by Maya del Mar

There are few books about retrograde planets, and this is the best I’ve seen. Erin includes physical descriptions, patterns, and diagrams of the various retrograding planets, as well as psychological correlates on both individual and collective levels. She is well versed in mythology, and uses the stories of the gods and goddesses in illuminating fashion.

Erin’s descriptions of the planets themselves, even aside from retrogradation, are rich and enlightening. This is a book you can open to anywhere, read a few moments, and find your understanding of the planets and their celestial dances enhanced

Venus turns retrograde this month, so let us look at her. In Western mythology Venus is Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. She inspires the artist, the lover, the poet. Venus likes to appear well, to attract, and to further harmony. However, when she is retrograde Venus reaches underground into the unconscious, and into the past to connect with her past and her ancestry. This is shadow territory, and Venus when retrograde can discover her motivations, which may not be so rosy. And Venus may come back from her journey not looking so "nice."

During the midpoints of their retrogradations, planets encounter the Sun, where they can receive new marching orders, absorb them, and put them into effect when they turn direct.

For Venus, this is shadow time. They are the days when Venus conjuncts Sun, and is invisible in the sky. The Mesoamericans (and the Babylonians) used the Venus cycle for timing, particularly in matters of war. You can see this shift in the sky, as Venus sets in the evening sky, disappears for 8 days, and rises in the morning sky. According to Erin, the Mayans set armies marching in synchrony with her rise from the underworld. To them she was Venus Goddess of War. The whole cycle lasts 586 days, which was a major ritual cycle for the Mayans.

In modern day astrology we use that concept when we consider Venus the Evening Star (before it turns retrograde) as peaceful, and Venus the Morning Star as warlike. I’ve never really pinned down that correlation, but let’s check it out now. According to Erin, armies were mobilized when Venus was in her station about to turn direct.

Since Bush is planning to go to war, and Venus will turn retrograde, we can test this notion. Venus will turn direct on November 21. Just before then we have a potent Lunar Eclipse on November 19-20 at 28 Taurus, square the U.S. Moon, Pallas, and progressed Sun. Indeed, this does look like the stimulus to war.

There is further support for the Venus rising hypothesis at that Eclipse. Venus is rising then through Baghdad—and Mars is rising through Israel—where Sharon wants to use an Iraq war to move the Palestinians out of their homeland.

Venus is retrograde in the same sign, and at similar degrees, every eight years. Checking back to 1994, we find Venus turning direct in Scorpio on November 23, and on November 21 NATO air strikes hitting Serbs in Croatia. On December 5 Boris Yeltsin said, in response, that the U.S. shouldn’t be allowed to dominate the world. At least somebody said it!

This is what I mean by opening Erin’s book somewhere, and finding something provocative! This fine book by Erin Sullivan is worth adding to one's bookshelf.

Uranus brings personal loss and disillusionment. As the native learns to adapt to constant change, she will be able to face each successive moment without a burden of expectations. Intellect enriches life by placing original interpretations on episodes of disillusionment. Revolted by risk and loss, the native nevertheless needs them as stimuli to personal growth.

(I have had a life full of changes, gains and losses. Part of my name change to Maya was to switch my numerology to more stable numbers. Indeed, my life becomes increasingly more stable.)

Phases of the Moon includes a guide to the 30-year progressed sun-moon cycle, also in developmental terms.

This book greatly enriches the understanding of any natal chart, and at a very basic level. I recommend it to anyone who knows the placement of their Sun and Moon, and who has some affinity with psychological language.

July 2002

The Book of World Horoscopes by Nicholas Campion. Cinnabar Books, Bristol, England. Second edition, 1995, hardback. Paperback edition Sterling Publications (September 1988). Out of print.

Any astrology student who is interested in the world must have this book. Nicholas Campion is an astrologer, a historian, and especially a researcher, who lives in Bristol, England. He is an impeccable researcher, with a large grasp of world events. Every horoscope in this book is from published sources. Where there are alternative horoscopes, Nicholas presents those as well, and the historical reasons for them.

This is another of those treasure trove books. Just opening it to any page provides a fascinating window on history.

