10 reasons to love charles obert’s traditional astrology books
I’m excited to present the first of an ongoing series: to share about some of my favorite astrology books and authors!
Today’s post is all about Charles Obert, specifically his incredible trilogy of traditional astrology texts. 🙂
contents
- Get on the Obert Fanwagon!
- An Essential Triad for Astrology Students
- 10 Reasons to Love Charles Obert’s Traditional Astrology Books
- Conclusion
get on the obert fanwagon!
First off, I recommend getting to know Charles Obert through a few of his appearances on podcast/YouTube channel episodes:
Charlie Obert on the Lots of Fortune and Daimon on Cat Rose Astrology
Essential Dignities and Debilities in Traditional Astrology on the Astrology Podcast
Dignities and Debilities in Astrology with Kepler College
Which Astrology House System Should You Use? with Kepler College
an essential triad for astrology students
Great stuff, right? That’s what I thought! So naturally, I had to check out his books. I was blown away.
Getting into (mostly) traditional astrology, I found myself looking for more structure, for a framework or foundation. For example, reading Chris Brennan’s Hellenistic Astrology was great and super informative, however the focus is on history and concepts, moreso than the nitty-gritty of learning how to delineate and interpret a chart (for which his course comes highly recommended). I was running into a similar issue with other books and learning materials, UNTIL I found Charles Obert’s books!
He was written several books, but my focus today is his series of three books that can be the backbone of any student astrologer’s studies:
- Introduction to Traditional Astrology
- Learn traditional natal astrology step by step from basic foundations. Provides a complete rubric and interpretive structure to analyze a birth chart. With this foundation firmly learned, a student astrologer can then fit any other learnings into this conceptual structure.
- Using Dignities in Astrology
- This second book expands on the analysis of planetary condition mentioned in the first book, delving deep into what influences a planet.
- The Cycle of the Year
- This book teaches a complete timing system, as practiced in the medieval Islamicate tradition, and recently translated by Benjamin Dykes, whom Charles has worked closely with.
10 reasons to love charles obert’s traditional astrology books
What set this trilogy of titles apart for me? Here’s a quick list of features that I love. This trilogy:
- Builds up from foundational principles.
- Shares personal notes on what works better, and what seems to work but needs testing.
- Grounds the techniques in several examples, including the author’s own birth chart.
- Shows the entire structure of natal chart analysis, zooming in on particulars, and back out to reconsider the entire process. Teaching all three levels of learning needed to practice traditional natal astrology: foundations, natal interpretation, and prediction.
- Focuses material on “traditional astrology” —which for Charles is a thoughtful blend of Hellenistic, medieval Islamicate, and medieval to Renaissance European astrological practice.
- …And also comments on more modern techniques and interpretations that the author has found useful, such as using both whole-sign AND a quadrant house system, and utilizing secondary progressions as a timing system.
- Offers a thorough beginner’s guide to planetary condition.
- Walks the reader through the medieval Islamicate “stack” of timing techniques: distributions, profections, solar revolutions, and directions through the revolution chart.
- Shares step-by-step advice on how to use free open-source programs to generate all necessary charts (Morinus, primarily)
- Gives advice on prepping for and conducing a reading.
conclusion
Tl;dr? Check out Charles Obert’s books right now!! You’ll be happy you did.
*this is not an ad, nor a paid post, I just really love Charles’ work!
On Charles’ website, he even offers a discounted price for his ebook bundle, just send him a message and he’ll set it up for you!
Yours amongst the trees and under the stars,