Planets for Pagans: Sacred Sites, Ancient Lore, and Magical Stargazing

by Renna Shesso

"The sky was our original calendar, our original storybook, the first illustrated edition, the prototype GPS. Beyond its pragmatic usefulness, the sky was the domain of spirit, traversed by deities and a place to which human souls departed. Let's re-enchant it, shall we?"  –Renna Shesso

Impeccably researched by one of the most eclectic pagan scholars working today, this book aims to reengage our fascination with the planets and stars. Shesso looks at the mythology, legend, science and lore about the planets and most significant stars in a chapter-by-chapter format. Included are nearly 150 diagrams and illustrations—of the heavens, astrological views, depictions of gods and goddesses, sky totems, Tarot symbols, star charts, and more.

Anyone with even a vaguely pagan bent, anyone with a reverence for the natural world, who has ever marveled at the night sky will love this enchanted view of the planets and stars.

Previously published as  A Magical Tour of the Night Sky  9781578634958

Genres: Astrology, Witchcraft, Nonfiction, Reference, Paganism, Occult, Spirituality

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2014

About the author

I’m Renna Shesso, author of Planets for Pagans: Sacred Sites, Ancient Lore and Magical Stargazing and Math for Mystics. I'm also a shamanic healing practitioner and teacher, and a reader and teacher of Tarot. I research and write on a range of spiritual, artistic and Goddess-infused topics.

Reviews

[Letitia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book.
It will surely become a well loved and well thumbed addition to my library.

Planets For Pagans explores the wonders of the night sky as seen with the naked eye.
Expertly blending lore, mythology, astrology and astronomy, weaving them together to build a sound base of knowledge and wonder for our sky.

Planets For Pagans is required reading for Pagans of all stripes.
Can't rate this book high enough.

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book as a Goodreads First Reads. This book was very engaging and easy to read. I learned new things that I had not known before such as myths and legends about the North Star, and symbols that transcend race and represent humanity. One such symbol being the group of stars known as the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper, known in different places as different things but all used to locate the North Star. Another such being spinning and threads binding the world together. I hope the author writes more books like this because I learned a lot and with it being easy to read and understand I'm pretty sure I will remember what I learned for a long time. It also works as a type of work book, giving you little exercises that you can try to expand yourself and connect with the universe - at least that is how I understood them and I will be trying a few. Also, I do believe that this book would make a great reference book for a beginner. As I've said before it is easy to read, easy to understand concepts, and the words used are explained. There are a few things I would have liked, a map of the stars would have been a good addition, one that outlined which stars were mentioned in the book and showing their exact places. Another welcome addition would be a page or two, or even parenthesis next to the more stranger and foreign words on how to pronounce them. I find not a lot of authors do this but it would be very helpful to the reader.

[Julie Witte · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the information contained in this book! It is written in such a way that I practically read this like an ordinary book. Yet it is jammed with great calculations, diagrams, charts...you name it, the info is in here. The pages of biographies are like a checklist for your private library. Five stars and a Top-Shelf.

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely need to know more about astronomy and astrology. I started this book like a year ago and I'm definitely going to need to re-read it at some point in the future to be able to understand more of the specifics. I really enjoyed how she wove in stories of mythology from different cultures, and really appreciated that she included the Babylonian tradition.

[Min · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book I have hoped to see on the shelves for many years. A combination of astronomy, archaeology, and astrology.
At a soft pace, the author takes us through the planets, and how our ancestors interacted with them, mostly, as they were inspired to built monuments that enabled them to mark the passages of the Inner Planets, Sun, and Moon; while including select prominent constellations, and Fixed Stars.
She touches on the science of their movements, including a section regarding why astronomical dating, and astrological dating differ, and, employs a few very ancient myths offering them in a new light with our knowledge of how the planets, and stars, move in the sky.
The appendices collection particular ephemeries, as relevant to her presentation, such as elongations, conjunctions, and times of retrograde.

The fact she mentions Ophiuchus is reason enough for me to recommend this book. She doesn't deal much with the constellations for long, although acknowledging that it is on the ecliptic, longer than some of the better-known constellations, shows that she is serious about explaining the astronomy has priority.
Also, discussion Presession makes it clear the concepts of astrological Ages, and the variations in sizes of the constellations.

A good work. I look forward to reading more of her.

[Julie Witte · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book through GoodReads First Reads. The amount of information packed into this over-sized soft cover book blew my mind. Lifetimes of research and concise explanations make this book 5 stars and TopShelf. As I read this book, it was like a crash course in Astrology, but with a mentor at my side. The graphs, charts and diagrams helped seemingly complicated concepts click into place. And "My stars!" What bibliographies. Can you tell this book is on my favorites shelf?