Astrology Made Easy - Regina Russell Book

Hello everyone!

I have decided to move on from the world of cartomancy and start learning Astrology! It is a New Year's resolution I am making (happy new year everyone! ). I am currently looking for a good beginner's book and I came upon this book here:

http://www.rrtearoom.com/astro_book.htm

I have her playing cards book (which I love<3). However, I wanted to get some opinions from any experienced astrologers out there. Is it a good book? Is it good for an absolute beginner? Thanks so much everyone!


Love and light to all

-darkkittie

Hi,

I'd never heard of her till I saw your post, so I tried to find some info in terms of reviews or even something on the content of the book. The website is very flashy LOL and clearly designed to attract custom for a wide variety of services that she offers. Apart from the advertising blurb on the link page, I couldn't find any more details.

I tried Amazon both in the US and the UK to see what reviews there were. There were none on both sites. The US site listed a 1972 copy, the UK site a 1977 copy, so I guess that either it hasn't been updated since 1977 or updated copies can only be bought through her website.

A 40 year old book presents problems for a learner. Parts of it may well be fine but other parts may give views that are no longer held. All branches of Astrology have moved on since then and indeed there's much debate in the Astrological Community over its state at the moment.

But the biggest possible problem, is hinted at by the short summary. It gives an easy way to calculate your chart. Now that claim may or may not be true but it leads me to speculate. In 1977 there were hardly any home computers (and I think that's an overstatement) and no internet. If you wanted to read your own chart you needed to calculate it - and even calculators were in their infancy. So you ended up with pen, paper, some tables and a lot of maths. Introductory text books had to start with the calculations because you can't interpret a chart unless you first calculate it.

Most people who just wanted a reading had to pay an Astrologer to do the calculations for them as well as the interpretation.

Now you can simply go to astro.com and enter your data (time of birth, place of birth and date of birth) and in seconds you have your chart and can proceed to try and interpret it.

Many Introductory books now ignore the calculations and concentrate on the signs, often with a bias towards relationships, because that is one of the main areas of interest for the beginner. It's certainly the main area of interest for those who ask questions in the horary threads

Some of them may simply need you to know what your Sun Sign is and virtually no more. If you are serious in terms of learning you want more from your introductory text.

What you need is a book that covers the following:

The planets and their natures (from which their meanings are derived)

The Signs of the Zodiac and their natures. Modern Astrology puts more weight on the signs themselves than Traditional Astrology does.

The houses of the horoscope (strictly speaking the houses of an Astrological chart because the horoscope is the Ascendant of the chart)

I've listed them in the order in which they are usually covered but it's the planets and houses that are the important elements for moving beyond the beginners stage.

A good introductory text should tell you in fairly simple terms how a chart is constructed, or at least what it represents in terms of space and time. However, doing your own chart is no longer necessary at the beginners' level. Later on you can explore that for yourself because ideally every intermediate student should learn how to construct a chart by using tables and a calculator, It does help a lot for your development as an Astrologer.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=15205

Gives a list of possible introductory texts, but it isn't exclusive.

Sadly Astrology today is diverse and this means that no book gives the perfect introduction. The dominant approach over the last 50 - 60 years has been from a psychological (mainly Jungian) starting point. However in the last ten to twenty years, there has been a lot of variations and criticisms. They may not be important at the beginners' level but you should be aware of them. Two major but contrasting innovations are worth being aware of. The first is the use of Asteroids, the second is the interest in the traditional approaches to Astrology.

These aren't necessarily incompatible The Astrologer, Demetra George started the Asteroid interest going with her book Asteroid Goddesses in the mid 90's (1995 I think) but then she discovered Hellenistic Astrology and ended up trying to synthesise Modern and Ancient approaches in Astrology For The Authentic Self in 2008.

Again such books go beyond the beginner's level but are well worth reading when you get time.

This forum is also a good place to ask questions when you are learning. One area that completes the beginners' phase is to learn something about aspects. However this isn't an easy section as Modern Astrology has invented a myriad of these and the more bodies (such as adding the asteroids to the planets) makes the area a graveyard of beginners.

My advice would be to keep the bodies to a minimum (say just planets). Keep to the four angles of the chart (Ascendant, MC, Descendant and IC) as your only other points.

Finally keep to the major aspects (Conjunction, Opposition, Square, Trine and Sextile). Leave out the minor aspects and the so called harmonics.

I still keep to planets (the classical seven) and the major aspects and find no need for the others. So you can practice effective Astrology without having to understand and integrate a whole host of bodies and relationships. Of course as you pass through intermediate into advance stages, you may want to do just that but don't try and run before you can walk.

