How to Be an Astrologer

Really fascinating. I have always been captivated by the cosmos and absolutely love learning anything and everything about the power they hold. Love the information in this book, love the simplistic layout and teeny picture icons as well. It is a lot to take in but I don't mind having to reread it!

An approachable volume for aspiring astrologers. I'm not personally a follower of astrology, but I appreciated the author's dispassionate, neutral tone in describing the ins and outs of the field. So often astrology books are filled with flowery language and subjective conclusions, but this helped me understand the reasons behind various aspects of astrology. I fully expect this to be stolen from our public library almost immediately (which only happens to the *good* astrology books).

This is a very thorough book on a challenging subject. I was pleasantly surprised how much sophisticated information Ms Stellas was able to cram into a single book ("Part of Fortune"?) and how well she manages to explain it. Not only does she set out the basic components of the chart but she deals in-depth with interpretation. A brief aside, Ms Stellas believes in reincarnation and some of her interpretations are aimed at reading karma from former lives, this does not detract from the general content and if you do not share this world view those parts can be easily assimilated into other forms. It is aimed at beginners but it will also give old hands a run for their money.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to access a proof copy of this book.

How to Be an Astrologer is filled to the brim with information. It's actually slightly overwhelming, although I'd say that would be due to how comprehensive the information is. Visuals would have been a great help, as this is text heavy. Despite these small qualms, I LOVE THIS BOOK. If you're serious about astrology, even if you're a beginner, this is an awesome book to pick up and supplement your bookshelf with. Read it, study, and study some more. The energies of the universe are complex and beautiful.

I'll break this down by chapter for organizational purposes and ease of reading.

CHAPTER 1 - COSMIC INGREDIENTS
- How to identify your sun, moon, and ascendant (or "rising") sign.
- The Planets and "lights" and what they signify, their ties to Greek mythology, benefic and malefic attributes, as well as masculine and feminine attributes.
- The twelve Zodiacal Signs and their accompanying elements, the ruling planets, seasonal representation, the triplicities, and the quadruplicities.
- The twelve Houses, following the Aries wheel of the year, and grouping houses by elements.
- The personal planets, and what they all specifically represent in your chart, as well as planetary powers. The author gives tips on how to organize this information in your chart.

CHAPTER 2 - HOW YOUR PLANETS WORK TOGETHER
- There is math involved, and the importance of correctly measuring in degrees is pressed upon. Honestly, without a visual this went over my head. However, the author goes into depth, like space-deep, explaining how this all works.
- The Major Aspects: the Conjunction, Trine, Square, Opposition, Sextile, and Quincunx or Inconjunct.
- The Uncommon Aspects: the Quintile, Semisquare, Semisextile.
- Aspect Formations: the T-square, Grand Trine, Grand Cross, Mystic Rectangle, and Yod.

CHAPTER 3 - YOUR PERSONAL PLANETS AND THEIR DAILY MOTIONS
- Tracking planetary motions, like the sun and moon, or any other personal planets in your chart.
- The Moon Phases: New Moon, Full Moon, Waning Moon, Dark of the Moon, Void-of-Course Moon (v/c), as well as the moon's motion through the houses.
- Transits and Retrogrades, and how to track them through planets such as Mercury, Venus, and Mars.

CHAPTER 4 - THE BIG PICTURE
- Life's big questions which are divined through the transpersonal planets, Jupiter and Saturn, and the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. This is a huge, detailed section.
- Pluto's Generational Mark and how it affects each Zodiac, as well as the dynamics of familial relationships between parents and children.

CHAPTER 5 - PREDICTIONS
- How to analyze and intuit predictions from a chart. Death is often a popular topic. It's also recommended to draw up different types of progressions and compare them with each other and the Natal chart.
- Progressing the Chart with secondary progressions and solar arc progressions.
- Solar Arc Direction, which is another method of progression.
- The Progressed Moon tells you how emotionally prepared you are to take action when an event happens. Again, there is math.
- The Saturn Wheel, similar to the Progressed Moon, only this indicates the structure of life.
- Planets Changing Directions, Solar Returns, Lunar Returns, Eclipses. How to determine what they mean, and techniques to organize the information in your chart.

CHAPTER 6 - ASSESSING COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN CHARTS
- The synastry between individuals, which is probably the most popular interest that most people have involving astrology.
- The Elements in Chart Comparisons, Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Aspects Between Charts, the Conjunction, the Ascendant and Descendant.
- Drawing up charts for different types of relationships, and compositing them: friendship, parents and children, coworkers and bosses, marriage.

CHAPTER 7 - THE HIDDEN CHART
- Understanding Karma and your Purpose in Life.
- The Moon's Nodes and Planetary Retrogrades through the Zodiacs.
- Aspects of Karmic Indicators, and Karmic Assistance.
- Past Lives and Lives to Come.
- Soul Mates, and astrological twins.

CHAPTER 8 - REFINING YOUR ASTROLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
- Critical Degrees, Fixed Stars, Arabic Parts, Decanates, House Systems, Cusps of a Sign, and additional branches of astrology.
- The Asteroids: Ceres, Pallas Athena, Vesta, Juno, and Chiron.
- Medical Astrology, the synastry in medical astrology, and information regarding the houses that represent health.
- Mundane Astrology which focuses on national events.
- Feng Shui Astrology basically personalizes Feng Shui with each Zodiac.

CHAPTER 9 - ANALYSIS OF A CHART
- Elements, Planets in Critical Degrees, Aspects, Energy Dynamics, Nodes, and other points of interest.
- How to determine if you are reading your chart accurately.

CHAPTER 10 - HOW TO THINK LIKE AN ASTROLOGER
- Planning with astrology in mind, by looking up your chart regularly and interweaving it in your daily decision making, especially the more important a decision is. Useful for social engagements, travel, education, business dealings, major life decisions, and health.
- Methods for drawing up your chart to pinpoint auspicious times.

Other information included in the back:
- Step-by-Step Analysis of a Natal Chart that walks you through drawing up a chart.
- Blank chart that you can either write directly on, or scan and print copies of.
- 8 Example charts that are used for demonstration purposes.
- Resources that include spiritual therapists, a Bibliography, and index.

Constance Stellas takes the complicated concept of the study of astrology and makes it digestable for those new to the craft. How to Be an Astrologer covers the basics you see in a lot of intro to astrology books: signs, transits and houses, but also looks at how to make predictions through charts, compatibility and a number of more obscure uses for astrology. Although this book was approachable I still found in a challenge to read and there was so much information. This would definitely be a book to refer back to and study overtime. Astrology is a craft that often takes years to master and having that mindset when reading this book would help to not get discouraged if you don't understand everything right away.
Overall a great tool for learning about astrology!