AstroBookReview: Perfect Match

This book, written by an astrologer and her husband, goes into various kinds of astrological matchmaking around the world. It covers Chinese, Hindu, Judaic, and Western astrology methods. Which is interesting to read about.

But before I mention that, I've got to talk about the chapter in which the authors got together. It's one of those couplings where it turns out they've seen each other in various places- even in a different country- for years, but never met. (Shades of that couple in When Harry Met Sally.) They finally meet when Anastatia is throwing a party and needs a caterer at the dead last minute, which is what Jared does. (While having a arm cast, incidentally. That's some skillz.) After the party's over, they hang out and talk, and compare signs. Anastatia goes to her computer and compares their charts in a couple of different methods, and gets a second opinion from her friend. It's a match!

But here's the part that startled me: Jared apparently ALREADY has a live-in girlfriend of three years(!!!!) when they meet. And yet, they hop right into a relationship, and he introduces the two girls to each other. And the girlfriend thinks they're perfect together and is mysteriously totally fine with it! And then they elope. And I'm still kinda like "But...you had a live-in girlfriend...and were making moves on someone else... um, ick?" And it seems odd to me that she'd be over it THAT fast.

Anyway, that part still makes my brain boggle and I had to mention it. Now on to the actual useful stuff.

The Chinese astrology section is primarily concerned with whatever your animal year is and matching element, and how those combinations mate with each other. They also discuss the lunar month in which you were born and when to pick a wedding date.

I find it kind of funny how my mom has always been, "Well, I'm a Tiger, and your father is a Dog, and you're a Horse, so we all get along." This book says that the Fire Dog (Dad ) and Metal Tiger (Mom) will either "bring nothing but extravagance" or "marital bliss may not be a smooth road." Certainly true. Meanwhile, I'm an Earth Horse, and apparently I shouldn't date other Earth Horses "because the two of you can't live together." I guess this was literally true with the Earth Horse ex... According to Chinese astrology, I should date people born in 1967, 1970, 1979, or 1986, and avoid anyone born in 1966, 1968, 1972, 1973,  1974, 1982, or 1984. What's with those pickins?

On to Hindu astrology, which is all about the marital predictions. Your seventh house tells if you are destined to marry, what type of spouse you'll have, and the influence marriage will have on your life. Where your Venus and Mars and Moon are located has an effect also. It also goes into your ketu, which I guess is your marriage point or something?

(Incidentally, they tell you if you want a Hindu birth chart, to find the link off of their website. I couldn't find it, but did via Google find a fair chunk of sites that'd give you a chart, but you (a) had to register, and then (b) their place finder didn't work. I did find one site, planetarypositions.com, that will make a serviceable one, without being busted or requiring registration. Does require Java though.)

Apparently, my marital aspects suck. Lots of delays, disappointments, obstacles, and bad men for me! And the in-laws will hate me! Huzzah! I'm just like Courtney Love, Debbie Reynolds, and Princess Di!

But seriously now, the differences in the two systems really throw me off, and I have plans to look into this more. (Plus I bought something that I'll probably review whenever I get around to testing it out.) I kind of wonder if this is off because I'm kind of stupid on figuring out the whole GMT thing (minus seven hours? I think? does that count as west?).

Then there's Judaic astrology...no joke, this seems to be the same thing as "traditional" astrology. I'm not sure if this means the Jews originated it or appropriated it, but it looks exactly the same. The book talks about your seventh house, planetary placements...the usual you'd probably get in other books, really.

"Western" astrology seems to be more in the tree-hugging-hippie line of things. There's a section on Celtic moons and what that means for your personality. (I'm inclined to get married before I turn 27. Oops, too late!) Then it goes into more traditional Western stuff, such as what it means to have planets in what house, etc.

There's also some chart comparisions of celebrities at the end, and they also talk about marriage ceremonies, if you're interested in other cultures's traditions.

So, this is probably a fairly good primer in "traditional" astrology for the newbie, and a good primer in Hindu/Chinese astrology if you don't know much about that. Not so much of a pinning down when you'll marry book so much as who you might be likely to.

Course, that varies from culture to culture. I might marry older or younger, or at a young age, or at an old age, or I might marry a tall dark stranger (yeah, they said that)... so take that all with a grain of salt.