Hey people,

I mainly consider myself a traditional astrologer, but sometime I get requests for natal psychological reports.
That's why I'd rather get some recommendations for a good and to-the-point (maybe even a cookbook) psychological astrology book. An evolutionary astrology book may also work.

Thanks,
Dima.

Liz Greene is probably the foremost English language psychological astrologer. You could probably find her publication list on amazon and then see what appeals to you.

A couple of caveats, though. The kind of work she does and did bears little relationship to what you would find in an accredited university psychology department in North America today. Her "Ph. D." in psychology in the early 1970s was at a now-defunct diploma mill in Los Angeles.

From that rocky start, however, Greene acquired a background in Jungian psychology, with a few Freudian overtones, that she applied to her astrological readings. I would classify her Jungian approach as relating more to motifs in the humanities than to psychology as the behavioral science.

Later in life, Greene earned a Ph. D. at the University of Bristol (2010)-- but in history, not psychology. Her thesis was on "The Kabbalah in British Occultism 1860-1940."

American astrologer Stephen Arroyo has a M. A. in psychology and is a licensed counselor. I think his Astrology, Psychology, and the Four Elements is pretty good.

Perhaps I should state the obvious, that most modern astrology is actually not psychological.

The best books for learners, in my opinion, are the early books by Robert Hand and Steven Forrest. Hand's Planets in Youth and Planets in Transit are the best "cookbooks" that I know. Forrest's most recent books are in evolutionary astrology (not my cup of tea,) but his early books The Inner Sky and The Changing Sky are really good.

Thanks Waybread.

I don't know if anyone has ever written a better book on the psychological meaning of aspects than The Astrological Aspects by Charles Carter. This book was first published in 1930 and revised in 1967 in the days before computers, so authors had to think carefully about what they wrote. No instant publishing and easy deletion of errors!

I also like the planetary traits published by the Gauquelins. A good capsule review book of their work the small book by Francoise Gauquelin, Psychology of the Planets (1982). These traits apply to key planets anywhere in chart, not only in the Gauquelin plus zones. (Such as planets in aspect to the Sun or Moon or ascendant/lord.)

It's also good to review Chapter 5 on the planets in Benjamin Dykes' Introduction to Traditional Astrology (2010).

The trick to using traits in these books is to figure out from the birth chart which planets especially influence a person's psychology, and then whether they are likely to be used in a positive or negative way by the individual. I try to shy away from the supposed traits of signs of the zodiac as they often tend to be less than accurate and can be too general.

I will second Therese's recommendation for Charles Carter, he had a genuine personal insight beyond any trends of his time.

I also like Robert Hand's books, he clarifies and simplifies ideas so you can grasp them easily and use them for yourself in your own way. His explanation of the Moons Nodes is the best ever.

I am not completely sure what is meant by psychological astrology. I used to read a lot of books like "The Gods of Change" by Howard Sasportas and "Astrology, Karma and Transformation" by Stephen Arroyo, but now find these along with a lot of other astrology books of their era to be biased to a new age ideology of their time that I don't accept. Too many judgements in that ideology that I don't think are true or helpful.

I agree that the New Age and "psychological" components may not read so well today; but by the same token, the really dire analyses of Hellenistic astrologers might not appeal to people who are otherwise interested in the ancient techniques. (Check out Ptolemy on Mars opposite Saturn in a nativity, or Valens on the signs of Aquarius and Capricorn.)

Caveat emptor. For example, Liz Greene in one of her earlier books or another seemed to subscribe to the 1960's psychiatrists' view that a lot of males' emotional problems could be traced to an objectively awful mother, as seen in the client's troubled moon.

OK. But then it occurred to me that siblings' horoscopes might be wildly different, and Mom's horoscope might show something different yet again. Their moons might give different interpretations altogether.

So I think it's more sensible to suggest that the moon show's the native's experience of his/her mother.

Ditto on Judy Hall's modern astrology book, Hades Moon, on moon-Pluto contacts. I reached a point where I read so many different types of examples of clients with troubled mothers that moon-Pluto seemed like an anything-nothing contact, with too much bad stuff being claimed for it.

Which is not to say, when doing modern astrology, that moon-Pluto is meaningless. Just that a trine might be very powerful and positive.

I will say that a number of psychological concepts today are simply part of our common culture in a way that they were not in past centuries. For example, the subconscious (or unconscious) is a concept promoted by Sigmund Freud that is part of our common language. In modern astrology it would be symbolized in the moon, Neptune, and Pluto.

In fact, I think a traditional astrologer who had never studied modern astrology would want to make a quick study of the modern outer planets. Here I would recommend LIz Greene's book The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption, and Steven Forrest, The Book of Pluto.

Jeffrey Green's work on Pluto will probably not appeal to those who don't want a deep foray into evolutionary astrology.

I'm hard pressed to recommend a comparable book on Uranus, but Richard Tarnas, Prometheus the Awakener is worth a read. Mostly I would look to the books mentioned in post #2 by Hand and Forrest for their sections on Uranus.

On the further trans-Neptunian dwarf planets, one book I think is really good on Eris is Henry Seltzer, The Tenth Planet.

To get into modern astrology at a more advanced level, there are materials out on harmonics, midpoints, asteroids, aspect patterns and....

Dima, this is more info than you wanted, but I hope it helps to illustrate more about the scope of modern astrology.

Most of modern astrology is not what I would call psychological, however. And given that most psychology today is behavioral and cognitive science, not the old psychoanalysis of yesteryear, it's just as well.

interesting question and dima has lots of response to her question...

i agree with others book recommendations generally.. my own favourite is a book by liz greene that i thought was especially insightful - saturn - a new look at an old devil.... that is a heavy dose of psychology focused on a most important planet! i would like to read andre barbaults book on saturn, but it hasn't been translated into english yet... bil tierney also did a book on saturn - more of a cookbook, but still very good -https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Faces-Sat ... 1567187110

liz greene also wrote a great book that is often overlooked due the publishers insistence on selling more books and forcing a particular title, and not any reflection on the quality of the content inside the book which i thought was especially insightful - astrology for lovers...

but hands down - the dry and sober book by liz greene on saturn is really worth the price of admission as i see it... i don't think it can be emphasized enough just how important the planet saturn is for understanding both your own and others psychology...

the other books mentioned are also worthy of attention.. ceo carter is very good, as is steve arroyo and a number of other astro authors - all for different reasons...

waybread: I've been studying astrology (modern and traditional) for about half of my life and practicing it for more than a third of my life. 34 years old nowadays.
I'm sure we all need to refresh our knowledge in picked fields from time to time.

james_m: I'm a guy, the name "Dima" is a short version of the greek-russian name Dimitri. Just saying.

maybe you'd like to edit the wikidata page then...

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16422715?uselang=en

just sayin...

Just did.
Thanks!