Author: Bill Tierney
Trade Paperback, 460 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn
Publication date: December 2001
ISBN: 0738701114
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Bill Tierney's All Around the Zodiac is an introductory astrology book with a unique twist. It concentrates on the signs of the zodiac. Not the meaning of your "sun sign," your "rising sign," or your "moon sign," but the meaning of the signs themselves and how the signs relate to each other and to the planets. Bill Tierney has written the astrology book I'd love to have had when I first developed an interest in astrology in the late 1960s. Of course, this book could not have been written 30 years ago as half the book would have been on the mathematics of casting a horoscope. All Around the Zodiac doesn't waste any space on this. Programs to do the math are available on the Internet (and a free birth chart offer is included for those without a computer or internet access).
This guide is dived into three massive parts. The first part describes each of the signs in detail, with special attention paid their elements and modes. Each sign is given about ten pages of description, not just a short precis and a list of celebrities. Part Two describes how the signs interact with each other in a chart. This volume explains signs that square, oppose, sextile, trine, semisextile, and quincunx. Each combination of two signs receives about a page of description and a short list of celebrities. This part contains one of the most comprehensive discussions of these interactions I've seen in an introductory astrology book. The third part of All Around the Zodiac explains how the signs blend with the influence of a chart's planets.
All Around the Zodiac is a thick book. While it is certainly a harder read than Linda Goodman's Sun Signs, it is by no means a dry and boring read. Bill Tierney warns readers in the introduction that he aims "to have a little fun while exploring these signs" -- and he does. While not everyone will fully appreciate his sense of humor, it saves this book from the dry, textbook tone of many astrology books. While I'm sure some will consider this book somewhat superficial, it is much less superficial than the introductory books I read many years ago. All Around the Zodiac is an excellent introduction to astrology for those ready to learn more than their sun sign. However, this book is probably more than someone only slightly curious about astrology would want.
Reviewed by Randall
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