Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune Paperback – February 10, 2017

Chris Brennan is a master of His craft, and that is a bit of an understatement. This book goes into incredible detail. The history is explained thoroughly, which I love. It gives tons of context as to why astrology is calculated the way it is, and how we arrived to many of the methods used with ancient astrology as it is. I had bought this book with a different expectation for what it was, and got something different - it ended up being a better package than what I had originally wanted, a bit of a happy accident. When I first started studying astrology in-depth, I had bought the book "The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need" by Joanna Martine Woolfolk, and expected that this book would follow a similar format. Instead, what I got was a very complexly and wonderfully descriptive book on the history of Hellenistic Astrology, and why things are determined a certain way. I thought it would follow the same format. For example, "This sign represents these themes, these placements represent this, this calculation is going to do this." It's way more in-depth than that. This is a textbook. This is way more in-depth than that format.Now, with all that in mind, I do have some critiques (which are FAR fewer than the positives of this book). One thing that I would say about this book is that Chris goes into EXCRUCIATING detail as to why he uses certain terminology, and why he says certain things. This is more of a two-sided coin; it has both benefits and downsides. For one, this is good, because he highly communicative on why he says certain things to ensure there is minimal confusion. The drawback of this is that You will often find that there can be paragraphs of him reiterating "due to x reason, I will be using this terminology". On its own, I don't consider that to be a bad thing. However, there is the added feature of the fact that Chris uses very advanced vocabulary (not referring to astrological vocabulary. Referring to general vocabulary that someone without a dictionary on-hand may have trouble breaking down) on top of explaining in sentence after sentence why he uses certain words within astrological vernacular. It can feel a little bit redundant, and if You are anything like me and have a short attention span, You can find Yourself spending more time than usual dissecting a sentence or paragraph that may be time consuming (at least I know that was the case for me). Don't get me wrong, I am just as guilty of this myself, as I do the same thing when I describe things and have a relatively similar communication style. But to a typical reader who is trying to understand astrology for the first time, this can be a challenge. Maybe it's a necessary feature of the book, and Chris weighed the pros and cons of his thorough descriptions prior to writing this, and decided his approach was the lesser of two evils. If that's the case, I can understand this. But my only critique would be to try to trim down the more advanced words and make the sentences more concise without compromising the info stated in the book, if at all possible.My advice to the reader is this - if You are studying astrology for the first time, I still recommend this book...but I don't recommend this as a first book. I would recommend following the journey of books in the following order:1) "The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need" by Joanna Martine Woolfolk (as a caveat, this Astrologer *mostly* follows modern astrology, and starting with this book will require the cognitive flexibility to learn what the book teaches, and be willing to unlearn *some* of the info as Your knowledge progresses - three steps forward, one step back)2) "Ancient Astrology In Theory And Practice" by Demetra George (Volume I and II)3) "Hellenistic Astrology" By Chris BrennanFollowing this order will ensure that You go from easiest to hardest. Astrology requires constant and gradual learning, as well as patience. So much of the mainstream view of astrology has given us a watered-down and hard to take seriously perspective by astrology-skeptics. It truly is more complex than what the majority of people understand about it. But perseverance and slow learning will be Your best friend.All this is to say, this book deserves all the 5-Starts I have given it, and more. It is an excellent tool in the tool-belt of anyone who truly wants to learn, and is a book that I don't regret investing in with all the critiques in mind. I will recommend this to anyone who truly wants to advance their knowledge, and is definitely an excellent tool to use in tandem with his podcast.Happy studying celestial scholars!

This book was extremely informative and a thorough review of ancient Hellenistic Astrology. If you’ve never studied Astrology, you *might* be able to make it through this book, but I suggest first building a foundation (at least signs, planets, aspects, houses, etc). The author *does* go over all of this… but, for me, it would have been tough to continue through the book with active comprehension without all the basics thoroughly memorized. I’ve been actively studying Astrology for the past two years (a lot of which has consisted of listening to Chris Brennan’s podcast/YouTube!) and even with that, the book was a heavy (yet fascinating!) read. I appreciated his writing style— the book reads as though he’s sitting in front of you, talking to you. The example charts are helpful as well.Chris, if you read this review, just want to say thank you for all the work you do! You are a natural teacher and (from where I sit!), a brilliant Astrologer. Awesome job on this book (available in fine bookstores everywhere!)— I can’t even begin to imagine all the hours of work and research that went into writing it! Thank you so much, and please never stop!

This book will be looked at as a foundational text for generations to come. It is written in the formal, instructional style of a textbook with citations and references.The scope of the book is wide-ranging and comprehensive, and each item gets a thorough treatment. The depth and detail are extraordinary.This book is not geared toward the casual astrology fan; it is meant to serve as a historical compilation as well as thorough text. It is written such that it can take the reader from pure novice to studied hobbyist, but it would be more easily consumed by those with some foundational knowledge.Reading this book was and is a pleasure, and it is highly recommended for the scholarly-minded astrologer or hobbyist.