First Taylor Trade Publishing edition 2006
This Taylor Trade Publishing paperback edition of The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need is a revised and updated edition of the work first published in hardcover in 1982 and in paperback in 1990 and then issued by Taylor Trade Publishing in 2006. It is published by arrangement with the author.
Copyright © 1982, 1990, 2001, 2006, 2008 by Joanna Martine Woolfolk
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
Published by Taylor Trade Publishing
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Woolfolk, Joanna Martine.
The only astrology book you’ll ever need / Joanna Martine Woolfolk. —new ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58979-377-4 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-58979-377-3 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Astrology. I. Title
BF1708.1 .W68 2001
133.5—dc21 2001031798
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
PHOTO CREDITS
p. 12 Colin Powell (Corbis), Peyton Manning (© Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images), Maya Angelou (Photofest)
p. 17 John Paul II (© Porter Gifford/Getty Images), Stephen Colbert (© Scott Wintrow/Getty Images), Audrey Hepburn (Photofest)
p. 22 Marilyn Monroe (Photofest), John F. Kennedy (Courtesy of the Library of Congress), Paul McCartney (Corbis)
p. 27 Princess Diana (Corbis), George W Bush (Corbis), Ernest Hemingway (Photofest)
p. 32 Mick Jagger (Photofest), Madonna (Corbis), Bill Clinton (Corbis)
p. 37 Richard Gere (Corbis), Mother Teresa (Photofest), Lance Armstrong (© Rob Loud/Getty Images)
p. 42 Jesse Jackson (Photofest), Barbara Walters (© Brad Barket/Getty Images), Simon Cowell (© Jeffrey Mayer/Getty Images)
p. 47 Whoopie Goldberg (© Brad Barket/Getty Images), Hillary Rodham Clinton, Julia Roberts (Corbis)
p. 52 Frank Sinatra (Photofest), Jon Stewart (© Jeff Vespa/Getty Images), Miley Cyrus (© Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)
p. 57 Martin Luther King Jr. (Photofest), Elvis Presley (Photofest), Tiger Woods (© Donald Miralle/Getty Images)
p. 63 Oprah Winfrey (© Evan Agostini / Getty Images), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Photofest), Justin Timberlake (© Steve Granitz/Getty Images)
p. 68 Kurt Cobain (Corbis), Carrie Underwood (© Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images), Albert Einstein (Photofest)
I dedicate this book to William,
who, with his Sun in Cancer, taught me
the meaning of love
and, with his Moon in Virgo,
the meaning of work.
ABOUT THE BOOK
THERE HAS NEVER BEEN an astrology book like this. Here is a book that with a few hours of reading will help you to see yourself better, interpret your own chart, and use your chart year after year to understand and predict trends and opportunities.
The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need gives explanations of the influences that are often given scant attention in conventional astrology books: the Moon sign, the Rising sign, the placement of the planets, and the significance of the twelve Houses.
The value of this book is that an immense amount of knowledge is put into easy-to-understand language. The book is also easy to use, for it supplies simplified Tables that in most cases require only the laying down of a ruler across the birthdate.
Even simpler, for those who have access to a computer, is to utilize the CD-ROM packaged with this book. Just by typing in the birth information, this CD gives you a complete chart within seconds. The CD even provides the page numbers of this book on which to find the meaning of every influence in your chart.
The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need, first published in 1982, is a classic in its field. On its original publication it was a choice of Book-of-the-Month Club, the Literary Guild, and One Spirit Book Club, and has since become one of the best-selling astrology books published in the last 25 years. This new revised edition contains sections on the inner life of each sign; insights on one’s relationship, emotional needs, and drives; and how others see you. This edition is also updated to include the latest information about new discoveries in astronomy, projections of world events in the 21st century, and extended Planetary Tables for every year from 1900 to 2100.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ASTROLOGER Joanna Martine Woolfolk has had a long career as an author, columnist, lecturer, and counselor. She has written the monthly horoscope for numerous magazines in the U.S., Europe and Latin America—among them Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Redbook, Self, YM, House Beautiful, and StarScroll International. In addition to the best-selling The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need, Joanna is the author of Sexual Astrology, which has sold over a million copies worldwide, and Astrology Source, an interactive CD-ROM.
Joanna is a popular television and radio personality who has been interviewed by Barbara Walters, Regis Philbin, and Sally Jessy Raphael. She has appeared in a regular astrology segment on New York Today on NBC-TV and on The Fairfield Exchange on CT Cable Channel 12, and she appears frequently on television and radio shows around the country. You can visit her website at www.joannamartinewoolfolk.com.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I AM GRATEFUL for having known the late Capel McCutcheon, the brilliant astrologer who devised the unique, comprehensive, and easy-to-use Planetary and Ascendant Tables in this book. None of these tables requires more than the simple laying-down of a ruler (or two) in order to read the information that applies to you. These tables are computer accurate and are based on United States time, rather than Greenwich, England, time usually found in other planetary tables.
