eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
With the unexplained explained, and the inside story revealed, you’ll finally understand the signs and how they affect every facet of your loved ones' being and your own.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781607345671 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Charlesbridge |
Publication date: | 08/01/2013 |
Sold by: | Penguin Random House Publisher Services |
Format: | eBook |
Pages: | 160 |
File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Inside Story
It makes sense for an inside story to come from an insider, and as far as checking out real people in light of their Sun signs, that has to be me—if for no other reason than the sheer length of time I’ve spent working in the field. Also, this introduction shows my own personal “inside story.”
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I became fascinated with astrology, especially psychological astrology, but in those days, it was hard to locate information.
At that time, I worked as a secretary to a pleasant man in his late sixties, and when he heard of my interest in astrology, he tried to help. He gave me the phone number of a friend of his who worked as an herbalist and astrologer, and suggested that I call the man and ask him for advice. I rang the number and found myself talking to a bad-tempered old guy who had no intention whatsoever of helping me, but— presumably because I was connected to his friend—he deigned to give me a piece of advice. He asked if I knew how to erect an astrological chart. It wasn’t a silly question, because in those pre-computer days, horoscope charts involved a good deal of hand calculations. On hearing that I could cope with the technical stuff, the grumpy man advised me to do five hundred charts free of charge for total strangers, and that way, I would end up knowing my job!
That advice would have finished most people, but if he’d taken a look at my horoscope he’d have seen that I have massive amounts of patience for those things that I consider worth doing. I followed his advice to the letter and discovered that he was right. In effect, the road I was forced to take meant that I learned my craft in a totally hands-on way, by doing charts, talking to clients, and spotting patterns in personality, behavior, and lifestyle. In the meantime, I read everything I could get my hands on about psychology, and when decent astrology books started to come to the UK market, I read all those as well.
In time, I obtained full qualifications as an astrologer, and I also spent many years serving on prestigious astrological committees. The longer I worked in the field, the more I questioned the established views on Sun sign astrology, and it struck me that there was a considerable gap between the “received wisdom” that was copied from one astrology book to the next and the reality of the clients who I dealt with on a daily basis. I realized that most people are like their Sun signs to an extent, but that the Sun sign information itself doesn’t match up to reality. In time, I built up a mental body of knowledge, some of which matched standard astrological opinion and some did not—and that’s what you’ll see in this book.
The only real people who appear in this book are several wonderful friends whom I have used to illustrate the best aspects of their respective Sun signs. Other than these individuals, the personalities described in the book are amalgams of groups of people. I’ve blended and combined their stories to show the true natures of the Sun signs, and to bring them to life in a way that lengthy descriptions cannot do.
I have pointed out the unexpected niceness of those signs that suffer from bad press and the unexpected hardness of those that are often described as soft and sweet, along with the particular small faults of all of the signs. Get ready for the inside story, as that will help you to understand the bizarre nature of the Sun signs and the ways you and I fit within them.