When I was twelve,  I got a boxed kit which allowed me to draw my own astrology chart.

House of Anansi, 2011

More than ten years later, I finally wrapped my head around the mathematical charts in the back of the book.

In the meantime, I admired the colourful diagrams, the wet-erase maps of the heavens, the fresh pads of paper for planetary placements and, instead, I turned to Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs.

I thought it was a-m-aaaaaaa-z-i-n-g. I had multiple copies. I think one of them was even around during my Highlighting Years. (That one has, since, disappeared.)

Throughout the years, I have been ambivalent about astrology, sometimes reading particular columns daily and following planetary movements the way that I routinely follow the weather predictions, other times not giving those pages and events a second glance or thought.

Lately, I haven’t been paying much attention, and I did not recognize Georgia Nicols’ name when I first came across this book in the House of Anansi catalogue.

(There is a short video introducing her on their website: click the cover image to follow the link.)

Still, it’s just the kind of book that could reignite my interest. And, certainly, the hinge between the years does draw me to such figuring more than usual.

In her introduction, the author discusses why she believes that astrology works:

“The fact that everything is interconnected is, for me, why astrology works. Astrology is just a patterning of knowledge. It is a soft science about how our lives unfold.”

She does elude to the mathematics of it (sometimes when I can’t sleep at night, I still think of those pages and pages of figures sprawling on either side of a decimal point in the charts of that beloved kit), but the bulk of the text is devoted to prose, and the earliest chapters are inviting and colloquial in tone.

“Our lives are a series of cycles within cycles. Daily cycles, weekly cycles, monthly cycles, annual cycles and the cycles of the changing seasons.”

And understanding the relationship between the cycles of the planets moving through your signs with the cycles of your chart can help prepare you for changes in the wings.

“And hey — of course you’re concerned about the future. This is where you’re going to spend the rest of your life.”

You and Your Future discusses, as the subtitle suggests, your signs, in-depth personality patterns, and 40-year horoscopes.

It uses a very simple chart (mentioning, by the way, that a simple chart cannot substitute for accurate calculations…so that kit was a good investment after all) to calculate your rising sign for you, and you’re off.

Each sign receives equal treatment and, indeed, Georgia Nicols suggests that each person has an incentive to read each sign’s section (because we all have each sign in our chart…somewhere).

Beginning with Aries, there are a couple of quotes, a summary page, “What is Aries-ness?” (with shorter sections (titled “Heads Up!”, “Moi, Moi, Moi”, “We’ve Got Your Number”, “Ram Wasn’t Built in a Day”), Three Roles that Aries Embraces (The Warrior, The Artisan, The Pioneer/Hero and some additional commentary), “Aries in Love”, “The Aries Boss”, “The Aries Employee”, “The Aries Parent”, “The Aries Child”, “How to Be a Better Aries” (with anecdotes and commentary), the 40-year horoscope (1985 to 2025) and “Famous Aries Personalities”.

You and Your Future is about 600 pages long; it’s not a book that you carry with you to browse when you’re travelling on the subway, but as a beside-table browser, it’s a charmer.

Tempted?

Project Notes: 
Day 45 of 45:
It seemed fitting to include this as one of three holiday-oriented themed choices for this project (the others appear in the archives on December 20th and December 25th); once again, I am happily surprised at the breadth of offerings in Anansi’s catalogue. Stay tuned for details about my 45 Days of Anansi draw. Thanks ever-so-much for following along!