Saturn Return Can Bite Me

Another Saturn return in fiction

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:05:06 -0700

The book Laced With Magic by Barbara Bretton has a very LITERAL Saturn return. I don't know when Chloe's birthday is exactly (I don't recall it being mentioned in the books?), but she's around thirty and Saturn cycles feature in PROMINENTLY in the tale.

Just wanted to point that out.

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Saturn Return in Fiction: Maxi Amberville in I'll Take Manhattan

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:05:36 -0700

Okay, wacky idea, but I figured it might be a good one to mention characters who relate to this topic.

The setup: Maxi Amberville is 29 years old at the start of the novel. She's spent almost her entire life as a charming party girl, the sort who gets voted class president just before she gets expelled. She's held one job in her life as an intern for one of her father's magazines (he has a magazine publishing company), which she was a total dilettante about ("Lunch! Three free hours to shop!") until a hunky fellow named Rocco was hired. Maxi immediately became the world's most helpful assistant to him, and later ended up marrying him/having his kid before the marriage blew up after about a year. Since then she's been divorced two more times after impulsively marrying two other blokes. Her second husband, known as Bad Dennis Brady, well...it's a good thing he inherited money, because he had no interests other than boating, gambling, and boinking. Maxi got fed up with his lack of ambition and then ended up marrying a guy with ambition...only he was kind of nuts and his ambition had more to do with the past than anything else. So, basically, she's gotten married a few times, raised a kid, and shopped a lot. Her goal in life is the Search for the Ultimate Fun.

Then Maxi finds out that her evil uncle Cutter has just married her widowed mother (yes, this is partly a retelling of Hamlet, but with less deaths) and taken over the family company. Which he means to destroy. None of Toby Amberville's kids showed interest in taking over the biz in the first place (Maxi was partying, Justin was roaming the world, and Toby is legally blind), so you'd think nobody would care if he starts cutting corners, right? Well, Maxi, who was her daddy's favorite, pitches a fit and demands control of one of the to-be-axed magazines. She picks "Buttons and Bows", the first magazine her dad ever founded, on a whim. It seems like a pretty stupid whim when she goes down to the place and finds it pretty well dead already.

So Maxi decides to create a new magazine on top of the old one. She buys every magazine she can find on the stands, reads them all, and gets vastly furious with the "shame, shame, you're not good enough" messages of every dang women's magazine out there. (AMEN TO THAT.) Her magazine idea then becomes "B&B, the magazine that loves you." It's all about fun. Reusing stuff in your closet, amusing celebrity confessionals, and no shaming and guilting! Much to her surprise, Maxi finds that the Ultimate Fun is...work. Who knew?

Maxi's birthday isn't outright stated in the book, but it's indicated to be in August. No way in hell is she a Virgo, so clearly she's a showboat Leo kinda girl.

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Literary Astrology: the Uber-Scorpio

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:41:15 -0700

I recently finished reading Tap and Gown, and I'd like to cite one of its main characters, Jamie "Poe" Orcutt, as an UBER-Scorpio. We find out in this book exactly why he got called "Poe"--for his Halloween birthday. But in this book, he's especially Scorpionic. During the book, he's revealed as the mastermind behind a giant political figure's downfall, and he is apparently recruited for one of Those Scary Organizations We Don't Talk About. Also, we find out that at one point, he was quite insistent on having live chickens around during an initiation for the secret society he's in.

"Rebuffed, the Knight Poe proceeded to glower at his assembled brothers for a full five minutes."

Then there's an hour and a half of discussion in which he insists on the chickens, until a suitable, less messy yet still chaotic substitute is found.

Later on, Jamie's girlfriend Amy befriends Michelle, a chick who turns out to be a girl Jamie used to date. According to Jamie, it petered out naturally when he became occupied with the society and Michelle got an official boyfriend. Michelle, on the other hand, tells Amy that she'd been briefly dating two guys at once.

