The Secret Language of Birthdays

by Gary Goldschneider, Joost Elffers

Combining astrology, numerology, and pure psychic intuition, The Secret Language of Birthdays is a wholly unique compilation that reveals one's strengths, weaknesses, and major issues while providing practical advice and spiritual guidance.

Many have suspected that your birthday affects your personality and how you relate to others. Nineteen years and over one million copies later, The Secret Language of Birthdays continues to fascinate readers by describing the characteristics associated with being born on a particular day. The 366 personality profiles are based on astrology, numerology, the tarot, and Gary Goldschneider’s observations of more than 14,000 people. Your strengths, weaknesses, and major concerns will be illuminated while you are given practical advice and spiritual guidance. After you study your profile, it will be hard to resist examining those of family, friends, colleagues, and even celebrities.

Genres: Astrology, Nonfiction, Reference, Spirituality, New Age, Occult, Self Help

832 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Gary began his extensive career in the public eye with weekly performances on WCAU radio’s Children’s Hour at the tender age of two. Reciting Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth and other famous poets, he later did scripts and commercials which laid the foundation for public speaking and college lecturing later in life.

At seven, he began his piano study with David Sokoloff in Philadelphia. As a concert pianist he has appeared worldwide in recitals, including 12-hour Beethoven marathon concerts in which he performs all 32 piano sonatas of this great composer.

Gary is the father of seven children he live in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Gary is internationally known as the bestselling author of The Secret Language of Birthdays, The Secret Language of Relationships, and the Secret Language of Destiny.

This trilogy derives from his training in psychiatry and medicine at Yale University, his background in English Literature (B.A., M.A. University of Pennsylvania), his forty-year study of astrology, and his experiences living and working with spiritual groups in California and New Zealand.

Most recently he has published his autobiography Wunderkind, his short stories Hearts and his 6 Lectures on the Spiritual Aspects of Music on Amazon Kindle.

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love big books and I cannot lie.

Thanks to my partner in hocus pocus, Rachel, this giant gem arrived in the mail today, and I couldn't be more excited. It's a 800 pages thick feast of astrology, psychology, and tiny tidbits concerning (obscure) historical figures of importance that once shared your birthday.



And it's wonderful. And it's eerie how well my birthday matches my personality, and how my partner's matches his, and how Rachel's matches Rachel, whereas no other random birthday description does. My astrology adoring days were supposed to be far behind me, in fact, my interest waned in my late teens, but to Jupiter with that: I love this book and I'll be loving it for a while to come.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will hurt my credibility, but...it's eerily accurate, I tell you!

[Angie McCrae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended by a friend, this is one of the most read books that I own. If you're into astrology (or even have a mild interest in it), this is a must read if not must own book. Comprised of each day of the year, it gives an insightful and detailed personality assessment of persons born on that particular day. Whenever I learn of someone's birthday, I look it up to see what it says about them, and for the most part I've found that the traits outlined in the book are pretty much spot-on with the personality of those I know.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it is an enormous tome, this is the most shoplifted book at our shop (and at a local restaurant, which liked to have it on hand for customer enjoyment). To my mind it is in no real way a book of astrology (but then I am a persnickety and opinionated astrologer) but a neat sort of parlor game book. Of course, I didn't agree with the assessment of my birthday (Sept 30). But I must say every other family member, whose days seemed pretty accurate, stared at me and couldn't believe I couldn't see myself in the description.
Silly book to refuse to admit I am perfect.

[Krissys Bookshelf Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author: Gary Goldschneider
Title: The Secret Language of Birthdays: Personology Profiles for Each Day of the Year
Series:
Cover Rating:
Gold Star

Book Rating:
5 stars



About the Book:
Many people have long suspected, as astrologers believe, that the day you were born affects your personality. While no one knows exactly how or why, birthdays do tend to be uncannily accurate predictors of psychological tendencies. The Secret Language of Birthdays by Gary Goldschneider and Joost Effers describes in detail the characteristics and quirks of personality associated with being born on a particular day of the year.



My Thoughts:
A rather guilty pleasure of mine even for its silliness is reading about my birth date.
Granted, I know its not real but its amusing to see how accurate it is about the kind of person I am.
Most of the people that I know who have read their birthday profile from my copy have been delighted to find that it describes them fairly accurately as well.

Good for the entertainment but I suggest people embracing the person they are for who they have become and not who a book says you're 'supposed' to be. Its not literal its for fun.



