Sidereal Books?

[Guest guest]

At 05:36 AM 4/12/04 -0700, Vincent Wallace wrote:

 

>Perhaps one - or hopefully more- of the more experienced siderealists

>hanging out can suggest a couple good books for Tara so she can learn to

>cast and read her own chart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

There are two different systems that come under 'Sidereal Astrology.' That

is, two schools of astrology use the sidereal zodiac: Fagan's Western

system and India's Jyotish/Vedic system. It's easy to find books on

Jyotish, the best one being Hart deFouw's LIGHT ON LIFE.

 

But it's much more difficult to find books on the western system, and these

were written many years ago. At the time of their deaths, the western

sidereal fathers such as Cyril Fagan, Donald Bradley, Carl Stahl, etc. were

in the process of developing and modifying their understanding of the

sidereal zodiac. (They were firmly settled on the mathematics, however, of

Aldebaran and Antares being in 15 degrees of Taurus/Scorpio.) They wrote a

few small manuals, and often these didn't agree with each other depending

on who wrote them. Fagan wrote a couple of books that were mainly

collections of his articles.

 

So the upshot is that the sidereal fathers died before natal astrology had

any real foundation. What was written on the signs tended to not be much

more accurate than what's available on the Tropical signs. (This is my

opinion.) Western sidereal astrology became 'frozen' after the founding

fathers died. So we've inherited an incomplete system that was in the

process of change. *Some* of the natal zodiac sign material is O.K. and

some is awful (in my opinion).

 

Instead of emphasizing natal astrology, the western system has concentrated

on mundane astrology and cyclic charts as well as solar and lunar returns.

The latest and probably the best book on return charts is James Eshleman's

INTERPRETING SOLAR RETURNS, and even this book is old, published in 1979.

 

Rupert Gleadow wrote a couple of good books: THE ORIGIN OF THE ZODIAC,

which traces the development of the zodiac through history, and YOUR

CHARACTER IN THE ZODIAC, which traces how meanings came to be attached to

zodiac signs through history. Both of these books have a solid scholarly

foundation. Gleadow and Fagan didn't always agree with each other.

 

Check amazon.com and astroamerica.com for these books. I don't know if

they're still in print.

 

The western sidereal system has remained undeveloped and incomplete, but

it's treated like a complete system by some of its followers. Right now the

best collection of articles is in the sidereal.zip file which can be

downloaded from the files section of this site. This file contains many

articles that were once published in sidereal magazines.

 

Sincerely,

Therese