Astrology for Dummies [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Rae Orion (Author) "Astrology can change your life..." (more)
Key Phrases: birth chart patterns, people with this placement, harmonious aspects, North Node, South Node, Astrology For Dummies (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton, inventor of calculus, and discoverer of the universal laws of gravity and thermodynamics ,was interested in astrology? Or that, in his day, the seventeenth century astronomer, Johannes Kepler, was more famous for the uncanny accuracy of his astrological predictions than for his three laws of planetary motion? Julius Caesar, Queen Elizabeth I, Napoleon, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Carl Jung...the list of greats who followed astrology is a very long one. Like you, those distinguished women and men sensed that the stars play an important role in shaping our characters and our destinies.

Astrology For Dummies is a fun, easy intro to astrology’s mysteries. Rae Orion, author of New Woman magazine’s monthly astrology column, offers a shortcut through the jargon and tells you how to:

• Understand how the planets affect you
• Figure out your horoscope
• Interpret sun signs, moon signs, rising signs, and more
• Know what your horoscope means for romance, work, and your future
• Apply astrology to everyday decisions
• Take advantage of astrology software and Web sites

Astrology goes much deeper than the sun signs covered in your daily paper, and Astrology For Dummies is your star chart for navigating its many depths, twists, and turns. You’ll explore the significance of the Sun, Moon, planets, rising sign, and the twelve houses. And in no time you’ll:

• Cast your birth chart and look up each sign in it by sign and house
• Unearth basic patterns that characterize your chart as a whole
• Analyze the geometrical relationships linking your planets
• Interpret with voids, empty houses, and other manifestations of zero
• Recognize how current planetary placements, or transits, influence your life
• Understand retrograde planets and why they’re not always bad
• Use astrology in everyday life and use the Moon to your utmost advantage

For millennia, people have used astrology to help them unlock the mysteries of their psyches, unleash their potentials, make the right matches, and even take an occasional peek into the future. Now let Astrology For Dummies show you how to make it work for you.

From the Publisher
You probably follow your horoscope in the paper. But theres much more to astrology than the familiar sun signs. This entertaining guide shows you how to cast your birth chart, understand the way planets affect you, and discover what your horoscope means for romance, work, and the future.

Discover how to:

*Figure out your horoscope

*Interpret sun signs, moon signs, rising signs, and more

*Analyze relationships

*Apply astrology to everyday decisions

*Take advantage of astrology software and Web sites

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; illustrated edition edition (November 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764552171
• ISBN-13: 978-0764552175
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #665,341 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overall introduction to astrology, April 12, 2004

By	Tim Burness (Brighton, England) - See all my reviews

This is a first class general introduction to all of real astrology. If you have heard or suspected that there is a great deal more to it than the newspaper columns, this book is a good place to begin finding out more. Rae Orion explains the basics and complexities of the birth chart (a proper horoscope is based on the exact time, date and place of birth) in a clear, straightforward manner.

In "The Cosmic Cookbook" section, Orion takes the reader through the basics of birth chart interpretation. Sun signs, Moon signs, the positions of all the planets in the various signs and houses e.g. Mars in Aquarius, Uranus in the sixth house and so on. Real life examples are scattered throughout the book. Other sections cover basic compatibility, both Sun sign combinations and more complex relationship astrology. Towards the end there is "Ten Types Of Astrology" (including Vedic and Chinese) and some more esoteric features of the horoscope are briefly covered in "Ten Ways To Complicate A Chart" (such as midpoints and Arabic parts).

An excellent starter. "Parkers Astrology" could be a colourful complement to this volume, and I recommend Stephen Arroyo's "Chart Interpretation Handbook" as a possible next step.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Star Power!, March 30, 2000

By A Customer

Ignore the unfortunate cover art (consistent among this series). Rae Orion has written a thoroughly entertaining and extremely user-friendly guide to the fascinating world of astrology. Unlike tradition astrology tomes, which always seem filled with hopelessly complicated charts and mysteriously undecipherable symbols, this book is easy to use -- and SO fun to read! I love picking it up and opening it at random--virtually every page has some delightful nugget of insight or some wonderfully gossipy real life example. (Find out why Princess Diana and Charles's marriage was doomed from the start!) Even a little time spent browsing through this book will make a skeptic into a believer. The writing is smart and informed, lively, and somehow comforting. I highly recommend it (though I could do without the goofy cartoons, for which Rae Orion is evidently not responsible).

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fairly complete, October 15, 2004

By	kj ";)" (Centennial, CO) - See all my reviews

This book was much more complete than I ever expected. I use it as a reference on a regular basis. The information appears to be fairly accurate and fairly detailed. Lots of formulas to help the user calculate and draw their own charts.