Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune

Fantastic book

Chris Brennan is a young astrologer with a wealth of knowledge in ancient astrology. Chris's gets into the finest detail in this book about classical astrology and lists a wealth of resources and bibliography's that is simply breath taking. Put simply this is probably the best book on astrology ever written. It not only rediscovers the ancient roots of astrology that have been missing or misunderstood but explains the how and why we astrologers do what we do and where the ideas came from! The book can also be read as a Hellenistic history and philosophical book. My only minor grip as a Christian is that Chris did not utilise the Bible more as there are plenty of clues to astrology references in both the Old and New testaments going back to Hellenistic times and beyond. After all the Magi are the most famous astrologers there have ever been? Mathew 3. All astrology ultimately should point to the creator and not the creation. Josephus in his book "Antiquities of the Jews" claims that astrology started with Abraham and Seth. The prophet Daniel was the ultimate Magi as head of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon's wise men. The Bible deserves its place as the originator of the Heavenly writings. Psalm 19 V 1-4 " The Heavens declare the glory of God.The skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech. Night after night they reveal knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard."

I've loved this book so far! (I'm not completely done but almost). It is a very thorough and scholarly presentation of Western astrology as it was originally practiced in antiquity. You gotta love it how you get know the reasons and the underlying philosophy of astrological practice. What I missed was maybe a more textbook-like presentation instead of a historical analysis. The delineations are not complete like modern textbooks. But what I learned was extremely valuable. I loved that Mr. Brennan recovers techniques which were lost in Western astrological practice over the centuries. And it was very enjoyable that he demonstrates them using modern birth charts. I can only recommend it to everybody into traditional astrology, and also to any serious modern astrologer who wants to know the reasons behind the techniques and the philosophy.

Excellent ref for astrology

I'm a newbie to astrology and the History alone in this book I'm finding absolutely fascinating. Looks like you just need to be able to draw up a chart which any can easily learn online for free and off ya go, well I maybe simplying a wee bit but that's how it seems. It's a damn big book and will probably take me a year or so to go through it but if the rest of the book is as good as the first chapter I can't wait and from the skips ahead I've done it does seem that good. The only astrology book I've every read that I actually want and am enthusiastic to go back to.

Very detail-oriented book, easy to read. If you want to learn Hellenistic Astrology this is a simply must-have in your library!

This book had been recommended to me to read. I am glad that I took the advice as this is an excellent book to read on the study of Fate and Fortune.

Fabulous book worth every penny. From one of the best if you want real ancient astrology.

Comprei este livro em segunda mão a metade do preço e estava óptimo, tal e qual como às vezes recebo livros comprados novos! Ansiosa por o ler pois admiro imenso o Chris Brennan, as suas ideologias e de certeza que irei gostar.

Chris Brennan is a master of His craft, and that is a bit of an understatement. This book goes into incredible detail. The history is explained thoroughly, which I love. It gives tons of context as to why astrology is calculated the way it is, and how we arrived to many of the methods used with ancient astrology as it is. I had bought this book with a different expectation for what it was, and got something different - it ended up being a better package than what I had originally wanted, a bit of a happy accident. When I first started studying astrology in-depth, I had bought the book "The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need" by Joanna Martine Woolfolk, and expected that this book would follow a similar format. Instead, what I got was a very complexly and wonderfully descriptive book on the history of Hellenistic Astrology, and why things are determined a certain way. I thought it would follow the same format. For example, "This sign represents these themes, these placements represent this, this calculation is going to do this." It's way more in-depth than that. This is a textbook. This is way more in-depth than that format. Now, with all that in mind, I do have some critiques (which are FAR fewer than the positives of this book). One thing that I would say about this book is that Chris goes into EXCRUCIATING detail as to why he uses certain terminology, and why he says certain things. This is more of a two-sided coin; it has both benefits and downsides. For one, this is good, because he highly communicative on why he says certain things to ensure there is minimal confusion. The drawback of this is that You will often find that there can be paragraphs of him reiterating "due to x reason, I will be using this terminology". On its own, I don't consider that to be a bad thing. However, there is the added feature of the fact that Chris uses very advanced vocabulary (not referring to astrological vocabulary. Referring to general vocabulary that someone without a dictionary on-hand may have trouble breaking down) on top of explaining in sentence after sentence why he uses certain words within astrological vernacular. It can feel a little bit redundant, and if You are anything like me and have a short attention span, You can find Yourself spending more time than usual dissecting a sentence or paragraph that may be time consuming (at least I know that was the case for me). Don't get me wrong, I am just as guilty of this myself, as I do the same thing when I describe things and have a relatively similar communication style. But to a typical reader who is trying to understand astrology for the first time, this can be a challenge. Maybe it's a necessary feature of the book, and Chris weighed the pros and cons of his thorough descriptions prior to writing this, and decided his approach was the lesser of two evils. If that's the case, I can understand this. But my only critique would be to try to trim down the more advanced words and make the sentences more concise without compromising the info stated in the book, if at all possible. My advice to the reader is this - if You are studying astrology for the first time, I still recommend this book...but I don't recommend this as a first book. I would recommend following the journey of books in the following order: 1) "The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need" by Joanna Martine Woolfolk (as a caveat, this Astrologer *mostly* follows modern astrology, and starting with this book will require the cognitive flexibility to learn what the book teaches, and be willing to unlearn *some* of the info as Your knowledge progresses - three steps forward, one step back) 2) "Ancient Astrology In Theory And Practice" by Demetra George (Volume I and II) 3) "Hellenistic Astrology" By Chris Brennan Following this order will ensure that You go from easiest to hardest. Astrology requires constant and gradual learning, as well as patience. So much of the mainstream view of astrology has given us a watered-down and hard to take seriously perspective by astrology-skeptics. It truly is more complex than what the majority of people understand about it. But perseverance and slow learning will be Your best friend. All this is to say, this book deserves all the 5-Starts I have given it, and more. It is an excellent tool in the tool-belt of anyone who truly wants to learn, and is a book that I don't regret investing in with all the critiques in mind. I will recommend this to anyone who truly wants to advance their knowledge, and is definitely an excellent tool to use in tandem with his podcast. Happy studying celestial scholars!

現在最も勢いのある若手占星術家のひとり、クリス・ブレナン氏の著作です。 700ページ近くあり、重くて大きくて読み応え抜群なのですが、本作のお勧めは氏の英語が最高に読みやすいという、非ネイティブにとって本当に有り難い点です。 イギリスの方の著作は占星術に限らず、どれもおおよそ高尚（に感じる）表現、文体で一行を理解するのに3〜4分かかることがあります。（わたしがダメだからなんですけど）ですが、本作の英語はユニバーサル、シンプル、明快。正統派の米語です。もってまわった言い回しや、欧米人にしか分からない暗喩などがありません。 氏は外国人にも分かる様に書いていますし、中高生でも読める内容を目指したのではないかと思わせる箇所があります。 英語が苦手で、読みたくないけどギリシャ占星術（ヘレニズム占星術）を頑張って読みたいと思っている方には本当にお勧めの一冊です。 ベンジャミン・ダイクス氏の著作も読みやすいです。でも本作ほど読みやすい英語の占星術書を読んだことがありません。

Produto ótimo!

Love this book