Customer Reviews

The Astrological Houses: The Spectrum of Individual Experience

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dane Rudhyar's book is an in depth, practical and spiritual exploration of the astrological houses. He integrates classical and modern meanings with spiritual concepts, resulting in a study that is complex and meditative. After reading this book, I had a deeper and more intuitive understanding of the houses and the placement of planets within them. For the serious astrologer, this book is a MUST HAVE. Rudyhar's prose is complex and requires a great deal of commitment from the reader. While this is a plus for the intermediate or advanced student of astrology and metaphysics, it can be a detriment to the novice. When approached from the perspective of a student, the yields are enormous. Without this type of in depth study of the houses, the natal and progressed chart lack cohesion and the interpretations lack focus and meaning. Rhudyare gives the astrology student what is missing from most books on astrology, depth and synthesis.

Beware: Rudhyar is not your basic light and easy astrologer. As one of the founders of modern psychological astrology, he doesn't attempt to make things easy or neat or cute for the reader. However, his insights are brilliant, beautifully thought out and he draws heavily from classic western and eastern philosophy, then blends them seamlessly into his discussion in helping us understand the basis for a House system in chart interpretation. Although I've had to leave the book and research quite a few of his references, the study was well worth my time. I find myself constantly returning to this book as a basis for interpreting charts. It is theoretical and philosophical, so those looking for a "how-to" should not go here for their manual. But for anyone seeking true freedom from instant cookbook astrology (as I've seen too often on the Web), this is a "must-have" tool. It gives one confidence in looking at a chart to intuitively see the progression of the human life and the energies that trigger evolution and growth.

Widely acknowledged as a pioneer of modern astrology, Dane Rudhyar is an extraordinary writer. This modern classic is a deep and profound study of the twelve houses, including interpretation guidelines for each of the planets in each house, and an exploration of all the houses together as a complete cycle of experience.

However, this book may not be for everyone. Rudhyar has an extraordinarily universal perspective in his writing, covering a panoramic range of sociological, scientific, philosophical, political and spiritual perspectives as he describes the houses. This is genuinely consciousness-raising in the best sense, but it does sometimes feel a bit of a struggle as Rudhyar goes off on related tangents about individual or collective destiny in the Western world, or a summary of related perspectives from a range of religions. Sometimes it is as though he attempts to embrace the totality of human experience in every sentence!

Stephen Arroyo has acknowledged Rudhyar as a major influence on his writings, and I tend to feel that the essence of Rudhyar is perhaps more accessible through Arroyo's excellent books. Nevertheless this is still quality stuff and well worth a read for any serious astrological student. It does need a bit of effort to get your head round it all!

Dane Rudhyar created a well thought out, comprehensive book for the myriad of issues associated with each astrological house. Too frequently books devote a half paragraph of inaccruate, shallow tag words. It would be impossible to pin down the meaning of "motherhood" by that one word. The depth and texture of each house can be as difficult to fully explain. This book, although... he is dry.... is very, very well done. If you are a serious student, this needs to be in your library. If you are a professional, this book is a wonderful reminder to stay out of simplistic one word definitions. And... if you are new to astrology and simply want to understand your chart... I recommend "astrology for yourself" and highly encourage you to avoid this book. The detail offered works best when you already have a foundation of understanding.

Good books on the houses are few and far between, so you might as well get this good one by one of the master astrologers.

This is an excellent book. The references are accurate and applicable. It is not posh or offensive. He sticks to the science, does not preach at all, and has a thorough understanding of the topic. His application of Hinduism accompanies astrology well. This is one of the better books on the market.I was able to reflect on the text and understand astrology better than I had before I purchased the book. This book is not redundant, silly, or a waste of time. Rudyar's books are still among the best on the market.

After hearing so many wonderful things about Dane Rudhyar, I read this book and found it extremely vauge and of virtually no use to me. For one thing, there was no discussion of different house systems (Placidus, Koch, Whole-House, etc.) We can hardly know what we mean, until we agree on *what* we are talking about, can we? Many astrologers do not use a House system at all, either abandoning them altogether or--given the controversies over different House systems--use only the angles (Asc/Desc plus MC/IC axes). Assuming you want to use Houses, isn't it enough to know that 1st=Aires, 2=Taurus, etc., and then study and contemplate the meaning of those signs? Nor was there a historical section discussing how Houses arose and what different astrologers in different times and cultures had to say about them. Finally, I find Rudhyar's writing vaporous in the extreme, the kind of language so vague & indefinite that it includes everything and therefore nothing at all: "God, the Universe and everything else." I frankly find his whole approach overly-systematized, viz. the hatchet job he did on Marc Edmund Jone's "Sabian Symbols," wherein he rewrote, re-interpreted and re-arranged the original degree-by-degree readings made by Jone's psychic friend in Balboa Park, San Diego early in the 20th century, in order to conform to Rudhyar's own System. I would advise anyone interested to know more about Houses to read Seymour-Smith's "New Astrologer," which includes an excellent overview and comparison of different House systems.