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Here's a plug for Ben's new book. The target audience is modern astrologers who have questions or are curious about traditional astrology. Ben answers them by presenting a basic overview of the tradition and comparing it here and there to modern astrology. As simple as this task sounds, if you've ever tried it, you quickly realize that it is more daunting than first believed. Where do you start and when do you stop?

Ben does this admirably by mostly narrowing down "traditional astrology" to medieval astrology," and selecting a few texts and authors to make points while listing the other texts a student could use if he or she wishes to go further.

He can't cover everything, but he gives a nice overview of rulership, dignities, and the use of aspects and introducing less well known techniques like aversion. The charts are easy to follow as are the instructions. He might take a mild swipe at modern astrology here and there, but he doesn't take the knife and twist it like Frawley does sometimes. I enjoy the occasional knife twisting, but that's a personal preference.

The best definition of success for a book is that it sets out what it intended to do. This book succeeds.

Traditional Astrology Books II

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Briefly:

On the Heavenly Spheres is a superb addition to the tradtional astrology bookshelf. Maria Mateus translated it into English from the Portuguese and will be credited in the next edition.

That said, one is advised to contact the AFA for an errata sheet, and if one is not available, to ever so gently request that one be made. The errors, minor as most as them are, have no place in a textbook and are
not the fault of either the translator or the authors but were rather a by product of the torturous process of re-formatting. The minor errors I have mentioned to the translator were indeed caught and brought to the attention of the publisher, prior to publication, but somehow never got fixed. This sort of thing happens more frequently than most of you would think. The last NCGR Journal, on Helios, was painstakingly proofread but somehow the wrong file got sent to the printer! The result? Errors that were caught now live on for eternity!

So an errata sheet for On the Heavenly Spheres, an otherwise exemplary text,[particularly the material of the temperments] is recommended, especially if , for example, one does not know the difference between signs of long and short ascension.

Those of you with a fondness for Henry Coley, heads up. A reformatted edition of The Key to the Whole Art of Astrology, will be unveiled to the world by the AFA sometime this year as well.

Of course, the AFA has served the astrological community well by putting out LUis and Helena's book and also James Holden's stellar translation of Mathesis by Firmicus Maternu,s which I find far more readable than the Bram translation. It's pricey, yes, but a must have for your traditional astrology library. I have not had a chance to dive too deeply into my copy yet but saw a few pre-publication excerpts and do look forward to doing so.

Ben Dykes' Intro to Traditional Astrology, as noted by another poster, is the simplest and most coherent text to buy for a friend wanting to get their feet wet in the ink of traditonal astrological techniques.

In general, if you are treating any book as a text book, yes, even Math and Scinece textbooks, it's never a bad idea to inquire from the publisher if there is an errata sheet, or need for an errata sheet, for any particular tome. These days, sadly, with publishing houses cutting back on editorial, copy editing and proofing staff, its more necessary than ever!