FREE detailed compendium of recommended astrology books for everyone from neophyte to seasoned pro

For absolute beginners

Start here with any or all of these! The second book, while the title has delusions of grandeur (serious students of astrology will read and purchase countless volumes over the years!), and is by no means the only astrology book anyone interested in the topic should ever need, was the first astrology book I ever purchased as a middle schooler, and it contains accurate and excellent information. It's just a bad title. The book itself is a very good place to begin! If you wish to get both, they have different styles and you will absolutely benefit from both, even though there is overlap in the material covered. I believe it’s always helpful to look at more than one perspective.

Great all-purpose reference books for the intermediate student

Next, I strongly recommend this, a personal favorite that I think you’ll come back to more than once…

And then…

Now you’re ready to get more detailed.

Major Transits: The Astrological Weather

By now you should have a good grasp of the different facets of a chart, the planets, signs, houses, aspects, elements, etc., what they mean, and how they function in tandem with each other. A next step you may wish to take is incorporating transits. This can provide tremendous insight into what’s going on in your life at the present moment, what will be likely to happen in the near future, and understanding what already occurred in the past.

Everyone experiences certain major transits in our lives. They affect each individual differently based on how they aspect the natal chart. For example, Saturn makes a hard aspect to everyone’s natal Saturn every 7-8 years.

History of and connections between myth, archetypes, and astrology

This is important to deepen your comprehension. You’ll begin to see many subtle facets and qualities you hadn't noticed before in your natal chart and others if you take some time to become familiar with mythology, where almost all of the planets’, signs’, asteroids’, etc. names come from, and to know specifically why each one represents certain qualities and archetypal figures. Some will probably resonate with you intensely and others may not. This might even be confusing at first, but don’t give up if you’re interested. Studying astrology in depth is a time consuming process but eventually all of this information will coalesce, fall into place, and make sense. For me, after studying and practicing this complex work since I was a middle schooler, astrology is a natural part of how I see and think about basically everything. It’s woven into my mind on every level. When starting out, it’s common to feel frustrated and consider giving up once you realize how much information and how many layers of meaning must be incorporated into the analysis of even one planet in one sign in one house - but this is a phase most if not all beginners go through once we come to realize the vastness of our undertaking, and if you keep going, you will move past it.

Ancient, Classical, and Traditional Astrology

Continuing from some basic history of astrology, a logical progression is to study the classic ancient texts. Classical or traditional astrology encompasses the oldest surviving works on astrology, including Middle Eastern, Medieval, Renaissance era astrology and Hellenistic astrology used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. To be relatively concise, traditional astrologers use only the luminaries, personal, and transpersonal planets in their work, because what we now know as the outer or generational planets (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) as well as dwarf planets (some are still being discovered today in the 21st century, including two I’m extremely interested in, Eris and Sedna) were not discovered until relatively recently, astrologically speaking! Thus, in traditional or classical astrology, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are assigned no rulerships and simply not taken into consideration. No one knew of their existence for many hundreds and thousands of years, so traditional astrology texts don’t mention them. Whether you yourself choose to use solely traditional astrology, solely modern astrology, or a combination of both, having a firm foundation of education in the classics is always a very good thing when studying any subject.

Personally, I take both traditional and modern rulerships and viewpoints into consideration, as I see value in both and in looking at everything in any given chart from more than one perspective. Quite often there are brilliant synchronicities between the two that provide enriched layers of meaning. To truly understand astrology and consider ourselves adept in our practice, we should have both a solid knowledge base of and profound respect for its history. Only then can we make well-informed choices.

Synastry: the art of applying astrology to interpersonal relationships

Advanced predictive techniques: progressions, mundane astrology, electional astrology, horary astrology, solar returns, solar arcs, etc.

Psychological astrology, in particular Jungian astrology (my specialty)

Specific planets, asteroids, fixed stars, and other celestial objects and points

For professionals and aspiring professionals