Louise ‘Life Clock: Age Progression in the Horoscope’ 2
Idemon, Richard ‘The Magic Thread’
Idemon, Richard ‘Through the Looking Glass’ 1
Jay, Delphine ‘Interpreting Lilith’ 1
Jones, Marc Edmund ‘Essentials of Astrological Analysis’ 1
Jung, C. G. ‘Memories, Dreams and Reflections’ 2
Kepler, Johannes ‘Tertius Interveniens’ 1
Klein, Mavis ‘Teach Yourself the Psychology and Astrology of Human Relationships’ 1
Lehman, J. Lee ‘Essential Dignities’ 1
Leinbach, Esther ‘Degrees of the Zodiac’ 1
Leo, Alan ‘The Art of Synthesis’ 1
Leo, Alan ‘Astrology for All’ 1
Lewi, Grant ‘Astrology for the Millions’ 3
Lewi, Grant ‘Heaven Knows What’ 1
Lilly, William ‘Christian Astrology’ 2
MacGregor, Rob and Trisha ‘The Lotus and the Stars: the Way of Astro-Yoga’ 1
Marks, Tracy ‘The Art of Chart Synthesis’ 1
Marks, Tracy ‘The Astrology of Self-Discovery’ 1
Marks, Tracy ‘Planetary Aspects’ 1
Mayo, Jeff ‘The Planets and Human Behaviour’ 1
Mayo, Jeff ‘Teach Yourself Astrology’ 1
McBroom, Don ‘Midpoints’ 1
McKenna, Jed ‘Spiritual Warfare’ 1
Meyer, Michael ‘A Handbook for the Humanistic Astrologer’ 1
Michelsen, Neil F. ‘American Ephemeris for the 20th Century’ 1
Michelsen, Neil F. ‘Tables of Planetary Phenomena’ 1
Moore, Marcia and Douglas, Mark ‘Astrology, the Divine Science’ 2
Moore, Thomas ‘The Planets Within’ 1
Morrish, Furze ‘Outline of Astro Psychology’ 1
Oken, Alan ‘As Above, So Below’ 2
Oken, Alan ‘The Horoscope, the Road and Its Travellers’ 1
Pagan, Isabelle ‘From Pioneer to Poet’ 2
Parker, Derek and Julia ‘The Compleat Astrologer’ 1
Pelletier, Robert ‘Planets in Aspect’ 1
[Pelletier, Robert] ‘Planets in Houses’ 0.5**
Pessin, Dietrich ‘Lunar Shadows’ 1
Phillipson, Garry ‘Astrology in the Year Zero’ 1
Ptolemy ‘Tetrabiblos’ 1
Reinhart, Melanie ‘Chiron and the Healing Journey’ 2
Rinpoche, Tenzin Wangyal ‘Healing with Form, Energy and Light’ 1
Rodden, Lois ‘Astro Data’ (set of five books) 1
Rudhyar, Dane ‘An Astrological Mandala’ 1
Rudhyar, Dane ‘Astrological Insights into the Spiritual Life’ 1
Rudhyar, Dane ‘The Astrology of Personality’ 3
Rudhyar, Dane ‘The Astrology of Transformation’ 2
Rudhyar, Dane ‘The Dial of Houses’ [sic] 1*
Rudhyar, Dane ‘The Lunation Cycle’ 2
Rudhyar, Dane ‘New Mansions for New Men’ 1
Rudhyar, Dane ‘The Pulse of Life’ 5
Ruperti, Alexander ‘Cycles of Becoming’ 2
Sasportas, Howard ‘The Gods of Change: Pain, Crisis and the Transits of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto’ 7
Sasportas, Howard ‘The Twelve Houses’ 5
Schulman, Martin ‘The Karma of the Now’ 1
Schulman, Martin ‘Karmic Relationships’ 1
Schwartz, Jacob ‘Asteroid Name Encyclopedia’ 1
Shaneman, Jhampa and Ange, Jan V. ‘Buddhist Astrology’ 1
Shea, Mary Fortier ‘Planets in Solar Returns’ 1
Stathis, Georgia Anna ‘Business Astrology 101’ 1
Sucher, Willi ‘The Living Universe and the New Millennium’ 1
Sullivan, Erin ‘The Astrology of Family Dynamics’ 1
Sullivan, Erin ‘The Astrology of Midlife and Aging’ 1
Sullivan, Erin ‘Retrograde Planets: Traversing the Inner Landscape’ 1
Sullivan, Erin ‘Saturn in Transit’ 1
Sullivan, Erin ‘Where in the World: Astro*Carto*Graphy and Relocation’ 1
Szanto, Gregory ‘Astrotherapy’ 1
Szanto, Gregory ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Earth’ 1
