Planets in Synastry: Astrological Patterns of Relationships (The Planet Series) (Paperback)

This can be seen, for example, in his upgrading of Uranus to basically equal importance in relationships with Venus and Mars--a judgment I suspect few astrologers would concur with. It's also reflected in some odd, unexplained choices--for example, leaving out relationships between identical planets (Sun/Sun, Moon/Moon, etc.) and omitting aspects between Mercury and all the planets from Jupiter outward. Isn't communication a key part of relationships?

But most basically, his idiosyncracy is shown by the elaborate scripts he lays out with virtually each aspect he delineates. "Venus will do this, while Pluto will do that"--leaving aside the very important concept of free will, there's insufficient recognition that any single aspect is just one of a few dozen astrological influences on a relationship.

The book does cover the quincunx aspect, which is often left out by other books, though the readings of this aspect are almost always highly negative--often worse than the square, which makes little sense to me. Neville does thoroughly cover composite chart reading as well as synastric comparison.

I don't want to discourage people too much from buying this book--there is much insight into astrological symbolism here, and for that it is useful. But one could wish it in a more open-ended and less dogmatic form.

Written, one feels, with much experience in the field of both synastry and orthodox relationship counselling/analysis, the book is compassionate and offers telling insights into to the dynamics that drive human beings to try and form relationships in the first place.

It is a delightful book and, even with almost 10 years experience as a consultant astrologer, I still rate as one of the best books about synastry on teh market - bar none.

Quibbles? A few! The author fails, for some unknown reason, to include same-planet combinations, e.g. Mercury-Mercury, Sun-Sun, etc, etc.

Important planet-angle aspects, too, appear to be excluded from the text. And the text is, very occasionally, disconcertingly blunt, along the lines of, "with this tricky aspect in the composite chart, the relationship is unlikely to survive". Such blunt pronouncements about discreet placements goes against the experience of the professional astrologer, who very often does see couples whose relationship has survived, even thrived, one irritating synastric aspect notwithstanding! Perhaps later editions will tone down these often jarring statements, which tend to veer from the tone of humane understanding that the author displays elsewhere.

As you can guess, I am a big fan of this book. It outshines other texts on the same subject, partly because of its highly literate style - sadly, something that is too often missing in most astrological literature. Both the intermediate astrologer, as well as more advanced ones, should find plenty of golden nuggets to mine in this unique book. And no, I neither know nor am related to the author!!

John Little B.Sc Consultant Astrologer

Neville does try to give a best and worst case scenario, however both of these views tend to be too final and often smug in my opinion, without, for instance, showing any sensitivity to other factors that may have influence.

Some of the interpretations are down right negative with little to back them up. For example, Moon falling in the 4th house is completely unworkable for a committed relationship, as is Venus in the 6th. He obviously favours Uranus and especially 11th house placements above all else, while excluding the incredible importance of Jupiter and Saturn. He shows a definite bias towards certain houses and planets.

I now take most of what he says with a grain of salt. There is not enough consideration of subtle psychological forces at play in synastry, in my opinion, and I have come across many workable relationships that prove his insights wrong.