#004 | Learn Astrology Book Recommendations

In episode #004 of the podcast I talk about the astrology books I continually refer to from the start of my astrological journey, when writing horoscopes for my website and ELLE magazine, and when consulting with clients up to the current day.

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Welcome back to another episode of The Stellium Astrology Podcast. I’m Stefanie James, the founder of SelliumAstrology.com, and today I am talking about my book recommendations for anybody who wants to learn astrology.

Because there are such a huge amount of astrology books – such a huge, vast array of information, and it can be a little bit overwhelming trying to whittle it down and understand “where’s the best place to start?” So, I thought I would just record a little episode just to point you towards my book recommendations and where I got started.

So I went for a reading – my first ever astrology reading with a lady called Mary English in Bath. She actually has a podcast on the app store as well, and I think it’s Learn astrology with Mary and she is a wonderful, wonderful lady who not only got me through what I found was a very confusing and challenging time of my life, but she also encouraged me to start learning astrology.

And for that, I am eternally grateful because it was one of the best decisions of my life. Mary has a series of astrology books, and they’re kind of like how-to books. So one of them is How to cheer up a Capricorn, (which I own) How to believe in a Sagittarius. And I can’t remember the other names, but she’s done all of the signs of the Zodiac and they do a kind of Sun–Moon–Ascendant kind of combination, and really talk you through basic stuff.

So those books are great if you’re starting out and they’re also really great as gifts as well, ’cause it’s a very personal gift. When I was learning with Mary, she recommended that I get the Astrology for Dummies book by Ray Orion and I did start out with that book. It was a great book. I remember took it on holiday with me.

I went to went on a holiday with my mum and dad to Palma Nova, and it was a hilarious holiday and I had a great big bag full of books with me. So I was just reading all these astrology books while I was there. And that was a particularly good one actually of all the books that I had in my bag. And there are a variety of books that you’ll see on bookshelves and if you Google books on Amazon, but these are my pointers that I think are particularly good.

So starting with Astrology for Dummies, I did have a copy of that, but I’ve lent it to somebody and I’ve never got it back. So that’s fine by me. I’m quite happy to re-buy the books that never, that aren’t returned to me. I kind of see that as a kind of cosmic lending service.

So I will be re-buying that book because they have got a new edition of that book out now. And so moving on when I actually wanted to take my astrology studies to the next level, I joined the London School of Astrology and one of the books that was recommended, well, actually the first course textbook that I was given was The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook. And that’s a book by Sue Tompkins, which is a fantastic resource. It starts off with I think the signs and the planets, and it goes into the houses and the planetary aspects. And it also talks about big planetary configurations like T-squares and trines and cardinal crosses and fixed crosses.

And if this, again, if this all sounds a bit gobbldygooky if you get the book and work through it particularly if you, you’re using it in conjunction with this podcast, you’ll find it very useful and it’s a great it’s it fits in your bag.

You can take it with you wherever you go. And I just always return to that book. I find it fantastic. So I highly highly recommend that book by Sue Tompkins and Sue Tompkins used to be the principal of the London School of Astrology.

The next book I’m going to recommend you is by the current principal of the London School of Astrology, Frank C Clifford. Now his book is called get to the heart of the chart or Getting to the Heart of your Chart, it’s called. I think he refers to it mostly as “Heart” because it’s quite a tongue twister, quite a mouthful. And that is rather than being a kind of cookbook style tool like Sue’s – Sue’s is more, I don’t know if it’s a cookbook really. It’s kind of more of a, it’s just a resource or sort of a wealth of information as it’s all put together.

So it’s quite good, but Frank’s is more of a workbook and his book is it’s got, it goes through the, you know, the elements and the modes and moves up through the signs and the houses and things like that. Then it goes into like chart, famous charts and examples and things like that. And then it’s got a little bit at the back where you can actually calculate your well, you, you calculate your chart information and then you’re able to have a look, write it down in the little grids, figure out your stuff so that you’re actually really starting to get into the the depths of your chart. And if you don’t know how to create your chart, I did previously record an episode on that. If you just go back, in fact, I’ve recorded a few episodes now, so what we need to do is just go back to the beginning and just start listening.

They’re they’re all very interesting and all very helpful. So Frank’s book is very good because you might think that your, you know, a Pisces with a Gemini moon, but actually if you go through his examples, and worked through his book, you’ll start to find out where you’ve got more of a planetary weight, where you want more weighted towards perhaps being, having more of a Scorpio essence to your chart.

So you may not even realize, but you’ve actually got quite a, quite a Scorpionic essence or perhaps a, you know, a bit more Aries than you realized. And it’ll talk about leading planets and things like that, that not that it never gets discussed, but it’s something that usually takes a bit of time to get into so that those are both really good books I would recommend to start with.

Sue’s also written another great book called Aspects in Astrology, which is like the little aspect section in the Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook, but it’s much more it’s been elaborated upon. So it’s a bit more broad and encompasses a bit more information.

And, and Frank has written a number of books actually as well. When you Google Frank C Clifford, you’ll find loads of books come up with Frank’s name on it, and all of them are fantastic books. They’re all kind of, some of them are sort of bite-sized resources. So it’s quite nice to be able to say, I want to learn more about the Midheaven I’m going to get Frank’s Midheaven book. And that’s just one book dedicated to the Midheaven.

So, more books I think are really interesting. Now this is a real favourite of mine. This is something that I used a lot when I was writing my horoscopes for ELLE is Keywords in Astrology, and that’s by Banzhaf and Haebler and Banzhaf is spelled B A N Z H A F, Haebler is spelled H A E B L E R.

