Old Astrology Texts
While my love of books and bookstores didn’t originate at school in Arizona, that education certainly sharpened my senses. Academic book warehouse type places, then Changing Hands when it was on Mill Ave., and others, but some of that was merely from academic asides prompted by ancillary and serendipitous internal prompts.
Back in Texas, I fell in love with Half-Price Books all over again. Mercury, in retrograde motion, all I was doing was looking — nothing specific — just grazing on a feast of used, remaindered, and left-over texts. There is no discernible pattern to my consumption.
The cover art and yellowed pages attracted me to one book, dated, and “retro” in design. I opened it to the first page, “The purpose of living is to discover the purpose of living.” (Page 1)
The circular reference yet implied depth caught my attention. Used book, dated material, there might be something useful.
There are several texts that I suggest or use myself, and I’m always open to new data points, especially within the realm of astrology or Shakespeare studies. Old texts sometimes reveal new ideas. Or old ways to express to new material. I liked the opening tautology.
Flipping through the pages, some of it highlighted, I stumbled across a passage about planet Pluto:
“Pluto’s eccentric orbit shows him to be not completely in tune with the rest of solar system.” (Page 33)
That single, highlighted passage grabbed me. In part, it encapsulates what I’ve learned through observation over the last two-dozen plus years, and in part, it illustrates the order and chaos.
Mercury in Retrograde, recall?
While it was merely the one line? I remember that I didn’t buy a marked-up, sticky-note festooned astrology text some years ago, and because of that slip? Kicked myself for years afterwards, I remember looking at the book, it’s a text I’ve read and recommended, that one was full of annotations, margin notes, and even some of the book-mark stickers were there still in it. I regret not picking it up and a few days later, when I wandered that way again? It was already sold. So this older, possibly quite dated text I was holding in my hand, smirking at a highlighted passage? I just bought it, no question.
Old Astrology Texts
When Mercury is in its retrograde pattern, there are certain mistakes, gaffs, and little gifts — windfall — that opens doors. Be willing to experiment and operate without judgement. Half-Price Books is a great place to start.
the Portable Mercury Retrograde
“Mercury is in Gatorade; stay thirsty, my friend.”
Old Astrology Texts
Neptune was in Scorpio from approximately 1955 to 1970. Roughly, late boomer or Generation Jones, and early Gen X.
More on Neptune…
When I looked at the astrology texts that I use most frequently, they seem to have a common element of being borne out of that time when Neptune was in Scorpio. Sure, there’s been more since then, but at the time, that’s the common element. The older authors don’t belong to that generation, but it does exert an influence.
Original copyright on that antiquated and frankly quaint text was 1971, and the import was from 1977. From more recent web search, I think the text itself is out-of-print, and destined to stay that way. Nothing much is new, but I did offer a new approach to an old conundrum myself, cf., BareFoot Astrology.
Old Astrology Texts
Some years back, I was gifted a large number of mostly AFA astrology texts. Some supercilious, spurious and otherwise? A recent, passing comment was that most of those texts are based upon hypotheses that would, these days be a blog post. A decent observation, a technique, a bit of stray data that helps clarify a single point? Sure.
I still like an occasional old astrology book like what I found when Mercury was retrograde, perusing a used books bookstore.
