AUGUST 2007
THE ASTROLOGER'S BOOKSHELF

by Sue Taylor

Alive & Well With Uranus: Transits of Self Awakening, by Bil Tierney. Llewellyn Publications, 1999. Paperback, 289 pp.

The exciting, electric, magnetic, and unpredictable planet Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, is currently making its way through the watery sign of Pisces, the fish, ruled by Neptune. What happens when water and electricity, not to mention two of the heavy hitters of the zodiac, with very different styles, mix it up? This doesn’t seem a likely combination for a smooth and uneventful transit, does it?

Would you like to hear about some of the zany possibilities of a romp through the zodiac with manic Uranus and dreamy Neptune? If this sounds interesting in terms of current events in your life and in the larger world, you might want to pick up a copy of this very readable book which is chock full of nuggets of wisdom in relation to this most interesting planet.

In this book, Bil Tierney presents, in a chatty, comfortable, humorous, easy way, enormous amounts of useful information about this unusual planet and how it impacts the houses it transits and the planets it aspects in its 84-year cycle around the entire circle of the natal chart.

If you are experiencing sudden, unexpected, disorienting, activity in a certain area of your life and are baffled as to how to handle the situations presented to you, it might be helpful to look at the unique way this planet is working in your very own chart.

Some ways we can see the couple interacting in the larger world today is in the situation we are experiencing in California where our prisons (Neptune/Pisces) are undergoing a crisis (Uranus/Aquarius). The prison population has exploded and we are shipping our prisoners out of state! We saw them earlier in the sudden Katrina disaster (Uranus/Aquarius) and exposure of abject poverty and neglect of the poor victims of this tragedy (Neptune/Pisces). (Undoubtedly, there was a hefty dose of Pluto here, too, but that is another story which Bil will tell in another book!)

As I read this book, I felt as if a good friend was informing me, in an entertaining way, of really important stuff I needed to know in order to make the best use of a unique set of circumstances that would come my way only once in this lifetime.

I heartily recommend this book for all levels of expertise in astrology. There is something for everyone in its pages and for the beginner it is just a great way to get a handle on a planet that is very hard to pin down.

This book is the beginning of a trilogy that Bil has written on “The Big Three” the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. I can hardly wait to read the other two.