Disclaimer:
Krissys Bookshelf Reviews purchased a print copy for personal collection. All thoughts, comments and ratings are my own.

Note:
If any of Krissy's Bookshelf Reviews has been helpful please stop by to like my post or leave a comment to let me know what you think. I love hearing from you!

[Bearclaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book that can have a profound impact on some and just cheap entertainment to others. I lay in between, and believe this book is a must have for everybody. Great to read anybodys birthdya and I have all my friends to sign their names on their page.

[Dina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mean. Wrong. Judgmental. But unbelievably heavy if you want to press tofu. Or one of those pressed picnic sandwiches, one where you want the oil and vinegar to seep into the bread for a few hours before you eat it. This book would be perfect for pressing one of those sandwiches. It's probably a little too heavy for tofu now that I think about it....

[Dna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply fun to read! This is a great reference book for devotees of astrology, or even psychology, but is also a fun read for anyone looking to demystify someone they know, or figure out a difficult personality.

[Bonnie Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating & illuminating ~ wonderful fodder for any novelist and certainly intriguing for anyone trying to understand the people sprinkled all over their lives.

[Alpha · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Out of all the books in the three I respect by Goldschneider, I love the Secret Language of Birthdays a little more since it appeals to everyone compared to just a few. Destiny is something everyone pursues but it is a general description given without any details to the person and as for relationships, well relationships are different among everyone and so the general is for a general understanding how two people will mesh.

Now this book is a complete and intricate detail of a person by the day they are born and I love that because it gives a lot of detail to the day in specific. Now there is more to a person when it comes to them on specifics per se their entire birthday or name in Numerology but nevertheless this book does a great job going into a more-than-basic detail about a person on the specified day they are born on. I myself am so shocked at how close my birthday is to all the information provided as well as the people who share the birthday that I share being Leonard Nimoy, Sandra Day O'Conner, and Robert Frost. All in all, a very wonderful book about reading the deep down understanding of oneself on an Astrological level."

[Elizabeth Good · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this fabulous book! Weirdly accurate for myself and everyone I’ve checked over decades. A classic! And illuminating into one’s soul, character, proclivities and those of friends and loved ones. Although I put in a “finished reading” date here for orderliness, it’s a reference book really. You don’t sit and read it through. You meet someone, look up their birthdate…and/or look at those of people you already know. The book has a depth to it; not just astrology by any means (not that a good astrologer won’t have depth). It approaches things from several angles and is uncanny and wise.

[Molly Poynter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love astrology, so I checked this book out and it's really neat

[Renetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find this to be very accurate. I look up everyone I meet! Usually everyone is pretty excited to have me read about their birthdate, I remember one friend though was very negative about it and kept insisting that it isn't going to be true and it's just silly nonsense. I read his anyway and it said something like, those born on this day will deny that there's any truth to this. I forget exactly how it was worded but I got a kick out of that. Fun book indeed.

[Tweetybird · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very accurate. I know, it's only Astrology, a hobby at best, but I used to read Sydney Omar's columns, and his writings seemed to be spot-on. These are lame/off at best, but I'd be more inclined to say erroneous. And the paperback cover version is Physically EXTREMELY HEAVY. It's dangerous!
Don't waste your money or time on this one. Sorry.

[subtlemurder · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth analysis of birth dates and what they mean for each individual. Compiled from common personality traits shared by people born on the same day of the year, this personality analysis is freakishly accurate.

[Jen Rainwater · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's scarily right on on all the birthdays I checked! Pretty much done with the main ones I am interested in but might check out a few more! It's so accurate and usually while I am into astrology I usually take it with a grain of salt, saying that this book is extremely cool!!

[Lyric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been a fund read, and very intriguing. It provides interesting insight into the personalities associated with each birthday. I especially like how in-depth the author speaks about cusp signs. Fascinating read!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My birthday is November 28th and this book describes me to a T.
This book is scary fuckin accurate!

[SlythJetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love EVERYTHING to do with astrology and meanings.

A plus is that it discusses your birthday, what it represents and it's so cool!!!

[Yulia Otrishko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can be surprisingly accurate, but the "meditations" are very hit or miss. In any case I wouldn't take it too seriously; it's just a fun little way to entertain the idea of knowing more about people than we actually know.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't get to read this cover to cover, of course, but I looked at what related to me and a few other people I know. I'm not sure the September 21st birthday really described the two people I know who have that birthday, but maybe I don't know them well enough? Though I think I do. It seemed like they wouldn't necessarily recognize themselves in what was said, but maybe they would and I just don't. Hmm.