Capel McCutcheon was a caring and inspiring teacher, counselor, and lecturer, as well as the founder of the Astrological Society of Connecticut. I miss his warmth, support, and generosity.
And I give special thanks to Matrix Software. This innovative astrological computer-software company graciously supplied for this revised edition additional Planetary Tables updated to the year 2100. Matrix Software was founded in the early 1980’s by Michael Erlewine, a visionary genius in the field of computer astrology.
Matrix Software also created the CD-ROM that is packaged with this book. You who have computers can now cast astrological charts within seconds. Just enter the birth information, and your chart is ready. The CD will even give you the page numbers in this book on which key information about your chart is to be found.
We are born at a given moment, in a given place,
and like vintage years of wine, we have the
qualities of the year and of the season
in which we are born.
CARL GUSTAV JUNG
INTRODUCTION
THE LONGER I AM AN ASTROLOGER—which at this point is half my lifetime—the more I realize that what we all want to know is about ourselves. “Who am I?” you ask. You want to know
what makes you tick, why you have such intense feelings, and whether others are also insecure. People write me asking questions like “What kind of man should I look for?” “Why am I discontented with my job?” or “The woman I’m dating is a Gemini; will we be happy together?” They ask me if they’ll ever find true love and when they will get out of a period of sadness or fear or the heavy burden of problems. They ask about their path in life and how they can find more fulfillment.
So I continue to see that the reason astrology exists is to answer questions about you. Basically, it’s all about you. Astrology has been described as a stairway leading into your deeper self. It holds out the promise that you do not have to pass through life reacting blindly to experience, that you can within limits direct your own destiny and in the process reach a truer self-understanding.
One surprising thing about the science of the stars is its constant newness. Down through the centuries philosophers, mystics, and spiritual teachers have studied, written about, refined, and pondered astrology’s significance. It is the world’s oldest science and our own generation’s newest subject of inquiry. According to a Gallup poll, 35 percent of American adults believe their lives are influenced by the position of the heavenly bodies. The great majority of newspapers and magazines published in the United States carry an astrology column. Astrology as a serious subject is being offered in over a dozen university courses.
Despite this new surge of interest, however, the general public has only a smattering of knowledge about the subject. The average person will say, “I’m interested, but I don’t know much about astrology.”
One of the problems people encounter when trying to learn more about astrology is that most books deal with only one phase of the subject. If you want to know about your Sun sign, there are many books on this topic. If you want to know about your Moon sign, you will find books on this topic also. If you want to learn about your birth chart, you will have to look for yet another book that explains charts (these are harder to find).
Not long ago, while talking to a friend, I casually mentioned that my birth chart shows I have three planets in Taurus. “Oh,” she said, “can you tell me where my three planets are?” She did not know that everyone has ten planets* in his or her birth chart.
But how would my friend know this? Most astrology books don’t deal with birth charts. Unless you are willing to hunt down esoteric volumes hidden in the occult section of bookstores or in special libraries, where would you go to get that information? Any astrology book will tell you whether your Sun sign is Aries or Pisces or one of the other signs of the zodiac. But then what?
This book tells you all you should know about the whole topic of astrology. You will learn about Sun signs—and also about Moon signs, Ascendants, Planets, and Houses. You will come to understand how these factors interact to shape your life. You will discover the meaning of Aspects in your horoscope, and how to compare your birth chart with another person’s to reveal areas of compatibility. You will learn how astrology began and developed. And if you have access to a computer, the CD-ROM packaged with this book will enable you to cast a birth chart within seconds.
However, I want to say a word about what this book is not. It is not an encyclopedia—nor does it encompass all the astrological wisdom that has been discovered during the last 5,000 years. No single book could possibly do that even if it were twenty times as long as the present volume.
This book is an easy-to-understand, all-in-one guide to what astrology is about. If you want to know where all your planets are in your birth chart or how compatible your Sun sign is with your lover’s Sun sign or what the influence of the Moon is in your life—it is here in one book.
I’d like to make one more important point. Astrology cannot transform your life—only you can do this. We astrologers are often guilty of overpromising or encouraging people to become overdependent. Astrology will not change the ups and downs of your life drama. What it can do is give you insight on how to deal with your drama. Astrology offers information and direction and, best of all, reassurance. Sometimes all one is looking for is a nugget of guidance, and I know you will find many, many nuggets in this book.