And this book is definitely a cookbook. It’s lots of little bits of information. So you can break your chart down into the tiny little pieces and then put it back together. So the cookbook is quite good because it gives you lots of bits of information and breaks it down. But the art is really learning how to put it all back together. Again, that’s the challenge, but it’s great. Key Words in Astrology is great because if you’re learning, it’s a really great way to really understand the individual aspects. ‘Cause that’s how we start! We break it down and then we put it back together and that’s, that’s just how we learn the subject.

Some other great, another great cookbook is Planets in Aspect by Rob hand, another book, all about aspects. And then there’s Planets in Transit by Rob Hand as well. These are all, these are great books.

I don’t know if you’d need the [Planets in] Transits immediately. It’s something you can get a little bit later down the line, but all of these books, I mean, it wouldn’t hurt you to buy them all and just have them because if you’re really serious about your astrology studies, then you’re going to be hooked on all this information. It’s really fantastic recommendations I’m giving you.

What else? What other books? Oh yes. Another one for down the line. Howard Sasportas, The Twelve Houses. That’s a good book. I have got my copy somewhere very nearby, but it’s falling to pieces. I’ve had it so long and I’ve used it so much. It’s absolutely falling to pieces.

And one more book recommendation that I think you’ll enjoy is Planetary Cycles by Astrid Fallon. And this book is a small one. This book is definitely a visual book.

It’s not a visual ephemeris. And I’ll talk about ephemerides/ephemeris in a minute. This is a book that goes into… I’ve got it in front of me. I’m looking at it right now. It shows you the planetary combinations and where they meet at which points in the past and future.

And they create a little pattern. So when Saturn and Pluto meet, they tend to make a triangular pattern. So it looks like they meet up approximately every 120 degrees in the chart. And when Jupiter and Uranus meet up, they make a, gosh! Now I’ve picked a shape… I can’t tell, I think it’s a hexagon! And so it’s quite interesting to see the, the patterns that are formed, and let’s have a quick look… Where’s Mercury? You can see where Mercury, Mercury goes retrograde about three to four times a year.

And again makes a small triangle usually in the wheel, in the Zodiac wheel. And this book just shows you exactly where Mercury goes retrograde and where it’s been retrograde in a kind of visual way. And it makes it really interesting to take the information in, in a different, kind of, from a different perspective or a different dimension. It’s much easier to understand.

Venus for those of you who aren’t aware over the space of eight years when she turns retrograde. She does so it, it forms a shape of a five pointed star. So over the space of eight years, she actually creates a pentagram in the sky.

I don’t know if you heard that? That was Archer. Hello, Archer! Having A little stretch? Archer’s just stretching there, letting me know he’s here and he wants to, he wants me to pay him attention.

So yes, this book by Astrid Fallon is fantastic. I love it. I used to see it at conferences and I used to think, “Oh, that’s an interesting book”. And it was only when I bought it. I realized quite how valuable, I refer to that book a lot as well.

Now the other two books I’m going to recommend to you are not books that you can read, like not word books, the number books, the American Ephemeris for 1950 to 2050 at midnight by Mickelson and Pottenger is a very, quite thick book, which is full of numbers.

And when you open it, it’s incredibly daunting and it looks like you’re staring into the matrix. Don’t be put off by that! That’s a very, very useful tool in astrology and when you learn how to read an ephemeris, it will open. It’s just, it’s just, instead of having to calculate things, you can just literally have the ephemeris next to you.

And you can just open it up on a date and you’ll know where every planet was, what it was doing, and you can watch how the planets, you know, move backwards and forwards over the months, just by tracing the numbers in a book.

Now, people who have dyscalculia or just generally have anxiety around numbers—like myself, actually, I had terrible anxiety around numbers. I was had a really bad time at school with a maths teacher, couple of math teachers actually. And put the fear of God into me when it comes to doing anything with numbers. It, it, these books can be daunting, but let me tell you as somebody who is terrified of numbers and has got a bit of a dyscalculia thing going on: I got over it, astrology isn’t incredibly mathematical because you can buy the software to do all the calculations for you.

So you don’t have to be a number-bod. You just have to be able to look at the symbols and interpret the symbols and learn about that. So don’t be put off by any of the mathematical side of it, because it’s really not incredibly mathematical.

Now, the next ephemeris I’m going to recommend to you is Raphael’s Astronomical Ephemeris, I’ve got the 2019 one in my hand. So this was last year and you can get these from Amazon for about, oh, this one says it’s £8.99, and this is a really, really worthwhile book having, I buy them every single year. And I just keep them in my bag and take them with me wherever I go and I highlight all of the planetary aspects, which are going to be hitting my chart at some point over the year, any of the Full Moons that are interesting, I’ll look at when there might be an interesting aspect in the month coming up.

And I used to use this when I was writing my ELLE horoscopes as well, because I used to like to just have a quick glance and see what was going on over the month and then get, get writing about it basically. So I’d highly recommend Raphael’s Ephemeris as well. And I will, in some upcoming shows talk about, and perhaps even create YouTube videos, talk about how to use an ephemeris, both the American Ephemeris and Raphael’s Ephemeris.

So I hope you found it useful. If you have enjoyed this episode, please rate, subscribe, subscribe, rate, and review it so that other people can find me. And if you’re interested in having your chart looked at in these episodes, then please join my mailing list at https://www.stelliumastrology.com and fill out the form. And I will see if I can squeeze you into a show and don’t forget to come and say hello to me on social media. And if you are enjoying this show, just screenshot it, tag me at @stelliumastro on Instagram and hashtag #stelliumastrology. Thanks very much. I hope you enjoyed the book recommendations. Please let me know if you do.

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