Customer Reviews

Soul Signs: An Elemental Guide to Your Spiritual Destiny

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

 

 

People are always looking for new ways to categorize themselves and others, whether it be by Jungian archetypes or astrology. The author of Soul Signs has created her own via the guidance of her spirit Grey Eagle and her own 20-odd years of observation of the human psyche. Although you may not take her word as gospel, she has developed an interesting system of "typing" people. There are 13 spiritual "types" in her system.

I myself am having a difficult time deciding which of the 13 "soul types" I am, so the book is perhaps not as helpful to me as it could have been. Also controversial is the idea that there is a very small minority of souls who are truly evil, not just disturbed. The author opines that there are people who born "dark souls" who are here just to revel in the hurt they cause others and for which there is no redemption.

If you can accurately choose your own type from the descriptions, then you'll be able to choose your most compatible soul mates from several charts included with the book. Good luck.

Altea's grasp of the elements as a key to personality is quite well developed and easy to read. Her interpretations of the kinds of personality in each element are also quite well illustrated. Many people interested in metaphysics, the paranormal, or astrology will not agree with Altea's grouping of all difficult or harmful people as being "sulfur" in element, but it is a convenient concept that will, perhaps, not bother many. This is an essential book for anyone who sees the importance of elements or wants to study elementary (or complex) astrology or magic. Very well written and highly entertaining. Also, quite fun for discussing among friends or coworkers.

I found this book to be REALLY interesting - and quite insightful.

Basically, Rosemary helps the reader determine their own "soul sign", as well as the "soul signs" of others, through a categorization based on the elements (i.e. fire, water, air, etc...).

This info. can then be used to help the reader understand why they get along so well with some people and not others, and the best "type" of person for you - in terms of friendships and relationships.

After getting this book, I went ahead and figured out the "soul signs" of those close to me - and found the info. to be on target. The insights I gained helped me to understand why I am able to get along so well with some of these people, and yet feel like pulling my hair out with others.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in astrology-related ideas.

Let me first say that I am not a skeptic. I believe in ghosts and spirits, and I'm an avid follower of both Eastern and Western astrology. But the contents of this book were something that I just couldn't swallow.

In this book, Rosemary Altea claims that there are 13 kinds of soul signs within 5 energy groups. The four normal groups are fire, water, earth, and air. The final soul sign is sulphur, and according to her, it is a sign of pure evil. She also claims that you have ALWAYS been the same kind of soul you are now (even in all of your past lives), and that you will FOREVER REMAIN that kind of soul (in this life and all your future lives).

I just do not believe that existence is that simple. I think that the universe is constantly changing and evolving, that nothing stays the same forever. I also don't believe that anything can be "pure good" or "pure evil". Everything is relative.

Unfortunately, I have a hunch that Ms. Altea is just pandering to people's instinctual desire for life to be simple. Everything in this book is over-simplified, placative fluff. If you're interested in real, honest, accurate soul searching, don't look to this book for answers.

Well, what can I say?!?!?! After reading this book 1 time, you will never be able to doubt or deny any of its spiritual concepts. Rosemary does a wonderful job of explaining the question we've all asked since birth "Where do I come from?" Even if you don't understand the events that led to your earthly existence; you're here!!! And boy does Rosemary make it easy to understand why it is we do the things we do. With this book, I've been able to identify all of my close friends and relatives' soul sources. After understanding and grasping the concept that each of us are placed in this physical realm with our own personlaity traits and emotions from individual energy sources, my relationships with others have done 360 degree turn-arounds! Try it for yourself. The minute your eyes stroll across the simply -written pages explaining personal, underlying make-up; Rosemary's words will capture all of your attention leaving you yearning for more information on (who else).....you!

