Minderwiz
Books on predictive techniques are always of interest to students and indeed practitioners. This one attempts to provide both traditional techniques and modern techniques. The list includes Transits, Secondary Progressions, Solar Returns and Solar Arcs, all of which most students are aware of but may not have explored.
This book is unique in that it also includes a variety of techniques which the modern student is probably unaware of. Primary Directions may be something they’ve heard of but Directions through the Bounds, Firdaria, Profections and Directions by Triplicities will be things they have almost certainly never have heard of and The Seven Ages of Man will be something they identify with Shakespeare’s As You Like It, rather than Astrology (but Shakespeare is full of astrological allusions)
The range of the book is adventurous but therein lies it’s problem. Those who turn to the traditional revival do so because they’re disillusioned with the current psychological approach. They will find 75 pages of standard psychological approach to Transits, with only a small nod to the traditional use of transits as the final stage of prediction. There’s a further 23 pages on a standard psychological approach to Secondary Progressions. which, together with Solar Arcs, means that well over a third of the book will not be of much use.
The reverse applies to the student of psychological approaches who will find the above mentioned chapters contain a perfect summary of modern interpretation and the chapter on Solar Arcs augments it.
Döşer makes the standard modern claim that Secondary Progressions operate at a psychological level, influencing attitudes and feelings, more than reflecting 'real world; events. The technique was invented by Placidus. who intended it to be a rough and ready approximation of Primary Directions, that is, to predict actual external events That was some 300 years before psychology was just a twinkle in Carl Gustav Jung’s subconscious mind. So either the technique is a failure in terms of meeting the aims of it's inventer or it's now used in a way that wasn't intended and is misapplied.
For the modern student most of the rest of the book will seem irrelevant. The book is not cheap, so to lose between a third to a half of it to techniques that don’t fit your approach (whichever that might be) is a real cause to pause for thought.
Traditional techniques are mainly covered in outline with some examples. But a book that devotes virtually the same space to transits of Pluto as it does to Firdaria, calls into question the authors sense of astrological proportion.
Solar and Lunar Returns are dealt with in a more traditional way, drawing on Morin but, given the author’s interest in modern approaches, there’s no consideration of Precession Corrected Solar Returns.
Ben Dykes has provided an introduction to the book and edited it. There are a number of his footnotes throughout the chapters, but none in that huge expanse of coverage of Transits and the only footnote in the coverage of Secondary Progressions is to note a comment by the author that supports the Astrological Alphabet approach and to point out that such an approach is not found in the tradition.
There are good points. The chapter on Primary Directions gives a good introduction to the topic and mentions Martin Gansten’s work. For students of the tradition, the chapter on Solar Returns will give a good basis and the Chapters on Directions through the Bounds might whet the appetite for further study.
Whether you are interested in the traditional of the modern approach this book offers less of interest than the price warrants. It’s a shame. Döşer would have been better writing two books, one for the students of modern practice and one for the students of the tradition, or attempting a fusion of the two to maintain interest throughout the book.
This book is unique in that it also includes a variety of techniques which the modern student is probably unaware of. Primary Directions may be something they’ve heard of but Directions through the Bounds, Firdaria, Profections and Directions by Triplicities will be things they have almost certainly never have heard of and The Seven Ages of Man will be something they identify with Shakespeare’s As You Like It, rather than Astrology (but Shakespeare is full of astrological allusions)
The range of the book is adventurous but therein lies it’s problem. Those who turn to the traditional revival do so because they’re disillusioned with the current psychological approach. They will find 75 pages of standard psychological approach to Transits, with only a small nod to the traditional use of transits as the final stage of prediction. There’s a further 23 pages on a standard psychological approach to Secondary Progressions. which, together with Solar Arcs, means that well over a third of the book will not be of much use.
The reverse applies to the student of psychological approaches who will find the above mentioned chapters contain a perfect summary of modern interpretation and the chapter on Solar Arcs augments it.
Döşer makes the standard modern claim that Secondary Progressions operate at a psychological level, influencing attitudes and feelings, more than reflecting 'real world; events. The technique was invented by Placidus. who intended it to be a rough and ready approximation of Primary Directions, that is, to predict actual external events That was some 300 years before psychology was just a twinkle in Carl Gustav Jung’s subconscious mind. So either the technique is a failure in terms of meeting the aims of it's inventer or it's now used in a way that wasn't intended and is misapplied.
For the modern student most of the rest of the book will seem irrelevant. The book is not cheap, so to lose between a third to a half of it to techniques that don’t fit your approach (whichever that might be) is a real cause to pause for thought.
Traditional techniques are mainly covered in outline with some examples. But a book that devotes virtually the same space to transits of Pluto as it does to Firdaria, calls into question the authors sense of astrological proportion.
Solar and Lunar Returns are dealt with in a more traditional way, drawing on Morin but, given the author’s interest in modern approaches, there’s no consideration of Precession Corrected Solar Returns.
Ben Dykes has provided an introduction to the book and edited it. There are a number of his footnotes throughout the chapters, but none in that huge expanse of coverage of Transits and the only footnote in the coverage of Secondary Progressions is to note a comment by the author that supports the Astrological Alphabet approach and to point out that such an approach is not found in the tradition.
There are good points. The chapter on Primary Directions gives a good introduction to the topic and mentions Martin Gansten’s work. For students of the tradition, the chapter on Solar Returns will give a good basis and the Chapters on Directions through the Bounds might whet the appetite for further study.
Whether you are interested in the traditional of the modern approach this book offers less of interest than the price warrants. It’s a shame. Döşer would have been better writing two books, one for the students of modern practice and one for the students of the tradition, or attempting a fusion of the two to maintain interest throughout the book.