Nicholas is generous with his information. There are 403 national horoscopes, and another 70 or so various types of political horoscopes. There are about 20 horoscopes for the United States as a nation, and about 15 for the UK. There is also a horoscope for the landing of Columbus—documented of course, and horoscopes for the U.S. Defense Dept., NATO, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War.

Nicholas also lists traditional signs for cities, and for parts of the world. New York, for instance, is Cancer, Washington DC is Scorpio, Paris is Virgo, Rome is Leo, Moscow is Aquarius, and London and San Francisco are Gemini.

An invaluable section of the book for the astrologer comes at the end, where Nicholas lists every zodiacal degree with the occupying planets. For instance, I can look up GW’s Aries midheaven, and see that the Aries Mars for Iraq’s Republic chart conjoins it.

For anyone interested in history, this book will be much used. I have a 1988 paperback edition, and it is in tatters. However, a copy might turn up in used book shelves. A feature of the paperback edition which I appreciate is the inclusion of Chiron in the charts.

June 2002

The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara Walker. Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1983. $24.95 paperback. Available at Amazon.

This book is a treasure trove—1100 pages packed with fascinating information about myths and magic from around the world. I turn to it when I’m wanting to know more about a person, place, or proper name, and sure enough, Barbara invariably sheds light on the subject.

It took researcher Barbara Walker 25 years to write this book. It’s unbelievable that she was able to do it in such a short time, considering the quality and depth of her research. The bibliography itself is 13 pages of very small print.

For instance, in the entry on "Palladium," Barbara talks about Pallas:

"…The palladium was a symbol of a protean, androgynous deity usually called Pallas, whose name means 'maiden' or 'youth.'

"Some said Pallas was identical with the Goddess Athene. Some said Pallas was a pan-like goat god slain by Athene. Some said Pallas was a giant. Some said Pallas was a wooden image of a female warrior. Some said Pallas was a thunder stone. A majority believed Pallas was a phallic god, and his Palladium was "the scepter of Priam, in the likeness of a male sex organ."

(This certainly is similar to missile development!)

"In Greek myth, Pallas had offspring, the Pallantids, who worshipped an Amazonian fighting goddess, the enemy of the patriarchal hero Hellenic Theseus. This may account for the notion that Pallas was a female warrior, once a companion of Athene, who took her name and became Pallas Athene after accidentally killing her in a mock battle….

"Constantine moved the Palladium to Constantinople and made it a symbol of his own masculinity. It was buried under a huge red porphyry pillar topped by an image of himself in the guise of Apollo."

This myth sounds very much like today’s fantasies.

I was about to close the book, but another entry caught my eye (as happens with this book):

"Mass. Latin missa, from the Persian-Mithraic communion cake called mixd, thought to embody the divine flesh and blood of the Sole-Created Bull sacrificed by Mithra."

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May 2002

Encyclopedia of Astrology by Nicholas de Vore. Philosophical Library, New York, 1947.

If I could keep but one astrology book from my library, this is the book. It is an incredible little book, absolutely packed with precise information about the stars and planets, gleaned from the ancients as well as from twentieth century astrology. Along with the tables of degrees, it even includes selections of relevant verse, from poets such as Shakespeare, Milton, and William Blake.

I have seen many purported encyclopedias of astrology over the years, but none begins to compare with this little, unostentatious book either in pleasure of reading, or breadth of content. It is a little light blue—like the sky—hardback. It used to be a staple in secondhand shelves, but now I rarely see one, though they are available used from time to time through Amazon.com.

A couple of hours ago I picked it up to find a sample selection for this review, and I haven’t been able to set it down. And I barely touched its rich content. It is truly a treasure trove. I can’t open it without discovering something new, or some enlightenment about something that has puzzled me.

At the same time the basic information about planets, signs, and houses is amazingly informative. For instance, there is a table showing the local time of the rising of each of the signs on the first day of each month at 41 N. latitude. With only simple math, one could interpolate and calculate a chart from this simple, but relevant and inclusive, information.

We know about the Full Moon rising in the East, but how about the other phases of the Moon? Where and when in the sky do we see them? Turn to "visibility," and there we find a page on visibility of the Moon, with visibility of the other planets as well.