Congratulations on venturing into new territory. I'd like to recommend a book which has become a classic: The Inner Sky by Steven Forrest. He writes beautifully (there's a bit of the poet in him) in very clear, everyday language. Very easy to follow and he covers all the basics. The book is readily available. It's one of my absolute favorite beginner's books.

A good book for beginners is Parkers' Astrology by Julia & Derek Parker.

Thank you everyone!

Thank you all for such wonderful suggestions. I have looked at the thread mentioned and the books also. I have been in and out of Barnes & Noble these last few days looking at the Astrology section. Some of the books mentioned in the thread and the Arroyo and also the Parker's book for some reason were not there. I am going to see if I can request them from the library and see which of the books is the best fit for me.

@Minderwiz: Your reply was so helpful. I really appreciate how you mentioned what topics to learn about first and then where to move on from there. I even printed it out and took it with me to Barnes and Noble to reference when looking at the books XD. I totally did not take into consideration when the Regina Russell book was written vs. now! Definitely an indicator of my newbie status LOL XD. Thank you very much. Based on what you wrote and what I have been able to gather from research and looking at the books, there is so many approaches to astrology. Just looking at a natal chart, different astrologers will look at it differently (don't get me started on the whole Placidus house system vs. Koch vs. insert all of the other house systems). To be honest, I feel a bit overwhelmed lol. However, I felt overwhelmed when I first started learning Tarot too so I refuse to give up ;D.

The good thing about Astrology is that you never stop learning so there is always time to grow and really internalize the information. Hopefully, I am not a skeleton by the time that happens LOL.


Has anyone read the following books:

*A-Z horoscope maker by Llewelyn George
* The Astrologer's handbook by Frances Sakoian
* The idiot's guide to Astrology
* Secrets from a Stargazer's notebook by Debbi Kempton Smith

Since the Regina Russell book is out of the question, I wanted to see if anyone would recommend any of the following books above for a complete beginner. Some of them I saw listed on the resources for study thread but I can't find anyone actually speaking in depth about the above titles. Unfortunately all of these books above were nowhere to be found in Barnes & Noble. I am thinking of going to my local New Age store to see their Astrology selection.


Thank you all !

Best wishes always,
-Darkkittie

darkkittie099 said:

Thank you all for such wonderful suggestions. I have looked at the thread mentioned and the books also. I have been in and out of Barnes & Noble these last few days looking at the Astrology section. Some of the books mentioned in the thread and the Arroyo and also the Parker's book for some reason were not there. I am going to see if I can request them from the library and see which of the books is the best fit for me.

Click to expand...

They may no longer be in print. But check to confirm that.

darkkittie099 said:

@Minderwiz: Your reply was so helpful. I really appreciate how you mentioned what topics to learn about first and then where to move on from there. I even printed it out and took it with me to Barnes and Noble to reference when looking at the books XD. I totally did not take into consideration when the Regina Russell book was written vs. now! Definitely an indicator of my newbie status LOL XD. Thank you very much. Based on what you wrote and what I have been able to gather from research and looking at the books, there is so many approaches to astrology. Just looking at a natal chart, different astrologers will look at it differently (don't get me started on the whole Placidus house system vs. Koch vs. insert all of the other house systems). To be honest, I feel a bit overwhelmed lol. However, I felt overwhelmed when I first started learning Tarot too so I refuse to give up ;D.

Click to expand...

Thanks. One thing that struck me when I was reading this and your original post was what approach you use to Tarot. If you take a Jungian view of the Tarot and see it as indicating the psychology of the querent (person asking the question), then you are best starting with the dominant psychological approach to Astrology.

Just be aware it isn't the only approach nor was it for the vast majority of the the history of Astrology. It may do for everything you are looking for, but it might be you eventually want to digress and look at more Event based Astrology. Start with what fits best with how you approach divination generally.

darkkittie099 said:

Has anyone read the following books:

*A-Z horoscope maker by Llewelyn George
* The Astrologer's handbook by Frances Sakoian
* The idiot's guide to Astrology
* Secrets from a Stargazer's notebook by Debbi Kempton Smith

Click to expand...

I have the Frances Sakoian and Louise Acker's books including the one you mention. It's well written and has a good cookbook approach but it's going to suffer from the same issues as the Russell book - It's dated. However it does get five stars on the Amazon book reviews and I found it useful when I first learned Astrology. So don't discount it just because it is dated, but these days it's not necessarily the best book to begin with. If you're interested in the calculation side, then it is a good book to have in parallel.

Again I'm assuming that you want to take the Jungian approach.

Minderwiz said:

They may no longer be in print. But check to confirm that.



Thanks. One thing that struck me when I was reading this and your original post was what approach you use to Tarot. If you take a Jungian view of the Tarot and see it as indicating the psychology of the querent (person asking the question), then you are best starting with the dominant psychological approach to Astrology.

