Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of astrology

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

 

 

Mr. De Vore has made a science of astrology with his work. I ran across this book at a garage sale a few years ago and I was just beginning to delve into astrology at that time. Though it is out of print, I cannot urge those who are interested in astrology enough to find it somehow. Written before the 1950's and well before the term new-age was a term, this book provides facts about astrology and terms. You will not find anything biased or generalized in this book. I could not have found a better book for any price, much less a dime.

If you are a beginner then this book is for you, no bias and straight forward. If you are a professional (like me), sometimes you forget things - well here you can look them up. This book was published quite a while ago - it stands the test of time and should be in EVERY astrologer's library

a useful book for anybody interested in astrology, although it should be read carefully (see below). A lot of things are included in it are of purely historical interest and are not commonly discussed in modern astrological manuals and handbooks, which makes it a book of interest for those willing to find out more about various obsolete things, as well as explanation of terminology that is otherwise rarely explained in other books.
My problem with the book, though, is that it contains a lot of typographical mistakes and other incorrect information, incl. the misspelling "Potlemy" for "Ptolemy" (I saw at least one instance), and the really hair-raising "Phoetus" (sic twice) which is said to be one of the two satellites of Mars (the other being Deimos, which is correct). The Old Norse god "Wodan" was really "Odinn" (or "Óđinn"), "Freya" is normally known as "Freyja"; the Latin forms "Jove", "Saturni", "Veneris" and "Martis" on the same page should be changed into respective nominatives, whereas the names "Sun's day", "Moon's day" etc. that are called "Saxon" are just confusing. "Capricornus" emphatically does not mean "goat with horns" (p. 65). A number of explanations are so brief that they are essentially useless for a person who is not already familiar with them. These include "Pantheon, Gods of the", which for some reason only discusses Semitic gods, "Pavanna" (ibid.), which does not even tell the reader from which culture this god is taken, or "SOL-om-on" on p. 406, etc. A number of tables cover years that are already history, and, even though nowadays much accurate information can be found online, if these tables could be updated in the next edition of the book (which, I hope, will appear some day), it would make the book more attractive. I would have given this book more stars, if not for all the incorrection information.