Customer Reviews

The Magic Thread: Astrological Chart Interpretation Using Depth Psychology

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

 

 

The Magic Thread, done from conference notes, is chocked full of
ways to "distill" the chart by looking at functions (missing/inferiors are covered), polarities, major aspect configurations,& degree significance. The lack of organisation in the material, due to the format, can be overlooked as the nuggets are worth the effort!
The info on Transpersonal (universal) planets--Uranus, Neptune, & Pluto-- in their interactions with personal planets, is invaluable, and goes well w/ Dane Rudhyar's Transpersonal work. The info on singleton planets, inferior functions, and T-Squares, yods, etc. is well-explained, although sometimes disjointed by the conference format.
Idemon's method of distillation is a quick way to see the "legend" of a chart, keeping the many layers of a chart more manageable. Follow Ariadne's Thread with this book!

I can only agree with the other reviewers. In this book Richard Idemon explains some very intresting points on horoscope delineations/interpretation. Though this book is a transcript of his seminars, it's very readable and structured. You will learn how to read an astrological chart as a logical but complicated and elusive structure: the horosocpe as a magic thread. You will learn about dominant and inferior functions, the meaning of singletons, final dispositors, the ascendant as mask and incest in the family etc... Due to the untimely death of the author in 1987 we will miss quite a lot of other insights he could have given us. If you can get this book, get it because in it you will find some insightful opinions that will broaden your astrological view.

This is a great book for intermediate to advanced astrology buffs. If you like astrologers like Stephen Forrest, Liz Greene, and Stephen Arroyo then you will like Richard Idemon.

I was disappointed with this book. I had expected that it was going to be much more of a comprehensive way of analyzing a natal chart, which is how I interpreted the publisher's description. It is not comprehensive. Rather it focuses primarily upon parts of the chart which are composed of the elements, modalities, singleton planets and stellia. And of these, the concentration is upon their absence: e.g. absence of water in the chart; absence of cardinal signs, one planet occupying an otherwise untenanted sign, house, element, etc.

With these approaches explained the remainder of the book is devoted to analyzing example charts, usually of well-known historical personages, with alot of audience-speaker give and take. Nice but not what I was expecting.

These really are transcribed lectures and not a book on astrological interpretation. It's a good book for what it is and that is why I gave it 3 stars. But it is not really described very well by the publisher's blurbs, other reviews, etc. If you are looking for a new comprehensive way to really understand a natal chart, using all of the facets of same, this is not a book that does that, in my opinion.

I have been a "professional grade" astrologer for over 40 years and this book has me stepping back and starting over with a refreshing new way to view the planets as actors in a passion play of life. This promises to add more "life" to my readings, and I really like the techniques employed therein. The chapters are basically transcriptions of workshops done 20+ years ago.

(I purchased the book for a specific chapter and had hoped to have more "this means" material to reference. I am not totally happy with what I found there, style-wise, but in going back and starting from page one, I think that I will become very, very comfortable with this "new" process of delineating and may be able to extract more from the referenced chapter than I did on that quickie run-through.)

I truly recommend this book as an experiment in your chart work, and you can evaluate its "fit" for yourself.