Customer Reviews

How to Be a Great Astrologer: The Planetary Aspects Explained

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The title almost made me bypass this book. That would have been unfortunate, for this is the best reference on the meaning of planetary aspects and lunar nodes that I have found. Chart interpretation involving these features bears about as much relationship to simple "sun sign" astrology, as basic arithmetic bears to calculus.

Aspects are the angular relationships between planets in a birth chart. Too many references barely give you more information on them than simply stating if they are "favorable" or "unfavorable." Braha gives you extremely detailed and perceptive explanations of all the significant aspects (conjunctions, squares, trines, oppositions, sextiles) for all possible combinations of the inner planets. The outer planets are not covered because their effects occur over such long spans of time as to be generational and tending to impact society as a whole rather than individuals. He writes authoritatively in a Vedic style that comes across as pure, essential, and archetypical.

The lunar nodes are the points where the orbit of the moon intersects the plane of the ecliptic in a chart. They are probably the single most important feature in a Western birth chart. The north node indicates a person's future, while the south reveals the past (previous incarnations.) Or put another way, the south is what we have already mastered in previous lives, while the north indicates what we are here to achieve. Interpretation for both sign and house location are given

My only truly accurate standard for evaluating this book's interpretations was to compare it against my own chart and life. The results were uncannily accurate and went far beyond vague general suggestions. Having studied astrology professionally I am mightily impressed by Mr. Braha's work. He is truly the sort of great astrologer that he dedicates this book to. Perhaps this is because he practices both eastern and western traditions, and because he comes from a culture where the profession of astrologer is regarded as a very serious profession indeed.

Oh yes, the full-page illustrations of Gustav Dore' are far more than just filler, for they fit the mood of the text exactly. There are several that I would like to tract down for framing.

If you are a serious student of astrology this book will become your most valuable reference for fleshing out your interpretation of a chart.

Though I am french speaking, I am using this book every times a make an interpretation. I consider it give the best clue for understanding the influence of planetary aspect on the characteristic of human being. Robert GADA-BARENCO GENEVA SWITZERLAND

Braha's book is a treasured one in my collection. He gives a very informative description of the major aspects (conjunction, sextile, trine, square, and opposition). His book also has a small section on the moon's nodes. According to his bio, Braha's background is in Vedic astrology, and you get a flavor of that in this book for Western astrologers.

Braha's book is a treasured one in my collection. He gives a very informative description of the major aspects (conjunction, sextile, trine, square, and opposition). His book also has a small section on the moon's nodes. According to his bio, Braha's background is in Hindu astrology, and you get a flavor of that in this book for Western astrologers.

The author covers aspects to the 7 major planets and the 3 outers. The associations of each planet individually with all others (except the nodes) are generically explained. Although these explanations are very helpful by themselves, the meanings of these aspects with reference to the houses i.e. in what houses the aspect occurs, are missing from this work. Also the aspects with the moon's nodes are not explained. As for the positions of the nodes, the author tries to combine house positions with sign positions in the explanations. For example, the author's explanation for north node in Gemini is meant to refer generally to north node in the third house. The reason the author suggests for this combination is that the sign positions in Hindu astrology are much less significant. Although I am not qualified to judge whether it is correct or not, I feel the author can explain more about the sign-house difference for the nodes. Generally it is a vey helpful and useful reference for aspects especially because it injects some of the vedic explanations into western types of aspect, although much vigorous explanations for aspects in houses are left to be desired.

This book contains very powerful descriptions of the various planetary aspects. I've gotten more positive feedback from those who've read these than from any other book. Really well done.

Powerful, accurate information conveyed with great heart. What more can you ask for? I agree with the others. If you're shopping a book on the aspects you can't go wrong with this one. Enjoy!

Aspects are a very important part of astrology; most books only have a couple of paragraphs on each aspect that can be in a chart. This book has 2 pages on each aspect so it covers many possibilities. James Braha is a Vedic astrologer but has added aspect information on Uranus, Neptune and Pluto which aren't used in Vedic. It is very good and accurate. I highly recommend it.