"I almost would have felt better if he'd gotten mad or something. But he never said a word. I hardly even saw him until the following year, and when I did, he acted like nothing had ever happened between us. I guess I should be grateful that he didn't hold a grudge or anything. He's way too good for that."
No, he wasn't. Had she met this man? Jamie was the High King of Grudges. If someone screwed him over, they were toast. Our campaign against Micah Price last semester (after he'd screwed over the Diggers, generally, and Jenny, specifically), or even Felicity's Dragon's Head wrath, was nothing compared with what Poe would have wrought in Rose and Grave."

Another uber-Scorp I read about lately was the heroine of Goddess of 5th Avenue, Billie Bartholemew. I'll let her tell you why:

"The astrology column of the New York Times claims that Scorpios are pretty hot numbers, super sexy, ready to go and all that. Not so. Actually, more Scorpios are born nuns and priests, and we have more sexual problems than any other sign. All this sounds like a great excuse to prospective suitors, anyway.
Most likely it was my Scorpio sun, moon, and rising sign that drove me to the edge of reason."

I should probably also cite the technically-a-Scorpio Mary of Saturn's Return to New York here, but I'm convinced she's really a Taurus with Scorpio rising and the author just fudged it a lot. (Let's just say it's obvious from where her planets are located that she can't be a Scorpio Sun!)

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AstroBookReview: Astrology and the Authentic Self

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:04:27 -0800

Astrology and the Authentic Self: Integrating Traditional and Modern Astrology to Uncover the Essenc

This one essentially talks about how to be an astrological counselor. Now, I don't especially plan on doing this myself (I don't think frequent one-on-one appointments are going to be my thing here), but it was an intriguing read.

It starts out as a rundown of the basic astrology, with discussion of certain angles and asteroids (I particularly liked her Juno, Chiron and Persephone writeups), and discusses one person's chart and how she'd treat it in a reading. Relationships and career in the horoscope are discussed.

But the kicker with me, seeing as I am one of these people is...she talks about how do you deal with people with really hard charts, who want something with all their hearts and have nothing but resistance in their charts to getting it?

Points she makes that I like:

Don't ask will you get married, ask what do you need in a relationship that will make you happy, and can your current partner provide that? Also, what is your capacity to do relationships well and can you sustain interactions with others?
If all of their indicators are unfavorable for something, encourage the development of other parts of their life. If it's a mix, relationships will be good and bad/difficult, but you can identify where the problems will emerge. What's at cross-purposes with your desires?
Chiron is an unfixable wound. How do you deal with it? Are you supposed to be a healer? (In my chart, apparently YES, but I don't feel that urge.) Maybe you are supposed to learn personal knowledge of a condition so that you can help others.
Likewise, Persephone-issue people might be called to deal with going into the darker side of the psyche.

As for what do you say to those who aren't going to get what they want, she suggests:

What is the best expression for the greatest good that I can do given these circumstances? How can I best use the situation, NOT for what I want or what I think will make me happy, but for what realizes the chart?
What is being asked of you instead of realization of what you want?
Reframe/spin the situation to get a different perspective.
Make peace with not getting what you want, focus on what the chart does say you'd be successful at.
Help others with their suffering.

I especially liked the section where (and this is relevant for my upcoming talk) she talks about a man with Mars conjunct Saturn and a Libra ascendant, who repeatedly ends up with angry, dictatorish women who rag on him all the time, and he stays with them until he throws them out.

"You may think it unlikely that this person will find happiness and peace with a partner who is gentle, kind and appreciative. Yet it is the topic of relationship that guides his life, and the thought of not being in a relationship is untenable to him. How can you reframe these chart indicators to make sense of his predicament? The counselor in you might speculate that he may have taken on a karmic commitment (ruler of seventh in the twelfth) to women who are filled with inner rage towards men due to their own previous circumstances (his Venus in Aries in the seventh). Because he is secure enough in his own inner strength, he is able to withstand their tirades and give them unconditional love, commitment, continual help, and emotional support to bring some healing into their lives. Everyone can benefit from and heal by being loved, and it may be that he is able and willing to extend this compassion to a type of woman who needs it very much. The question here is how to find peace with a situation a person is unable or unwilling to change by viewing it in a way that affirms the higher impulses of the individual."