"In the same way that the medieval alchemists taught 'As above--so below,' the followers of George Gurdjieff (such as Rodney Collin in his book, The Theory of Celestial Influence), held that the cyclical revolutions of the electron around the atom (in the micro world of 1x10 -10) relate to the revolutions of the planets around the sun (in the macro world of 1x10 +10). At each step of the way, from the world of trillions to billions to millions to thousands to tens, or vice-serda, from the very small to the very large, revolves another world, and near the middle, the zero point, lies our world of everyday life. Newton's laws were mainly formulated for this near-zero-point world, but had to be modified as science examined increasingly larger (stellar) or smaller (microscopic) universes." pg. 9

"The increasingly holistic and humanistic view of psychology is at last beginning to prevail in our time. Abraham Maslow, to whom this book is partially dedicated, believed that every human being must continuously evolve throughout life to ever higher stages, and that getting stuck, refusing or being unable to progress further, is a true living death. Maslow insisted, throughout his life, that every human being must strive to be the very best person he or she is capable of being.
Thus, bringing astrology, history and psychology together in concentric cycles or spirals--stressing evolutionary rather than static models for the individual--is at the heart of personology. The personality types presented under the twelve signs, forty-eight periods and three hundred and sixty-six days (including the leap year extra day) are flexible and fluid, each evolving from one to the next, constantly in motion, constantly changing, rather than fixed in stone." pg. 9

The Wintertime Personality
"Generally speaking, wintertime people are more concerned with the larger picture. They can be dominant types who rule their space with assurance, but often also display a greater degree of flexibility, sensitivity, acceptance and spirituality than those born at other times of the year. Although those born in the winter are often quiet types, many manifest great excitement through their thoughts, ideals and work. They are particularly distinguished by an active imagination and fantasy life. The most successful of wintertime people can objectify these visions and perhaps make them a source of creativity rather than be victimized by them. The allegiance of wintertime people is not so much to society or to personal considerations as to the world of ideals.
Wintertime people are less concerned with the state of the world as it is now and more with how it could and should be. A real reforming spirit can show itself in this personality, and an interest in matters concerning political and economic justice is very common." pg. 19

January Ninth
The Day of Ambition

Strengths: resilient, purposeful, resourceful
Weaknesses: controlling, inflexible, stressed

The tough, hard-driving individuals born on January 9 are highly ambitious people, not only for themselves but for their family members as well. They want to reach the top and be the best, and are capable of devoting all or most of their energies year after year to that end. January 9 willpower is not to be underestimated and those born on this day are capable of applying great pressure to bend others to that will. Furthermore, they have a knack for recognizing opportunities and rarely if ever miss a chance to better their situation.
Yet, those born on this day are capable of making weighty mistakes and miscalculations as well. Loss, defeat and setbacks of all kinds dot the landscapes of their lives. Fortunately, their resiliency and sense of purpose is such that they can almost always snap back. It is extremely difficult to defeat them or force them to surrender.
January 9 people highly value personal initiative, personal responsibility and personal freedom. Because of this they may at times lose sight of more social or universal goals, and perhaps fail to understand or appreciate how the group-oriented mind thinks as well. Moreover, for many born on this day, learning to treat people as ends in themselves rather than means to and end will take them farther in the long run. Cultivating perhaps less dynamic, but more human, values such as kindness, understanding and acceptance is crucial to their growth and indeed their ultimate success.
So oriented are January 9 people toward struggles and challenge that they rarely wish to rest on their achievements or retire to a life of happiness and contentment. They tend to be workaholics who commit themselves to their tasks one hundred percent and therefore can find it difficult to relax at the end of the day. Having a partner, friend or family member who can help them in this direction is of the utmost importance, as those born on this day are in great need of laughter and good times too.
January 9 people do not react well to being opposed in their endeavors. A quite ruthless side of their personality can emerge in such situations. Battlers, they use whatever weapons are at their disposal to overcome their adversaries, and fully expect the same in return. However, learning to view events in less black and white terms, and to recognize that present rivals can be future helpmates and friends ultimately widens their understanding and strengthens their position in the world." pg. 668

Numbers and Planets
Those born on the 9th of the month are ruled by the number 9 and by the planet Mars. The number 9 is powerful in its influence on other numbers (any number added to 9 yields that number: e.g., 5+9=14, 4+1=5, and any number multiplied by 9 yields a 9: e.g., 9x5=45, 4+5=9), and January 9 people are similarly influential. The planet Mars is forceful and aggressive, embodying male energy, but for January 9 people its influence can be colored by Saturn, ruler of Capricorn, which here grants seriousness of purpose but also potentially manipulative tendencies.

