Book Review: Mindful Astrology: Finding Peace of Mind According to Your Sun, Moon and Rising Sign by Monte Farber and Amy Zerner
Genre: Religion and Spirituality / Health, Mind and Body
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group - Rock Point
Release Date: 27th April, 2021
Today’s book review is not a Wicca or Witchcraft specific book, it’s astrology. I wanted to include it in my reviews because it’s a topic that I’m interested in and I know a lot of Wiccans and Witches are too. However, if you are here as a non Wiccan or Witch; just someone with an interest in astrology, welcome, this review is also for you.
About the Authors
The authors of this book are described as ‘best-selling master astrologers’. They are a couple who know a lot about their subject and have plenty of experience in this area. As well as astrology, they also specialise in tarot, oracle and other areas of divination. They have been part of spiritual guidance teaching since 1988. That’s over thirty years of experience.
Farber and Zerner have written many other best-selling books together. Some of the titles include: The Enchanted Tarot, Astrology for Wellness, An Astrology Cookbook and The Wild Goddess Oracle deck.
About the Book
Obviously the book is about astrology, but what particular aspect does it look at? The title is ‘Mindful’ Astrology so for me I think about mindfulness and a self-care vibe. It’s about being more aware of what’s going on around you and being in the moment. Along with that, the book is described as teaching you, ‘how to use the essentials of astrology to more mindfully navigate your life and your relationships’.
The introduction explains a little more about the mindfulness aspect of the book and the authors see astrology as being part of a mindfulness practice in everyday life. Therefore, the purpose of the book is to use astrology as a tool to get to know yourself better to benefit your life and relationships.
It is split into sections. Section one gives the background and theory; looking at things like, what astrology is, how it works, and an explanation of exactly what the sun, moon and rising signs are along with what they can tell us about ourselves.
Furthermore, they give a brief explanation of how the birth/natal chart works. This is the chart that shows the alignment of the sun, the moon and the planets at the time we were born. To explain this in more detail the authors use reference to a pizza being cut into slices. The analogy didn’t really work for me, but it can be a tricky topic so I understand why they were trying to simplify it that way.
The next three sections or chapters focus specifically on the sun, moon and rising signs. They have allotted a chapter for each of the above. The idea is that you read the section of each chapter that corresponds to your signs. For example, for me my sun sign is Pisces so I read the Pisces section in the sun chapter. My moon is Taurus so I read that section in the moon chapter and my rising sign is Sagittarius so I read the Sagittarius section in the rising section.
The book is definitely good for beginners; people who are wanting to know that little bit more about astrology. You are probably already familiar with the sun sign (the position the sun was in when you were born). It’s usually what you say when people ask you what your sign is. The book works from that point and adds a little bit more to it. It looks at your moon sign - the position the moon was in when you were born and your rising sign.
If, at this point, you are a little confused and not sure what your sun, moon or rising signs are then it’s something you can find online. cafeastrology.com is a good site to use. The book also gives details about how to go about finding your signs.
My Thoughts
Firstly, as someone who is currently delving deeper into the astrology realm, it’s important to know there is still more to it than just these three things that are in the book, but this is always a good place to start. The sun sign alone doesn’t really give you a clear picture of yourself because it’s far too broad. Adding the moon and rising sign to this picture can give more depth to an astrology reading. However, like I said, there can be even more to it than that, such as planetary placements. This book is definitely a good place to start though and the mindful aspect is a very soft and gentle introduction to the topic.
As I mentioned, you only really need to read the sections of the book that apply to your signs. So that’s what I did. There wasn’t much point in me reading the other sections, that didn’t apply to me.
The sun sign section is the biggest section, with the most information. It is really nice, thoughtful information that will give you something to think about. As you read you will naturally try and link it to yourself and your behaviour in life. You might identify some areas that feel familiar and consider how to be more mindful of certain character traits in your life. One aspect I did not love, and this is something that tends to come up in a lot of astrology books, is the repeated use of ‘you are’ statements. For example it will say, ‘you are like this...’, ‘you feel this way...’, ‘you like or you don’t like this...’ I always think to myself, ‘you don’t know me!’ It’s far too familiar for me. I’d prefer it if they avoided those big sweeping statements and added a ‘may’ or a ‘might’. So it reads more like, ‘you may feel...’, ‘you might like...’ I know the book is about character, emotions and feelings that apply to each sign but we are not all the same and not everything is going to resonate with everyone. However, that might just be a personal dislike.
Moving on to the moon sign section, it is a lot shorter. Whereas with the sun sign chapter there was around 3 pages of information for each sign, this section is just a paragraph; barely half a page, which is slightly disappointing. Again, I felt like I resonated with areas of it, yet still didn’t like the familiarity of the ‘you are’ statements.
Lastly, the rising sign section. Even though the authors say the rising or ascendant sign is, ‘one of the most important things you will ever know about yourself’ they still only attribute a page for each sign. This was a little disappointing because, like they referenced, some astrologers believe that your rising sign can be more telling about who you are as a person than your sun sign. In this section they also attempt to define physical appearance by rising sign, which is not something I’ve come across before, and it was really wrong for me. I mean Tall? I’m 5 foot 2!
Another thing I was slightly disappointed with was that, for the most part, the sun, moon, and rising signs are dealt with as individual things, rather than what they tell us about ourselves when they appear together. If that makes sense? For example, it told me what having a Pisces sun sign means and what a Taurus moon sign means. But what do these two things appearing together suggest? There is a little bit about this in the last chapter. It gives information about if your signs all come from the same element (e.g. all water signs) or if you have a combination of elements. I have a water sign, earth sign and a fire sign. However, again, this was only a small section and I felt like it wasn’t detailed enough for me. It could be because I’m further along in my astrology studies, therefore I’m looking for deeper meanings and links. However, I feel to have a truly personal reading you need to think about how your sun, moon and rising signs work together rather than just individually. Thinking about it, that is probably difficult to do in a book as there are so many different combinations. You are probably better off going to an astrologer and having them read your natal chart if you looking for something more personal.
Final Thoughts
Overall there are a few things to consider about the book. Firstly, as you only really need to read the section that is relevant to you, it can feel like a lot of the book is irrelevant. Almost wasted. I would recommend using the book with family and friends to explore their birth signs. It’s actually a fun activity. Even if your friends or family don’t put much stock into astrology itself, you’ll find they still like to agree or disagree with the assessments.
Secondly, I feel like once I’d read my sections, that was it. It’s probably not a book I’m going to come back to for reference or guidance. Especially because it doesn’t really give you any actionable steps about being more mindful once you have read the information.
As I said at the start, it is a book for beginners and I think that’s what it is good for. If you are looking to start learning astrology and want to apply it to yourself specifically, then this book is definitely good for that. The information is really thoughtful and nice (I can’t think of a better word to describe it). It just has a nice vibe in the way the authors deliver the information. It has all the information you need to know to understand the basics: introductory explanations to astrology itself, the sun moon and rising signs, and the birth chart.
If you are a beginner looking for an insight into your personal astrology and applying it to various aspects of your everyday life then it is a good little book to start with. My more advanced astrologers out there will probably want something a bit more in depth.
I hope you found this review useful. If you have any questions about the book or anything else related then please feel free to ask them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.
Thank you to NetGalley and Rock Point publishers for allowing me to read and review an advanced e-copy of this book.