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Anyway, I'd recommend this book.

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AstroBookReview: What Does Joan Say?

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:53:14 -0700

What Does Joan Say?: My Seven Years As White House Astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan

As you can see by the title, there's good reason to be interested in this book, even if you're not an 80's Republican.

While Joan does not go into every single tedious detail, nor does she share in great detail too many horoscopes (she talks about aspects of "Ronnie" and Gorbachev the most, Nancy forbid her from sharing details of hers), she does talk a good deal about how she constantly was working on charts to diminish/eliminate bad events and maximize the good ones. She claims to have a super-tedious way of doing so, though she doesn't share it. (With good reason, it does sound hard.) Though even she admits that towards the end, the stars were just plain unfriendly to Reagan and she couldn't do much about it. But it certainly does explain the "Teflon"-ness of the presidency and how she avoided assassination. The sheer amount of work is amazing.

She does give a useful primer at the back of the book on astrology for noobs as well.

If you can get ahold of this book, it's a good read for astrologer-types.

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AstroBookReview: The Bowl Of Heaven

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:10:21 -0700

Previously mentioned here: I just finished the book.

It's good, I recommend it if you can get ahold of it. Basically she talks about her life, her work schedule, various clients she's had and examples from their lives, and how she's worked on situations for clients. It's somewhat specific astrology-wise, but not terribly so.

Topics covered:

how she got into astrology- she was from stuffy Boston and worked with a doctor who used it. She apparently liked to hang around in insane asylums- "And naturally, to my family's great disgust, I spent many happy hours in the insane asylum!" Naturally, she has an Aquarius stellium and thinks most people are quite sane except for on one or two points...
things she's forecasted, including life and death. "I seldom need to urge my clients to 'change.' What I usually have to do is plead with them to 'hang on.'"
working with financial folks
having a bunch of hookers as clients- she definitely did not approve of this
gambling- who should and who shouldn't
love and marriage- she married a guy whose horoscope she spotted and it looked good to her....
when to time conception to have kids who are better off in life
twins and how different rising signs changes everything

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AstroBookReviews with Evangeline Adams

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:47:04 -0700

I found a couple of books by her in the library.

"Astrology for Everyone" is basically a beginner book, introducing the concepts and whatnot. The interesting thing is that her voice is JUST as fresh and modern as anything I read that is more contemporary. The one quirk I really noticed is that she seems to have been told to avoid using technical language like "trine", so when discussing examples of famous people (actresses and presidents/military men), she'll say stuff like, "the Sun is friendly to Saturn." But seriously, she could be writing today. It astonishes me, since I generally cannot get into older books much.

I just started "The Bowl of Heaven" with her. This is not a full-on review yet, but it starts out darned good so far. I've had issues figuring out horary in the past- I am fascinated, but oh so confused trying to juggle it all. (Horary Astrology Plain and Simple tries....but, well...). But she's got a method of using it that any old fool can do, including me.

"The ancients, in their Horary Astrology, considered only the mundane positions of the heavens at the time the individual sought an answer to his query. I consider also the position of the heavens in relation to the individual's own chart. The difference may seem trivial. But every competent Astrologer who reads these words will know that it is fundamental and I assert as a fact, which I have established after years of research and experimentation, that if I draw my conclusions from the position of the planets in combination with the chart of the individual at the moment I am asked to decide a given question, I will get my answer- and it will be the right answer.
This is my method. I note the degree that is rising at the moment my client enters. I then adjust his chart so the corresponding degree in the chart will be an "Accidental Ascendant," and procceed to read the horoscope as if it were the chart."

