Customer Reviews

Sacred Marriage Astrology the Soul's Desire for Wholeness

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Eschew obfuscation! This is the 2nd book of the author I have attempted to read, or more aptly "plow through" his overly dense prose and neologisms. Sophistication and wisdom are not evidenced by over-blown attempts to sound spiritual and wise and hip. His descriptions of spiritual and soul related matters are quite simply laughable in their unintelligibility.

Here are two examples of the tens of thousands of such instances: "Our Self-Identity is the self-reflexive structure of individual beingness within incarnational experience...On a more subtle level, this period sees the initial stabilization of Soul vibration within the Identity 'shell.' The latter period of life is oriented to support the infusion of Soul-knowing into greater amounts of the Indentity's domain. These transformations or shifts of context can only occur within incarnation, the dimensional 'home' of the Identity." pg 5 or '"The Pair's Dialogue is an endlessly morphing, ecstatic, intensely creative, uber-archetypal engine which produces the necessary raw energy and directional intent for specific components of consciousness to be made known and 'resolved' in awareness (personally and collectively). p. 11 (And yes, taking quotes out-of-context does adversely affect their meaning... but try and follow the syntax here for what it is worth.)

You know Gainsburg, I get it, but it could have been said a lot more concisely and clearly. By the way, "Uber-archetypal"? WHAT?!?! By its very definition "archetype" refers to the primal form before which no other form exists. It is primordial, the bedrock, the substratum of the psychological, spiritual, soul-based consciousness. Uber??

On another note - the grammatical mistakes and spelling errors are egregious and distracting! That combined with the over-weaning attempts to sound sophisticated and erudite spoil some perfectly wonderful and sound ideas that the author has. Does this man have a competent editor? Why should a reader have to undertake a grammatical, syntactical excavation to mine out the deeply buried gems of truly original insights and wisdom?

Now let me dispense with some of the overwrought vocabulary I have used above by way of example, and speak in the plain English that I wish the author had used. Evolutionary astrology, soul-based astrology, etc., are profound arts to access the deeper dimensions of human experience. They provide quantum leaps of understanding over traditional and psychological astrologies. The author is clearly aware of that, and has some keen observations and even original thoughts. He simply mistakes wisdom with wordiness and with creating new, spiritual-sounding words that obscure his message. Take a cue from the Dalai Lama or other great minds/spirits... the deepest wisdom is, and should be, expressed in the simplest and clearest language. There are plenty of books on soul-based astrology that do exactly that, e.g., Steven Forrest, Jodie Forrest, and Jeff Green. What is truly sad is that the author really does have something to add to, and move beyond some of these classic evolutionary astrologers, but it is lost in his dense, often unreadable prose.

By the way, I am a full-time practicing evolutionary astrologer. I consider myself to be literate and above-average intelligence and hold several academic degrees in spirituality and in psychology. So it is not that the author was simply speaking "over my head". Nor is it that I want him to "dumb down," or reduce, his thoughts to easily digestible pablum for the illiterate. There is truly a way to be intelligent AND intelligible, to be wise AND accessible, to be spiritual AND grounded.

I find Adam Gainsburg's work insightful, well-structured, and comphrehensive. The Soul-focused approach to understanding the individual through the birth chart has been extremely helpful in my own astrological counseling practice. I'd recommend this book for the novice as well as the practicing astrologer.