Author: Stephanie Jean Clement
Trade Paperback, 225 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn
Publication date: December 2001
ISBN: 0738701149
Price & More Info: Click Here
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In my experience, most people want to use astrology or other methods of divination to find our about their finances, their job, or their love life. There is, however, another side to life beyond bank accounts, work, and the bedroom. The spiritual part of life deals with the basic questions like "why am I here?" and "what is my purpose in life?" Stephanie Jean Clement's Charting Your Spiritual Path With Astrology shows how to apply astrology to the spiritual questions in life.
The majority of this book discusses the planets and their effects on the spiritual side of life in the elements, signs, and houses. The interpretations given for the planets in each house and sign are short but very much to the point. I was surprised to find these short descriptions provided a more accurate view of me than the somewhat longer descriptions in other astrology books in my collection. While part of this may come from the fact that I'm more spiritually than materially oriented, a major part of it comes from the author's ability to summarize her 25 years of experience in a concise, clear, and insightful manner. Other chapters discuss the midheaven and the ascendent in the signs. The final chapter covers the various aspects, from the conjunction to the quincunx. While each possible aspect only receives two or three sentences, Clement again manages to convey a great deal of focused information in a few carefully selected words.
Clement provides three case studies in this book: Saint Augustine, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and Muhammed Ali. Although it is spread between several chapters, the case study of Ali is the most complete. It is probably also the most helpful as more readers will be familiar with Ali than with Augustine or Kubler-Ross. On the last page of this volume, Clement's publisher, Llewellyn, offers a free natal chart to readers. This will allow readers who do not have a natal chart to easily obtain one to use with this book.
Charting Your Spiritual Path With Astrology does have one annoying flaw. There is no chapter on pulling all this information together and using it to address spiritual questions. Instead, Clement discusses this piecemeal (and often indirectly) throughout the book. This decentralized approach will make it harder than necessary for those without a strong background in chart interpretation to answer the spiritual questions in their lives. Despite this problem, this book is a refreshing look at what astrology can say about the spiritual side of life. If you are interested in astrology, but find the usual interpretation books -- with their focus on the material side of life -- wanting, I suggest you give Clement's new book a try.
Reviewed by Randall
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