This groundbreaking book, with its many new techniques and concepts, brings predictive astrology into a world of its own. Covers techniques and methods necessary for making accurate astrological predictions. Learn to reveal the future and put various aspects of life into perspective.
This is a very useful book for practicing professional astrologers. It provides insightful techniques that can be used to refine predictive work. It's not for beginners or believers in Sun sign astrology. It's well-written and cleverly organized. I find myself turning to its section on eclipses time and again.
This book is a "must have" for predictive astrologers. Brady writes in a clear, concise way that's easy to follow and put into practice. I read this for a chart movement class in astrology that I took at Kepler Astrological College. It's one I'll be keeping on my shelf.
I loved this book and enjoyed the fact that Bernadette Brady gives useful instructions in how to analysis transits and progressions. She gives useful examples such as delineating Joan of Arc's life and presenting this data in an accessible manner. This book is worth a read for those wishing to develop their skills in astrology and has a lot to offer.
Even after all of these years of studying astrology, Brady's book clarifies chart synthesis, eclipses and saros cycles in a way that really seemed fundamentally sound and spiritually wise. I can see why she won an award at the last UAC conference.
An excellent book. Its focus is on progressions and transits. The author gives explicit, clear explanations of her techniques for chart interpretation. Not for beginners. 5 stars
The astrology of the 20th century got into exploring the horoscope with the tools of modern depth psychology and New Age spirituality, and got away from the ancient practice of using astrology to predict the future--the reason that astrology became so popular in the first place. This book, first published in 1992, gives the modern astrologer a thorough introduction to practicing that ancient art. The author discusses the meaning of the astrological symbols in a predictive context (they are to be read in a simple, straightforward way), and then shows you exactly how to read transits, secondary progressions, and a few other techniques.
I practice astrology, and I learned a lot from reading this book. The clear, well-organized approach that the author lays out is based on a lot of experience, and she reminds the reader to keep learning from the feedback one gets, and never to forget that astrology is an empirical art. She's candid that not all techniques work for every client. She estimates that about 5% of clients do not have charts for which "dynamic" techniques--transits and progressions--seem to work. No problem: in those cases, you can use older, more "static" techniques, such as planetary return charts. Another intriguing thing she suggests is that different clients seem to respond to different house systems. It's interesting to consider what this might imply about what we call reality.
For this reader, the most fascinating and unexpected part of the book was the material on eclipses and the Saros cycle. Astrologers have long struggled to understand how to read eclipses, which are clearly highly charged celestial events. Bernadette Brady has delved into this question in depth, and presents a deep and sophisticated way of understanding and working eclipses in a predictive context. Each eclipse, solar or lunar, is a bead on a centuries-long chain that has a definite beginning, end, and meaning. I'm eager to investigate how eclipses might illuminate my own chart and life, and those of my astrological clients.
If you're a practicing astrologer or a serious student, you should really have this book. We human beings are free, and yet the positions of the planets and starts can be known exactly in advance, which suggests that the future is not a mere blank. As the author says early in the book, every astrologer needs to take a position on what role fate plays in life, for our readings will reflect that belief.
This is an excellent book that no serious astrologer should live without. It covers a vast range of predictive techniques that will sharpen forecasting skills.
4 stars for tone, content & depth - really solid little volume.
i will say the time maps make my head spin, and it’s only because brady’s such a good author that i made it through. the chart examples got a bit tedious (as they usually do lolol) BUT she did a really, really good job weaving the different examples, topics, and techniques together.
great diagrams all throughout, though!
i couldn’t quite tell what school of astrology she’s from - which i loved. i’m guessing psychological, maybe just modern? but that ecumenical spirit permeated her writing, which i don’t take for granted. even the treatment of diff house systems was refreshingly grounded.
i particularly liked how she wove the central metaphor - of the eagle (techniques) & lark (an astrologer’s intuition) throughout the chapters. i realize as i write this that i’m so used to reading astrology books that are lecture transcripts - part of what i liked so much was probably just her Writing A Book, not having a dialogue with an “audience” lol.
i also really liked her point that for 5%-10% of clients, transits as she teaches them somehow *do not apply.* i hadn’t read an astrologer who addressed that yet, and found her explanation & tips humble and sincere. it’s nice to read someone who’s been doing this for decades admit that there are situations where transits do not seem to affect certain clients, and give some alternative methods of trying to do predictive work instead.
not an easy read, but i think it’s a solid intro to the topic. i recommend having a notebook & pen handy to work through the techniques as she explains them - definitely will be revisiting this book later when trying to figure out transits.
WOW! This book dramatically expanded my knowledge of astrology in such a short time it's mind-boggling. Definitely a LOT to take in, and I will need to re-read/re-visit this to really absorb the information in it, but wow am I glad I read it! I would love to get my hands on a physical copy, since it has a lot of visual charts & tables & dates that you can't really appreciate via the audiobook, even though it comes with a pdf including all the appendices. Bernadette Brady's work on eclipses and Saros series alone is invaluable to the astrology community. I can't wait to dive deeper!! Highly recommend this to anyone and everyone with an interest in astrology. Definitely more on the intermediate to advanced side of things, though, so here's your warning. I definitely do not understand ACD at all at the moment but this book blew my mind with its thorough coverage of progressions and prioritizations/hierarchy of aspects. An excellent book for aspiring astrologers [who want to read for others/make this a career].
This is a great book! I really appreciate her empirical approach and get the sense that she is only presenting that which she has tried with clients and has worked, as opposed to theory. I particularly liked her discussion of the 12' orb, and also her description of the different expressions of progressed chart aspects versus progressions to natal positions. This is a good reference book as well, with lots of useful tables in the back.
This book put into perspective for me the true importance of understanding the moon's node and using the north node to identify your life mission and knowing the gifts you were born with as identified by the south node in order to reach your life purpose. I would highly recommend this book to any true seeker.
Bernadette really explains the work of a predictive Astrologer with great precision and expertise. I especially benefitted from the transit charts that she uses but she uses every predictive method in this educational book. For anyone wishing to learn more about astrology and its applications, this is a MUST READ.
Great book for interpreting predictive charts, including transits, progressions, solar arcs, and returns. She also has some good stuff on interpreting eclipses. A very good fundamental text that covers the basics well. I also liked her framework/perspective on fate.
Brady really beautifully outlines the dance between following data and using your intuition as an astrologer. Great techniques written in detail and example charts to go with them. A little outdated for the modern astrologer at times, but still a gem and well worth a read.
I really enjoyed this book. Very easy to read and with practical instructions in how to analysis transits and progressions, and setting up a time map. It also contains information on eclipses and Saros Series. I am sure I will use this book as a reference for a long time.
Horribly edited book. Along with excessive passive voice and run-on sentences, the author frequently changes tense, number, and person halfway through a phrase, in the service of totally unnecessary stylistic flourishes that fall flat at best and obfuscate her point at worst. I felt like I was reading a poem written in a non-native language and then run through Google translate. I feel sorry for the proofreader she thanks in the acknowledgments… that dude was called OUT.
This is a go to book for predictive astrology. Well organized and written with pertinent examples. Bernadette is renown in her field especially in eclipses and the Saros Cycles. She includes the Saros Cycles indexed in the back of the book & refers to them in excellent examples. As an Astrologer, this is the 1st book I go to for predictive astrology reference. It is well worn on my book shelf.