Planetary indications:

Position of Saturn indicates the source of worry
When the moon appears in the accidental ascendant, it indicates a journey or change.
If Mars is rising, she sees an operation, accident, or quarrel as the first thing happening to the person.
If Neptune is ascendant, some form of intrigue or camouflage is coming, or that the individual is self-deceived.
If Uranus is rising, don't take seriously any seemingly promised good or threatened misfortune, because the unexpected will happen.
If Venus, Sun, or Jupiter is the rising planet, new love, new honor, or new blessing is coming. "Regardless of the position of other planets in the chart, indicating either ill or good fortune, I know that my consultant's own life and happiness is assured for the moment, and that his immediate future will be rosy."

I had to go try this out...at 7:35 in the morning. Here is the chart.

Jentestinghorary

Well, isn't that interesting, JUPITER RISING, folks. (And the ascendant is on my natal vertex.)

Oddly enough, I did a tarot card reading yesterday that I was finding particularly suspicious- which is to say, it was indicating making a change that I don't think is likely to happen to me any time soon.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

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I just ordered this book.

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:26:26 -0700

Llewellyn is having a massive damn sale today, I took advantage of it for a change. I ordered this book, and the writeup from it looks pretty interesting.

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The book list

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:57:31 -0700

I was asked to come up with a list of books I had read/own on well, hippie topics, with a brief "liked it/didn't like it" next to it. About half of the list, which is long, turned out to be nitpicky astrology books.

I have decided to reprint the astrology list here. Some of them have been reviewed here, most haven't. Either way, you'll get a brief rundown. I like NITPICKY books, so that's what most of it is, but there's some beginner stuff. And a lot of books I got out of a used bookstore that you may need to special order.

Anyway, here it is.

Beginner's Astrology:

· Aspects in Astrology: A Guide to Understanding Planetary Relationships in the Horoscope by Sue Tompkins. "Planetary cookbook." Very good writeups.

· The Complete Idiot's Guide to Astrology by Madeline Gerwick-Brodeur and Lisa Lenard: I'd recommend it to newbie beginners. I apparently have two copies of this?

· Astrology for Dummies by Rae Orion. Would also recommend to newbie beginners.

· Planets and Possibilities: Explore the Worlds Beyond Your Sun Sign by Susan Miller. I like her website/horoscopes, book is...beginnery, so I wasn't that into it. You want to know what a typical Aries acts like, etc., read this one, though.

· Planets: The Astrological Tools, edited by Joan McEvers. Each chapter is dedicated to a planet, talks about all the placements by sign and house.

· Planets in Transit, Robert Hand. Huge cookbook book. Short rundowns on all aspects. To be honest, I don't use it much, it's not a fun read. More of a shortcut than anything else. I like long descriptions and analysis.

· The Everything Astrology Book, Trish MacGregor. Another one I'd recommend for beginners. I give it extra props because it's the only book I have that has ever talked about chart rectification and how it's done, and a few more advanced topics get discussed as well.

Astrology for Women:

· Astrology for Women, edited by Gloria Star. Good compiliation book on women, women's issues, single vs. coupled, progression of life. Occasionally a little hippy-dippy in places, but not too bad.

· The New Astrology For Women, by Jessica Adams. Very interesting, kind of a sampler in its own way. Some primer stuff, some quickie introductions of concepts. The analysis of men and what they prefer in women is interesting/fun to read.

· He's Just Not In The Stars: Wicked Astrology and Uncensored Advice for Getting the (Almost) Perfect Guy by Jenni Kosarin. Excellent book. Takes what Jessica Adams does (checks guys by their sun and Venus sign combinations) and elaborates in a very descriptive and snarky manner. I think they changed the title when it went to paperback, though.

Astrology Biography:

· Destiny Times Six: An Astrologer's Casebook: by Katherine de Jersey with Isabella Taves. FASCINATING BOOK. More of biography of her six clients' situations and their astrology. Really, really cool read. I ran out to get the sequel online after digging this up in a used bookstore. I am sad she only wrote two books.

· Appointment With Destiny: Real Life Case Histories by Katherine de Jersey with Isabella Taves. Not quite as fascinating/in depth as the previous book- it covers more cases that are modern/famous, but shorter, but still well written.