This book is very interesting, I was always curious in what I read on the back of the book, wondering how accurate the book actually could be. And I must say, even though at first I didn't know what I could be since she leaves the discovery to your own knowledge, I found this book to be endlessly fascinating. I did though skim through most of her words about other things, such as her own sign and how it affected her and the others around her, because that was not why I bought the book I just wanted to know who I was.
Yet if you skim through most of her talking and get to the main point of the book of finding out about all the personalities of the soul signs, it gets to be a great reading. It took me awhile to figure myself out, but if you just read the signs more carefully, and just think about yourself a little more, you'll realize one of the signs just hitting you.
I don't know if it was true for everyone else, but I found my zodical element, which is water, also being in my soul sign. I am a Seeker soul- wise, but I am also in the zodiac a Cancer. I wonder if others found themselves finding their soul sign in the same element as their zodiac sign like I did. I found that interesting. Yet I know I am the Seeker, and even the first time I read through the book I knew I found myself being linked to water still just like in my zodiac sign.

I think this is a cool form of thought, to think our soul has an actual sign alone is interesting. I say I believe it, since the Seeker soul sounds so much like myself. I would say this is a good addition to the library of astrology lovers such as I. If you love astrology, I recommend this as well.

I had high expectations of this book, hoping it would be at the minimum insightful to my current views and perspectives. I have to say, this book proves nothing more then stereotpyical concepts in a seemingly unfounded light.

My biggest gripe with the book is not even so much the content, but the way its written is exceedingly difficult to comprehend. Each chapter seems redundant, and at the least self explanitory. The author makes very general points and very little meaning to their comprehension. She states in an earlier chapter how we should have 'figured out what sign we are by now', but I clearly havent. The beginning on how the author sees the garden and comes to these realizations are interesting, but so vague I had trouble placing faith in how these can be compared to modern astrology. The author makes several cliffhangers to end chapters and writes very little information on the "Dark Soul" group which had attracted me to the book in the first place.

The author uses alot of emotion and little sensibility in interpreting the various groups, and after a few chapters, it all sounds the same, redundant and boring. The scenarios the author uses to help understand the soul groups and how we figure them out seems shallow and incomplete, leaving too much to the imagination and too little to guide the reader to self actualization. Even the clarity used to describe certian personality types can be drawn from astrology with greater precision. I found myself wondering why the author avoids certain subjects and does not analyze the more important ones in greater detail.

Overall, I think the book lacks evolution and is flawed in more ways then one. I give this book two stars because I did make me think, at least enough to concider the deep and ancient ways of the Native American spiritualists whom I have sincere respect for. It is a relatively easy read however, if you are not bored by stagnation and dont try to think too much.

At your moment of birth, your body was imprinted with astrological information. Perhaps the Sun was in Scorpio, the Moon in Pisces, Mercury in Sagittarius, Mars in Capricorn, Leo Rising. All of these positions influence who you are in this life.

But your body dies and is left behind when your immortal soul proceeds to its next destination. The fact that you are a Scorpio in this life doesn't mean that your eternal soul is Scorpio.

We are mixtures. You may be a male Scorpio in this life, with a female soul of a different sign. Your soul is the true, eternal you.

Your date of birth doesn't reveal what your soul's sign is. By understanding yourself you can recognize your soul sign in this book.

Where did the author get her information? She is a medium. Her information came from a spirit who communicates with her.

I realize that's a lot to swallow. I once had a session with a medium, and my impression was that the person was not what he claimed to be. I believe he was a performer, not a medium.

As for Rosemary Altea, I'm impressed with this book and I hope she is what she claims to be.

There are similarities between her soul signs and the astrological signs. The four elements are the same - fire, earth, air and water. Instead of the three "types" (cardinal, fixed, mutable) this book has three divisions called Introvert (subjective), Central (balanced), and Extravert (objective).

If the three divisions can be correlated to each other, then it appears to me that the subjective soul signs would be the cardinal astrology signs, because the quality of being subjective is most similar to the meaning of the cardinal signs. The balanced soul signs seem most certainly to be the mutables, adjusting to left or right as a mutable sign would. The objective soul signs would be the fixed signs.

We would then have the following correlations between astrology signs and soul signs.

Aries is the Retrospective Soul. Taurus is the Warrior Soul. Gemini is the Prophet. Cancer is the Seeker. Leo is the Bright Star (an obvious choice anyway). Virgo is the Visionary. Libra is the Traveler. Scorpio is the Old Soul (another obvious choice). Sagittarius is the Dreaming Soul. Capricorn is the Hunter. Aquarius is the Newborn. Pisces is the Peacemaker (another slam dunk).