Just be aware it isn't the only approach nor was it for the vast majority of the the history of Astrology. It may do for everything you are looking for, but it might be you eventually want to digress and look at more Event based Astrology. Start with what fits best with how you approach divination generally.



I have the Frances Sakoian and Louise Acker's books including the one you mention. It's well written and has a good cookbook approach but it's going to suffer from the same issues as the Russell book - It's dated. However it does get five stars on the Amazon book reviews and I found it useful when I first learned Astrology. So don't discount it just because it is dated, but these days it's not necessarily the best book to begin with. If you're interested in the calculation side, then it is a good book to have in parallel.

Again I'm assuming that you want to take the Jungian approach.

Click to expand...

The way I approach Tarot is actually both ways. I take a psychological approach and also include a lot of predictive methods in the way I read tarot. I get the feeling (I could be wrong) that this approach would not translate well with Astrology. I feel like it could become confusing if I include both approaches. However, I have read many of the posts on this forum and I am leaning more towards the predictive side of Astrology. Is it possible to include a little bit of a Jungian approach + a lot of prediction? I hope I am making sense if not I am sorry.

Funny, the Frances Sakoian book is the only book in my local library from the ones listed above. I know you stated that calculating a chart should be learned but more at the intermediate level so I don't think that is the best book for me right now. I forgot to mention in my earlier post that Barnes & Noble did have the Alan Oken book (which I have seen you mention in other posts). However, when I started reading it I noticed it was very Jungian in its approach and heavy on the calculation side. I am thinking of looking into it in the future when I advance in my studies. I really liked how it included how to calculate a chart by hand which is not included in many books due to being able to print out your chart from the internet. So like the Frances Sakoian book I don't think that is what I need right now.

I did call my local new age store and they have the Llewellyn A-Z book. Do you know anything about that book? Thanks again for the help! I truly appreciate it .

Some suggestions

I don't believe that a early studies student should worry much about which house system to use. Pick one and stick with it. Once you enter the intermediate stage it will be time to look again at which houses to use.

As an intermediate student I would take the approach of conducting several short-time studies of various subjects: Transits to natal planets, Aspects among planets, Secondary Progressions, Solar Arc directions, midpoints, prenatal and current eclipses. You may want one or two books on each topic. Keep the study of each topic to just a few weeks or a couple of months --- the time span depends upon how fast you learn and how much time you can spend pursuing these topics. Each topical area should result in you creating and studying some 10 or 20 charts.

There are topical areas you should avoid until the above are familiar and useful to you. There is no requirement to become an expert in any of these prior topics, just be at the point where you can use them and be comfortable with them.

Once these fundamental topics are assimilated into your tool box, it is appropriate to consider the various schools of thought and interest. Again, you will want to spend a short few months exploring each of the following. Once you find approaches that are useful and resonate with you, you can tag them for more exploration. The following are recommended for later study.

1) Modern astrology which uses all of the planets, a few of the major asteroids, aspects, phase relationships between the Sun and Moon, houses, derivative house, ruler ships.
2) Classic/pre-modern astrology as practiced before the 19th century. Minderwiz can provide everything you need to know on this approach. Only the visible planets are used, only the major aspects are used. The intricacies come from how rulerships and sects and debilities, etc. all work together in their own interrelated system.
3) Uranian astrology which incorporates eight hypothetical 'planets' (they don't exist, but they are highly accurate and descriptive in a chart). There are books and an Uranian Society that can guide you in this area, as I can when you are ready.
4) Midpoints as practiced by Ebertin of Germany. This approach uses graphic ephemerides, midpoints, the 90 degree wheel, and is geared to event/attitude/situational astrology. The Combination of Stellar Influences is the intial book of some four you might want when you reach this point to help you. I can also help you.
5) Lunar Returns are something everyone should look at sooner or later. From personal experience, and after writing a book on the subject, I'd recommend Transiting Moon to Natal Sun Returns as a powerful predictive system of daily events.
6) Solar Returns. There are several sub-branches to consider looking at.
6-A) The classical approach by Morin in his book #23. He wrote a book centuries ago about every approach to using astrology.
6-B) The modern approaches which vary a bit by each astrologer who uses them. There is a developing awareness to not read a Solar Return as a natal chart, but to progress the angles by the Q2 method. Don't worry much about this now.
6-C) The Sidereal approach to Solar Returns as promulgated by Irish astrologer Cyril Fagan in the mid-1990's. Today, this approach is tracked and helped along by Jim Eshelman of California who has a book and a website. I can also help you in this area.
7) Arabian Parts. This method uses interrelations between two planets (sometimes three) and an angle to identify special points in a chart that area associated with specific areas of life such as Fortune, Spirit, Death, Illness, Health, Troubles with Specific people, and many more --- you can find some 80 or more of them.
8) Asteroids. My old friend, Martha Lang Wescott, uses a set of forty or so, and specific sets to explore specialized topics. She has researched and used and taught others about these for some forty years. I choose not to offer help in this area, although I know about them and use them from time to time.