· My Life In Astrology by Sybil Leek. Gave up halfway through this one. Sybil is far more interested in bragging about how she knows famous people (starfucker, indeedy) than anything to do with the stars and planets in the sky. Vast disappointment.

Marital Prediction Astrology:

· How to Read Your Own Horoscope- Timothy Curley. I basically bought this book to try to predict my own marriage. Pretty interesting one, but short.

· The Intuitive Arts on Love: Use Astrology, Tarot, and Psychic Intuition to See Your Future, by Lisa Lenard. Another $5 special, worth about what I paid for it. It's a quick and dirty sampler of various divination tools.

· Picking Your Perfect Partner Through Astrology: A Guide to Compatibility in Relationships by Mary Coleman. Good one, despite the cheesy cover (and it's a really bad cover). Does some basic primer stuff. I definitely relate to the marriage chapter and the seventh house planets bit (I have this highlighted and definitely behave this way).

· When Planets Promise Love/When Will You Marry? by Rose Murray (basically, these two are the same book). I keep trying to follow this, but she is complicated as all hell to follow along with. Offers MANY options for checking if you don't like the first oh, five methods or so.

· Perfect Match: Discovering Your Soulmate by Anastatia R. Miller and Jared Brown. Discusses astrology from various countries- Chinese, Hindu, Judaic (hint: same as usual astrology), Western, and Celtic moons.

Synastry/Composite Books:

· Born To Be Together: Love, Relationships, Astrology, and the Soul by Terry Lamb. Not bad, interesting talk about the intra-aspects between charts.

· Composite Charts, by John Townley. Excellent book on this topic, highly recommended. Love the writeups.

· Astrology of Intimacy, Sexuality and Relationship by Noel Tyl. Really, really good one. Also good on the quindecile (see below).

· Synastry: Understanding the Astrology of Relationships by Rod Suskin. Excellent book, highly recommended.

· Intimate Relationships: The Astrology of Attraction, edited by Joan McEvers. Another compiliation, and has lots of good articles. The article on affinities is my favorite (something I haven't seen covered too much). Marital and moon articles are good as well.

· Relationships and Life Cycles: Astrological Patterns of Personal Experience by Stephen Arroyo. Very good one (related to this better than the other), it seems to be a transcript of a talk he gave. Really like his analysis.

· Linda Goodman's Relationship Signs. Not a bad book on aspect comparisons. Fun tone of voice.

· Planets in Synastry by E.W. Neville. I thought I'd like this better than I did (I know someone who studied under him). He's got kind of a harsh tone to him about certain aspects that I don't agree with, and his organizational system is kinda messy to follow/look up consistently. The writeups can be interesting though. Emphasizes free will.

· Marriage Made in Heaven: An Astrological Guide to Relationships by Alexandra Mark. In some ways I don't like her attitude (she thinks only conjunctions and oppositions count, for everything, period). In other ways, her writeups of various "royal" couples that did and didn't work out and why are compelling. Especially the node/synastry stuff.

Predictive Astrology:

· The Art of Predictive Astrology: Forecasting Your Life Events by Carol Rushman. EXCELLENT book, highly recommended on this topic. Breaks down complicated stuff well. Fascinating.

· Identifying Planetary Triggers by Celeste Teal. It goes into progressed charts, orb of aspect, prioritizing aspects and transits to the progressed chart. It goes into detail about solar, lunar, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn returns, and their transits.

· Mapping Your Future: Understand and Maximize Your Potential by Kris Brandt Riske. Very beginner. Comes with a CD, which I do not recommend wasting your time using.

· Predictive Astrology: A Practical Guide by Christine Shaw. Good one. Not my favorite, but pretty good information.

Vocational Astrology:

· How to Use Vocational Astrology for Success in the Workplace- edited by Noel Tyl. I have picked up a LOT of astrology compiliation books at Sweet Briar Books, this is one of 'em. A few things seem useful, but in general I have issues comprehending this topic.

· Vocations by Noel Tyl: Flew WAY over my head. Plenty of examples and no way to apply them to anyone else. Totally confusing, gave it away (as you know :).