It is commonly thought that Aquarius is a water sign because it is the water bearer. The Newborn is one of the air signs in this book. But Aquarius is in fact an air sign.

Our 12 signs are peculiar to this Earth. They are related to the soul signs but are not identical. Perhaps the 12 signs would manifest themselves somewhat differently elsewhere in the universe.

To use this book you must first understand the four elements and determine which your soul belongs to. In short, if you have a passionate, self centered, blazing energy, you are fire. If you are a planner, a strategizer, a do-er, a controller, a builder, you are earth. If you are more passive and calm, you are air. If you have an instinct to please all, and to evaluate, you are water.

Rosemary's descriptions are much more complete than the little phrases I have just offered you. I was able to spot my own element by first ruling out two of them, then deciding definitely on one final choice by reading more in her book.

Realize that words are just tools. They can spark ideas. Don't get hung up on the words. Don't sit back and place all the responsibility on the author to have every word apply to you. Get the big picture and figure out who you and your friends are in this system.

If your response is to say that all of these descriptions are ambiguous and can be applied to anyone, the truth is that you have a lazy mind and you are incapable of getting the picture. The fault isn't with Rosemary's words, her tools. The problem is that you are too lazy or stubborn or thick to use them.

There is one other sign and element in this book. It is the Dark Soul of the element Sulphur. There is no astrological correlation. This is the soul sign of Hitler and other evil people. They have no love in them. Their only joys are to corrupt, frighten and hurt others.

That may be true. But I would refer you to the book Personality Types by Riso and Hudson. In their system, not only are there 9 different personality types, but there are also 9 levels of each type, ranging from the healthiest to the sickest.

I would suggest the possibility that Hitler did belong to one of the 12 soul types but was a very depraved example of the type. This book tells us that the evil ones all have a type to themselves. Hitler may have been an example of a fire soul gone as bad as fire souls can possibly go. Perhaps a Riso-Hudson approach could split each of the 12 soul signs into a few levels, best to worst, eliminating the need to set aside a toilet bowl to dump the evil ones in, and calling this toilet bowl the Dark Soul of the element Sulphur. Then again, maybe the author is correct.

I would love to read more about the soul signs discussed in this breakthrough book.

Your soul sign relates to your true nature and your purpose. By discovering your soul sign, you will begin to make sense of what motivates you and why you behave the way you do. You may also gain deep insights into the characters of those around you and what drives them. And, with the help of this book, you will be able to recognize and understand your true soul mate."

Having never read a book by this author I wasn't sure what to expect. The title suggests that I would find a method of classifying personality and a way of understanding my own inner drives and those of others.

While the basic ideas that Rosemary puts forward in "Soul Signs"are sound, the explanations are sometimes easily confused with astrological signs. On page 12 the author states:

`My mother is an Aquarius, a water sign as well, ...'

Aquarius is an air sign. Although this error has nothing to do with Soul Signs, it doesn't help to clarify this system either... especially when you take into consideration the similarities that already become confusing with zodiac vs soul signs. Perhaps the editor should have picked this error up.

Rosemary Altea's Soul Signs are divided into Fire, Earth, Air, Water and Sulphur signs - making it clear how easily it is to get confused with the astrological elements of Fire, Earth, Air and Water. In `Soul Signs' I feel that the Sulphur element was underdeveloped in comparison to the rest of the signs and could have been expanded on.

Even if this book only helps a handful of people to be more tolerant and accepting of themselves (and others) then I would consider this book to be a useful addition to the many good books available on gaining a better understanding and acceptance of the varieties of people around us.

This is a great book to help you understand not only yourself, but help you to gain a better appreciation of your loved ones.

Soul Signs was an inspiring book. I enjoy reading works from this author, and her writing inspires me every time I enjoy one of her books. The stories are heartwarming and her experiences are related in a way that everyone can understand. The best thing is that it is a 'hopeful' book.