Tarot
The 9th card of the Major Arcana is The Hermit, who is usually depicted walking with a lantern and a stick; he represents meditation, isolation and quietude. The card also signifies crystallized wisdom and ultimate discipline. The Hermit is a taskmaster who motivates by conscience and guides others on their path. The positive side of this card is stick-to-it-iveness, purpose, profundity and concentration; negative qualities include dogmatism, intolerance, mistrust and discouragement. Such saturnian characteristics are particularly relevant in the case of January 9 people.

Health
Those born on January 9 can suffer common side-effects of stress: headaches, anxiety, muscle tension, lowered resistance to infections and problems with sleep. Learning to relax and allow themselves fun is crucial to their maintaining good health. Family and social activities, as well as regularly scheduled vacation, are an important part of the picture. An exciting, vibrant diet with lots of appetizing recipes is recommended to keep them looking forward to the zestful enjoyment of good meals. Only mild exercise is recommended for those born on this day along with periods of rest, including occasional afternoon naps, which can work wonders. January 9 people must pay particular attention to the effects of stress on their bones and teeth, as well as making sure that they get proper dosages of supplementary vitamins and minerals.

Advice
Watch children at play. Learn from them. Don't allow your ambition to lead you away from the best in you. Remain open to advice; take what others say about you seriously.

Meditation
Maturity does not exclude playfulness.
pg. 669

Book: borrowed from SSF Main Library.

[Aimee Mckenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

So perfectly written, almost spooky how accurate some of them are

[Kit★]

I remember checking this book out from the library a bunch of times when I was a teen, and have wanted it ever since. I have the second one, The Secret Language of Relationships, but didn't find it nearly as 'accurate' in describing myself or people I know, or our relationships, so I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as this one. Would like to read this one again now that I'm older, and see how I interpret it now.

[Angelica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I 1st came across this book in the mid 90s at a library and was jaw dropped over the accuracy of my birthday. I brought it to work and everyone else was just a gobsmacked over their birthday readings. Only one woman didn't agree about her's but everyone in our department agreed that it was completely accurate, she just wasn't too keen on the realization of the negative bits of her nature.

The author has a very useful website companion to this book as well, I came across it while researching the writer.

[Gun Lippert]

All the books i added today i got for a dollar a piece!
They are everything down from this spot on, on my "to read list..

Also got Frannie 6 F Paul Wilson books (her current passion)..
and a coupla bonus vampire books.

i GOTTA tell you guys about this "Birthdays" book..
It assigns a title to each day of the year.

Just so tired tonight, i'll tell you about it tomorrow.
My brain is toast.

[Veronica Perdomo · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone who is usually relatively skeptical about the accuracy of astrology, this book seemed to have an uncanny ability to describe the personalities, strengths, and flaws of people born on specific days. The descriptions are varied, specific, and offer real insight into an individual's struggles and motivations. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in astrology (even the person who just glances at their horoscope in the newspaper from time to time).

[Rodeweeks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously did not read the whole book, only the parts that have to do with my family. It is not general and very accurate. Interesting read, I do not really read, follow or practice astrology but these were interesting enough... though it is mostly information I already know about my family. Most interesting and helpful parts were the small piece of advice and a small meditation given at the end of each birth date.

[Taryn Hipwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book several times on an as needed basis. Sometimes I feel a little bit off, and it has pointed out my flaws and fabulous traits. It also helps me to figure out why other people do what they do.

Sometimes it's too on the nose and freaks me out. But I just finally bought a copy for myself. And strangely it's like a mini-psyochological analysis page on everyone I know.

[Lynn Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is remarkable.
As an astrologer I generally dismiss people who emphasize sun signs, but the authors have somehow managed to compile a list of very accurate descriptions about people based on one piece of information - their date of birth. It's wonderful fun, and can be very helpful in understanding friends, children, family members, employees, spouses and significant others.

[~☆~Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own a big heavy hard back coffee table type of book which I got years ago from a book club. Its a lot of fun so I recommend it for everyone if you can get a copy. I first saw this book at the book store at the university at Albuquerque and it was $50.00 then but I got it later for much less. Good luck finding it.