A Primer Of Sidereal Astrology

Cyril Fagan and Brigadier R. C. Firebrace present an overview primarily of the sidereal versions of basic astrological predictive tools such as progressions, solar return, lunar return and the progressed variants of the latter. Therefore, this is not an introductory book to astrology but for those who already are familiar with classical or modern Western astrology at an intermediate level. It is a primer of SIDEREAL astrology. Those who are unwilling or unable to use mathematics up to and including trigonometry will not be able to follow parts of this book.

The authors only briefly cover the differences between sidereal and tropical zodiacs, as this is the main topic of a previous book by Cyril Fagan, Zodiacs Old and New – A Probe Into Antiquity and What Was Found . In this regard, the notes on Table III of the Appendix, page 137, are of particular interest. They mention that ‘the’ 0 degree of Aries, base of the tropical zodiac, “… is not a clearly defined point in space, albeit mathematical, but a fuzzy, indistinct position that sways in irregular fashion, backward and forwards, reckoned from it.” This is, according to the authors, because of solar and lunar nutation, that, in addition to precession, must be corrected to obtain reliable positions in a sidereal zodiac.

The authors include, above all in Chapter 18, “The Art of Interpretation”, much valuable basic insight and many detailed delineations. They emphasize at times factors that might seem elementary but are often neglected, for example the overriding importance of the 4 angles Ascendant, Medium Coeli, Descendant and Nadir, and of planets in conjunction with them. Planets furthest from these angles are, accordingly, weakest. The Octotopos 8 house system explained by Cyril Fagan in Astrological Origins seems perfectly adapted to this perspective but, alas, no one appears to have fully implemented it, including e.g. standard delineations and an automated report writer, during the last 40 years. Another factor this book moves to the ‘foreground’ is the greater significance of ‘parans’ compared to ecliptic conjunctions, the difference due to ecliptic latitude, very important with fixed stars and occasionally with planets, especially dwarf planets with highly eccentric orbits like Pluto and Eris.

Another point well made by these and some other authors is, even more so when using predictive tools, restricting the planetary contacts to conjunctions, oppositions, trines and squares as well as using relatively tight orbs with the natal map, even tighter ones with predictive charts. Logically, the next aspects to include would be the quintile and the bi-quintile, but the understanding of these was restricted during antiquity and today to a small, duly initiated circle of astrologers and their effects are usually interior. Most often, astrologers today are faced with the task of eliminating many ‘nice to have’ factors in order to concentrate on the few really essential and effective ones. ‘Less is more’.

This reviewer’s only reservation about the book is a tendency of the authors, but somewhat less than with most Western astrologers during the last third of the 20th century, to overly restrict astrology to psychology. There is more to a human being than what happens ‘between his two ears’. Both “external” events and the native’s “internal” participation in them are significant.

Hopefully those currently practising Western sidereal astrology will contribute to its public body of knowledge in the near future.