· Finding Success in the Horoscope: The Slevin System of Horoscope Analysis- Jackie Slevin. This is the best vocational astrology book I have ever read, it breaks things down pretty easily and you can apply it to yourself. I am bound for fame someday, apparently :)

Karmic Astrology:

· Past Life Astrology: Use Your Birthchart to Understand Your Karma- Judy Hall. Beginner-ish in style, but still manages to convey some useful information and analysis. Pretty good primer in the subject.

· Karmic Relationships by Martin Schulman. Not a bad read- mostly cookbook on aspect combinations. He does leave out a few combinations here and there, which drives me a little nutty.

· Karmic Astrology: Past Lives, Present Loves by Ruth Aharoni. Various kinds of soul/cosmic mate emphasis here, with examples. Synastry emphasis.

· Web of Relationships: Spiritual, Karmic and Psychological Bonds, edited by Joan McEvers. Yup, another compiliation. Kind of a mixed bag. Goes into affinities and "astro-genetics", and axises, and past life relationships. I really like the article on elements in relationships, which points out that even if you are an earth sun sign, if you have more planets in fire than anything else, you might do better with fire/air signs than just "mate with another earth sign," because you'd be bored.

Nodes:

· SunShines by Michael Lutin: The best book on nodes ever. It's not written in astrology language (a beginner reading this won't know exactly what he means in astrological terminology), but it NAILS your personality and what your development path is supposed to be. A real kick in the teeth on all accounts. Let's just say mine involves the phrase, "Marriage is the path. Don't vomit," just as I wanted to. Hah.

· Discovering Your Soul Mission: How to Use Karmic Astrology to Create the Life You Want, Linda Brady and Evan St. Lifer. A lot more simplistic than I was going for, it just kinda felt flat to me compared with other books.

· Cosmic Love: Secrets of the Astrology of Intimacy Revealed by Jan Spiller. I liked Astrology for the Soul (skimmed it in stores) but never felt compelled to buy it. She does good write-ups WITH the astro-talk, I'd say she's pretty well equal to Michael Lutin's book. I do, however, think she makes Libra North Node people sound like the world's biggest puppy-kicking assholes. Good lord, woman, we can't all be that bad! Has some node synastry in the back as well.

General Nitpicky Astrology:

· Astrology, Karma and Transformation: The Inner Dimensions of the Birth Chart by Stephen Arroyo. Kind of a dry read and not my favorite, but it is certainly comprehensive.

· Surviving Saturn's Return by Sherene Schostak and Stefanie Iris Weiss. Kinda fluffy, very basic primer. Could have more depth, but on the other hand, it didn't make me go "argh" the way I get trying to (and failing at) reading Liz Greene. Kinda wish the authors did more with their website.

· The Quindecile by Richenda Reeves. Talks about a very nitpicky aspect that indicates obsession. Yup, I was interested. Noel Tyl does more on this than she does in an entire book, though. She mostly breaks it down to simple code words and that's it. She also refuses to deal with anything other than midheavens/North Nodes, which is pretty frigging ridiculous to me. You seriously cannot figure out what a South Node is if you know what North Node is?

· Houses by Gwyneth Bryan. Maybe more medium-beginner-y, but it has some good writeups and explains houses/positions in houses well.

· Personology: The Precision Approach to Charting Your Life, Career and Relationships by Gary Goldschneider. GINORMOUS $5 "cookbook" book I got gifted. Twice.

· The Secret Language of Birthdays by Gary Goldschneider. Another $5 gift. Fun to read your own birthday, but you're probably better off just reading the book in a store unless you look up a lot of people's birthdays.

· How To Read Your Astrological Chart: Aspects of the Cosmic Puzzle by Donna Cunningham. Pretty good comprehensive review of almost everything, but she does have this attitude where she doesn't think Venus rules Taurus (Earth does- huh?) or that Mercury rules Virgo.

· Mercury Retrograde: Its Myth and Meaning by Pythia Peay. Pretty interesting analysis on it, if at times it feels like she's stretching to fill up more space. I like what she says about natal MR (I have it!).

