Learning astrology is a long drawn out process and it requires starting with the basics.
Books I found useful at the start:
Margaret Hone 1953 Modern Textbook of Astrology, out of print but some available second hand.
Sakoian & Acker – The Astrologers Handbook. Planets in signs and houses and in aspect.
Robert Hand – Transits.
Bil Tierney: Dynamics of Aspect Analysis – excellent on major configurations, yods, unaspected planets.
Martin Schulman: Karmic Astrology – the Moon’s Nodes.
Melanie Rhinehart: Chiron
Tracy Marks: Your Secret Self: Illuminating the Mysteries of the Twelfth House
NEXT TIER:
Stephen Arroyo: Astrology, Psychology and the Four Elements (Fire, Earth, Air, Water etc)
Astrology, Karma and Transformation. He also has Chart Interpretation.
Liz Greene: Saturn especially but any of hers are excellent
Howard Sasportas ditto
RELATIONSHIPS:
Robert Hand – Planets in Composite
Sakoian & Acker – Synastry
HARMONICS: David Hamblin
MIDPOINTS: Rheinhold Ebertin: Stellar Influences
POLITICAL/COUNTRY ASTROLOGY:
Michael Harding, Michael Baigent:Working with Astrology – the psychology of midpoints, harmonics and ACG mapping techniques.
Nick Campion: World Horoscopes (countries birth dates).
Wessex Astrologer has most of Liz Greene’s and is a good starting point in the UK.
PS. Some of these are older books since I started astrology in the late 1970s. I am sure other astrologers will have their own favourites so do add comments.
There are also useful astrology websites with the basics:
Café Astrology, Dark Pixie, Bob Marks come to mind. Plus Astrology King for Fixed Stars.
Astrodienst (www.astro.com) set up by Swiss Alois Treindl who met and brought on board Liz Greene, Rob Hand and other renowned astrologers.
For magazines, recommend The Mountain Astrologer, The Astrological Journal.
Donna Cunningham’s An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness, helpful when starting out.
Isobel Hickey – Astrology: A Cosmic Science for a spiritual approach
Traditional and Horary Astrology – William Lilly, Olivia Barclay, Charles Carter and Deborah Houlding
For out of print books, you can check on Internet archive website, which is a virtual non profit library with millions of free texts. https://archive.org
www.addall.com/ is a good aggregator of used book sites.
I did start with some of the above, in particular Margaret Hone, Robert Hand, Sakoian and Acker, Bil Tierney, but then I took a different direction towards Traditional and Horary Astrology > William Lilly, Olivia Barclay, Charles Carter and Deborah Houlding mainly.
Thank you Marjorie, this brought it all back to me – you must have started studying astrology about the same time as I did – I enrolled with the Faculty of Astrological Studies, after considering the Mayo School of Astrology and I think the Huber School. I have most of the original books you mention and of course, Margaret Hone, but not the Chiron book.
I attended a FAS seminar where Robert Hand was speaking, at the lunch break I happened to be standing next to him in the queue in the cafe. When we arrived at the till, he turned to me to help with the coins in his hand, he asked why the 50p piece was larger than the £1 coin, when it was only worth half that amount. I did manage to reply without turning into a gibbering idiot, as for me, it was akin to hero worship, having all his books which helped me enormously with my interpretations.
Stephen Arroyo was another author whose books I still have, and would recommend, as mentioned by Marjorie.
Having Uranus in Gemini in the first house, I have never stopped learning, and find long cycles (Pluto second return from Henry VIII/Queen Eliazabeth I to our Queen Elizabeth II, the end of our GB cycle) I am still in awe that time on our planet Earth was fixed in this cycle starting from the Greenwich meridian just outside London, in the northern hemisphere) for the whole world.
I loved the Liz Greene, Steven Arroyo and Howard Sasportas books. Those authors are what drew me in further.
The Mountain Astrologer has stopped printing.
It’s being relaunched soon by Frank Clifford, online:
https://www.londonschoolofastrology.com/pages/tma
I’m not sure about their archives, but there are some MA articles on astro.com anyway. Hope this helps.
I agree on all. But if there are any that I’ve repeatedly referred to above the others, it’s all of Sakoian & Acker’s.
For beginners I can also recommend “Astrology – a Cosmic Science” by Isabel Hickey. It takes a more spiritual approach. You might even be able to find it online as a pdf.
Personally I found Sakoian and Acker’s Handbook most thorough but always seeming to put a negative spin on everything. Best to balance their views with other interpretations.
Yes, I have a copy of A Cosmic Science, bought it new in the 1990’s and now it is completely brown around
the pages, because I read it so often. Even today, Isabel’s words in that book continue to help teach me.
My late mother, I never knew her birthtime. I always stared at her chart, trying to rectify it. I kept coming
back to something Isabel wrote, about a native with a 5th house Pluto. “If there are children promised in
the chart, they will be unusual and not run-of-the -mill types. If you knew my late half sister, and me,
we are extremely unusual people. Not successful at all, but boy did we end up being unusual. I just
could not imagine my mother being Pisces rising, so I was stumped.
Finally recently found my mother’s born at home birth certificate on an ancestry site, with the birthtime.
Isabel Hickley was a genius. What was confusing me was what Isabel explains about this placement.
She writes: “This placement is similar to the Sun in conjunction with Pluto”. I was picking up on this,
but never thought to apply it. Anyway, my mother was a Pisces rising, 5th house Pluto, opposing her
11th house Mars. In my chart, Pluto opposes my Pisces Moon/Chiron, Pluto opposite Moon exact, zero
degree orb.
I also consider myself fortunate, I will always be grateful that Robert Hand picked the phone up and
spoke to me personally once, when I called him to ask him a question. I also spoke to the late great
Noel Tyl on the phone once, shortly before he passed away. It was very frustrating to me to try to
speak or listen to Noel Tyl, it felt like I was trying to communicate with an alien, and for that I am
sorry, because I now know how many people adored him.
Hmm I met Noel Tyl once and it was not a great experience I would have to admit. Marginally creepy.
Ebertin can be gothic as well and treated with caution tho’ v useful. . But I always found Sakoian & Acker’s more ‘negative spins’ useful when I did not understand why an individual who was clearly less than wonderful had aspects which I had lazily imagined were positive.
Thank you Marjorie!
Great list! I have many of these books or at least authors, but some I will go check out. Endlessly fascinating.
If I might, I would add Donna Cunningham’s An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness, which I found helpful when I was just starting out learning about astrology. It appears to be available used. (I can recommend https://www.addall.com/ as I good aggregator of used book sites.)
For out of print books, you can check on Internet archive website, which is a vitual non profit library with millions of free texts.
https://archive.org/
For astrology sites, I’d especially recommend (this one of course) and Astrodienst (www.astro.com) set up by Swiss Alois Treindl who met and brought on board Liz Greene, Rob Hand and other renowned astrologers.
Link below to description and timeline Astrodienst’s history.
For magazines, recommend The Mountain Astrologer, The Astrological Journal.
The Wessex Astrologer is an excellent site (and shop) for buying astrology books.
https://www.astro.com/contact/contact_about_e.htm