Overall, very similar to the recently reprinted Vivian Robson A Student's Text-Book. Both are packed with detail. Robson is slightly better organized, but both authors are superb.
This is a very different book from what we have now. There are extensive delineations for the signs of the zodiac, especially when found on the ascendant. There are delineations of planets in signs when they are in the first house or are the chart ruler, in both cases, describing the physical appearance. There are delineations of planets in the various houses, which will also serve for the planetary rulerships of the houses. There are only sketchy notes on aspects. So far as the "pure astrology" of planets in signs, in houses, in aspect, there is almost nothing at all.
The reason is found in the second book. We are not reading the chart as a psychological abstraction. We are, instead, looking for specific traits, attempting to answer specific questions. Will we have a profession? What kind of marriage? What kind of children? Will we vanquish our enemies, or submit to them? What kind of illness? We then find the house(s) of the horoscope which rule the question, and then delineate the signs & planets we find there. These are, by the way, the sort of questions that clients would ask, if they only knew we could give answers!
Along the way the author gives helpful hints. Open enemies, for example, are shown by the 7th house. Our ability to beat them is shown by the 10th. So if the ruler of the 7th is stronger than the ruler of the 10th, we lose, the enemy wins. What does "stronger" include? If the ruler of the 10th is elevated above the ruler of the 7th, the 10th wins. (Literally: If the ruler of the 7th is in the 3rd & the ruler of the 10th is in the 11th, the ruler of the 10th wins.) A direct planet wins over a retrograde. A planet in its dignity wins over a planet not in dignity. A planet with a helpful trine to a benefic (Jupiter or Venus) wins over a planet with an opposition to pretty much anything. If the two rulers are in aspect, then the aspect becomes part of the judgment, but if not, the rules still apply. It is one house butting up against another. Just as in real life, things influence other things.
In the process we learn how to read a chart & get real meaning from it. We get ideas from one section and then apply them to other sections. As with Robson's book, there are hundreds and hundreds of useful aphorisms, except that Sepharial doesn't label them as such.
I wanted to add an index but in looking at the book, I was stumped. An index amounted to re-writing the book. Get this, get Robson, study them both, underline key passages, scribble in the margins. You will learn more in these two books than almost all others put together.
See a pdf sample here
Astrology Classics, 240 pages.
Indicates a book on our Top Ten list. If you would like to find more books like it, click on the star.
