John Frawley

The Horary Textbook: Revised Edition is noticeably different than its 2005 predecessor. Frawley has included the entire original text and then has added commentary, clarifications, and/or further explanations where needed in brackets. That makes this edition about 40 pages longer than the original.

New edition or not, Frawley is still Frawley. He is not shy about stating his opinions and he's definitely from the "do not suffer fools gladly" school of writing, and you are likely to find this refreshing, annoying as all get-out, or both (I'm in that last camp). He makes it clear when he disagrees with William Lilly and other classical authorities on astrology, but then he's also open about when he thinks he was wrong in the first edition. He begins with several chapters on the basics of horary astrology: houses, signs, planets, dignities, receptions, and so on. The second part of the book looks at typical horary issues organized by house (second house questions about lost objects, tenth house questions about jobs, etc.). He concludes with chapters on weather and electional astrology and a set of appendices.

Even when I think Frawley is at his most irritating, I find his explanations straightforward and easy to understand. Still, you should probably have a basic understanding of astrology before tackling this book. I think he does a particularly good job with analogies. Many astrological writers compare the planets to actors in a play, but Frawley extends this to make the point that you shouldn't confuse the essential character of a planet with what it represents in a horary chart any more than you should say that only wicked people should play villainous characters. He likens reception to planets loving or hating each other, which makes a lot of sense to me as an explanation of the planetary relationships in charts. This book is definitely my go-to reference on horary astrology.… (mer)