Author: David Pond
Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn
Publication date: July 2001
ISBN: 0738700460
Price & More Info: Click Here
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Relationships are an important part of life and we all would like to know how to improve our relationships with spouses, lovers, friends, and co-workers. Astrology has always offered help and guidance in relationships, although it is often stated in negative terms: sign X isn't compatible with sign Y. That's always struck me as overly simplistic. Am I really incompatible with the approximately one-twelfth of humanity born under a sign said to be incompatible with my own?
David Pond's new book Astrology & Relationships: Techniques for Harmonious Personal Connections takes a fresh look at relationship astrology. Instead of declaring certain signs and planets incompatible, Ponds describes their traits and needs. This enables one to learn to get along as best one can with other people. This book doesn't tell you how to find a perfect relationship. It uses astrological insights to tell you how to have the best relationship you can with the people you know.
Astrology & Relationships is divided into ten chapters, one for each of the astrological "planets" in a horoscope. Each chapter starts with a general description of the planet in astrology and its effect on relationships in particular. This section includes exercises designed to help the reader understand the planet and deal with its effects in relationships. The main part of each chapter, however, is descriptions of the specific effects of the planet in each sign it can fall into in a natal horoscope. These effects are divided into a general description, a section of areas to work on, and a section on how to deal with others who have that planet in that sign. The material is easy to read and understand as it is presented in layman's terms instead of in astrological jargon. This makes the book less suitable for experts, but astrological experts are not the intended audience for this book.
As you have probably gathered by now, to make the best use of this book one has to know more than a person's sun sign. One needs to know the sign of all the planets in the person's natal chart. Fortunately, Astrology & Relationships includes a simple set of charts which will allow you to determine what planets are in what signs for anyone born between 1900 and 2005 if you know their birth date and birth time. The most complex calculation involved is converting the birth time to Greenwich Mean Time.
While your reviewer is not an expert on astrology, Astrology & Relationships seems to be a well-written attempt to present relationship astrology in a very useful manner. Knowing the astrological traits of the most perfect relationship for you seems much less useful, after all, than ideas on how to make the best of the relationships life hands you. Experts may turn their nose up at the "layman's tone" of this volume, but the average person with little detailed knowledge of astrology who would like to use astrology to help him understand and better relate to the people he deals with every day will probably find this book helpful.
Reviewed by Randall
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