Overall this is a good explanation of the different aspects. Antepara does a good job of explaining astrological terms without boring the more advanced reader and she uses some wonderful snippets of people’s lives and charts to demonstrate her concepts without falling into so much astrological jargon she becomes incomprehensible to the beginner.
Antepara explains the concepts of mutable, cardinal and fixed in a way which anyone could understand. Additionally she compares and contrasts the ideas of hard and soft aspects. At the beginning of each chapter she clearly outlines what makes up each aspect and gives keywords to describe each aspect. The use of blank charts with only the aspect drawn out offers the reader a clear of what to look for in their own charts. Missing is a chart correlating the symbols which are used in all charts to represent the astrological signs and planets. She has a good appendix which aides the beginner in their astrological understanding and clarifies some of her concepts; however, the most basic symbols for each sign and planet are missing.
Antepara writes in an easy to read style without falling into the use of jargon or technical terms. Her vignettes give peeks into famous people’s lives and how the aspects from their natal charts played out in their lives. The charts were great graphics but it would have been useful to have the aspect she discussed highlighted in some way. These vignettes were interesting to read but Antepara failed to provide a correlation between the famous person’s aspects and how to interpret ones own aspects. Some things to look for or key issues or a list of possible problems would assist the reader to personalize the information.
In chapter twelve -- Techniques of Transformation -- Antepara discusses how to identify aspects within a natal chart. She spends a minimum of discussion on how people handle the different aspects, and then addresses different techniques in how to transform the difficult aspects in a chart. Although there is a chart illustrating how to work with these transformations, the directions on how to use it aren’t very clear. Nor are the directions on how to recognize how the aspects affect one’s life.
In the end this is a decent explanation of the different aspects. This would make a good reference book for general knowledge but doesn’t give a good way to work with one’s own aspects. Three stars.
~review by Eileen Troemel
Author: Robin Antepara
Llewellyn Publications, 2006
