Cover Image: Astrology in the Workplace

Astrology in the Workplace

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Member Reviews

This is an entertaining and simple to read book. I had a great time reading the astrological descriptions of different characteristics in the workplace. I don't necessarily found them to be true in my personal experience but it was still a fun read.

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I think that this book could be useful for those who have traditional jobs and want to learn more about themselves and their co-workers/bosses to have a better working environment. Some of the job recommendations for a few of the signs I didn't think really fit based on myself and people I know and the careers that most interest them and knowing their signs. I think the moon and ascendent signs should also have been taken into consideration as well but overall I do think this book could be useful for some.

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This book provides information on how to better understand and relate to the people that we spend our workdays with. I found it to be an interesting and useful read.

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The workplace. A place where we may well spend more time with people who are not necessarily our friends, but with whom we more spend time than we do friends or family. And we still have to get on with these people.
One start in doing this is by recognising that the deepest motivations of another may be radically different from our own. They may also have very different ways of viewing the world.
One way of recognising how we differ or resemble other people might be from using astrology.
Penny Thornton starts by admitting there is still virtually nothing that 'proves' astrology has any scientific basis. But in view of the fact that astrology has been practised for milennia, then, argues Thornton, there still has to be so something to it? The proof surely has to be in the pudding.....
The kind of astrology Thornton proposes here is that based on the traditional twelve signs of the tropical zodiac, involving mainly ( but not always), sun-sign astrology. Personally, I do not believe that the average sun-sign column truly is the best way to go (do we really need another way to label others, in the way we heap massive generalisations on nationalities, race, gender or whatever? A generalisation to my mind is just another rusted mirror, reflecting nothing, except perhaps among more rabid net forums, or as a party piece.
To be fair to Thornton, she does recognise that angles and other dominant planets other than the Sun may be what gives a sign a force within a given individual's way of being. She does not dwell unduly on the Midheaven, which is connected to to our place in the professional world, though arguably a sun sign does often indicate what many profess to aspire to.
The reader can decide for themselves if the delineations of each employer and employee sign do in fact, help the average Joe perceive that other people, truly can and do operate from totally different modus operandi. In this book, Thornton considers not just the Sign, but also its element (corresponding to Jung's famous psychological types) and the modalities (whether or not that Sign is cardinal, fixed or mutable). I was not sure about the star rating tables she gave on compatibility tables she includes after each Sign analysis, which are surely massive over-simplifications, but maybe simple is as simple does for those who have never actually set up a chart.
Thornton also professes not to just write platitudes for each Sign, though I am not convinced that most astrological writers do aim just to flatter. In the workplace most people are looking for a little more power or autonomy and this is what usually stirs the worm in the apple - our darker sides - to manifest. That and the fear of losing a job. I am still not convinced though that any one sign should seek revenge by ratting to the taxman or benefits office or that another did, but maybe now it is the reader's turn to decide this. The Sign descriptions seem a little simplistic, but then perhaps I had been hoping for the depth of knowledge and interpretation that came with one or two of Thornton's earlier publications, such as the one she wrote on synastry. And this book clearly seems to be for the layperson. Pisces for example is mostly the gentle dreamer though on my experience, there is often a pretty hard side to Pisces too, especially in the cutthroat world of work. Similarly, Aquarius is more often described as the brilliant nerd with idiosyncrasies that may need accommodating by a tolerant employer but in my experience again, this Sign is usually socially adept enough to thrive in most corporate settings. I would also like to have seen a little more written about the effect of slow-moving planets on a generation. Will the millennials born with the Uranus/Neptune conjunction in Capricorn in close aspect to personal planets or angles live up to the staid and sober caricature of the banker given in these pages, for example?
Nevertheless, this book is all written in an entertaining and accessible way. It does make for a lively and enjoyable read, if taken in both parts seriously as well as with a pinch of salt.

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This an entertaining and interesting book. It's well written, interesting and an easy read.
You will surely have fun reading the astrological description of your boss and your colleagues.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

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