Once you know all of this, Minderwiz will be glad to let you co-moderate the list. As you and others who follow this list can see, it is a long journey to take in much (but not all) of this to become a capable astrologer. I wouldn't trade a minute of the experience for any other thing in the world. Astrology has taken me on many exciting journey into associated areas of study. It has been a life time crammed into fifty years. Dave

I pretty much agree with Dave, though I say it as a traditional astrologer. I like the Astrology for Idiots book, maybe the Astrology for Dummies a tiny bit better, but it's negligible, they're both fine. Or the Debbie Kempton Smith.

Llewellyn's - not sure. The original came out around the turn of the last century (1908 or thereabouts?), and it stayed in print for a long time, though they may have revised it. My own copy dates to 1971 and they hadn't, but that was a long time ago, too. Sakoian and Acker is pretty old, too, though not quite that old.

As long as you have a fairly decent basic book, and there are quite a few, you'll be fine. It's way too easy to get overwhelmed, but you'll first be learning things like the differences between a planet and a sign, what a house is (okay, most moderns don't tackle that one really well, but you'll get an idea, at least), what aspects are and what they mean, that kind of thing.

You need the vocabulary, and a modern book is as good a place to start as any. Once you have the vocabulary, and some sense of what's in a chart, and what it does, then you can start expanding, trying out different things, thinking critically. This stuff takes years, and some of us have been doing it for decades, and we still don't know everything there is to know, but it does get easier!

I agree with Chanah, any modern introductory book will do, and that includes idiots and dummies LOL.

Dave gives you a good guide to the transition to being an intermediate student and beyond. As he practices event oriented Astrology, he is a good guide to how you can make predictions in a modern context. Several of the techniques he uses can be found in the tradition, though he has a modern take on them. For example, Abu Ma'shar wrote the first explicit text on Solar Returns and incorporated a way of progressing them throughout the year. Dave uses Solar Returns and also progresses them throughout the year. The methods are very different (though I think Abu Ma'shar would still recognise what is being done) but both of them treat the Solar Return Chart as being inherently different from a natal chart and needing its own approach.

I'm loathe to be very prescriptive at this level, I don't want to close down options before you've had chance to explore. But I will add a comment from my own experience and I know a lot of other newbies to Astrology had similar experiences, even if they didn't take the same route as I took.

I started learning at a time when asteroids were very fringe items and Chiron wasn't discovered. Even so, trying to integrate a chart, which was map of the human psyche (or to be precise one person's psyche) I found difficult. There were still ten planets, major and minor aspects (the harmonics were still a way off) and my notes went on for pages and pages, I ended up with a confused mess and gave up.

I tried again when my daughter was born but still ended up with a bigger confused mess, because I had read more.

I tried for a third time when I was made redundant from my job and saw retirement just over the horizon. The confused mess returned. Then I threw out the minor aspects and began to relegate the outers to a peripheral role (if you'll pardon the pun). I discovered the use of rulerships, which I knew about in general but didn't really know how to use. It was actually Oken's book that brought me to them, about the same time I read Kevin Burk and began to find a way of making sense of the confused mess.

I've travelled a lot since then but If I was going to give you some advice it would be Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) at the beginning. You don't have to reject the outers but don't let them dominate your readings. You don't have to reject Jung (Stephen Arroyo is one of my favourite authors) you just have to recognise that you can make sense of a chart simply using the major aspects and the classical seven. You can then add in the outers if you feel the need. Rulers do help (I advise the traditional ones, even if you use the outers) because they give you a clearer idea of the role of a planet in your chart.

When you decide you understand what you are doing and want to do more, then is the time to move from computer generated charts to attempt to draw up your own. You don't have to do that for every one and once you understand the process, all you need do is the odd refresher every once in a while. But it enables you to understand how a chart is put together and thus enables you to recognise charts that contain errors. For example one common error I had was to enter afternoon times as morning times (or vice versa) thus with an 11 pm birth time I ended up with an 11 am chart. Learning how to put the chart together taught me just by looking to recognise the error (the Sun should be near the IC in an 11 pm chart; whereas it is in the tenth or eleventh house in an 11 am chart).

Then you just follow your interests, wherever they lie. You've learned enough to know what you want to explore first. You might move on, you might stay in a particular area but you know how to make your choice.