Be Your Own Astrologer: Step by Step to Creating & Interpreting Your Birth Chart

Okay so, this book will help you get through the process of making a natal chart. It is very similar to an elementary school, math workbook. Paul Wade gives you an example of each step which I used to check my math to make sure I completed the step properly.It is true that this book is not the only thing you will need to create a chart. I found an ephemeris and table of houses online, I got my lat/lon from google maps (very accurate), I was able to photo copy Wade's chart templates easily (they are fine for practice, I have found a much cooler one online for the final product) and I downloaded a graphing calculator app that can do degrees on my phone. In our age we have all these incredible tools at our finger tips.There are some things Wade takes for granted when teaching his readers. Once in a while he is vague in his explanations, which made it so each step took some trial and error and some problem solving beyond the pages of his book. The first chart I created took me a few days to figure out, but I know my next one will go faster.Birth charts are so complicated to interpret. The second half of Wade's book really only skims the top of understanding one. You will most likely need another book or 5 to fully interpret and thoroughly learn about charts. I already had a decent amount of knowledge of the zodiac and personology to help me along. I am also pretty good at math and problem solving which I think is a quality necessary to create natal charts.Wade's book never discouraged me and no step was so difficult that I felt like giving up. There was one step where I had to go to sleep and figure it out the next day. Learning this skill and understanding people's stars takes patience. Someone could write a more comprehensive book on the subject of charts, but I don't think anyone has yet.

Comprehensive study of astrology

I discovered Paul Wade's info packed website as I Googled around one rainy day. I literally was glued to my computer screen for hours as I read every single word he had written. Paul made a lot of the concepts I had struggled to wrap my 50 year old brain around make SENSE! I had so many AHA moments while readin g his website and then his book, I felt like one big AHA.This book is an AMAZING find for any newbie (or even seasoned astrologer). Some of the little things that had never made sense just fell into place as I read Paul's book. Well laid out, fun to read, it is a TREASURE.If you are ready to REALLY learn astrology, in TODAY'S WORLD, buy this book and learn astrology for THIS century.Kathy

U need American emphermus

I have never written a review on Amazon before but I felt it necessary to review this book as the majority of the previous reviews really give this great book a bad name. When I first became interested in learning how to calculate charts I was really blessed to find this treasure at Barnes & Noble's. Of all the complicated and hard to understand tutorials that you can find elsewhere on chart calculation this is by far the most simplified and easy to work with. Yes you need an atlas, an ephemeris, a table of houses, and a scientific calculator. There is no way around that and that is not the author's fault. Those are simply the required tools for the job, and if you are serious about calculating charts these books will be required for as long as you remain involved in the hobby. And no the author does not teach you how to use a scientific calculator. A quick Youtube search of "How to calculate degrees on a scientific calculator" will solve this problem. Hint hint: There is a Youtube video titled "Lesson: Degrees, minutes, and seconds on the TI-84" which will teach you how to do this in under 4 minutes. This is a wonderful book. Seriously.

I bought this book because it seemed so simple. I wanted to do my own chart. 6 hours of frustrating Google searches later, I am barely able to get past stage 3 (not even halfway through the calculations you need to make a chart). You won't get past step one without your friend Google. The book doesn't give you a preface on "the materials you will need". Rather, you are hit at each step with a list of materials that NO ONE is likely to randomly have on hand. For example: an ephemeris, a geography book, a table of houses, a scientific calculator, a midnight ephemeris etc.When you do Google these things, this book won't even tell you how to use them. Believe me, there are pdf files available for all these things with strange abbreviations and symbols that a lay person to astrology WILL NOT UNDERSTAND!!!!The book won't even explain basic concepts like how to multiply GMT birth by 10 seconds. It also assumes that you know all those funny little symbols on the scientific calculator.Save your cash. It's glossy and simplistic looking, but you are better off, Googling how to make your own chart or just buying one from an astrologer.

I am a beginner in Astrology and was very interested in the topic but am dissappointed that you need several other books to create your chart. The format of the book also does not lend itself to photocopying the charts in the book as you work your way thru the chapters. I would recommend to the author that he add a link to a web site where the reader could print the templates for completing the charts for each chapter. Examples in the book of how to actually read the sources cited would also have been helpful.

This second-hand book arrived promptly with a slightly damaged cover but with the contents in excellent condition. It provides a clear introduction to setting up and interpreting an astrological chart, its material being well laid out and pleasingly presented in colour.

Okay