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Book Title:

Mundane Astrology by Michael Baigent Date Published: 1989 review by Tom Goyett

 

 

They say that Astrology is the mother of all Sciences. You should know then that Mundane Astrology is the first Astrology that was practiced. In Mesopotamia where the astrologer priests went up in there ziggurats every night to see the night stars and the dance of the planets they would stand in wonder at the night sky and behold the movements of the heavens.

This was the beginning of Astrology. But did they cast charts for your nephew or you son? No, the only person who got a horoscope was the King or the ruler of the county. They would watch the sky and when planets moved through the sky to be with certain stars or other planets they would remember what was happening in the world around them. During the day when they could not see the stars and after a period of time they came to realize that when these planets came to themselves or to stars things would happen. This is the beginning of Astrology and of Mundane Astrology.

In the book Mundane Astrology we get the views of world class astrologers in one of the best books on Mundane Astrology ever written. But don't just talk my word for it puruse the book and decide for yourself if this is true or not.

This book is divided up into four parts. Part one is the background, it deals with the history and some of the theories on why it works.

Part two covers the material. There is a chapter in this section called the Great Year by Nicholas Campion that has since been expanded and turned into a whole book. If you're at all interested in this chapter you should read that book. It also contains the theory of cycles by Charles Harvey which is the basis of all astrology as Dane Rudhyar says so poetically in all of his books. Then lastly all three of them together collaborate on the best mundane definitions of the planets and the houses that you'll find anywhere.

Part three is where you can find out about the techniques of Mundane Astrology. Here you will find out how to use the charts of the New and Full Moon and the Eclipses that can sometimes happen during them and the charts for when planets change signs or have an ingress. The most famous of these are the Sun as it goes into the four cardinal signs and marks the seasons as we know them, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Of these the spring chart is one that can last for the whole year or give sway to the others depending on the rising sign of that chart and the placement of the planets in the chart.

Astro*Cartography is then mentioned, this is a technique developed by Jim Davis that shows where on the earth the planets will be on the four angles of the chart. Then they try to explain how various places on the earth are "ruled" by the various signs and how to develop a system whereby you can find out by the degree of longitude what you should expect in this place. There are twists and turns here and you'll find out why different people start at different places with the beginnings of their measurements. You then go into a hodge podge of other techniques that will amaze and fascinate you. The charts of rulers, declination charts, degree areas including Sabian Symbols, fixed stars and many other things will come bubbling up when you read this book.

The fourth and last part is a well worked practical example of how to use this tool in your study of history. The authors pick the most turbulent period of our recent history, the Second World War and show us how to use these techniques from three different points of view. Baigent comes with the collective conscious of the time. Harvey does the astrological cycles that were current during the time. Then lastly Campion gives the astrological timing of the events.

There are also appendices too in this book that bear noting. Financial Astrology gets a section and finally there is a very interesting section on the Age of Aquarius. We all say that the new age is coming but when will it get here? Has it already come, will it come soon? These great ages are said to be quite long. They are said to have 500 year cusp periods where the energy shifts from one sign to the previous one as is happening now as we go from Pisces to Aquarius. This is an interesting section.

So all in all look for this republished edition of the famous work by these three outstanding authors. It will be well worth your time to read it and will give you an idea of how Astrology came into our lives through its history. This is a book that should sit on the shelf of all serious astrologers.

 

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