I assume you picked up this book because you are interested in astrology. And I hope this is only the beginning of your exploration. One can easily spend a lifetime exploring the uncountable facets of this ever-evolving, ever-new topic. Together we are about to enter more deeply into this fascinating, vast, and complicated arena of knowledge. I hope this will not be the only astrology book you’ll ever want—merely the only one you’ll ever need.
JOANNA MARTINE WOOLFOLK
Stamford, Connecticut
June 2008
FOOTNOTE
*In a birth chart (which is a chart of the heavens at the time of your birth), the Sun and Moon are counted as planets. The Earth, because it is our home-planet, is not.
Part One
SUN SIGN ASTROLOGY
Yet a typical remark often made to astrologers goes something like this: “I’m a Capricorn, but when I read those descriptions of Capricorn, they don’t describe me very accurately.”
Remember, the Sun sign is just the start of your portrait, the broad strokes. You also have a Moon in your birth chart, and it’s probably in a different sign from the one the Sun is in. You have planets in your birth chart, and each may be in a different sign.
You are a complex and unique combination, unlike anyone else. Any attempt to give an accurate description from only a Sun sign falls into the kind of error H. L. Mencken was referring to when he remarked that “for every complicated problem, there is a solution that is short, simple, and wrong.”
Only by studying the entire birth chart can an astrologer begin to get a complete picture of a personality. Even then, there is a certain latitude for error simply because human beings are not carved in stone. We change a little every day and with every person we meet. Love, tragedy, success—each circumstance of life alters us. However, the essential person remains. And the Sun sign is the outline of that essence.
Astrology is a fascinating tool for the study of human nature. When you first meet someone, that person is a mystery. You see the color of eyes and hair, the mode of dress, whether he or she is tall or short. You must wait for further information to know anything more. If you know the person’s Sun sign, you can put a few pieces of the puzzle together. But, just as when you are beginning a complex jigsaw puzzle, too many pieces are missing. The Sun sign merely gives you an edge, an extra insight that you would not otherwise possess.
Of course, knowledge of Sun signs is not only useful in casual social meetings. It is invaluable in close relationships. If your Cancer husband nags and criticizes, you’ll know it’s just his way of showing how much he cares about you. If your ten-year-old Virgo daughter acts like a premature old maid, fussing about putting everything exactly where she wants it, you’ll understand why she needs to have her possessions neatly arranged. Knowing how scattered and forgetful a Gemini can be, you will find it easier to forgive your Gemini lover when your birthday present shows up two days late.
Most important of all, an understanding of your own Sun sign will give you an added measure of self-knowledge, a deeper insight into the stranger that is yourself.
Some Astrological Background on the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac
In the 5,000 years that have passed since the study of astrology was first recorded, the twelve signs of the zodiac have acquired special associations, characterizations, and meanings.
Hundreds of years before the time of Christ, Greek philosophers formulated the theory of Man in Microcosm—that is, the human being is a miniature version of the cosmos. According to this concept, everything in nature has a parallel in human beings, and thus humankind and the universe are linked together in a system of correlations. Out of this idea, known as the Hermetic Theory, sprang such divinatory arts as palmistry, which holds that the solar system corresponds to various parts of the human hand.
&
nbsp; In keeping with the Hermetic Theory, a vast body of correspondences grew up surrounding the twelve signs of the zodiac. Many of these affinities date back thousands of years. Most were known when Claudius Ptolemy recorded them in his definitive astrological treatise, the Tetrabiblos, during the second century a.d. Some knowledge is more recent: the three modern planets, for example, were only discovered within the last 250 years,* and with their discovery have come new associations and definitions.
One could say that each astrological sign is a miniature Book of Knowledge, and all twelve put together give a picture of human beings, our bodies, minds, and emotions, and of the surrounding world in which we live.
Like an intricate Chinese box, the zodiac is a whole entity that can be taken apart and examined in different ways.
To begin with, the twelve signs of the zodiac are divided into several sets of groups, or numbers. They are divided into twos, threes, fours, and sixes.
Dualities
The twelve signs are divided into two groups, masculine and feminine. Six signs are masculine, and six signs are feminine. This is known as the sign’s duality. In astrological terms, a masculine sign is direct and energetic; a feminine sign is receptive and magnetic. These masculine and feminine attributes were given to the signs about 2,000 years ago. Today modern astrologers try to avoid the sexism implicit in these distinctions. A masculine sign does not mean “positive and forceful” any more than a feminine sign means “negative and weak.” In modern terminology, the masculine signs are defined as outer-directed and strong through action. The feminine signs are self-contained and strong through inner reserves.
Triplicities
The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need Page 1
