Customer Reviews

Astrology of the Seers: A Guide to Vedic/Hindu Astrology

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I signed up for Brendan Feeleys' introductory
course in jyotish (vedic astrolgy), this was the textbook.
Need I say more?
OK, for the person new to vedic astrology, this
is probably the best first step.
It covers all the basics; the philosophy behind it,
the planetary significators,signs,houses, aspects,lordships,planetary periods (dashas), harmonic charts, introductions to medical astrology & remedial astrology, and a bevy of sample charts.
Deep concise and fun! Worth every penny.

Astrology of the Seers is an excellent introduction to Jyotish, as it is very clearly written, with elegance, and a poetic touch. As usual Vamadeva Sastri lives up to his name, and his book shows it. this is a very "spiritualised" approach to Jyotish, and was very helpful for me to get a foundation in seeing the Grahas as "spiritual beings" or Devas...Vamadeva's scholarship and grasp of the subtle is simply amazing, the mind is illumined by his fine writing, and the heart is melted in Divine Love. all i can say is thank you, thank you, thank you!! Koti Koti pranams to you David!

In the Mother's Divine Love, and in Her Service, as ever, Your own self,

visvanathan Om Amrtesvaryai Namah!

David has done an excellent job. He has explained vedic [Hindu] astrology in a very simple way. Well I really do not have many words to express the work he has done.

Well done David.......keep it up.

Having been introduced to western astrology by Charles Carter's "The Principles of Astrology" back in 1983, it took a reading of "Astrology of the Seers" to realize just how brilliant and pedagogic the late Carter was. This introduction to Vedic Astrology suffers quite a bit from muddleheaded thinking and an imprecise, sometimes ambiguous writing style.

The writer is also in the bad habit of often taking for granted topics that are yet to be presented later on in the book. In a similar vein, I found the two first pages "explaining" the House Lords totally mystifying until - finally - the author gave a clarifying example on the third page. Such things make a book a tough read, since you have too keep unresolved problems and an ever-growing amount of text in your short term memory.

And what does the author really explain by informing the reader that "planets can appear to go retrograde, or backward in the zodiac, because of their different orbits than the Earth"? Cases of bad thinking/bad writing like these abound. I strongly suspect this same author was responsible for the astronomy chapter in the collective effort "In Search of the Cradle of Civilization" I bought to "warm up" in preparation for this book on Vedic Astrology. That text presents some simpler astronomic facts but takes for granted a general reader already knows about the peculiarities of the precession of the equinoxes!

I felt compelled to write this review with 100 pages as yet unread. But the verdict is pretty clear. Reviewers on Amazon may not have read much in the way of text books, because this is no way a five or even three star book.

Yes, it serves as an introduction to a large numbers of new concepts to a student of western astrology, and occasionally serves up some nice metaphysical food for thought, but there must be better introductions out there. The character delineations of the 12 signs read as taken directly from a teen magazine. And "mental problems" is mentioned so often one really starts to wonder...

From a short survey of the Internet, it would appear there are introductory writings by the late B.V. Raman, a towering figure in modern Vedic Astrology. His writing may exhibit the logical stringency any half-witted novice may need for his/her education in this fascinating topic.

My grading scheme: 5 stars = a work of genius; 4 = excellent; 3 = good craftsmanship, well worth the time and money; 2 = acceptable; 1 = waste of time and money

This is a book that can be read over and over with new insights to be gained each time. David Frawley teaches the principles behind Vedic Astrology which are unchanging and timeless. He quite rightly challenges the reader to come to his or her own conclusions.

This is a comprehensive guide about everything Vedic Astrology has to offer. The text is well written and gives the reader great insights in the building stones of Vedic Astrology.

Five stars all the way! I initially got this book from the local library... I must have read it atleast 10 times before I knew I needed to add it to my permanent collection. This is perhaps the BEST book to have if you want to start learning the basics on vedic astrology. This book will not confuse you with technical stuff on astrology... I have read 10-12 books by now on hindu astrology and I know how tough this subject is to grasp. This book forms a good foundation on the 'whys' rather than the 'hows'. I highly recommend it.

I am new to Vedic astrology, but this book has really captured it's essence and given me a good perspective into it. It is so cluttered with the amount of important issues that need to be covered it kind of leaves me in the dust, wondering if I missed the green light telling me when to go. Not only that I am to understand this only covers so much and that there is even more to learn, i.e. Nakshatras, ect. Apart from the devastating amount of inspiration I get from just reading this book, I feel I will read it again to fully understand what this book offers on this subject, before reading other books on this topic.

I've never seen a more brilliant presentation of Vedic Astrology than this! This is the definitive and authentic introductory book (level: beginner/intermediate) on Vedic Astrology.

This is another in the line of many shallow & superficial books
released by DF.

It sets out to be an introduction for the complex science of Jyotish and ends up being like a school textbook which at the end of the day makes you yawn more than excite.

It fails miserably in comparision to other Jyotish intro books.
The analysis of famous figures in example charts is especially hilarious as it reveals a shoddy incomplete knowledge of this vast science of which I have been a student for over 20 years.

In the end I can only say that the works of this author are not suitable for IQ above 60!