Books

What to read, and in roughly what order. This is a short list on purpose: a student who works through these carefully is better placed than one who has skimmed thirty.

Start here

William Lilly, Christian Astrology. The standard English handbook and the natural starting point for anyone reading in English. Book one covers the fundamentals, book two horary, book three nativities. The worked examples — including Lilly's judgement of his own chart — are the most valuable part and the part most often skipped.

The primary sources

Read these once the framework is in place, not before.

• Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos — the theoretical account, and the one every later author argues with.
• Vettius Valens, Anthology — a working astrologer's book, full of charts and time-lord technique. Less systematic than Ptolemy and far closer to practice.
• Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum — early, practical, and the source of a great deal that later authors repeat without attribution.
• Paulus Alexandrinus, with Olympiodorus — the clearest short introduction the Hellenistic period produced.
• Abu Ma'shar and the Persian tradition, for the time-lord systems and mundane technique.

On the history

The history of astrological practice — who read what, where the transmission broke, which standard rules rest on a mistranslation — is worth some attention. It is the fastest way to see why the authorities disagree, and it settles a surprising number of technical arguments.

Our own material

The reference tables and the articles are free to download. the Tradition carries translations with their apparatus, twice a year.