I read in the astronomy magazines that Uranus is sometimes visible to the naked eye. But when? Mr. DeVore says that Uranus is sometimes visible to the unaided eye on a Moonless night, when it is in a near conjunction with Mars. Oh! Now I know when to look.

I can’t say enough good things about this book. I highly recommend it to both beginners and professional astrologers. Contained within its 400 pages are many lifetimes of study.

April 2002

Planets in Transit by Robert Hand. Schiffer Publishing, 2002. Available from Amazon as a "hard to find" title.

Robert Hand is a very knowledgeable astrologer. This book is a fine handbook, very useful when you want help in interpreting a transit, which is a planet in the sky connecting with a planet in a chart.

Hand covers all of the ten major planets, plus Ascendant and Midheaven. He delineates conjunctions, sextiles, trines, squares, and oppositions. He also talks about planetary transits of houses. There is a thorough discussion of each transit, with both positive and negative tendencies.

I’ll demonstrate with some brief excerpts concerning Saturn’s transit of the U.S. chart. Saturn is now in the U.S. sixth house. It will cross the horizon into the seventh house about May 1. Hand says about Saturn in the sixth:

"This is a critical time in your development. When Saturn enters your seventh house, your efforts to attain your goals and ambitions will begin to bear definite fruit if you have handled this house properly….You have to put everything in order; consequently this is a time of heavy responsibility and hard work."

The next planet which Saturn will conjoin in the U.S. chart is Mars. This happens this coming June and July, and again in February 2003. Hand says about Saturn conjoining Mars:

"This is often a time of enormous frustration, when you feel as if you are beating your head against a wall. It can also be a time when you accomplish a great deal of hard work. Its basic meaning is 'inhibited energy,' but it can also be 'disciplined energy.'

"The energy of this transit can produce feelings of intense irritability. The least little thing sets you off—and generally you are confronted with more than little things….It is likely that you put out energy that is threatening to others. They respond by trying to stop you.

"The energy of Mars wants to assert itself in every direction, but transiting Saturn signifies limitations imposed from without. You should take on only projects that are limited in scope. If you proceed with grandiose plans, you will probably encounter the worst effects of this transit.

"The combination of Mars and Saturn can signify a kind of cold, cruel anger which you should avoid projecting. If you get angry, bring it out in the open…"

Some might say that it’s time to curb the U.S. warrior energy. Let’s lean on Saturn’s wisdom.

March 2002

The Combination of Stellar Influences by Reinhold Ebertin. Ebertin-Verlag, Wurttemberg, Germany. 1972. Also 1940, 1950, and 1960. Available in paperback from Amazon.

The pages are falling out of my book, which has been a standby for 30 years. I once noticed a copy on Jim Lewis’s bookshelf, as well-worn as my own.

Reinhold Ebertin was a fine astrologer, with a brilliant mind. He used complicated astrological techniques which I haven’t even begun to probe. He is also known for a system called Cosmobiology.

However, the beauty of this book is that it is simple, succinct, and yet full of information. The title describes it, and I use it to give me hints of possibilities of planetary combinations, particularly where the concern is with three planets combined.

Ebertin worked with midpoints, which is the place on the zodiac midway between any two given planets. The character of this midpoint is brought out by a third planet sitting on that place. This book arose as a way to describe that midpoint place itself, and then combine it with each of the planets.

It is a masterful book, amazingly accurate, while at the same time providing a diversity of possibilities for any given combination. In a chart, the principle of the planets involved together is even more important than their sign, house, or aspect. Planets are the action terms in a chart. How do they work together?

For instance, the description of GW’s combination of Mercury/Pluto says, "Principle: the art of persuasion, suggestion." We then see Psychological Correspondences, and there are given both positive and negative. They are followed by both Sociological and Biological Correspondences. At the end of the page is Probable Manifestations, again both positive and negative. On the facing page, meanings are given for the Mercury-Pluto combination with Sun, with Moon, with Venus, and so on through each of the planets.

The Combination of Stellar Influences is considered a classic, and it is a goldmine of a handbook. Purchase the paperback, or keep your eye out for a hardcover copy in a secondhand bookstore.