Hudson Valley Astrologer

I have a collection of astrology books, many of which just showed up in a box one day. It was my good fortune that a fellow student decided to pursue another path and was in the process of clearing out her old astrology books to make room for a new discipline she decided to pursuit when she kindly asked if I would be interested. There are books by Grant Lewi, Dane Rudhyar, Isabel Hickey, Ivy Jacobson, and Liz Green, to name a few. I would add Howard Sasportas, Thomas Moore, Debra Silverman, and Chris Brennan to list.

One author I added to the shelf, but who remains somewhat obscure, is Henry MacArthur who wrote a book called a Truth-Seekers Guide to Astrology. He shared his draft with me several times, and reached out when the book was finally published. The binding and paper are from a small print shop in London and done exceedingly well, the design is elegant and attractive. I’ve skimmed Henry’s book often but have never read it. He’s tried to persuade me that his work will transform astrology. Maybe it will, but people will need to read the book first. I shared a title with him that has been impactful on my learning, but he was dismissive of the work (without reading it). He said her work was just a synthetic model of the zodiac. Henry shares a fresh perspective on astrology that is as far away from traditional (Hellenistic) astrology as my house in the Hudson Valley is from Kasr. I will read Henry’s book eventually, but find it challenging, like believing Nebuchadnezzar II credulous claim that the ziggurat Etemenanki reached the heavens, or that the Ishtar Gate by its immensity and grandeur identified the king’s divine authority and supremacy. “Maybe you’re on to something,” Noel Tyl wrote to him in an email, and so, encouraged by El Maestro himself, Henry continued his 40 year slog through his “research,” commingling his engineering mindset with “spirit.” He is quite adamant that he has found the truth, which can be off putting if one feels he is pointing out how wrong you are in the views you hold.

The two authors who dominate my bookshelves are both Capricorns, born a year and five days apart in the northeast of the United States. Noel Tyl was born in Westchester, P.A. In 1936, and Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet was born in Brooklyn N.Y. In 1938. While I was born 23 years later, their work, like their birth place, feels more proximate to my way of thinking than Henry’s or Brennan’s. Noel Tyl and Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet wrote the books that have shaped and informed my astrological view of the world. I have everything (or almost everything) they ever wrote and have read several of their works multiple times, as well as taken copious notes. I would give anything to have a sit down with either of them, or both of them together, say on a podcast. But it’s too late because they both passed. A dear friend recently reached out to Steven Forrest and invited him onto his podcast. Steven was born one day before, and they too are bother Capricorns. I haven’t read any of Steven’s books, but have him on my Must Read list along with Bruno and Louise Huber, students of Robert Assagioli.

In a world that is rushing headlong into the metaverse one of my desires is to build bookshelf that covers an entire wall in my living room. Aesthetically, nothing would please my eyes more, and nothing could make the room feel cozier. Some things, I think, simply cannot be replicated digitally in a way that will satisfy our senses, and never will be.

HVA

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