Szanto, Gregory ‘Perfect Timing’ 1
Tarnas, Richard ‘Cosmos and Psyche’ 2
Tarnas, Richard ‘The Passion of the Western Mind’ 1
Tarnas, Richard ‘Prometheus the Awakener’ 1
Tate, David ‘The Shift: a Time of Change’ 1
Tierney, Bil ‘Dynamics of Aspect Analysis’ 3
Tompkins, Sue ‘Aspects in Astrology’ 5
Tompkins, Sue ‘The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook’ 1
Tyl, Noel ‘Solar Arcs’ 1
Tyl, Noel ‘Synthesis and Counselling in Astrology’ 1
Valentine, Christine ‘Images of the Psyche’ 1
Williamsen, Jim ‘Guide to the Harmonics’ 1
Wright, Paul ‘The Literary Zodiac’ 1
* To the best of my knowledge, no such work by Rudhyar exists. It is however the title of a single chapter in his ‘The Astrology of Personality’
** This book was incorrectly attributed to Robert Hand by Michael Harding, who split one of his votes between it and Hand’s book ‘Planets in Transit’.
Comment: collectively, the astrologers polled by the A. A. whose results appear so far show a distinct leaning towards works of the 1970s and 1980s and towards works of psychological astrology, though they also exhibit plenty of individual variation in their choices.
Ancient astrology scored only two direct hits with Tamsyn Barton’s book getting one and Ptolemy the other, but is also broadly represented by Deb Houlding’s book ‘Houses: the Temples of the Sky’ and James Holden’s ‘A History of Horoscopic Astrology’ getting one vote each.
Medieval astrology has no direct representation at all so far.
Renaissance astrology is represented slimly so far, in two votes for William Lilly and one for Johannes Kepler (the latter vote incidentally having been cast by Bruce Scofield, who is the publisher of Ken Negus’s recent full translation of Tertius Interveniens).
Early modern astrology (broadly considered as anything from 1750 to 1929) is represented only by two votes for Alan Leo and two votes for Isabelle Pagan so far.
The 1930s and 1940s are represented by nine votes for early Dane Rudhyar works, four votes for Charles Carter works, six votes for Grant Lewi works, and one for a work by George Carey and Inez Perry, so far.
The 1950s and 1960s are represented by one vote for Furze Morrish, one for Marc Edmund Jones, one for Rodney Collin, one for Ron Davison, one for a book by Jeff Mayo that was published before the end of the 1960s, one for Ivy M. Goldstein-Jacobson, half a vote only for André Barbault, four votes for Alice Bailey, and five for Reinhold Ebertin so far.
The 1990s and 2000s get a sprinkling of representation but it is slim compared to the tally for the 1970s and 1980s. What can this tell us?
Books on non-western astrological traditions such as Tibetan astrology obtained just a few votes, mostly thanks to my good friend Laura Boomer-Trent.
A few books of tangential relevance to astrology were also included.
It will be interesting to see how this picture develops in subsequent parts. It might also be interesting to conduct equivalent studies within other astrological organisations such as the Astrological Lodge and form collective profiles of the literary influences of representative astrologers from within each organisation.
All comments welcome.
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