· The Inner Sky: The Dynamic New Astrology for Everyone by Steven Forrest. I like this one, breaks down the concepts pretty well. Mostly a primer, but has some cool analysis.

· Horary Astrology Plain and Simple by Anthony Lewis. Well, the author tries, but horary ain't plain or simple. I gave up halfway through.

Note: this sounds like a good reading list as well.

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AstroBookReview: Finding Success In The Horoscope

nobody@vox.com(fullmoon) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:04:49 -0700

Finding Success in the Horoscope: The Slevin System of Horoscope Analysis

Jackie Slevin

I have had issues with vocational astrology books. They tend to not be that helpful. I never got around to reviewing Vocations on here, but it was particularly bad for showing tons of examples and no way whatsoever to translate them into something I could apply to others. (I passed the book on to a friend of mine, who was even more baffled.)

I am happy to say that this one is pretty darned good. Clear to understand, gives examples and explains what they mean. Huzzah!

The "Slevin System" (to be honest, this makes me giggle a little, it sounds like some kind of huckster thing. Oh well, the author can't help her name) actually works pretty well for figuring things out for yourself.

Key points in the system:

Determine the sign and degree on the Midheaven.
Find the planet nearest to that degree in Ptolemaic (well, let's say exact) aspect within signs. This is your Principal Planet.
Note the PP's sign, strength, and direction.
Note the PP's house or if it's within 5 degrees of the next hours cusp.
Note the aspects the PP makes.
Note the house(s) the planet rules.
Note if the PP is conjunct/within a degree of the Cardinal Axis
Note if the PP is in mutual or mixed mutual reception with any other planets
Note if the PP is conjunct/within a degree of any Royal Fixed Stars.
Combine those factors to get a description of the personality, and define the strongest attributes for achieving success, notoriety, or the highest visibility.
Do this again with the planet nearest to the degree of the PP.
Note any planets in the tenth house

So, trying this out myself, I get:

Leo 8 degrees MC.
Planet closest to it is Mars in Leo at 5 degrees in the 9th house. No particular advantages or disadvantages. It squares the Sun/Chiron conjunction (The tying planet with Mars is Chiron at 5 degrees, square, but since this book doesn't go into Chiron, I'll just ignore this.) in the seventh. Sun is the ruler of Leo.
No fixed stars, no cardinal axis.

Leo midheaven = artistic pursuits, money, athletics, ambassadors, dignitaries. (Example: Princess Grace Kelly.)

Principal Planet conjunct the MC = "the fish are caught close to the market, with a brief and seemingly effortless return. The catch of the day is fresh, local, and readily available." If it's square, "the boat did not need to travel as far but the tide is against the fisherman on his return trip, and the motor on the boat had to work at full capacity to bring the catch in."

Mars as a PP = your boat is a speedboat, with fishermen who go off looking for sharks. Bunch of warriors. Example: guy who started a volunteering crime-fighting organization.

Not featured in the above system, but in the book, is a section on heredity. If you have Cancer/Capricorn emphasis or Moon/Saturn ties, you are bound to your family, like it or not, and can't escape. (Certainly sums up my life.)

But the part that makes me happy...

"In the Slevin System, the tried and true formula that indicates success in one's chosen field of endeavor is a specific aspect called the Boomerang. It occurs when:
The ruler of the Midheaven is in Ptolemaic aspect to the Midheaven.
Even if the ruler of the Midheaven is not the Principal Planet, if it is conjunct, trine, sextile, square or opposing the Midheaven within an orb of 8 degrees, success is a given in the Slevin System."
"Individuals with this extremely fortunate aspect are poster people for success. In the style of an express elevator, Fate enables them to reach the top, parting obstacles like the Red Sea, and remain in a penthouse of achievement. Their rank and public presentations can set the standard in their profession, and they often leave a legacy of notable success or notoriety." (Example: Katharine Hepburn.)

I totally have that, so YAY ME!

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