Amy Herring - Essential Astrology: Everything You Need to Know to Interpret Your Natal Chart

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Essential Astrology: Everything You Need to Know to Interpret Your Natal Chart 2016 by Amy Herring.

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First e-book edition 2016

E-book ISBN: 9780738747798

Cover art: iStockphoto.com/31215554/pixelparticle
iStockphoto.com/59729414/robertsrob
iStockphoto.com/11782688/omergenc

Cover design: Ellen Lawson

Interior illustrations: Llewellyn Art Department

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Herring, Amy, 1974 author.

Title: Essential astrology : everything you need to know to interpret your

natal chart / by Amy Herring.

Description: First Edition. | Woodbury : Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd, 2016. |

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015044363 (print) | LCCN 2015045329 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738735634 | ISBN 9780738747798 ()

Subjects: LCSH: Natal astrology. | Birth charts.

Classification: LCC BF1719 .H47 2016 (print) | LCC BF1719 (ebook) | DDC

133.5/4dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015044363 Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publishers website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

contents

List of

: Between Fate and Free Will

Section One:
The History and Astronomy of Astrology

: The History of Astrology

: The Astronomy of Astrology

: The Natal Chart Map

: Reading the Map

Section Two: Astrological Meanings

: The Planets

: The Moons Nodes

: The Signs

: The Houses

Section Three: chart Interpretation

: The Basics of Chart Interpretation

: The Aspects

: Chart Themes

: Chart Interpretation Techniques

: The Nodal Foundation Checklist

: One Chart, Many Methods: Steve Martin

: Steve Martins Life Notes

: Steve Martin: The Chart and the Life

: Troubleshooting the Chart

: Tips and Tricks of Chart Interpretation

: Write Your Own Book

figures

: The Celestial Sphere and Great Circles

: The Blank Astrology Chart

: The Zodiac Band

: The Sun Placed within the Boundaries of the Sign of Pisces; Planets, Yet Unlabeled, Dot the Circle

: The Sun Placed within the Boundaries of the Sign of Pisces and also within the Boundaries of the Tenth House

: The Great Circles and Angles Represented in the Natal Chart

: The Sun Isolated in the Natal Chart, Now Labeled with Degrees, Minutes, and Sign Glyph

: An Example of an Aspect Grid

: Steve Martins Natal Chart

: Intercepted Houses: The Signs Cancer and Capricorn Fully Surround the Second and Eighth Houses

: Intercepted Signs: Houses Six and Twelve Fully Surround the Signs Scorpio and Taurus

acknowledgments

I gotta give the love to Capricorn for this books existence.

Thank you to my Capricorn Sun husband for his deep, patient breaths when I told him I was going to write a second book and his stoic support of me before, during, and after. He makes me laugh every dayat him and with him.

Thank you to my Capricorn Moon best friend for nagging me to write a beginners book for over ten years. Such persistence!

As always, thank you to Steven Forrest, my Capricorn Sun mentor, who gave me words for a kind of depth astrology I could only sense existed so many years ago.

Thank you to all my students (Capricorns and otherwise!) for re-breaking the seal on my sense of wonder every time I see their minds blown by astrology.

A special thank you to Melissa, who generously offered me her inspiring space to write uninterrupted not once, but twice; Christi, for allowing me to exploit her novice status to read and comment on the completed manuscript; and Oscar, for serving as my token authority on Leo.

Introduction

Between Fate and Free Will

Astrology is able to reflect the living, changing reality that we are all living as real, multi-dimensional people, and that each component of a chart embodies a range of potential, not a set of one-dimensional behaviors. The natal chart, while it is fixed in time , reveals a path of infinite growth, not a set of finite personality stereotypes. All definitions and techniques in this book will be presented with this idea in mind.

Youve heard the declarative statements and definitive personality traits of the Sun signs, such as Geminis are fickle, Cancers love children, and Virgos are fussy. Debunking and unpacking those stereotypes is at the heart of the purpose of this book. Astrologys best use is not to define and limit but to allow us to know and fulfill our potential, remove internal roadblocks, and even to heal our wounds. Inherent in human nature is the potential to evolve, and good astrology focuses on that potential, revealing the path toward evolution. A natal chart is less a set of definite personality traits and more a map to living life at your maximum potential, fulfilling the unique needs and gifts you bring to it.

This book approaches astrology from a psychological and symbolic point of view. You will learn to think more psychologically as you use the techniques and definitions in this book because you will have to think beyond stereotypical sign behaviors and think more about their motivations. Rather than assuming that all Geminis talk a lot or all Leos want to be the center of attention, youll come to understand why that may or may not always be true.